Though he cavorted with Garry Shead a little here in Sydney, star Australian artist Brett Whiteley spent most of the sixties in London. In London he found an intellectual climate that suited him, got shown in the Whitechapel Gallery, the V&A and the TATE, not to mention married Wendy. Surry Hills' Brett Whitely Studio is pulling together some of the artistic results for The London years 1960-67, including work that shows Whiteley's preoccupation with the convicted murderer John Christie. And if you like some rolling syllables with your curvy art, the Studio continues its regular program of poetry readings on the fourth Sunday every month to give this London ex-pat exhibition some added rhythm. The Brett Whiteley Studio is open Saturdays and Sundays, 10-4. Images: Brett Whiteley Small Christie painting no 2 1965, Brett Whiteley Studio © Wendy Whiteley. (left) Brett Whiteley Woman in bath 1963, reworked 1964. © Wendy Whiteley (right)
So. You consider yourself a culture freak. You frequent the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Art Gallery of New South Wales and every new small bar within five kilometres of the city. But have you frequented a venue or gallery that is run, not as a small business, but as a not-for-profit space by everyday artists or musicians? Alongside the behemoth that is the Biennale of Sydney runs a smaller, humbler and more intimate art event. It doesn’t attract the crowds, the funding or the press that BOS does, but SafARI is a dynamic and important contribution to Sydney’s art community. SafARI is the unofficial fringe event that parallels the Biennale, and it spotlights unrepresented and independent artists. Across a broad selection of contemporary art practice - painting, installation, video - and three venues - the Rocks Pop Up, Alaska Projects in a Kings Cross carpark, and numerous public non-gallery sites - SafARI bridges the shadowy region between the big art institutions and the grassroots of Sydney’s self-made culture. A few highlights: Dara Gill will be render his own versions of religious medieval instruments to investigate the nature of fear and anxiety. Melbourne artist Julia Holden will traverse painting and film to create hand-rendered stop-motion portraits of artists in movement. And Kurt Sorensen’s painterly approach to analogue photography explores the impact of Australian landscape, in all its post-colonial devastation and beauty, on the human psyche. This is Concrete Playground’s challenge to you this winter: check out an art gallery that is run by artists rather than art dealers. Go to a place that is purely about artists supporting artists, rather than a retail art space. Talk to the person minding the gallery. Take a tour. Go to opening night and ask the artist something about their work, anything. There’s an entire world, a community, of often-ignored art in Sydney. Be part of it.
It’s been four years since Will Smith last appeared on our screens, and a whole 10 years since Men in Black II came out. Generally it's at this point where a whole bunch of people begin furrowing their brows and saying: "Wait … there was a Men in Black II?” before jumping onto IMDb, reading over the synopsis, looking up the cast, checking out the poster, rewatching the trailer and then saying, "oh yeah … yeah … I think I saw that." Why, then, Smith decided that a third instalment of the MiB franchise was the perfect vehicle with which to mark his return is anybody's guess, but if we had to put our money on it, we'd guess someone put loads and loads of money on it (with 'it', of course, being 'him'). That said, Men in Black 3 is not a terrible film. It's not a great one either, mind you, and while it's definitely an improvement on the sequel, it remains a far cry from the wildly creative vision of the original. From the outset, too, it's clear Men in Black 3 is operating at a different pace from the others, most noticeably through the subdued performance of Smith. All the bravado, wisecracking and face-pulling of his previous outings have been significantly dialled back, though it’s unclear whether this was a creative choice or simply the star’s lukewarm enthusiasm for the entire project. After all, it’s not as though the world had been clamouring for another foray into the franchise, and the film was famously plagued by so many problems that at one point production was even suspended for three months while director Barry Sonnenfeld reworked the script. Jemaine Clement (Flight of the Conchords) plays the villain in this instalment as the violent and time-travelling alien assassin 'Boris the Animal'. For such a talented comedian, it's a surprisingly unfunny role, and the lion's share of zingers actually go to Josh Brolin in his turn as the younger Tommy Lee Jones. Brolin's impression is at times so eerily accurate you'd swear some CGI wizardry was at play. Emma Thompson comes in to replace Rip Torn as head of the bespoke alien administrators, and Michael Stuhlbarg (Hugo) appears as the most amicable and delightfully original character Griffin — an alien capable of viewing an infinite number of dimensions at any given moment. The bulk of Men in Black 3 takes place in the past, with Smith performing a "temporal leap" back to 1969 in order to save his partner's life. It's an updated (if also less impressive) version of Back to the Future that helps breathe new life into the franchise and provide some diverting insight into the origins of Lee Jones's character's surly demeanour. There's even a twist that, while not terrifically surprising, is somehow surprisingly tender and offers a cute spin on the two previous films. Fun, fast-paced and shorter than the average blockbuster, it’s the perfect film to simply drop into and enjoy.
Portuguese filmmaker Miguel Gomes' latest outing, Tabu, is a beguiling slow burn of love, melancholia and crocodiles. Shot in nostalgic black and white and bisected, Tabu tells the tale of a woman's life filled with romance, longing and a great deal of hand-wringing. Part one: Paradise Lost is preceded by an introduction — a film within a film that sets up the motifs that will reappear throughout. The kind-hearted Pilar (Teresa Madruga) is watching in modern-day Lisbon and despite keeping busy with her human rights work and unwanted advances from a friend, she is becoming increasingly worried about her neighbour, Aurora (Laura Soveral). Frail but bolshy, Aurora has gambled away her life at the casino, suffering from the same curse as her father. Convinced that her maid Santa (Isabel Cardoso) is not just working for her but for the devil, too, she turns to Pilar for help. The disconsolate Aurora asks to be put in touch with a man named Gian-Luca. Part two: Paradise is the story of Aurora and the enigmatic Gian-Luca in their African youth. Aurora’s father has done well for himself in this new landscape, exporting exotic ostrich feather cushions, while the young Aurora (Ana Moreira) has made a name for herself as a rifle-slinging big game hunter, both thriving from colonialism. Described by her tea plantation husband as having a slight "bipolarity", Aurora enters a new state of entitled listlessness when she becomes pregnant. Her langour is soon soothed by noted heartbreaker Gian-Luca, summoned to catch her as-yet-unnamed pet crocodile. Their illicit affair is set against a backdrop of both the fateful Mount Tabu and the burgeoning Portuguese Colonial War. As the white interlopers relax into their own distractions, their African workers tend to their every whim. Paradise is told only through narration, a conceit that unfolds beautifully. Memories, myths and truths all melding together. For a film set in two parts, Tabu sits as a cohesive object, as if a semicolon is dangling between the two, despite the switch from dialogue to monologue. It's funny, melancholic, dark and romantic and its beauty is only ever a stone's throw from the realities of invasion, ownership and war. There are deft anachronistic touches throughout — Gian-Luca's band play a cover of 'Baby I Love You' at a party but it’s the Ramones version — which nicely sets the film apart from being a mere biopic of the time. A rare, dreamy, cinematic excursion, Tabu is a must while it's still on the big screen.
Bangarra is a dance theatre company that uses music and movement from the contemporary urban world to explore the stories of Australia's Indigenous people. Since 1989 they have been creating extraordinarily muscular and beautifully choreographed performances; 40,000-year-old songlines and bloodlines transported to a modern context. In their latest production, Blak, the relationship between old and new — tension and possibility for change — comes under intense and uncompromising scrutiny. Composed in three movements, Blak begins as a gang of seven boys test the constantly shifting boundaries of inner-city life as they prepare for traditional rites of passage and initiation ceremonies. Wearing hooded jumpers and skinny jeans, they appear profoundly disenfranchised within a gritty city of gridlocked boundaries that plays host to their sometimes unpredictable behaviour. In the second movement it’s the women's turn to deal with the recurring conflict between city dwelling and Indigenous connection to country. The female sense of disempowerment is different in that it specifically relates to the difficulty of speaking out on fundamental issues like birth, loss, language and powerlessness. How these 'blak' women can make their voices resonate clearly for future generations is a question that lingers beyond the physical performance. In the final movement all 14 dancers take to the stage to celebrate and pay homage to their heritage to powerful, sensual and utterly compelling effect. The soundscape, composed by internationally renowned choreographer Stephen Page and electro-pop king Paul Mac, links each individual movement of the dancers into a vital whole, visibly transporting the audience. Bangarra is a Wiradjuri word meaning “to make fire” — in Blak, the burning desire for spiritual connection is rekindled. This review is based on the Melbourne run of Blak in May 2013. Image via Bangarra Dance Theatre.
Sitting on my couch is a soft toy called Little Friend, made by the much-missed, very brilliant late artist Mike Kelley. He's a blue, furry abject creature the size of a pillow with big googly eyes and pale pink appendages. When you smack his bottom, he says things like "don't play with your genitals, play with me" and "when you do naughty things, I see you." My favourite phrase, however, is emitted in a low, needy whisper, "hug me... foreverevereverever...". A similarly creepy breathiness is intoned all throughout the latest film from Harmony Korine (Gummo, Trash Humpers), Spring Breakers. "Spring Break foreevvvveerrr" over the top of gratuitous bare breasts jiggling, "spring break foreevvvveerrr" in the dorm room, on the beach, on a murderous rampage. Whereas Little Friend is confined to the living room, the sirens of Spring Breakers are not terribly interested in staying put. There's nothing subtle about this film. Three bored, blonde college girls who may as well be nameless (Vanessa Hudgens, Rachel Korine, Ashley Benson as Candy, Cotty and Brit respectively) put the pressure on their tamer brunette Christian pal named Faith (Selena Gomez) to ditch deadsville and head to the beach for a change of hedonistic pace. When Faith can't cough up enough money, the remaining trio hastily rob a chicken restaurant and they're all on their way. PARTAY! Once there, it's everything they ever hoped it could be and perhaps nothing they really wanted. A drug bust at a party gets them all landed in jail — in their bikinis — until they're bailed out by a limply horrifying bruiser named Alien (James Franco nailing it in cornrows and grills). Hilarity actually does ensue, surprisingly, but so does that sickening feeling that will make you want to stop off for a quick washbasin shower in the cinema bathroom when it ends. So that's the plot, but who really cares. Spring Breakers is about (as much as any of Korine's films can be about anything) the delusion of the American dream, excess (Alien will tell you all about that one) and objectification with a hazy outlook on racial divisions (cue: Gucci Mane). Yes, the women in the film hardly ever wear clothes, but they do possess a kind of unrealistic power we don't see very often on film. There are scenes of compromising sexual situations, but Korine doesn't err on that most vile of cliches, rape fetishisation — in fact it's flipped. The body shots are gratuitous — as they should be, given the vile Girls Gone Wild subject matter — but they're also tempered by Korine's idiosyncratic beauty-out-of-garbarge long shots. It's of note that the cinematographer is Benoît Debie, most famous for his work on Gaspar Noé's extreme Irreversible. After repeated viewings, my mind's still not made up on its complexity. That world is so ripe for a truly subversive, artistic reading and I would have liked Spring Breakers to be a bit more radical than it is. With an R rating already in place though, it's a morally obscure fever dream that is worth seeing on a big screen. Especially if you like Britney Spears. https://youtube.com/watch?v=rVvn9T6bqls
For anyone who's had the distinct displeasure of having to sit through the tedium of a state-sponsored barista course, one of Concrete Playground's favourite haunts is offering budding baristas and coffee aficionados a welcome alternative. The shabby chic Grounds of Alexandria have launched their own coffee classes, focusing not only on how to get the perfect balance and taste to your coffee but also how to make your coffee look beautiful and irresistible, just like the pros do. Head barista and trainer Jack Hanna is certainly the man to listen to on the topic, having won the 2010 Golden Bean Award as well being the World Latte Art Champion. If these sort of barista skills sound like your bag, then check out the Latte Art & Basic Barista Skills Workshop. However, if you fancy yourself as a real coffee connoisseur, then the Roasting & Cupping Workshop provides a more in-depth and holistic tour of what goes into making the perfect cuppa. With tours of the Grounds' remarkable Research Facility, where the roasting machines work their magic, Hanna takes classes through the roasting process and the ins and outs of the coffee selection process. On top of this, the course teaches the art of cupping such that you have a complete understanding of the process your cappuccino goes through to reach its fullest potential in your cup. So if you want an insider look into how to make the ultimate cup of coffee then ditch the dour alternatives and check out the Grounds of Alexandria courses. To register or find out more, email info@groundsroasters.com.
Only two months ago I saw Tame Impala at a packed out Enmore, a sweaty and heavily marijuana scented verification of their legendary status here in the band's homeland. But already they've announced another Australian tour, confirming an exponential increase in popularity that would seem a bit nuts if you hadn't been reading all the end-of-year roundups on all the biggest music sites in the world. The tour is comprised of five shows to coincide with the band's headline appearance at Groovin' The Moo 2013, kicking off late April, and each comes with a big-time venue upgrade. Instead of The Enmore it'll be the Hordern Pavilion, with the Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth shows taking place in the Festival Hall, Convention Centre, Thebarton Theatre and Belvoir Ampitheatre respectively. By then Tame Impala's critically eulogised second album, Lonerism, will have been getting airtime for around six months, so don't put off buying tickets until the last minute. Lyrical introversion and mind-warping psychedelia can be just as enjoyable in big group situations. Tickets go on sale 9am on Thursday, 21 February through Ticketek. https://youtube.com/watch?v=BgK_Er7WZVg
Oblivion is like a 'Best of' album for sci-fi movies. It's got the isolation and planetary caretaking of Moon or WALL-E, the post-alien-invasion devastation of Independence Day, the memory wipes and insurgency of Total Recall, the sentient and menacingly red-eyed robots of 2001: A Space Odyssey and the 'You maniacs!...You BLEW IT UP-edness' of Planet of the Apes. In fact, with so many classic hits, it's like the I Am Sam soundtrack, but where one of the tracks is I Am Legend. So if it's not terrifically original — if what we're talking about here is essentially a 'covers' film — is it worth seeing? Well, yes, thankfully, because like any good covers album, the tributes are done lovingly, respectfully and with a just enough reinterpretation to keep you interested. Oblivion is directed by Tron: Legacy's Joseph Kosinski, whose touch is immediately obvious both cinematically and aurally (although this time the pulsing soundtrack is provided by M83 rather than Daft Punk). Set in a fantastically bleak 2077, humanity has abandoned Earth save for two individuals, Jack (Tom Cruise) and Victoria (Andrea Riseborough), whose job is to monitor and repair a small fleet of aggressive security drones that hunt down any remaining alien invaders. Like every old cop in an action movie, Jack and Victoria are just two weeks away from retirement when the unexpected crash landing of another human, Julia (Olga Kurylenko), throws a spanner into the works. Jack wants to know who she is, whilst Victoria doesn't want anything to threaten their plans to rejoin the rest of Earth's survivors on an off-planet sanctuary. Performance wise, Cruise is dependably solid, though its Riseborough who steals every one of their scenes. Her Stepford Wife-esque emotional repression more than makes up for their lacklustre sexual chemistry and becomes especially compelling once Kurylenko is introduced into the mix. Morgan Freeman also makes a cameo in a Morpheus-type role; however, his performance is both fleeting and unremarkable. The true star of Oblivion is in fact the production design, brought to life in astounding detail via Claudio Miranda's (Life of Pi) engaging cinematography. Jack and Victoria's exquisite airborne apartment sits atop Earth's expansive wastelands, and the scenes in both are equally sumptuous. Coupled with Oblivion's many sci-fi tributes, Kosinski and Miranda's vision offers an enjoyable and fast-paced film that should appeal to a broad audience.
2012 was a big year for theatrical representations of the process of ageing. Austrian film Amour has garnered all sorts of buzz for its painfully honest portrayal of what it's like to face your own mortality, and Colin Friels was utterly unforgettable as the fading father figure Willy Loman in Belvoir's raw retelling of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman. Carriageworks' new stage production Life As We Know It offers a startlingly modern and quintessentially Australian perspective on growing old. The production features seven senior citizens from the Campbelltown suburb of Minto sharing with audiences the trials and tribulations of ageing in a world that is rapidly and endlessly modernising itself. Everything from love and companionship to gardening and suburban life are brought to the stage, showing how the simple and even mundane details of everyday life can in fact be quite extraordinary. With acclaimed director Rosie Dennis — renowned for her capacity to tear down the fourth wall in favour of intimate and realistic performer-audience relationships — at the helm, Life As We Know It is a deeply personal exploration of what it's like to grow old in Australia.
As well as leading you around the inner city's art highlights, Art Month takes you on two easy jaunts outside the city centre. Go West hits most of the major Western Sydney cultural institutions on a single free bus trip led by artist Tom Polo. From Create to Space — A Parramatta Tour is a guided look at Pop Up Parramatta, Parramatta's answer to the Renew Newcastle model. The tour is led by Sydney cultural nexus Jess Scully, a recent SMAC of the Year, the curatorial powerhouse behind Vivid Ideas and probably the single person with the broadest overview of Sydney's creative second life. Tours West is part of Art Month 2013. Check out our guide to the festival's ten best events here.
Taking weight from the claim that there’s now so much music out there it’s impossible to unearth the good stuff is UK producer Fantastic Mr Fox, who has managed to carve out a relatively successful career despite his name being decidedly Soundcloud-unfriendly thanks to the soundtrack from a 2009 stop-motion animation by one Wes Anderson. Fantastic Mr Fox the beat maker has been producing since the age of 14, long before Boggis, Bunce and Bean made it to the movies, but if eight-year-olds were into genre-bending electronica his stuff could be perfectly congruous with anthropomorphic farm animals and their late night shenanigans. The sinister intro to ‘Pascal’s Chorus’? Mr. Fox creeping around in the moonlight. That same track’s escalation to frenzied grime-tinged house? The post-thievery dash back to his hole. The warbling ‘Yesterday’s Fall’? Probably the part where he gets his tail shot off. Anyway, with props being received from the likes of The XX, James Blake, Jamie XX and Bjork, he’s not called Fantastic for nothing. Support on the night comes from Low Motion on Sunset's Preacha and Max Gosfod, plus the FBi Sunset DJ's Kato and Bad Ezzy.
You don't have to be up all night to get lucky. This month is the debut of LUCKY, part of the 2013 HERE AND NOW series hosted by Carriageworks and curated by Liane Rossler, co-founder of Dinosaur Designs. It follows the previous exhibitions USEFUL and TOTES. The collections featured pieces surrounding their namesake concept, and LUCKY follows right along. LUCKY showcases individual creations by 18 artists from Australia and New Zealand that explore the various social and cultural implications of the term. All of the artists' works will be for sale, which include various talismans, keepsakes and charms that the artists themselves find meaningful. Participating artists include Priscilla Bourne, Rachel Buckeridge, David Capra, Eddy Carroll, Julie Green, Leah Jackson, Kate Mitchell, Kevin Murray, Lyn & Tony, Tanja Binggeli, Sarah Read, Marilyn Schneider, David Sequeria, Rena Shein, Andrew Simpson, Tiffany Singh and Paul Yore. The gallery is open from 10am-6pm daily.
If your ideal Sunday is resembles something out of a Fitzgerald novel, then you might want to ‘roll on’ over to Vaucluse House. On November 3, the historic estate in the harbourside suburb of Vaucluse is open for (over-18s only) play. So dress in your Sunday best and ride a vintage double-decker bus from the city to this gothic revival mansion and enjoy a leisurely day of lawn games, live music and picnicking with Pimms. If that’s not enough to entertain you for five hours, guests can take bookbinding workshops or enjoy cooking classes and tastings from colonial gastronomer Jacqui Newling. ‘Roll on’ is part of a program of Sydney Living Museums events surrounding the Eat Your History exhibition that offer gastronomic experiences inspired by Sydney’s historic homes, gardens, and kitchens. They’ve partnered with Wildwon Projects to host Roll On and later on in February, Stories from the Cellar at Elizabeth Bay House. History buffs and leisure lovers alike are welcome. Not sure what to wear? Check out their vintage-inspired pin board for inspiration.
The Korean Film Festival In Australia (KOFFIA) is back for its fourth year in 2013, promising unmissable films and the brightest stars in their latest offerings for the screen. This is your opportunity to experience an alternative movie-going experience. You have the choice of 17 feature and various short films, with 50 screenings in total gracing Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne cinemas. It has been dubbed "a must for fans of Korean culture" although just about anyone is sure to enjoy the films, all of which are subtitled in English. On the bill are 9 Muses of Star Empire, which documents the K-Pop phenomenon from the inside, and Architecture 101, a romance-themed session, ideal for couples. There are also a host of other cultural activities — be sure to check them out when planning your KOFFIA experience. https://youtube.com/watch?v=s3dZhCnV7ik
'Battle' is normally a dirty word, but in the art world, it can be a mark of originality, technical skill and style. Or at least, that's how the Basel Royale Art Prize's 24 finalists will be judged in the upcoming 12 heats. Official submissions to the prize will be made by the artists live at Lo-Fi on Taylor Square, where the jams will be provided by electronic taste-makers Astral People. Every Thursday for 12 weeks, beginning on August 15, two artists will go head-to-head in a three-hour long blitz of creative energy to see whose work makes it to the final showcase on November 7. But don't just stand and watch — the public can have a say by voting in person using tokens or online via Instagram. Aside from Instacred and a sense of self-satisfaction, the winner will also be sent to Art Basel in Miami, one of the most significant international art events, which displays a selection of modern and contemporary works from around the world.
Marrickville Council presents year two of Open Marrickville, a community celebration of the many cultural pieces that make up this vibrant corner of Sydney. Over ten days and multiples venues, it's sure to tick more than a few boxes with Indigenous dance, Greek pagan water celebrations and many more snapshots of the 'ville on offer. Beeline to Marrickville Park this Thursday for the kick off with Patrick O’Rourke's Collected Visions. Treat yourself to this series of drawings inspired by images from the local library and using found objects to trace a history of the suburb. Proving that the key to multicultural harmony really is our taste buds, Cuisines of the World in Marrickville promises to reveal the secrets of perfecting tabouleh and many other ethnic favourites over six days. Or head over to the Red Rattler and heat things up a bit with the adults-only event Cabaret in the 'Ville by Blackcat productions, a fun-filled ponder on questions of Marrickville — with the promise of some nudity. Get the full details from the Marrickville Council website. Image of Collected Visions (in progress) by Patrick O'Rourke.
The Sun is pretty impressive. Just all by itself. But Penelope Umbrico’s 12,149,179 Suns from Sunsets from Flickr (partial) 4/9/2013 draws down hundreds of them to make a back-wall-spanning collage of crepuscular moments. Her suns are bright, luminous, full. And usually the molten yellow of a movie sunset. They’re very much solar art as found objects, but their radiance still grabs you. Without wanting to belittle her skill, there’s something in common with kitten photos, in that no matter how many, and no matter how small, sun photos make you feel good. This same joy in the everyday, similar pleasure in the essence of things and a bit of collation of found objects are more or less the theme of Stills Gallery’s the Big Picture. Gemma Messih’s I’ve only just realised how important you are (to me) lays an image of a mountain against a very real tiny mountain of grey rock. It’s a juxtaposition of two symbols: an image symbolises a mountain, a little rock pile sympbolises a mountain. She also offers two freestanding landscapes canvases which have been pierced by a thrown rock. Though there’s a thematic unity to that, there’s more of a sense that the images’ subjects have wandered off to have a look at other images on display. Like Hogwarts portraits on a slow day. Patrick Pound’s found photos are a low-key highlight of the show. In Same place different people old, found photos of men and women sit at a cafe. They’re arrayed like a film strip, and playing with the photographer. The images seem tidied and curated, but once again it’s ordinary things that draw you into their little, animate worlds. Here, it’s the smiles. So many, so long past, so happy. Women pause and laugh on their lunch break, men smile and kid about with a luxurious allowance of afternoon joy. Portrait of the wind takes this further, filling a much larger frame with a bit less than 200 black and white, found snaps of people at leisure. And buffeted by the wind. The arrangement is skilled, but it’s the (literal) realness of people themselves that is most compelling. Their leisure is decades old. But there’s a life, a seriousness, a smuggled joy in each face by the bridge, on the beach, in the parade. Along another wall, Tim Webster’s Flow holds a waterfall, flowing mist, flowing video noise. In the print room, Drew Flaherty’s Loading Cycle 1 is a clever loop of video art which joins the everyday cycles of the computer and the moon. Upstairs, Daniel Connell’s Lightless arrays a menagerie of ordinary lights, flickering in a menagerie of places. Stills Gallery is open Wednesday to Saturday from 11-5. Press the buzzer to get in. Image: Loading Cycle by Drew Flaherty.
MEMEBRAIN Art Hackfest will bring together artists, designers, techies and other digital explorers in a 3-day hot house of wild, geeky dreams and schemes. Hackfest participants have signed up online and will converge at The Concourse in Chatswood to collaborate, design, play and build prototype projects that explore new ways of using technologies with augmented reality, video, sound, game design, interactive digital media, locative media, robotics, networked environments; whatever. Mentors and fellow artists will provide feedback throughout the Hackfest, and you can interact with the projects and follow their progress online. Then on the final day, head over to see them for yourself at the closing exhibition and live performances. Memebrain's closing night is open to the general public from 6pm Sunday. Hacking something together all weekend at Memebrain is also open to the general public, but you'll need to register first. Read our interview with MEMEBRAIN host Bravo Child here.
There's a real focus on ethical food consumption this year, and this event by community-minded winemakers Cake Wines (they give 25 cents from each bottle sold to community radio) is a prime example. Their previous pop-up wine bars have been excellent, and this three-course feast promises to take their commitment to ethical production to the next level, focusing on ethically sourced food which is locally produced and minimises waste. Their dining hall in Redfern will be transformed for the event, which includes a cocktail on arrival, a range of craft beers and wines as well as art and music. Check out the rest of our top ten picks of Good Food Month here.
Filmmaking is difficult enough, without officials breathing down your neck, monitoring every scene according to the government's agenda. In Iran, no director can start work before the censors have run their eyes over the script, removed whatever they disapprove of, and given it the green light. Despite such restrictions, however, the Iranian film industry continues to grow. In fact, last year's A Separation won the nation its first ever Oscar, for Best Foreign Language film. The Australian Iranian Film Festival is now in its third year. Starting in Brisbane on October 10, it will travel to Sydney, Canberra and Adelaide, before finishing up in Melbourne. Opening night will feature Snow on Pines, the directorial debut from actor-turned-director and A Separation star Peyman Moadi. Other highlights include The Wedlock from Rouhollah Hejazi, director of the provocative The Private Life of Mr and Mrs M; the Australian Premiere of Mohsen Makhmalbaf's The Gardener; and indie film Parviz, directed by Majid Barzegar.
Casa Gusto, importers of all things delicious, culinary and Italian, have sent a call-out to all local creatives so they can test out their design skills in front of a live audience for a $750 prize, MasterChef style (or what I imagine happens on MasterChef style). If you have seen that elephant balancing on a tomato genius canned tomato packaging design, you have seen Casa Gusto — and don't fret, they want something in the same vein, so competitors should brush up on their '20s carnivale. Fourteen artists and designers, armed with their weapons of choice (sorry, no computers — please direct all digital discrimination complaints directly to the organisers), will endure two hours of bloody design battle to create competing images for the label’s new packaging. From there their fate will be handed over to the judges and audience, so bring your mates — there will be food, booze and DJs, so they can't be too begrudging about it — and the rest of you should just head down to Salt Meats Cheese for Sydney’s first live design night.
Satellite Boy is a truly great Aussie film. It's not just a great film that happens to be shot in Australia; this touching and evocative little fable from first-time film director Catriona McKenzie is a great film that was both born and bred in Australia and whose primary protagonist is Australia herself. And what a protagonist she is! If Tourism Australia had any sense, they would put Satellite Boy on every cinema screen in the world, as it may be the most dazzling advertisement for Australia's natural beauty that has ever been committed to celluloid. The celestial night sky, the pink sunsets and the dry lake beds of the Kimberley region are so gorgeously photographed by cinematographer Geoffrey Simpson that they come to take on an almost otherworldly quality, perfectly befitting the film's fascination with the spiritual wonder of the Australian outback. Much like Terrence Malick's legendary cinematographer, Emmanuel Lubezki, Simpson seems acutely aware that setting always equals character. The film tells the story of two Aboriginal boys, Pete and Kalmain (newcomers Cameron Wallaby and Joseph Pedley). After hearing that a major mining company are planning to tear down Pete's home in order to make way for a massive industrial development, the two boys head cross country to give the company's executives a piece of their mind. Inevitably this path is one of enormous self-discovery, with both boys coming to understand what living in and of the land truly means. Basically, what McKenzie gives us is the Indigenous equivalent of a road trip/coming-of-age film, or perhaps more accurately, a walkabout film. To the film's discredit, the story is at times as hackneyed and overwrought as its premise suggests. Many of the characters' revelations, particularly towards the film's conclusion, are stiflingly conventional and detract from the more subtle and gradual developments of the first two acts. Yet Roger Ebert often wrote that "it's not what a movie is about, it's how it is about it", and in this case Satellite Boy manages to transcend its inherent simplicities due to the visual and lyrical flair with which the filmmakers imbue each and every shot. The story itself never pretends to be anything more than a grand allegory for what is essentially the central Aboriginal struggle of the last 200 years: displacement from spiritual home. The beauty of the Australian landscape is contrasted with the rotted and ruined nature of technology. Disused tractors have become heaps of rusted iron, telephones fail to connect Pete with his estranged mother and a single handgun threatens to tear the boys' friendship apart. Ultimately, this story belongs to the two newcomers, Wallaby and Pedley. Their genuine chemistry and naturalistic performances gives the characters an infectious warmth and youthful exuberance that is as compelling as it is endearing. Satellite Boy may well have passed as another Australian "also-ran" if it weren't for these phenomenally mature performances.
Anyone who has ever worked in hospitality has probably watched with horror at the mountain of food thrown away without a second thought. The people at OzHarvest — one of Australia's prominent food-rescue organisations — noticed, and decided to do something about it. On Monday, July 29, between noon and 2pm, they will be serving 5000 people food made from rescued ingredients to help raise awareness of the immense levels of waste presently occurring and show just how easy it is for everyone to do something about it. Working beside OzHarvest volunteers will be a number of Sydney chefs helping to put together dishes such as curries made from 'misshapen' and wonky vegetables (that’s right, something as simple as that stops vegetables from being sold), rescued bread, cheese, chutney and who knows what else. It's all free, but you do need to register, as plates are going fast. So if food waste causes you to lose sleep, or if you just want a free meal, jump online and procure yourself a ticket.
Max Berry's artworks look like they're from another world. A dreamy and surreal world full of small ceramic figures, timber carvings and floating painted houses. Those who live within these spaces are caught in moments of reflection in these desolate yet calm landscapes. It's a world that you're not quite sure if you want to jump into or not. Berry trained at the College of Fine Arts and covers everything from painting, sculpture, jewellery, murals and paste-ups (and everything in between). In all of these various works, look closely at the relationship between the figure and the space around them, as his work acts as a reflection on how we navigate the world around us. His most recent paintings and sculptures, along with a book (64 pages, which acts like a process diary of his work), are on display at
Sussex Lane is turning green for two days only as the City of Sydney looks at ways to create a more sustainable city for us to live in. The laneway will be transformed into a green sanctuary in the heart of our bustling city for Pop Sydney: Sussex Lane, giving you the chance to experience and become inspired by some of the sustainability plans and ideas the City has coming up. Visitors can learn about energy, water and waste plans, and look at innovations in the area of green infrastructure for a better Sydney. During the day you will be able to relax on the green grass or enjoy a game of bocce over lunch. In the evenings, sit back with a casual drink from one of the small bars in the lane and listen to free public talks which will be held by insightful speakers. On the Monday evening, Pecha Kucha (drawing its name from the Japanese term ‘chit chat’) lets you listen to how Sydneysiders are making our city more sustainable from a small to large scale. On Tuesday evening, Green Ups is exploring how to 'green' our city through infrastructure and urban ecology, offering ideas, connections, inspiration and support. To ensure you don’t miss out on one of these free public talks you will need to register at Pop Sydney: Sussex Lane.
Last year, Concrete Playground was psyched to hear about "the rising star of the outdoor scum scene in Sydney": Ghetto Handball. Now, back for a three-hour Anzac Day special of handball and two-up, the Ghetto guys will be chalking out a court at the Pine Street Creative Arts Centre, in Chippendale, from midday on Wednesday 25 April. Lace up your whitest sneakers, stock up at the bottle-o, and bring along gold coins for two-up. Of course, in case you’re not au fait with rules and whatnot, we’ve got them here. Check out this sweet video of the Ghetto Handball event on Queen's birthday last year.
Pyrmont has developed a reputation as one of Sydney's fastest growing dining areas, and the Pyrmont Festival has teamed up with Mudgee Wines for the ultimate taste sensation for lovers of wine, food and art. Pyrmont's top chefs will work with Mudgee's best wine producers for 'Meet the Winemakers', creating lunch and dinner that will be matched with wine. The festival also includes cooking classes, wine appreciation and cheese masterclasses and will allow you to try some of the 120 wines from 30 of the Mudgee region's top winemakers. The high point of the Pyrmont Festival takes place in Pirrama Park on Sunday, May 20. Relax in the park with a variety of cuisines for lunch and listen to live acts and music from local musicians. Artists can also get involved in the 6th Annual Pyrmont Art Prize, which will feature over 300 new artworks with a range of prizes to be won. The theme of the art show is Small Is Beautiful and artworks must be 12" x 12" in size on canvas. You can check out the full event program on the Pyrmont Festival website.
Darlinghurst's vegan Middle Eastern bar Simply Hummus is putting on a spooky $60 set menu filled with spiced vegan goodies that are sure to leave you satisfied this Halloween. At the Hummus Horror Night, guests will be treated to a multi-course meal that Simply Hummus has created in collaboration with local baker My Neighbour Bakes. The meal kicks off with a garlic-heavy spread titled the Vampire Protection Plan. This selection of starters includes roasted garlic hummus, babaganoush, plus sumac and za'atar pita. Accompanying this spread is the Zucchini Coffin, stuffing fire-roasted zucchini with plant-based protein. For mains, patrons will be served a portabello mushroom pita slider with a side of za'atar chips, before not one but two sweet treats finish off the meal. The Pumpkin Spice and Everything Nice is a pumpkin hummus served with chocolate pits, while the Eat Dirt and Die is a chocolate avocado mousse placed at the base of a shortbread headstone. Simply Hummus also recommends you add on a Witches Brew to accompany your main. The Halloween-themed drink is a blend of orange, carrot and ginger, spiked with vodka or gin. To help the restaurant comply with COVID-safe protocols, there will be three seatings on the Thursday: 5.30–6.50pm, 7–8.20pm and 8.30-9.50pm. Book online to secure your spot.
Australia's theatre scene didn't have much to smile about in 2020; however, now that 2021 has rolled around, some venues around the country are kicking back into gear with a little help from their friends. Well, with Friends! The Musical Parody to be specific — with the comedic, song-filled satire of everyone's favourite 90s sitcom touring the country. Initially, the show was due to hit local theatres in August and September last year. Then, when the pandemic struck, the musical rescheduled to November and December instead. But it seems that 2020 wasn't anyone's year — and it didn't include anyone's favourite day, week or month, for that matter — so the production has now shifted its entire run to 2021. Scheduled to be there for audiences in Sydney from Thursday, September 2–Saturday, September 4, Friends! The Musical Parody will spend time with Ross, Rachel, Chandler, Monica, Joey and Phoebe, of course. Here, they're hanging out at their beloved Central Perk — and sitting on an orange couch, no doubt — when a runaway bride shakes up their day. Call it 'The One with the Loving, Laugh-Filled Lampoon', or 'The One That Both Makes Good-Natured Fun of and Celebrates an Iconic Sitcom'. Yes, no one told you that being obsessed with the Courteney Cox, Jennifer Aniston, Matthew Perry, Matt LeBlanc, Lisa Kudrow and David Schwimmer-starring show about six New Yorkers would turn out this way — with on-stage skits and gags, recreations of some of the series' best-known moments, and songs with titles such as 'How you Doin?' and 'We'll Always Be There For You'. That said, no one told us that being a Friends aficionado would continue to serve up so many chances to indulge our fandom 16 years after it finished airing, including via the upcoming reunion special that's gathering the TV series' main cast back together.
If you're missing the bustling atmosphere, guitar-heavy tunes and saucy slices of pizza you'd find on a night out at Frankie's, the CBD favourite is looking to give you a taste of the Frankie's experience at home. The hallowed ovens of the Hunter Street venue have fired up for lockdown, with its full range of pizzas on offer for pickup or delivery via Deliveroo. The CBD institution's menu underwent a revamp earlier this year, enlisting the help of Dan Pepperell (Restaurant Hubert, Alberto Lounge, Bistrot 916) to shake up its food offering. Grab yourself a slice of zucchini pizza with lemon, chilli, garlic, stracciatella and mint; or the Texas, which combines two different cheeses, roasted corn, red onion, jalapeños. Combine your pie with a red hot ranch or Restaurant Hubert dipping sauce for the full experience. A whole heap of drinks are also on hand. You can find Frankie's endless variety of lagers, ales and ciders from local and independent brewers available for pickup or delivery. Swing by the inner city digs and you can also pick up a bottle of red or a frozen margarita. With Frankie's set to close next year, we'd recommend taking any extra opportunities to sample the menu until we can return to the underground bar for a gig and a round of pinball.
The temperature has been dropping. The days are getting shorter. Leaving the house without a jumper is completely off the menu. Yes, comfort food season is upon us, so Salt Meats Cheese is celebrating with one of the most stomach-warming dishes there is — gnocchi, and lots of it. From 5pm on Tuesday, May 25, the Italian eatery chain is hosting Gnocchi Night at every one of its venues. So, you can choose which site suits you best, then pick whichever of the six special pillowy potato dishes takes your fancy. Prices start at $19, and if you'd like to opt for more than one, that's more than understandable. On the menu: creamy salmon gnocchi, complete with broccolini and sugar snap peas; gnocchi alla romana, which is made with semolina and served with a heap of cheese; and deep-fried gnocchi, as paired with prosciutto, plus almond and capsicum pesto. The Tuscan gnocchi includes Italian sausage and sundried tomatoes, while the gnocchi burrata fountain is clearly a must-try. With the latter, your plate will be stacked with gnocchi — obviously — and you'll then lift the cover to let the cheese do its gooey thing. Ever had dessert gnocchi? That's on offer as well, all thanks to SMC's gnocchi churro bites — which come with cinnamon sugar, chocolate chips, cream and custard sauce. Bookings are recommended, as this is a one-night-only affair.
You've probably sat at the bar at Bitter Phew and learned a lot about beer while making your way through lagers, ales and stouts, and chatting to the friendly staff. But this winter, you can sip schooeys and learn about native Aussie ingredients thanks to this series of workshops. Gabriel Gutnik (Ziggy's Wildfoods), a local champion of ingredients that are foraged or sourced from Indigenous-owned and -operated companies, will chat about Australia's plethora of local flora and their potential. He'll also serve up a native ingredient-heavy cocktail and grazing board pairing. The Oxford Street bar will also host lunches and dinners by Caitlin Koether of Wild Provisions, who's known for highlighting old-world preservation techniques, like fermenting, salting and sugaring.
With the Greater Sydney area now in lockdown until Friday, July 9, home cooking and takeaway is back on the menu. Fancy the latter more than the former? Spent too much time baking during last year's similar stint at home? Eager to order in for any reason possible? If you fall into any of the above categories, and you're keen to both support local eateries and keep an eye on your bank balance, Deliveroo is ditching its delivery fees for orders from most restaurants for this week. The delivery service's deal was announced last Friday, June 25, before lockdown was expanded in terms of the areas affected and the duration of the stay-at-home period — so you'l be able to get your meals brought to your door without paying delivery fees until 11.59pm on Friday, July 2. That covers food from thousands of eateries, including the likes of Mary's, Chargrill Charlie's and Gelato Messina. The aim: to encourage Greater Sydney residents to help local restaurants during this stay-at-home period and, because that's the world we live in, to help stop panic buying at supermarkets as well. To ensure that all of the eateries involved aren't missing out on revenue or left out of pocket, Deliveroo is footing the bill for the discounted amount, too. If you're suddenly hungry, you'll need to place an order via the Deliveroo app. There are a few caveats, unsurprisingly, with the free delivery deal not extending to bottle shops, KFC or to places listed in the app as 'delivered by restaurant'. You'll also need to spend at least $10 at most eateries, $12 at McDonald's, Subway and Baskin-Robbins, and $15 if you're purchasing from Red Rooster. Top image: Mary's, Nikki To
In one of cinema's great sci-fi thrillers, an unhappy middle-aged man is offered a new life. It means forgoing everything he currently knows and, naturally, that bargain comes with consequences. At its most basic, that's the premise of John Frankenheimer's 1966 masterpiece Seconds, a Cannes-premiering, Oscar-nominated Rock Hudson-starring classic that serves up a paranoia-dripping nightmare. Unsurprisingly, the hallucinatory film has much to say about both the dream of starting all over again and the follies of unthinking conformity — and it still feels oh-so relevant and chilling more than five decades after it first hit screens. Also unsurprisingly, Seconds is a great pick for the Art Gallery of New South Wales' current film season — a series of free movie screenings that's all about fakes, scams, fabricated realities, doppelgangers, false identities and body swaps. It's just one of the titles on offer at Flim-Flam Redux, with the program screening twice a week, on Wednesdays and Sundays at 2pm, until Sunday, September 27. Movie buffs can also catch Mohsen Makhmalbaf's Salaam Cinema, which blends documentary and fiction in depicting a casting call for a new film; Mikey and Nicky, Elaine May's gangster flick about a bookie on the run; and Despair, the first English-language feature by the great German director Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Some titles screen with a thematically linked short, too. While entry is free, you do need to register in advance to attend. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2K1Mpo8O4rQ Flim-Flam Redux screens on Wednesdays and Sundays at 2pm until Sunday, September 27 at the Art Gallery of New South Wales.
Redfern's much-loved neighbourhood bar is turning three, and to celebrate it's throwing a month-long party. Swing by Misfits any evening in September and you'll find food, booze and good times aplenty. Naturally, the bar is celebrating all the good things that come in threes, so expect a trio of mini cocktails, cheekily dubbed The Bee Gees ($25), three oyster shooters for an affordable $18 and other food specials such as prawn dumplings ($9), ceviche tacos ($12) and barbecue brisket sliders ($18), all served as 'triplets'. On top of that, there'll be cocktail specials — the Paper Plane, Last Palabra and Corpse Reviver No 2 — at $16 a pop. Celebrating your birthday in September, too? Show your ID and Misfits will treat you to a shot on the house. In addition to all this merriment, there'll be live tunes playing every Thursday. Kicking things off will be DJs playing dance-inducing tunes (even if it is in your chair) on September 3. Then, you can catch a live soul performance on September 10, followed by a jazz and blues band on September 17 — our money is on a trio. On September 24, a live hip hop and R&B set will round things up. To make sure you don't miss out on the birthday action, book yourself a table now. Lead image: Steven Woodburn
A new festival? In Sydney? Finally, yes. Thanks to you-know-what, it hasn't been a year of coming together in groups for drinking and dancing, but as restrictions continue to ease, events are starting to fill the spring and summer cultural calendars once again — including new ones. Ten of the city's best bars are coming together for three days of creative libations and sparkling harbour views at the inaugural Sydney Cocktail Festival. Running from Friday, November 13 to Sunday, November 15, it'll be hosted at Opera Bar and split into five ticketed sessions. Each session will see bartenders from four Sydney bars whipping up two cocktails each. So, depending what session you attend, you'll be able to try a Mango Weis Bar daiquiri from Jacoby's Tiki Bar, Burrow Bar's Rock 'n' Pop, Rosenbaum & Fuller Leafy Greens or creative concoctions from the likes of Natalie Ng at Door Knock, Old Mate's Place's Daniel Noble and Dre Walters, Michael Chiem from PS40, and Double Deuce Lounge's Cosmo Soto and Olly Churcher. Tickets for one of the three-hour sessions will set you back $49 and include six mini or three full-sized cocktails or your choice. Sydney Cocktail Festival has sessions running from 6–9pm on Friday, and 1–4pm and 5–8pm on Saturday and Sunday.
Of all the country-specific film festivals that reach Sydney's big screens each year, the British Film Festival might have the weakest reason to exist. Rather than showcasing flicks from a particular part of the world that viewers probably won't get the chance to see in cinemas otherwise, it screens a number of movies that are destined for a bigger release — and a heap of films with very well-known stars, too. But if you want to spend a few weeks immersed in the latest and greatest that UK cinema has to offer, all at once, it's definitely the event for you. And, in 2020 as it does every year, it features a jam-packed lineup. Hitting Palace Norton Street, Palace Verona, Chauvel Cinemas and Palace Central from Tuesday, November 10–Sunday, November 29, this year's BFF boasts one of the most anticipated movies of 2020: Ammonite, the Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan-starring romance set in 1840s England, as directed by God's Own Country's Frances Lee. The tender tale only premiered overseas in September, so it's coming to Australia rather quickly — and yes, it's already garnering awards buzz. From the 22-film lineup, other highlights include Misbehaviour, in which Keira Knightley helps recreate the true story of feminist protesters at the 1970 Miss World competition in London; thriller The Nest, with Jude Law playing a British entrepreneur who moves his American family to an English country manor; and Summerland, a World War II-set romantic drama led by Gemma Arterton. There's also opening night's Blithe Spirit, based on the Noël Coward's comedy and starring Dan Stevens, Isla Fisher, Judi Dench and Leslie Mann — plus folk-horror thriller Fanny Lye Deliver'd, about a woman in 17th-century Shropshire whose unhappy marriage gets a shake up by a younger couple on the run. The British Film Festival also looks back at British greats gone by, so expect to check out 80s sci-fi flick Flash Gordon, and watch Sir Alec Guinness and Peter Sellers in The Ladykillers for its 65th anniversary. Something extra special: a 40th anniversary screening of David Lynch's The Elephant Man, which earned him the first of his three Oscar nominations for Best Director, and is a movie that everyone genuinely needs to see at least once. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cp3WjuJJYB8
When it comes to watching some of the most entertaining movies ever committed to celluloid, Dendy Newtown is taking Grease's advice — by giving viewers more. From Thursday, October 29–Wednesday, December 2, the venue is dedicating a heap of sessions to big-screen musicals. Yes, we expect that you'll hear some singing from the audience while you're watching. Called The Show Must Go On, this retrospective season will work its way through a huge 23 films, all screening multiple times on different dates. Basically, it's serving up a mini-history of the genre — including classics such as Singin' in the Rain and The Sound of Music, cult favourites like The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and more recent fare such as Mamma Mia! and Rocketman. While the Moulin Rouge! stage show is hopefully still coming to Australia in the near future, if COVID-19 doesn't get in the way of its plans, you can catch the Ewan McGregor and Nicole Kidman-starring movie on the big screen first. Also on the lineup: Grease (obviously), Little Shop of Horrors, My Fair Lady, Annie, New York, New York, Fiddler on the Roof, Hello, Dolly!, Calamity Jane, Meet Me in St Louis and Oliver! (if you haven't noticed, musicals like exclamation marks), plus 42nd Street, West Side Story, All That Jazz, A Chorus Line, Chicago, La Vie En Rose and Once). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTm5DWgL-MU
Perhaps you'd like to celebrate simply getting to this point in this hectic year. Maybe you're pleased that restrictions keep easing and life slowly seems to be inching towards normality. Or, you could just really like frozen margaritas — especially when they'll only set you back $10 a pop. Whichever category you fall into, Surry Hills' vegan Mexican joint Bad Hombres has you covered with its Not Sober October special. Teaming up with Altos tequila, it's pouring the cheap beverages all day every day this month. In your marg, you'll be sipping Altos Blanco, triple sec, lime juice and agave syrup. If you'd like a spicy version, you can ask for some jalapeños or red chilli added to your drink, too. Bad Hombres is also serving up a new spring menu, because no one should be downing margaritas on an empty stomach. Dishes include jackfruit tacos, plus charred kale quesadillas — or there's always the the joint's trusty nachos with house 'cheddar cheese', black beans, pico de gallo, guacamole and cashew cream. Images: Jude Cohen.
Until 2020 hit, heading to a trivia night usually involved sitting in your favourite watering hole, sipping a few drinks and answering questions while a pub rock soundtrack played in the background. This year, however, that ritual has had a makeover — but in Isolation Trivia's latest online quiz night, those pub rock tunes remain. If you have a head full of otherwise pointless tidbits about the kinds of tunes usually blasted in pubs and bars around town, then this is a live-streamed trivia evening for you. Pub Rock Virtual Trivia is being held in collaboration with the current Pub Rock exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, so get ready to show just how much you know about everyone from AC/DC and Jimmy Barnes to Midnight Oil and Paul Kelly. If you're wondering how it works, you'll join the event from your couch, jot down your answers at home and everyone can compare scores virtually — and battle for trivia supremacy. Pub Rock Virtual Trivia takes place on from 7pm ADST Thursday, October 8. To play along, head to the event's Facebook page. And if you need some inspiration, this video just might help: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLBfdyJ3cpw Pub Rock Virtual Trivia takes place online from 7pm ADST on Thursday, October 8. Top image: Not On Your Rider.
Germany has a museum dedicated to dachshunds. New York has a similar kind of site, but celebrating all kinds of canines. And, in Sydney, we have the Woof Art Prize — the annual award for paintings, drawings and sculptures of those barking four-legged cuties that have long been considered humanity's best friend. Firstly, art- and pooch-loving folks submit their pieces, which, in 2020, were judged by artist Harrie Fasher. Next comes the free exhibition of said pupper-centric works — aka the fun part for everyone else — which is currently on display at Art Est in Leichhardt until Monday, October 12. More than 80 works are presently available to view, so get ready to peer art doggo-focused masterpieces of all shapes and sizes. We're assuming that none of them feature dogs playing poker, but you will see portraits of rescue dogs, pictures of dogs watching TV, contemplative pupper paintings and just a whole heap of adorable canine faces covering the venue's walls. And, yes, you can take your dog along to take a look. The Woof Art Prize 2020 is on display until Monday, October 12 at Art Est, 4/67-69 Lords Road, Leichhardt.
Talented pooches have been barking their way to big screen stardom since the birth of the medium, and Cannes Film Festival even gives out awards for ace pupper performances. Now, Australia has a dog-themed cinema showcase. At the Top Dog Film Festival, doggos and puppers cement their status as humanity's favourite movie stars in a touring program of pooch-centric shorts. For more than two hours, dogs will leap across screens in a curated selection of heartwarming flicks about humanity's best friend. Over the last few years, the lineup has included films about dog-powered sports, dogs in space, dogs hiking through the desert, senior dogs and more. The festival hits Sydney's Ritz Cinemas in Randwick on Sunday, October 18 and the Hayden Orpheum Picture Palace on Sunday, November 1 as part of its 2020 run, and rushing after tickets the way your best four-legged friend rushes after a frisbee is recommended. Given how much we all love watching dog videos online, not to mention attending pupper-centric shindigs in general, this one-night-only event is certain to be popular. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wkw03cngo4&feature=emb_logo Top Dog Film Festival takes place at the Ritz Cinemas in Randwick on Sunday, October 18 and the Hayden Orpheum Picture Palace on Sunday, November 1.
Staying motivated to keep crushing your exercise goals can be a challenge at the best of times, let alone in the middle of a pandemic. To provide a little incentive for all those runners out there, Lululemon is hosting a virtual version of its annual Seawheeze run. With both a half marathon (21.1 kilometres) and ten kilometre available, the digital races can be completed anywhere you like. On a treadmill? Yep. By doing ten laps of your one-kilometre block? Sure can. How about 500 laps of your 20-metre balcony? Whatever floats your boat. The races just need to be recorded in a single activity on the Strava app (which you can download for free) between Saturday, August 15 and Sunday, August 23. It costs $28USD to sign up (about $36AUD and $43NZD), which includes a training plan by Lululemon Global Ambassador Rob Watson, a digital badge for your Strava trophy case, an IRL finisher medal and a $2USD donation to Vinyasa Yoga for Youth and Red Clay Yoga. Of course, depending on where you are in the world, there may be some other restrictions you need to abide by while completing the challenge. If you're in metropolitan Melbourne, you can only leave your house for exercise once a day for up to an hour — and you can only venture up to five kilometres from your house. When choosing your distance, keep in mind that the world record for the half, set by Geoffrey Kamworor late last year, is 58.01.
The spookiest time of the year is here, which means different things to different people. Perhaps you think you're never too old to don a costume and go trick-or-treating. Maybe you just like the excuse to eat plenty of lollies. Or, you could enjoy diving headfirst into as much horror viewing as you can manage. For folks in the latter category — and those who like dressing up, too — the Georges River Council is hosting the type of event you'll want to add to your calendar. Across the evenings of Friday, October 30 and Saturday, October 31, it's celebrating Halloween by setting up its own Frightful 80s Drive-In Cinema, which'll be free to attend at Donnelly Park in Connells Point. Even better — rather than just screening horror flicks, which pretty much every cinema around town will be doing, this pop-up drive-in is showing the entire first season of Stranger Things. Prepare to revisit the Upside Down and learn all about demogorgons. If you want to bring some waffles with you to eat, well, Eleven would clearly approve. Entry opens at 5pm each night, with screenings running from 7–10pm. There are no bookings or tickets, so arriving early to nab a spot is recommended. Also, if you deck out your car in a costume — yes, you read that correctly — and you can win a prize for the best-dressed vehicle. Clearly, given what's showing, someone is going to cover their ride with Christmas lights. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9EkMc79ZSU Top image: Elder.
First, he made standout music videos, including for Madonna, George Michael and Aerosmith. Lately, he was one of the driving forces behind Netflix's Mindhunter and its creepy true-crime thrills. We're talking, of course, about filmmaker David Fincher. And while the above achievements are considerable, he also has ten top-notch movies to his name to-date. He's about to release an eleventh called Mank, but if you'd like to revisit his past tension-dripping hits, you'll be able to at Fincher Fest. On select days from Sunday, November 1–Wednesday, November 18, Randwick's Ritz Cinema will be working its way through Fincher's filmography — and it's quite the collection of movies. Find out what's in the box in Seven, get claustrophobic with Panic Room and spend some time with Tyler Durden thanks to Fight Club. Then, you can also jump into a distinctive sci-fi franchise effort via Alien3, play along with The Game, chase a killer with Zodiac and witness ageing in reverse in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Fincher's most recent three films — The Social Network, with its insights into Facebook's origins; the US remake of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, starring an unforgettable Rooney Mara; and Gone Girl, with its pulpy twists — are all on the bill as well. Screenings kick off between 6.45–7.10pm on various nights, with single tickets and full-season passes available. And, after Fincher Fest is all done and dusted, the Ritz will also be screening Mank as well. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vr3UZ-axauU
Whether it's via a post or tweet or message, in a comment or status update, thanks to a Notes app screenshot or in an email, mean words aren't hard to share two decades into the 21st century. Click a few buttons, slide your finger across a touchscreen, then vitriol can be directed virtually instantaneously worldwide. Countless people — too many, all sticklers for unpleasantness — do just that. Such behaviour has almost become a reflex. A century ago, however, spewing nastiness by text required far more effort. Someone had to put ink to paper, commit their hatred to physical form in their own handwriting, tuck it into an envelope, pay for postage, then await the mail service to deliver their malice. Wicked Little Letters isn't an ode to that dedication, but there's no avoiding that sending offensive missives in its 1920s setting was a concerted, determined act — and also that no one could claim just seconds later that they were hacked. Times change, and technology with it, but people don't: that's another way of looking at this British dramedy, which is indeed based on a true tale. Director Thea Sharrock (The One and Only Ivan) and screenwriter Jonny Sweet (Gap Year) know that there's a quaintness about the chapter of history that they're bringing to the screen, but not to the attitudes behind the incident. In Sussex by the sea on the English Channel, spiteful dispatches scandalised a town, with the situation dubbed "the Littlehampton libels". Today, much worse than the swearing and insults initially sent to Edith Swan, then to other villagers as well, can be seen on social media constantly. Someone can fire off unhinged pettiness in seconds. No one in another 100 years will be making a movie about wicked little letters of the 2020s, then — where would they start, or end? Right now, in this flick about disagreeable and distressing communications, contrasting the reality of the human penchant for mud-slinging across a century springs from a well-told story. In Wicked Little Letters' account of the Littlehampton events, Edith (Olivia Colman, Wonka) keeps receiving notes that overuse vulgar terms, and the God-fearing, prim-and-proper spinster, who lives with her strict father (Timothy Spall, The Heist Before Christmas) and dutiful mother (Gemma Jones, Emily), is certain that she knows the source of her unwanted mail. Living next door, Rose Gooding (Jessie Buckley, Fingernails) is an Irish single mother to Nancy (Alisha Weir, Roald Dahl's Matilda the Musical), has Bill (Malachi Kirby, My Name Is Leon) as her live-in boyfriend, and is fond of a drink at the pub and of sharing her opinion. The two neighbours are as chalk and cheese as women of the time could get, but were once friendly. When Edith blames Rose, the latter's pleas that she's innocent — and that she'd just tell the former her grievances to her face, not send them anonymously — fall on deaf ears among most of the resident police. The reaction from the constabulary isn't astonishing. Papperwick (Hugh Skinner, The Witcher) and his chief Spedding (Paul Chahidi, Chad) think that it's an open-and-shut case, arrogantly and pompously so. Initially, "woman police officer" (as her colleagues insist on calling her) Gladys Moss (Anjana Vasan, Black Mirror) shares the same conclusion. But when your very presence as the first female cop is treated as a novelty day in and day out at work, it isn't a leap to spot how preconceived prejudice dictates the use of the law — sparking Gladys into investigating whether there's more afoot, going against Spedding's orders, but with a trio of local women (Saltburn's Lolly Adefope, Boat Story's Joanna Scanlan and Doc Martin's Eileen Atkins) assisting. As Wicked Little Letters spins a whodunnit around its expletive-filled correspondence and lapses in accepted propriety — albeit one with low stakes, given that the culprit is largely obvious regardless of whether you know the real-life details going in — it does so with top-notch casting. Watching any Colman-starring film means seeing one of Britain's best actors put on a show, as everything from The Favourite to The Father attests. Here, it also involves witnessing a layered portrayal, not that that's unusual for the Oscar-winner. Edith is the picture of Catholic piety, but yearns for constant approval (being called a "pretty young Christian woman" gets her beaming with pride) after spending her entire existence under her abusive father's thumb. Envy also clearly courses through her veins towards the former acquaintance that she's sending to jail. Enjoying Colman's turn also means revelling in her ability to sling profanities when the narrative calls for it ("piss" and "foxy-arsed" are high among the scribe's terms of choice). Buckley, also as always, is as spirited as she is earthy — and expertly balances Rose's bold forthrightness with her inner vulnerability as the village witch-hunt keeps pointing its pitchforks Rose's way (primarily for daring to be unmarried, a mother, cohabiting with a man, known to curse and nothing but her irrepressible self). She's having as much of a ball as Colman with her part, in just-as-stellar a performance. The dynamic between Edith and Rose spells out the narrow-minded societal mindset about women at the time, including how such judgements and expectations were internalised, but neither Buckley nor Colman are stuck playing mere symbols or subversions of regressive attitudes. Also excellent is Vasan, in a role that's no less crucial, conveying a process that is never as easy to experience as it is to witness: realising how flawed the status quo is, how your existence has been shaped by it (female police officers weren't even permitted to marry or have children), then challenging it no matter the consequences. As shot with the warm hues typical of period-set English fare by cinematographer Ben Davis (The Banshees of Inisherin), this poison-pen story doesn't send much that's surprising to the screen — as a mystery, a satire, a bundle of character studies, a cop and courtroom drama, or a portrait of the era that it depicts. It also leans heavily on its strong language being entertaining. But Sharrock, comedian Sweet and their cast have such a handle on the scenario, its amusing potential, and everything that this true-crime tale says about the 1920s, 2020s and humanity's worst impulses regardless of the year, that it always works. When Colman and Buckley last appeared in the same movie, The Lost Daughter had them playing the same person; getting them sharing a frame, and swearing in it, is also worth watching.
Yeah, we're thinking he's back. John Wick, that is. In 2014, Keanu Reeves introduced everyone's favourite assassin (and dog owner) to the world, with the film quickly sparking an action-packed franchise. The first sequel followed two years later, and the third effort did the same in 2019. Next, a fourth movie drops in March — but before you check it out, you can revisit the first three John Wick flicks on the big screen at Event Cinemas' John Wick marathon. At this point you should know exactly what this excellent series offers up: John Wick first seeking revenge against those who've wronged him, then being hunted down by his fellow killers. And all of this has sprang because, in the first movie, he became the proud owner of an adorable pooch. As Wick notes, of course, "it wasn't just a puppy". On-screen, everyone from Willem Dafoe, Ian McShane, Lance Reddick, Common and Ruby Rose to Halle Berry, Jason Mantzoukas and Anjelica Huston also pop up. So too does Laurence Fishburne, so prepare for a Neo and Morpheus reunion. And behind the lens, former Keanu stunt double-turned-filmmaker Chad Stahelski directs. Revisit the exquisitely choreographed action trilogy at select Event Cinemas' locations around Sydney on Saturday, March 4 — kicking off at 4.30pm, with tickets for $30.
They don't call it movie magic for nothing, as plenty of Hollywood's leading lights have made it their mission to stress. A filmmaker's work should ideally make that statement anyway — seeing any picture and taking any trip to the pictures should, not that either always occurs — but overt odes to cinema still flicker with frequency. Across little more than 12 months, Kenneth Branagh's Belfast has featured a scene where his on-screen childhood alter ego basks in the silver screen's glow, and Damien Chazelle's Babylon made celebrating Hollywood and everything behind it one of its main functions. With The Fabelmans, Steven Spielberg revisited his formative years, following the makings of a movie-obsessed kid who'd become a movie-making titan. Now 1917, Skyfall, Spectre and American Beauty director Sam Mendes adds his own take with Empire of Light, as also steeped in his own youth. A teenager in the 70s and 80s, Mendes now jumps back to 1980 and 1981. His physical destination: the coastal town of Margate in Kent, where the Dreamland Cinema has stood for exactly 100 years in 2023. In Empire of Light, the gorgeous art deco structure has been rechristened The Empire. It's a place where celluloid dreams such as The Blues Brothers, Stir Crazy, Raging Bull and Being There entertain the masses, and where a small staff under the overbearing Donald Ellis (Colin Firth, Operation Mincemeat) all have different relationships with their own hopes and wishes. As projectionist Norman, Toby Jones (The Wonder) is Mendes' mouthpiece, waxing lyrical about the transporting effect of images running at 24 frames per second and treasuring his work sharing that experience. Empire of Light is that heavy handed, and in a multitude of ways. But duty manager Hilary (Olivia Colman, Heartstopper) and new employee Stephen's (Micheal Ward, Small Axe) stories are thankfully far more complicated than simply adoring cinema. Actually, despite spending her days slinging £1.50 tickets and popcorn, Hilary has never seen a movie at The Empire. That might seem unlikely, but it's a crucial and thoughtful character detail. Navigating a journey with her mental health, her conscientiousness at work helps her to keep busy away from her lonely apartment. Having spent a lifetime thinking little of herself, she doesn't for a moment contemplate enjoying what her workplace sells (the fact that it's where she's being taken advantage of sexually by Donald also leeches joy from her view of the place). Accordingly, she has a stronger affinity for the venue's empty third and fourth screens, both of which have been shuttered — plus the upstairs bar that services them — and allowed to fall into pigeon-filled disrepair. When Empire of Light begins, Hilary has recently returned from a hospital stint, too, and the lithium her doctor has prescribed since is stifling. Watching someone go through the motions in a place that's all about motion, possibility, and shiny visions of other lives and realms paints a powerful portrait, with Mendes — who writes his first-ever solo feature script in addition to directing — crafting a keen character study layered with symbolism. Welcomely, when Stephen arrives to break up The Empire's routine, he's never merely a catalyst in another's tale or an emblem of Britain's struggles with race. Empire of Light takes the time to chart his path as well, including the discrimination he faces walking down the street; his devotion to his single mum, Trinidadian nurse Delia (Tanya Moodie, The Man Who Fell to Earth); and his growing romance with Hilary. Stephen's story is a coming-of-age story, all about finding himself in and through a space where audiences flock to find everything imaginable. So too is Hilary's, of course. That said, it's easy to see how Stephen could've just been a device, helping to keep the plot turning and Hilary's tale progressing, if someone other than Ward had taken on the part. His is a rich, sincere and soulful performance, playing a young Black man with the clearest of eyes as he surveys a hostile Thatcher-era England, yet remaining kind and caring — to people and injured birds alike — and perennially optimistic. Holding one's own against Colman is no mean feat; this film's own light largely beams from the pair. Whether they're sharing a frame or taking centre stage alone, they're always a key force drawing viewers in, no matter how forceful Mendes is with his cinema-conquers-all message (and how adamantly the score by Bones and All's Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross is telling the audience what to feel). What a stunning portrayal Colman delivers beside Ward; Hilary was written specifically for her, unsurprisingly, and plays that way at all times. Saying that the Oscar- and Emmy-winner — for The Favourite and The Crown, respectively — is phenomenal in any role is like saying that popcorn is salty, but it doesn't make it any less true (as her recent work in Landscapers, The Lost Daughter and The Father also demonstrates). Deep-seated sorrow and heartbreak lingers in Hilary in Empire of Light, and not just because the screenplay says it must. The talented actor is a marvel at not only opening up a character's inner tussles and emotions in her gaze and stance, but making them feel hauntingly real, which Mendes makes exceptional use of. It's no wonder that the movie peers at her face often — a face that makes its own case for movie magic whether it's staring intently at Hilary's latest cinema task, revelling in Stephen's company or breaking down at The Empire's big moment: the glitzy regional premiere of Chariots of Fire. Alongside Colman and Ward, the man responsible for Empire of Light's gaze — and lighting it — is the feature's other immense and essential asset. Just like the film's two key actors, Roger Deakins' impact is so pivotal that this'd be a completely different movie sans his input. Earning the picture's only Academy Award nomination — his 16th, fresh from consecutive wins for Blade Runner 2049 and 1917 — he ensures that every shot speaks volumes about The Empire and the people who consider it a type of home. Sometimes, he achieves that by mirroring the big screen's frame, finding other frames to place around the picture's characters where possible, and stressing that everyone's tale is worth telling. Sometimes, too, he actively seeks out reflections, nodding to how cinema interacts with the world around it while also literally showing multiple sides of a character at once. That's movie magic alright, and Empire of Light is at its best when it lets its craft demonstrate cinema's glory itself.
Punching has never been what matters most in the Creed movies, no matter how fast and furiously fists frequently fly. One of the key things that's always set this boxing franchise apart — with its first instalment landing in 2015 and sequel Creed II hitting in 2018 — is its focus on character and emotion first and foremost, including favouring both above going round for round in the ring. Blows are traded, obviously. Bouts are fought, bruises inflicted, bones broken and titles won. But the Creed saga has kept swinging again and again, leading to latest instalment Creed III, because it's still about its namesake, who he is as a person, and his feelings, demons and conflicts. When you have Michael B Jordan (Just Mercy) leading a series — even when it's a part of the broader Rocky series, or perhaps especially when that's the case — you give him the room to dig deep. You also give him weighty material to bear, as well as the space to bare Adonis 'Donnie' Creed's soul. Jordan gives himself that room, weight and space in Creed III, in the actor's first stint as a director. Notching up a ninth chapter for the overall saga that dates back to 1976's three-time Oscar-winner Rocky, this is also the first film to sport either that character or Creed's moniker but not feature Sylvester Stallone on-camera — or his involvement beyond a producer credit. Creed III is all the better for Rocky Balboa's absence, despite Stallone turning in his best performance yet in the initial Creed film. Understanding what it means to move on and openly unpacking what that truly entails is something else this franchise-within-a-franchise has long gotten right. So, Donnie has moved on from struggling with his father's legacy, and from his need to live in the past. He has another date with history, but Jordan and screenwriters Keenan Coogler (Space Jam: A New Legacy) and Zach Baylin (King Richard) — with a story also credited to the original Creed's director Ryan Coogler (Black Panther: Wakanda Forever) — aren't just mindlessly repeating the series' pattern. Creed III begins by going back to where Donnie's story started on-screen — actually, by venturing even further back, meeting him as an idolising teen (Thaddeus J Mixson, The Wonder Years). It's 2002, he lives in a group home, and the slightly older Damian 'Dame' Anderson (Spence Moore II, AP Bio) is a best friend as close as a brother, his mentor, and also a boxing prodigy. But a night showered in glory turns traumatic and violent, ending with Dame being incarcerated for the best part of two decades. Jump to the film's present, where Donnie has thrown in the gloves but remains tied to his chosen sport thanks to his Los Angeles boxing gym, plus managing a stable of champions and hopefuls. Jump, too, to Dame (Jonathan Majors, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania) resurfacing fresh out of prison, wanting not just to reconnect but a title shot. The Rocky and Creed world sure does love an underdog. That's Dame, with only adolescent boxing achievements on his resume, but a certainty that he should challenge Donnie-managed reigning victor Felix Chavez (IRL pro boxer Jose Benavidez) for the belt. Even with plenty of its attention floating like a butterfly to the past, and stinging like a bee in what it sees, the movie wouldn't progress from there, of course, if its titular figure could himself resist the little guy — in the sport's hierarchy, not in stature. A hallmark of all things Rocky and Creed has always been giving the up-and-comer a go, as happened with Balboa and as he provided Donnie. So, true to the template but never only making itself about that tried-and-tested template, Creed III follows suit. This threequel-slash-ninequel isn't handing over the spotlight to its latest contender, though, no matter how magnetic and compelling Majors reliably proves (see also: The Last Black Man in San Francisco, Da 5 Bloods, Lovecraft Country and The Harder They Fall). He's Hollywood's current go-to for new villains in third efforts, and impressively so — particularly against the fellow heavyweight acting talent Jordan — but it's a touch unfortunate that Creed III drops in such short succession after the third Ant-Man rather than giving his efforts in both time to breathe. Inevitably, getting Jordan and Majors facing off in the ring, and getting Donnie back in the ring to do so, is a matter of when not if. The script obliges after Dame plays nice with Donnie's musician spouse Bianca (Tessa Thompson, Thor: Love and Thunder) and daughter Amara (Mila Davis-Kent, The Resident), who is deaf, but turns on his childhood pal on dime when he gets a taste of success and years of festering resentment bleeds out. Jordan directs with tension, intensity, energy, heft and a welcome willingness to get trippy with fight scenes, as aided by cinematographer Kramer Morgenthau (The Many Saints of Newark) — and with pace to the requisite training and match montages, with help from editors Tyler Nelson (The Batman) and Jessica Baclesse (Breakwater). Creed III is visually and viscerally immersive and engaging; in the process, Jordan also crafts a movie that plots a showdown between hard work and entitlement. In one corner sits someone committed to the toil, and to earning his rewards. In the other lurks a force driven by believing he's owed, that his wins must be someone else's losses, that his enemies must suffer for him to be happy, and by spite and revenge. The Cooglers and Baylin layer in genuine and complicated reasons for Dame's bitterness towards Donnie, but never justify his unhealthy way of handling his emotions — something that the Creed films have spent two prior instalments working through with his target. If a long-held grudge linked to childhood events sounds familiar, especially with Jordan involved, that's unsurprising. So should a suddenly arriving antagonist desperate to settle a score with someone enjoying power and prominence, plus duels over a throne of sorts. Jordan sparred through them all in Black Panther, which Ryan Coogler helmed after the first Creed (the pair's third collaboration, after 2013's exceptional Fruitvale Station before both). That leaves Creed III moving on from the Italian Stallion by following in footsteps other than its own franchise's — but still following in footsteps. It asks similar questions about masculinity, strength and heroism as Black Panther. It thrives on the dynamic between its two warring men, and on the performances the actors behind them give, too. It nods towards a different future for the saga as Wakanda Forever does as well. Also, it doesn't pack as hard a punch lingering beneath that shadow; Creed III is no knockout it's still a worthy bout.
