Something delightful has been happening in cinemas in some parts of the country. After numerous periods spent empty during the pandemic, with projectors silent, theatres bare and the smell of popcorn fading, picture palaces in many Australian regions are back in business — including both big chains and smaller independent sites in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. During COVID-19 lockdowns, no one was short on things to watch, of course. In fact, you probably feel like you've streamed every movie ever made, including new releases, Studio Ghibli's animated fare and Nicolas Cage-starring flicks. But, even if you've spent all your time of late glued to your small screen, we're betting you just can't wait to sit in a darkened room and soak up the splendour of the bigger version. Thankfully, plenty of new films are hitting cinemas so that you can do just that — and we've rounded up, watched and reviewed everything on offer this week. THOR: LOVE AND THUNDER What do you call a movie filled with giant screaming goats, magic weapons vying for attention like romantic rivals, a naked Chris Hemsworth and a phenomenally creepy Christian Bale? Oh, and with no fewer than four Guns N' Roses needle drops, 80s nostalgia in droves, and a case of tonal whiplash as big as the God of Thunder's biceps? You call it Thor: Love and Thunder, and also a mixed bag. The fourth film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to focus on the now 29-title saga's favourite space Viking, and the second Thor flick directed by Taika Waititi after Thor: Ragnarok, it welcomely boasts the New Zealand filmmaker's playful and irreverent sense of humour — and the dead-serious days of the series-within-a-series' first two outings, 2011's Thor and 2013's Thor: The Dark World, have definitely been banished. But Love and Thunder is equally mischievous and jumbled. It's chaotic in both fun and messy ways. Out in the cosmos, no one can swim, but movies about galaxy-saving superheroes can tread water. Thor Odinson (Hemsworth, Spiderhead) has been doing a bit of that himself — not literally, but emotionally and professionally. Narrated in a storybook fashion by rock alien Korg (also Waititi, Lightyear), Love and Thunder first fills in the gaps since the last time the Asgardian deity graced screens in Avengers: Endgame. Ditching his dad bod for his ultra-buff god bod earns a mention. So does biding his time with the Guardians of the Galaxy crew (with Chris Pratt, Dave Bautista, Karen Gillan, Bradley Cooper and company popping up briefly). Then, a distress call from an old friend gives Thor a new purpose. Fellow warrior Sif (Jaimie Alexander, Last Seen Alive) has been fighting galactic killer Gorr the God Butcher (Bale, Ford v Ferrari), who's on a mission to do exactly what his name promises due to a crisis of faith — which puts not only Thor himself but also New Asgard, the Norwegian village populated by survivors from his home planet, at grave risk. In MCU movies before Ragnarok, many of which Thor has smouldered and smiled his way through, he would've attacked the problem — this time literally — with enchanted hammer mjolnir. It's been in pieces since the last standalone Thor film. Courtesy of the god's ex, it doesn't stay that way for long. Love and Thunder nabs itself two Thors for the price of one, after Dr Jane Foster (Natalie Portman, Vox Lux) hears mjolnir a-calling following a stage-IV cancer diagnosis. Soon, the astrophysicist is also the Mighty Thor, brandishing the mallet, wearing armour and sporting flowing blonde locks. When the OG Thor finds out, he's overcome with post-breakup awkwardness, but there's still a god killer to stop and also kidnapped kids to rescue. Cue a couple of Thors, plus Korg and New Asgard king Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson, Passing), trying to prevent the worst from happening. Love and Thunder is a film where those yelling oversized goats pull a boat into the heavens; where Hemsworth is gloriously in the goofiest mode he has, aka the best mode; and where Russell Crowe (Unhinged) plays a tutu-wearing, lightning bolt-flinging Zeus with the worst on-screen accent this side of House of Gucci (Greek instead of Italian, though). The movie is rarely more than a few seconds from a one-liner or a silly throwaway gag, and it loves colour more than a rainbow does — except when it doesn't, including in the desert-set opening that introduces Gorr and his god-slaying necrosword, and when it follows him into an eerie shadow realm. Love and Thunder also adds Bale, an actor forever linked with helping bring superheroes back to the blockbuster realm via Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy, to the ranks of terrific caped crusader foes. This Thor flick contains plenty, clearly; however, for everything that works, something else doesn't. Read our full review. COMPARTMENT NO 6 Handheld camerawork can be a gimmick. It can be distracting, too. When imagery seems restless for no particular reason other than making the audience restless, it drags down entire films. But at its best, roving, jittery and jumpy frames provide one of the clearest windows there is into the souls that inhabit the silver screen in 90-minute blocks or so, and also prove a wonderful way of conveying how they feel in the world. That's how Compartment No. 6's cinematography plays, and it couldn't be a more crucial move; this is a deeply thoughtful movie about two people who are genuinely restless themselves, after all. Finnish director Juho Kuosmanen (The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Mäki) wants what all of the most perceptive filmmakers do — to ensure his viewers feel like they know his characters as well as they know themselves — and in his latest cinematic delight, he knows how to get it. How Kuosmanen evokes that sense of intimacy and understanding visually is just one of Compartment No. 6's highlights, but it's worthy of a train full of praise. With the helmer's returning director of photography Jani-Petteri Passi behind the lens, the film gets close to Finnish student Laura (Seidi Haarla, Force of Habit) and Russian miner Ljoha (Yuriy Borisov, The Red Ghost). It peers intently but unobtrusively their way, like an attentive lifelong friend. It jostles gently with the locomotive that the movie's central pair meets on, and where they spend the bulk of their time together. It ebbs and flows like it's breathing with them. It rarely ventures far from their faces in such cramped, stark, 90s-era Russian surroundings, lingering with them, carefully observing them, and genuinely spying how they react and cope in big and small moments alike. Pivotally — and at every moment as well — it truly sees its key duo. With their almost-matching names, Laura and Ljoha meet on a train ride charting the lengthy expanse from Moscow to Murmansk. She's taking the journey to see the Kanozero petroglyphs, ancient rock drawings that date back the 2nd and 3rd millennium BC, and were only discovered in 1997; he's heading up for work. Laura is also meant to be travelling with Irina (Dinara Drukarova, The Bureau), her Russian girlfriend, but the latter opted out suddenly after an intellectual-filled house party where mocking the former for her accent — and claiming she's just a lodger — threw a pall of awkwardness over their relationship. Making the jaunt solo is still sitting uneasily with Laura, though. Calls along the way, answered with busy indifference, don't help. And neither does finding herself sharing compartment number six, obviously, with the tough- and rough-around-the edges Ljoha. It's been 71 years now since Alfred Hitchcock gave cinema the noir thriller Strangers on a Train. It's been 27 years since Richard Linklater also had two unacquainted folks meeting while riding the rails in Before Sunrise, which started a terrific romance trilogy starring Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy. Accordingly, the idea behind Compartment No. 6 is instantly familiar. Here, two strangers meet on a train, a connection sparks and drama ensues. Kuosmanen, who nabbed an award at Cannes for The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Mäki and then earned the 2021 competition Grand Prix, which comes second only to the prestigious Palme d'Or, for this, is clearly working with a well-used setup. But even though this isn't a movie that's big on surprises, it's still a stellar film. It's also a reminder that a feature that's personal and raw, also attuned to all the tiny details of life in its performances, mood and style, and firmly character-driven, can make even the most recognisable narrative feel new. Read our full review. SUNDOWN In Sundown's holiday porn-style opening scenes, a clearly wealthy British family enjoys the most indulgent kind of Acapulco getaway that anyone possibly can. Beneath the blazing blue Mexican sky, at a resort that visibly costs a pretty penny, Alice Bennett (Charlotte Gainsbourg, The Snowman), her brother Neil (Tim Roth, Bergman Island), and her teenage children Alexa (Albertine Kotting McMillan, A Very British Scandal) and Colin (Samuel Bottomley, Everybody's Talking About Jamie) swim and lounge and sip, with margaritas, massages and moneyed bliss flowing freely. For many, it'd be a dream vacation. For Alice and her kids, it's routine, but they're still enjoying themselves. The look on Neil's passive face says everything, however. It's the picture of apathy — even though, as the film soon shows, he flat-out refuses to be anywhere else. The last time that a Michel Franco-written and -directed movie reached screens, it came courtesy of the Mexican filmmaker's savage class warfare drama New Order, which didn't hold back in ripping into the vast chasm between the ridiculously rich and everyone else. Sundown is equally as brutal, but it isn't quite Franco's take on The White Lotus or Nine Perfect Strangers, either. Rather, it's primarily a slippery and sinewy character study about a man with everything as well as nothing. Much happens within the feature's brief 82-minute running time. Slowly, enough is unveiled about the Bennett family's background, and why their extravagant jaunt abroad couldn't be a more ordinary event in their lavish lives. Still, that indifferent expression adorning Neil's dial rarely falters, whether grief, violence, trauma, lust, love, wins or losses cast a shadow over or brighten up his poolside and seaside stints knocking back drinks in the sunshine. For anyone else, the first interruption that comes the Bennetts' way would change this trip forever; indeed, for Alice, Alexa and Colin, it does instantly. Thanks to one sudden phone call, Alice learns that her mother is gravely ill. Via another while the quartet is hightailing it to the airport, she discovers that the worst has occurred. Viewers can be forgiven for initially thinking that Neil is her cruelly uncaring husband in these moments — Franco doesn't spell out their relationship until later, and Neil doesn't act for a second like someone who might and then does lose his mum. Before boarding the plane home, he shows the faintest glimmer of emotion when he announces that he's forgotten his passport, though. That said, he isn't agitated about delaying his journey back, but about the possibility that his relatives mightn't jet off and leave him alone. Sundown is often a restrained film, intentionally so. It doles out the reasons behind Neil's behaviour, and even basic explanatory information, as miserly as its protagonist cracks a smile. The movie itself is eventually a tad more forthcoming than Neil, but it remains firmly steeped in Franco's usual mindset: life happens, contentedly and grimly alike, and we're all just weathering it. Neither the highs nor lows appear to bother Neil, who holes up at the first hotel his cab driver takes him to, then starts making excuses and simply ignoring Alice's worried calls and texts. He navigates an affair with the younger Berenice (Iazua Larios, Ricochet) as well, and carries on like he doesn't have a care in the world. His sister returns, frantic and angry, but even then he's nonplussed. The same proves true, too, when a gangland execution bloodies his leisurely days by the beach, and also when violence cuts far closer to home. Read our full review. If you're wondering what else is currently screening in Australian cinemas — or has been lately — check out our rundown of new films released in Australia on April 7, April 14, April 21 and April 28; and May 5, May 12, May 19 and May 26; and June 2, June 9, June 16, June 23 and June 30. You can also read our full reviews of a heap of recent movies, such as Fantastic Beasts and the Secrets of Dumbledore, Ambulance, Memoria, The Lost City, Everything Everywhere All At Once, Happening, The Good Boss, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, The Northman, Ithaka, After Yang, Downton Abbey: A New Era, Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy, Petite Maman, The Drover's Wife The Legend of Molly Johnson, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Firestarter, Operation Mincemeat, To Chiara, This Much I Know to Be True, The Innocents, Top Gun: Maverick, The Bob's Burgers Movie, Ablaze, Hatching, Mothering Sunday, Jurassic World Dominion, A Hero, Benediction, Lightyear, Men, Elvis, Lost Illusions, Nude Tuesday and Ali & Ava.
If you're willing to leave a gig awash with the stench of beer and humanity as evidence that you've just witness one of the most tumultuous live acts touring right now, the only place you'll want to be on 22 January is Oxford Art Factory. After selling out their first show in the small space of 10 minutes grunty UK swamp rockers Foals have snuck a second Sydney show into their busy schedule. If you're skipping Big Day Out it's the last chance you'll have to see, hear and smell the marshy tracks from their 2008 debut and 2010's follow-up Total Life Forever in the glistening flesh. And with their Flood and Alan Moulder-produced new album Holy Fire on its way, future tickets will only be hotter property still. Conversely, if you have somewhere to go afterwards other than your own shower, then save your cash for more conventional mementos and take up position near the back of the room. Things are gonna get wild. Update: In support of Foals on both nights will be Brisbane disco outfit Mitzi. Their single "Who Will Love You Now" is as awesome as all their haircuts combined. https://youtube.com/watch?v=zHcOFmiswcQ
If there’s anything that can really make you dance like no one’s watching without actually altering your mind it’s a fancy tie and a mask covered in glitter and feathers. So if you have access to those two things and you like great music, you should put them on and head to Goodgod this Friday for a masked ball of monumental proportions. Monthly dance party Slow Blow is hosting a masquerade to celebrate the release of Softwar’s This Time Around EP. Black tie and masks are essential, so tireless late night party crusaders and spirited early rises should feel extra fancy as they embark upon a sonic journey through filtery deep funk, galactic dance and glittery house music. Coming along for the ride are Slow Blow DJs and Dreamcatcher and Jungle Snake, plus the all-round nice guys who spin under Future Classic. If you start to bust out some great moves and feel an overwhelming desire to reveal your true identity, stash your mask in your pocket rather than throwing it dramatically into the crowd. It may come in handy as you stumble out onto Liverpool Street in the wee hours of the morning.
Ever walked into the house of a real-life hoarder? As trends in fashion and interior design lean more towards the minimal, those of us who refuse to declutter our lives seem only more fascinating. Hence the appeal of A&E’s Hoarders, and also the immediate visual impact of Song Dong’s latest art installation. A transformative representation of his mother’s mourning process following the death of his father, Song Dong’s Waste Not features gathers over 10,000 everyday objects she gathered over a period of five decades. In fact it consists of the entire contents of her house. There are balls of twine, empty toothpaste tubes, stuffed animals and literally hundreds of kitchen utensils, all carefully stacked and laid out. First it’s a visual smack in the face, then it’s a ruminative journey of hardship, grief and personal resilience. Just as fashionably minimalist interiors are often telling of how much we actually have, hoarding can also be about profound loss.
2015 is the UNESCO International Year of Light, and Sydney’s Museum of Contemporary Art is taking the opportunity to shine a little light on local artists harnessing the power of electromagnetic radiation in new and exciting ways with upcoming exhibition Luminous. MCA chief curator Natasha Bullock is promising “shooting star spirits, geometric patterns of light and dark dancing on walls, ambient environments and infinity windows carved into architectural space”. Featuring a major new commission by Sydney-based Aboriginal artist Jonathan Jones (recipient of last year’s Kaldor Public Art Projects’ Your Very Good Idea) and an impressive lineup including Sandra Selig, Peter Kennedy, William Seeto and John Mawurndjul, Luminous is sure to bring a little light into your life as those famous Sydney days start to get a little darker. Image: Sandra Selig, Be Some Other Material (2011), single-channel split screen digital video.
UPDATE, August 3, 2020: Pet Sematary is available to stream via Amazon Prime Video, Foxtel Now, Google Play, YouTube and iTunes. It's true of beloved family pets who've returned from the grave, and it's true of horror novels turned into movies yet again: sometimes dead is better. Stephen King might've penned that sentiment himself, but Hollywood was never going to take the popular author's advice. As the second film adaptation of Pet Sematary shows, perhaps they should've listened. With King's work frequently flickering across screens big and small, exhuming this creepfest must've seemed like an easy win. This is the ninth movie or TV series based on his writing in the past three years alone, with four more due in 2019 as well. There's plenty to claw into in Pet Sematary, including the many shadows that death and grief cast over the living. There's ample room for unsettling tension, spanning both bumps and jumps and existential unease. But Pet Sematary largely feels like the most standard possible take on its supernatural narrative. Given how standard its predecessor felt 30 years ago (and the original film's 1992 sequel, too), the new version basically re-digs the same grave and fills it with slightly updated corpses. Initially, those bodies belong to dearly departed pets in the town of Ludlow. When doctor Louis Creed (Jason Clarke) moves to the quiet Maine spot with his wife Rachel (Amy Seimetz), eight-year-old daughter Ellie (Jeté Laurence) and toddler Gage (Hugo Lavoie and Lucas Lavoie), they quickly discover that their sprawling new house is adjacent to the local animal graveyard. The burial ground's misspelled sign marks it as a place for kids to farewell their furry and feathered friends, but neighbour Jud Crandall (John Lithgow) knows that something else is afoot. After the Creed family cat meets an unfortunate end, Jud initiates Louis into the cemetery's secrets. On the page and in its previous big-screen version, this story always required a leap in logic — not regarding its overall concept, but some of the minutiae. Only realising that your new home borders a graveyard once you've moved in? Letting your kids play by a highway favoured by speeding trucks, especially after your beloved feline is mowed down? If you can buy that, then you can definitely buy the idea of zombified pets scratching away at their owners' nerves. An engaging tale told well could easily breeze past the aforementioned contrivances, and so could a scary tale told with disquieting precision. Alas, as directed by Kevin Kölsch and Dennis Widmyer (Starry Eyes) and scripted by Jeff Buhler (The Midnight Meat Train), that's rarely the case here. Content to plough along the surface of its familiar narrative, Pet Sematary remains as straightforward as its many horror cliches: the spooky woods, the sacred Native American site, the several layers of sad backstories and the reality that raising the dead never, ever turns out well. King might've invented or at least solidified many of these tropes, however here every single one feels routine. So does the film's by-the-numbers execution. It's the latter that grates more than the former — not the obvious, sometimes egregious plot elements, but the squandered potential. If there's anything worse than a flat-out bad movie, it's an average flick that unearths glimmers of something more yet ultimately leaves them buried. Kölsch and Widmyer know how to make individual moments land, even when the overall beats and simple jump-scares are easy to spot. While the film is shot with the usual dread-inducing look, the directing duo also know how to make individual images stand out. And when they give Clarke, Seimetz and Lithgow room to breathe — and push a young talent like Laurence into the spotlight, too — they know how to ensure that their themes and performances run deep. They just can't sustain any of the above. Certainly not for the movie's 101-minute running time, and not long enough to justify Pet Sematary's resurrection. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7Eq9rYsqnM
We're well and truly in the swing of spring now — daylight savings is back and we're as excited as ever to make the most of every sunny day, warm breeze, new flower and spring event. Plus, kicking this week off with a public holiday is adding an extra spring in our steps. Luckily, Sydney is brimming with ways to soak up every last drop of springtime fun. As its Spring Carnival continues, we've teamed up with Australian Turf Club to bring you four top-notch ways to celebrate the season this week. FIND YOUR NEW FAVOURITE DROP AT THIS BEER AND CIDER FESTIVAL When? Saturday, October 12–Sunday, October 13 There's nothing like enjoying a nice cold beer in the sunshine, with the waves crashing in the background. At Coogee Bay Hotel's fourth annual Craft Beer and Cider Festival you'll get a chance to try beers and ciders from a heap of brewers from Sydney and across Australia, including Akasha, Batch, Stone & Wood, Pirate Life, Young Henrys and Endeavour, plus Kona Brewing Co, all the way from Hawaii. Alongside more than 60 different beers, the two-day festival will feature pop-up food stalls offering smoked meats and other treats, and live jazz music to tap your feet to. The best part? Entry is free. CATCH CLIENT LIAISON AND DJ JESABEL AT SPRING CHAMPION STAKES DAY When? Saturday, October 12 Head to Royal Randwick for a day of fashion, live gigs and outdoor fun at the Moët & Chandon Spring Champion Stakes Day. Headlining the entertainment is fun-loving band Client Liaison who always put on a big show — so expect to be bopping away to their cheesy, 80s-inspired pop in no time. And at the venue's Palm Springs-themed poolside bar, DJ Jesabel will be providing tunes throughout the day, too. There'll be food trucks to keep you well-fed, plus pop-up bars from the likes of Pimm's and Chandon to keep you well soused as well as a Moët vending machine stocked with mini Moët bottles. And, if you're into fashion, you can enter the Harrolds Fashion Chute competition. CELEBRATE THE HUMBLE AVOCADO AND GET FIT AT AVOTHERAPY When? Saturday, October 12–Sunday, October 13 It's no obscure fact that Aussies love avocados — we've seen cafes, festivals and pop-up tiny homes dedicated to the fruit, and, on average, we each consume 3.5 kilos of avocado a year. To further celebrate the green goo, a whole weekend of free "avocado wellness" is coming to Paramount Recreation Club. What does avocado wellness entail, you ask? Good question. The event — which will be hosted on the Surry Hills rooftop gym and run by Australian Avocados — will see a series of exercise classes, workshops and facials run across the weekend. And they're all free, you'll just need to register as spaces are limited. Try a mix of cardio and yoga, plus a post-workout smoothie and an avo facial, and purchase an avo-laden brunch from the Paramount kiosk. Activities will run from 9am–4pm each day. STOCK UP FOR THE WEEK AT THE INNER WEST'S NEWEST FARMERS MARKET When? Sunday, October 13 Taking over the forecourt of the historic Mungo Scott building, Summer Hill's new Flour Mill Markets are now running every second Saturday. Food, flowers and other high-quality produce are, of course, front-and-centre at the market, making it the perfect place to pick up some fresh, seasonal fruit and veg. Expect stalls from Brickfields Bakery, Hugo's Coffee Cartel, Pastries de Paris, The Grate Cheese Co and Hartley Harvest. There'll be lots of small goods and non-edible items — such as ceramics and decorative flowers — from a host of local vendors, too. With a focus on sustainability and environmentalism, the market is a plastic-free zone, with biodegradable packaging provided and discounts for those who bring their own keep cup. Everest Carnival runs until November 2 at Rosehill Gardens and Royal Randwick. For more information, head this way. Top image: Felipe Neves.
UPDATE, October 19, 2022: The Stranger released in Australian cinemas on October 6, then streams via Netflix from October 19. No emotion or sensation ripples through two or more people in the exact same way, and never will. The Stranger has much to convey, but it expresses that truth with piercing precision. The crime-thriller is the sophomore feature from actor-turned-filmmaker Thomas M Wright — following 2018's stunning Adam Cullen biopic Acute Misfortune, another movie that shook everyone who watched it and proved hard to shake — and it's as deep, disquieting and resonant a dance with intensity as its genre can deliver. To look into Joel Edgerton's (Thirteen Lives) eyes as Mark, an undercover cop with a traumatic but pivotal assignment, is to spy torment and duty colliding. To peer at Sean Harris (Spencer) as the slippery Henry Teague is to see a cold, chilling and complex brand of shiftiness. Sitting behind these two performances in screentime but not impact is Jada Alberts' (Mystery Road) efforts as dedicated, determined and drained detective Kate Rylett — and it may be the portrayal that sums up The Stranger best. Writing as well as directing, Wright has made a film that is indeed dedicated, determined and draining. At every moment, including in sweeping yet shadowy imagery and an on-edge score, those feelings radiate from the screen as they do from Alberts. Sharing the latter's emotional exhaustion comes with the territory; sharing their sense of purpose does as well. In the quest to capture a man who abducted and murdered a child, Rylett can't escape the case's horrors — and, although the specific details aren't used, there's been no evading the reality driving this feature. The Stranger doesn't depict the crime that sparked Kate Kyriacou's non-fiction book The Sting: The Undercover Operation That Caught Daniel Morcombe's Killer, or any violence. It doesn't use the Queensland schoolboy's name, or have actors portray him or his family. This was always going to be an inherently discomforting and distressing movie, though, but it's also an unwaveringly intelligent and impressive examination of trauma. There's no other word to describe what Mark and Rylett experience — and, especially as it delves into Mark's psychological state as he juggles his job with being a single father, The Stranger is a film about tolls. What echoes do investigating and seeking justice for an atrocious act leave? Here, the portrait is understandably bleak and anguished. What imprint do such incidences have upon society more broadly? That also falls into the movie's examination. Mark, along with a sizeable group of fellow officers, is trying to get a confession and make an arrest. Back east, Rylett is one of the police who won't and can't let the situation go. Doling out its narrative in a structurally ambitious way, The Stranger doesn't directly address the human need for resolution, or to restore a semblance of order and security after something so heinously shocking, but that's always baked into its frames anyway. Travelling across the country, Henry first meets a stranger on a bus, getting chatting to Paul (Steve Mouzakis, Clickbait) en route. It's the possibility of work that hooks the ex-con and drifter — perhaps more so knowing that his potential new gig will be highly illicit, and that evading the authorities is implicit. Soon he meets Mark, then seizes the opportunity to reinvent himself in a criminal organisation, not knowing that he's actually palling around with the cops. It's an immense sting, fictionalised but drawn from actuality, with The Stranger also playing as a procedural. The connecting the dots-style moves remain with Rylett, but Wright's decision to hone in on the police operation still means detailing how to catch a killer, astutely laying out the minutiae via action rather than chatting through the bulk of the ins and outs. When Wright made his initial leap behind the camera after almost two decades on-screen — an acting resume that spans a range of weighty fare, such as Van Diemen's Land, Balibo, Top of the Lake, The Bridge and Sweet Country — he spun a tale of two men connecting, entangling and grappling with hard truths. Acute Misfortune and The Stranger are immensely different movies in a plethora of ways, even if both do find their basis in IRL situations, but there's no missing their common central dynamic. While The Stranger wouldn't be the film it is without its time with Rylett, and with the phenomenal Alberts in that key role, the interplay between Mark and Henry retains its core focus. To be accurate, Mark sits squarest in its spotlight — including surveying the anxiety he feels as a single father tasked with such a case, which plays out in striking domestic and dream sequences — but it isn't a coincidence that Edgerton and Harris are styled to visibly resemble each other. Also never an accident: that The Stranger's male leads turn in transfixing performances, whether guiding the film's viewers through Mark's waking ordeal and literal nightmares, or showing their cause. This is Edgerton and Harris' third project together in mere years, after The King and The Green Knight — but if it wasn't, it'd be clear why both Wright and Edgerton (who produces and optioned the rights to The Sting to begin with) opted for the pairing. The Stranger sears not just with intensity but tension, so much of which jitters whenever the two men share the frame. A blazing car fire aside, the largely muted colours lensed by cinematographer Sam Chiplin (Penguin Bloom) add to the brooding, primal, dread-filled mood. The nervy soundscape by composer and cellist Oliver Coates (Aftersun, and also a Radiohead collaborator) does the same. But The Stranger's faces and bodies, as haunted and unbalanced as they always are, say — and silently scream — everything. Wright wants his audience to observe carefully, and to listen. The feature's sound design toys with this very idea; when a drive with Mark and Henry switches its dialogue to surveillance audio, it's such a straightforward choice, and yet its execution is layered, smart and immensely powerful. There's no such thing as passively and easily viewing The Stranger, it tells us, as does describing calming breathing techniques in its opening moments. Engaging with this movie has to be an active and complicated feat because engaging with the darkness it explores always is. Who retells grim chapters of history, and why and how, aren't questions isolated to Australian cinema, especially with true crime a perennially popular genre on screens large and small — and pages and podcasts, and wherever and however else such tales are told — and with The Stranger, they've surfaced again just a year after bubbling up around Justin Kurzel's Nitram. Like that, this equally exceptional and unsettling film makes plain that interrogating events like these is crucial. Here, it's also transformative for those doing the probing, the world they inhabit and those watching.
UPDATE: APRIL 27, 2018 — After four months of trading, Ginkgo will be closing the doors to its Victoria Street pop-up. But if you've already become attached to its Harbin dumplings, don't fret — the team plans to reopen at a different location soon. It was never going to be around forever, and you still have a few days to get there — last service will be on Sunday, April 29. We'll let you know when a new location is confirmed. Bar Brosé might have sadly left the building, but at least its replacement looks set to deliver plenty of culinary cleverness of its own. Calling the Darlinghurst space home for the next 12 months is Chinese-inspired pop-up Ginkgo Bar & Dining, from the minds behind Ultimo restaurant Chulin. As with their original venture, owners Carly and Tim Jin are celebrating the authentic flavours of Harbin in northeast China. They're offering handmade dumplings, artisan cocktails and late-night eats that'll put your usual 1am kebab to shame. From the kitchen, a collection of over 16 different dumpling varieties nods to Harbin's broad multicultural influences. Expect creations like prawn and cheese triangles, dim sum stuffed with sea urchin and baby spinach, and Gingko's own interpretation of the sausage puff. Other authentic treats might include the slow-cooked smoked pork knuckle and the house signature: Chinese wine sausage. Also impressive is the considered drinks lineup, featuring a suggested wine match for each dish and a range of clever cocktails drawing inspiration from Chinese history and culture. The Tiki Tiki Wei Wei — with its blend of banana skin-infused Bulleit, osmanthus and bitters — is a fittingly innovative nod to one of China's most celebrated contemporary artists. Best of all, it's open late, slinging tasty treats until 3am on Fridays and Saturdays, and 1am each Sunday. Ginkgo Bar & Dining is now open daily for dinner and Saturday and Sunday for lunch at 231A Victoria Street, Darlinghurst. For more info, check the Facebook page.
UPDATE, July 31, 2022: Wash My Soul in the River's Flow is available to stream via Stan, Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. A silent hero and a rowdy troublemaker. That's what Ruby Hunter calls Archie Roach, her partner in life and sometimes music, then characterises herself. She offers those words casually, as if she's merely breathing, with an accompanying smile and a glint in her eyes as she talks. They aren't the only thoughts uttered in Wash My Soul in the River's Flow, which intersperses concert and rehearsal clips with chats with Hunter and Roach, plus snippets of biographical details from and recollections about their lives as intertitles, and then majestic footage of the winding Murray River in Ngarrindjeri Country, where Hunter was born, too. Still, even before those two-word descriptions are mentioned, the film shows how they resonate within couple's relationship. Watching their dynamic, which had ebbed and flowed over three-plus decades when the movie's footage was shot in 2004, it's plain to see how these two icons of Australian music are dissimilar in personality and yet intertwine harmoniously. Every relationship is perched upon interlocking personalities: how well they complement each other, where their differences blend seamlessly and how their opposing traits spark challenges in the best possible ways. Every song, too, is a balance of disparate but coordinated pieces. And, every ecosystem on the planet also fits the bill. With Hunter and Roach as its focus, Wash My Soul in the River's Flow contemplates all three — love, music and Country — all through 2004 concert Kura Tungar — Songs from the River. Recorded for the documentary at Melbourne's Hamer Hall, that gig series interlaced additional parts, thanks to a collaboration with Paul Grabowsky's 22-piece Australian Art Orchestra — and the movie that producer-turned-writer/director Philippa Bateman makes of it, and about two Indigenous stars, their experience as members of Australia's Stolen Generations, their ties to Country and their love, is equally, gloriously and mesmerisingly multifaceted. When is a concert film more than a concert film? When it's Wash My Soul in the River's Flow, clearly, which is named for one of Kura Tungar's tracks. Bateman could've just used her recordings of the legendary show, which won the 2005 Helpmann Award for Best Australian Contemporary Concert, and given everyone who wasn't there the chance to enjoy an historic event — and to bask in the now-late Hunter's on-stage glories more than a decade after her 2010 passing — but that was clearly just the starting point for her movie. With Roach as a producer, the documentary presents each of its songs as a combination of five key elements, all weaved together like the feather flower-dotted, brightly coloured headpiece that Hunter wears during the performance. With each tune, the film repeats the pattern but the emotion that comes with it inherently evolves, with the result akin to cycling through the earth's four seasons. First, a title appears on-screen, overlaid across breathtakingly beautiful images of the Murray and its surroundings, and instantly steeping every song in a spectacular place. From there, the Kura Tungar rendition of each tune segues into practice sessions with Grabowsky and the AAO of the same track, plus both text and on-the-couch chatter between Hunter and Roach that speaks to the context of, meaning behind and memories tied to each piece. Hunter's 'Daisy Chains, String Games and Knuckle Bones', which springs from her childhood, gets that treatment. Roach's unforgettable 'Took the Children Away' does, too. 'Down City Streets', as written by Hunter and recorded by Roach, also joins the lineup. The list goes on, and the power that each song possesses alone — which, given the talent and topics involved, is immense — only grows when packaged in such a layered manner. What a story this symphony of tunes and its entwined materials tells, spanning Hunter's recollections about being taken from her family under the guise of a trip to the circus; the coin flip that saw Roach head to South Australia from Mildura after a season spent grape-picking, where he'd meet Hunter when both were teenagers; and Hunter's certainty before that, when she spied Roach on television as a kid, that she'd marry him. The Ngarrindjeri, Kokatha and Pitjantjatjara woman's way with words continues throughout the film, including when she explains how that stroke of fate that brought Roach to Adelaide's People's Palace when they were both homeless adolescents saw her stop "her gambler from his rambling". For the Gunditjmara and Bundjalung man, he shares snippets of his own past alongside his overflowing love for Hunter. Indeed, when he marvels about how she can remember everything in her life, the Murray River's pelicans and the Dreamtime among them, it's a statement of pure and joyous affection. Along the way, Bateman ensures that her documentary tackles a dark chapter of the country's history head on, because it's impossible to relay Hunter and Roach's tales without exploring the nation's Stolen Generations. Her film is a tribute to her subjects and their work first and foremost — a tribute from Roach to Hunter overwhelmingly, too — but the resilience and fortitude that it's taken to weather everything that the government policy sent their way shines just as vividly. Both of Wash My Soul in the River's Flow's main figures are candid although, true to her own self-description, Hunter repeatedly takes the lead. Still, Roach's striking admission that, until the pair met, he thought it was just him and his siblings that'd been forcibly removed from their home, is nothing short of heartbreaking. Also intensely affecting: getting the chance to spend an intimate 90 minutes in Hunter and Roach's company, especially the former, the first Aboriginal woman to be signed to a major record label, following her death; and those awe-inspiring shots of Ngarrindjeri Country, as shot by cinematographer Bonnie Elliott (The Furnace), that keep returning with each soulful song. Combined with the movie's music, plus its dedication to unflinchingly diving into the problematic past, Wash My Soul in the River's Flow becomes a quintessential portrait of Australia. Championing two First Nations icons, their culture and their connection to Country; exploring the injustice they've endured at the hands of the government, and how they've ultimately thrived and healed together and through their talents; and showcasing the art they've made and the land they love — this moving movie couldn't ask for anything more. Letting it wash over you, and its silent hero and rowdy troublemaker with it, is simply inescapable.
Whether they riff on fairy bread or come packed with pretzels, plenty of Gelato Messina's popular desserts turn other foods into a frosty sweet treat. For the chain's next endeavour, it's taking that process a step further. This time, it's transforming a heap of its gelato flavours into a variety of different chocolates. Nine different types of blocks, bars and other bites are on the menu thanks to Messina's latest special — which means that they'll only be available to order on a set day, as always happens with the brand's limited-edition wares. And, they're being sold pick 'n' mix-style. So, you can choose as many as you like, with discount codes on offer if you're nabbing three, six or nine. Some of these chocolates will sound familiar, as Messina first broke out a few of them for Father's Day. Back then, it was the first time that Messina had ever made chocolate bars and blocks itself, with the team at its Rosebery headquarters doing the honours. Clearly, it went well. Loved Messina's recent cone-ception cookie pies? That's where one of these choccies takes its cues, combining sable biscuit, waffle cone spread and cone crunch, then covering it all in caramelised white chocolate. There's neapolitan chocolate blocks, too — and yes, they're made with milk chocolate, white chocolate that features Heilala vanilla, and strawberry chocolate infused with freeze dried strawberries. Or, you can opt for fairy bread white chocolate blocks that come mixed with dehydrated toast crumbs and sprinkled with 100s and 1000s, clusters of potato chips and salted peanuts coated in white chocolate, candied pistachios covered in strawberry chocolate, and Messina's own version of chocolate honeycomb. Plus, the range also includes roasted hazelnuts coated in milk chocolate and wafer flakes, pretzel crunch covered in milk chocolate and choc-covered house-made nougat as well. However many of these choccies you now need to add to your snack rotation, you'll want to place your order at 9am AEDT on Wednesday, October 13. They'll then be shipped within five working days. Gelato Messina's pick 'n' mix chocolate range will be available to order from 9am AEDT on Wednesday, October 13.
Spring, plus light- to medium-bodied red wine: what a pairing. It's the duo that not only sits at the heart of Australian wine-tasting festival Pinot Palooza, but has helped the vino-swilling event become such a hit. The weather is sunny, the tipples are heady, and sipping your way through a heap of the latter is on the menu — including in 2023. The Melbourne-born wine tasting festival will celebrate its 11th year by touring the country, including hitting up Sydney's Carriageworks from Friday, October 6–Saturday, October 7. This two-day affair filled with vino-sipping fun will cover organic, biodynamic, vegan and low-intervention wines, and more, as well as bites to line the stomach. In its decade of life until now, the fest has welcomed in thousands of vino lovers. Indeed, an estimated 65,000 tickets were sold globally before its 2022 events. When COVID-19 hit in 2020, the popular celebration was shelved for two-and-a-half years, before making a comeback last year. The response? More than 12,000 folks heading along around the nation. Set to share their tipples among producers from Australia, New Zealand and further afield: New Zealand's Burn Cottage and CHARTERIS; Small Island, Ghost Rock and Meadowbank from Tasmania; M&J Becker from NSW and Moondarra from Victoria. The food lineup will feature cheese, salumi, terrines, patê, olives and other perfect vino accompaniments, with Tasmania's Grandvewe Cheese and Victoria's Mount Zero among the suppliers.
Anybody who has travelled to Japan has almost certainly sorted their caffeine needs with a can of Suntory BOSS Coffee — straight from the world's best vending machines. Luckily for anyone hankering for this particular pick-me-up, the brand is bringing flash brewing, its unique Japanese brewing method, Down Under this month — so we can enjoy an exceptional coffee straight from the Land of the Rising Sun. But, the team is ditching the vending machine in favour of a two-and-a-half week pop-up that's bringing Japanese coffee culture to Surry Hills. From Friday, February 17 until Saturday, March 4, Tokyo House will sit on a leafy spot on Crown Street, serving up a dreamy work-from-home space from 1–5pm, Tuesday to Sunday. Then, a stacked lineup of events after dark. Why? It's all in the spirit of omotenashi, the Japanese art of providing guests with the ultimate experience of hospitality and kindness. [caption id="attachment_888339" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Bennelong's Taka Shino[/caption] By day, you can embrace the calming and curated venue as a co-work space, complete with charge stations, wifi and communal tables for some coffee-fuelled collaboration. By night, the lights will be turned down, the music turned up and space made for a moody bar heroing curated cocktails and live performances. What can you expect? Fashion and art installations, craft, iced coffee degustations, standout food and music. Excitingly, Bennelong's Taka Shino (pictured above) has curated the cocktail list available throughout the pop-up, and will be diving into the inspiration behind each drink on Tuesday, February 21; and best-selling manga artist Queenie Chan will be hosting Comic+Coffee sessions on Wednesday, February 22 and Thursday, March 2. There's also the exclusive chance to catch a fashion installation from designer Akira Isogawa (pictured below) between Tuesday, February 28 and Saturday, March 4 — and hear all about it from Isogawa himself on Tuesday, February 28. Plus, the intricate paper artistry of multidisciplinary artist Midori Furze will be on show from Thursday, February 16 until the end of Tokyo House's Sydney stint. Music-wise, Suntory BOSS Coffee is bringing serious talent, with the likes of DJ Moto (February 17; March 4; pictured at top) DJ Naiki (March 3), 14strk (February 18), Maya Hirasedo (February 23) and more. [caption id="attachment_888337" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Akira Isogawa[/caption] If you're looking to get inspired, drink an expertly brewed coffee and experience the delight that is Japanese culture and hospitality, be sure to get yourself to Tokyo House. Although the 15 days of service are sold out, check out the full program and be inspired to bring a bit of omotenashi to your life. Tokyo House is popping up at 355 Crown Street, Surry Hills from Friday, February 17 till Saturday, March 4. Tickets are sold out, but for more info, head to the website. Top image: Tokyo House at night; DJ Moto
Ever wished your pup could jump on the train with you? Well, you're not alone. In news that is not really that shocking, a recent study shows that a whopping 95 percent of Sydney dog owners support a law change to allow pooches on public transport. Over 1250 dog parents were surveyed for the University of Sydney study — named Riding with dogs in cars: what can it teach us about transport practices and policy? — which clocked the number of dog-related car trips in Sydney alone at about 2.4 million each week. Researchers Jennifer Kent and Corinne Mulley found that number would drop drastically if dogs were allowed onto trains, buses, trams and ferries, resulting in fewer cars on the road and improved social connectivity. Currently, animals are only allowed on light rail, ferry and bus services if they're in a box or carrier, and assistance animals are the only ones permitted on Sydney Trains. But a Transport for NSW spokesman told The Sydney Morning Herald the authority was currently looking into policies of other cities where pets are allowed on public transport, which could mean we'll see changes to our own laws. Fingers crossed a train carriage full of dogs is soon a reality. In the meantime, check out our list of dog-friendly pubs and Sydney's best dog parks. Via The Sydney Morning Herald.
Stretchier clothing, stomach-warming comfort foods, tastebud-tempting drinks: these are some of the small things that help make lockdowns more bearable. Only two of the above feature in the newest indulgent dessert that'll whet your appetite, though, but we think you might want to break out your cosiest outfit as well. There's boozy cobbler to be eaten, after all. The indulgent dish stems from a collaboration between Fireball Whisky and Potts Point eatery Sunday, with the two teaming up on a limited-edition rhubarb, pear and blood orange cobbler. That might sound fairly standard, but the dessert comes infused with Fireball's cinnamon whisky and also includes a Fireball butterscotch sauce. Basically, with each bite, you can avoid a familiar dilemma — because no one likes choosing between dessert and a drink. Sydneysiders keen to tuck in will need to order their own from Sunday, with the dish available for two weeks only from Friday, July 23. There'll only be 100 on offer each week, and you can either pick it up from the Morgan McGlone-owned restaurant or get it delivered. If you're reading this from Melbourne's lockdown, you can also sink your teeth in. You will have to commit to a new baking project, however. Sunday has also shared the cobbler's recipe, so you can whip up your own and get eating at home. FIREBALL, RHUBARB, PEAR AND BLOOD ORANGE COBBLER WITH FIREBALL BUTTERSCOTCH SAUCE Serves two Ingredients Cobbler filling: 60 millilitres Fireball cinnamon whisky 200 grams of rhubarb, peeled and cubed Half a blood orange, peeled and diced Half a pear, peeled, de-cored and diced One eighth of a teaspoon of allspice 75 grams of brown sugar One eighth of a teaspoon of vanilla essence A two-gram pinch of kosher salt Cobbler topping: 50 grams of butter 50 grams of self-raising flour 25 grams of sugar One egg One eighth of a teaspoon of ground cinnamon Fireball butterscotch sauce: 90 millilitres Fireball cinnamon whisky 75 grams of brown sugar 75 grams of heavy cream 75 grams of unsalted butter, diced Two grams of smoked salt Method Cobbler filling: Place all ingredients into a heavy based pot, then bring to the boil with the lid on. Simmer for seven minutes, then set aside — and, once cool, place into a baking dish. Cobbler topping: Blend butter, flour and sugar inside in a food processor. Add egg and cinnamon, and keep blending until completely combined. Then, place mixture onto baking paper, roll into a sausage form and pop into the freezer until ready to cook. Fireball butterscotch sauce: Put brown sugar and cream into a saucepan, then bring to the boil. Reduce by a third, then add the whisky and reduce by another third. Let cool by 25 percent, then blend in butter and salt. Overall: Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Slice cobbler top into one-centimetre discs and place six pieces on top of the rhubarb mix, then and bake for 25–30 minutes. Allow to rest of ten minutes afterwards, then dust with icing sugar. To serve, spoon cobbler onto a plate or bowl, pour the butterscotch sauce over the top, and add either vanilla ice cream or whipped double cream. Fireball Whisky and Sunday's Fireball rhubarb, pear and blood orange cobbler will be available to order from Sunday from Friday, July 23 for two weeks — for pickup and delivery.
After a successful debut last April, Homeground music and dance festival returns this month with a new and exciting lineup celebrating both the traditional and contemporary faces of Indigenous culture. Featuring as part of Corroboree Sydney, the free two-day event will take place once again along the boardwalk of the Opera House, kicking off with a modern day corroboree bringing together the welcome traditions of the Aboriginal, Moari and Fijian peoples. Performance highlights include Dan Sultan, headlining the Saturday evening, as well as Canadian folk-rock duo Digging Roots, 18-year-old self-taught guitarist Chris Tamwoy and the high-energy fusion dance of Brisbane’s Aboriginal Centre for the Performing Arts. The festival's Sunday session promises more acclaimed indigenous talent, including electro-soul group Bow and Arrow, actress and singer Ursula Yovich and stand-up comedian Sean Choolburra. Plus, a host of pop-up bars and eateries will take you from lunch to late-night drinks, with performances extending well into the evenings. See the Homeground Festival website for performance times and details.
UPDATE, October 9, 2021: The Suicide Squad is available to stream via Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Amazon Video, and is also screening in Sydney cinemas when they reopen on Monday, October 11. New decade, new director, new word in the title — and a mostly new cast, too. That's The Suicide Squad, the DC Extended Universe's new effort to keep viewers immersed in its sprawling superhero franchise, which keeps coming second in hearts, minds and box-office success to Marvel's counterpart. Revisiting a concept last seen in 2016's Suicide Squad, the new flick also tries to blast its unloved precursor's memory from everyone's brains. That three-letter addition to the title? It doesn't just ignore The Social Network's quote about the English language's most-used term, but also attempts to establish this film as the definitive vision of its ragtag supervillain crew. To help, Guardians of the Galaxy filmmaker James Gunn joins the fold, his Troma-honed penchant for horror, comedy and gore is let loose, and a devil-may-care attitude is thrust to the fore. But when your main aim is to one-up the derided last feature with basically the same name, hitting your target is easy — and fulfilling that mission, even with irreverence and flair, isn't the same as making a great or especially memorable movie. A film about cartoonish incarcerated killers doing the US government's dirty work — one throws polka dots, one controls rats and one is a giant shark — The Suicide Squad is silly and goofy. Welcomely, that comes with the territory this time. In another OTT touch, if these fiends disobey orders, no-nonsense black-ops agent Amanda Waller (Viola Davis, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom) explodes their heads. And yet, even when a supersized space starfish gets stompy (think: SpongeBob SquarePants' best bud Patrick if he grew up and got power-hungry), this sequel-slash-do-over is never as gleefully absurd as it should be. Again and again, that's how The Suicide Squad plays out. It's funny, but also so enamoured with its juvenile humour that it tickles the same beats and spits out the same profanities with repetition. It sports an anarchic vibe, yet sticks to a tried-and-tested narrative formula. It ruthlessly slaughters recognisable characters, while also leaving no surprises about who'll always remain its stars. Visually, it's flashy and punchy, and never messy or overblown, but it splashes similar flourishes across the screen like a pattern. The Suicide Squad screams "hey, I'm not that other movie!!!!!!!!!". It's right, thankfully. But simply not being that other film earns far too much of its focus. Mischief abounds from the outset — mood-wise, at least — including when Waller teams up Suicide Squad's Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman, The Secrets We Keep), Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney, Honest Thief) and Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie, Dreamland) with a few new felons for a trip to the fictional Corto Maltese. Because this movie has that extra word in its title, it soon switches to another troupe reluctantly led by mercenary Bloodsport (Idris Elba, Concrete Cowboy), with fellow trained killer Peacemaker (John Cena, Fast and Furious 9) and the aforementioned Polka-Dot Man (David Dastmalchian, Bird Box), Ratcatcher 2 (Daniela Melchior, Valor da Vida) and King Shark (Sylvester Stallone, Rambo: Last Blood) also present. Their task: to sneak into a tower on the South American island. Under the guidance of The Thinker (Peter Capaldi, The Personal History of David Copperfield), alien experiment Project Starfish has been underway there for decades (and yes, Gunn makes time for a butthole joke). Waller has charged her recruits to destroy the secret test, all to ensure it isn't used by the violent faction that's just taken over Corto Maltese via a bloody coup. Jumping to DC in-between Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy: Holiday Special and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 — a move sparked when Disney temporarily fired him from the Marvel realm after tasteless old tweets resurfaced — Gunn pens The Suicide Squad's screenplay, too. Plot isn't the film's big drawcard, with the writer/director sketching out a threadbare setup that lets his main players bust out their key traits and lets him display his playful action-filmmaking skills. Cue scant backstories to give Bloodsport and company some depth, just as cursory nods to western intervention in other countries, plenty of frays littered with viscera and peppered with gross-out sight gags, and a movie that's all about surface pleasures. Whenever a character strikes a chord emotionally, Gunn is happy to tap that note briefly but repeatedly, for instance. Viewers keep being reminded of the same basic attributes and themes over and over, but wrapped in spirited and eye-catching visual slickness. Some touches are pitch-perfect, like the floral aesthetic evident during one of Quinn's killing sprees. Others are stylish padding, as seen in her dalliance with Corto Maltese's new dictator Luna (Juan Diego Botto, The European). The pervasive sensation: that witnessing these characters crack wise and spill guts in a showy, anything-goes fashion is meant to be something inherently special. Sometimes, Gunn's gambit works in the moment. Overall, however, The Suicide Squad's charms are fleeting. It's the better movie of its moniker, it never manages to match Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) for fun, and it isn't ever as enjoyably ridiculous as fellow DCEU flick Aquaman, either. Of course, superhero stories are always about polarised extremes, even now they're Hollywood's favourite big-screen format. They pit the very best against the absolute worst, with names on both sides standing apart from regular ol' humanity due to supernatural forces, genetic enhancement, experiments gone right or wrong, or otherworldly sources. These figures tussle over the fate of the world to save it for normal folks in movie after movie, but little attention is paid to anyone that's just ordinary. Being standard and average is something to fight for and then sweep past, even though that's where so many superhero and supervillain movies ultimately land themselves. Indeed, a film can be funny and lively, use its main faces (that'd be Elba and Robbie) well, have a few nice moments with its supporting cast (Dastmalchian, Melchior and Stallone, particularly) and improve on its predecessor, and yet still fall into a routine, unsuccessfully wade into murky politics, never capitalise upon its premise or promise, keep rehashing the same things, and just be average, too — and right now, that film is The Suicide Squad.
With international travel banned indefinitely and many Australian states and territories closing their borders, travel is in no one's immediate plans — and the airline industry is responding accordingly. In late March, Qantas and Jetstar suspended all international flights and cut domestic flights by 60 percent, temporarily stepping down two-thirds of their 30,000-person staff in the process. Virgin Australia also suspended all international flights from March 30 — and cut domestic flights by 50 percent — but is now reducing its local capacity even further. From yesterday, Friday, April 10, Virgin Australia has suspended all domestic passenger flights except for a return service between Melbourne and Sydney, running once daily except Saturdays. In a statement on the airline's website, the group said "Demand for travel has continued to decline with border restrictions and the need for people to stay home due to social distancing measures." https://www.facebook.com/virginaustralia/photos/a.10151888728861990/10156927916476990/?type=3&theater Tasmania, WA, SA, NT and Queensland have all closed their borders to non-essential travel and require interstate visitors to quarantine for 14 days. And, as of yesterday, Queenslanders are required to obtain a permit to cross back over the border from interstate, too. These measures are similar to those currently in place for Australians returning from overseas, which mandates compulsory 14-day isolation periods for all international travellers Qantas and Jetstar haven't yet announced further cuts to their domestic flights, and all three airlines currently working with the government to help bring stranded Australians home. Qantas is helping bring Aussies back from Peru, Argentina and South Africa, while Virgin Australia is running flights to Los Angeles and Hong Kong. If you have ticket for travel up to June 30, 2020, Virgin Australian will let you change your booking or cancel and request a travel credit with no change and cancellation fees. You can find out more about this on its website. For more information about Virgin Australia's reductions, visit its website. For further details about Qantas and Jetstar's plans, visit the company's website.
Grab your vomit bag: one of the most notorious and disgusting franchises in the history of horror movies is slithering into cinemas for round number three. From the demented mind of writer-director Tom Six, The Human Centipede 3 is being touted as the most extreme film in the series so far, featuring a centipede more than 500 people in length. It’s also currently sitting at a whopping 7% on Rotten Tomatoes, which is roughly seven percentage points more than we expected. The Human Centipede 3 will have its sole Sydney screening at The Ritz in Randwick on Saturday, July 4, marking the only time you’ll be able to view the film on the big screen in all its repulsive glory. Actor Laurence R. Harvey will be on hand for a post-film Q&A, assuming the entire audience hasn’t already fled the theatre.
Burwood might be a long way from the country, but that isn't going to stop some of the country's finest farmers paying a regular visit. This Thursday, August 31, Real Markets & Co. is landing. If you've not met Real Markets before, let us introduce you. It's a family-run extravaganza that's all about bringing the best things in the country to the big smoke: fresh produce, home cooking and handcrafted objects. Just some of the goodies you'll be getting your hands on (and mouth around) include cherries from Orange, honey from Tamworth and free range eggs from Kendall. If you feel like taking a break, sit down to a coconut coffee, or just-baked tarts from The Portuguese Bakery. And, if you're looking to take a slice of Real Markets home or to a friend, you can grab a bunch of fresh flowers, a jar of pickles or even a soy candle. Every stall is handpicked by the market team — and be sure to keep a look out for special events, including visits from celebrity chefs. Real Markets will be setting up at 27-31 Belmore Street, Burwood from 10am to 6pm on Thursday and Friday every week. For more information visit www.realmarkets.com.au.
Marrickville's annual street festival will take over the inner west suburb once again on Sunday, October 21. Over 120 stalls will flood the streets in a full day celebration of live music, local entertainment and international cuisine that champions Marrickville's multicultural community. A massive lineup of local bands and acts will perform across four stages, with the main stage including the likes of Liz Martin Band, The Protesters and Edens March. The Break music competition will return to showcase the best that the region has to offer, and an international stage will put on flamenco performances and African, Greek and Polynesian dance shows. Of course, stalls will offer up fresh produce and a tonne of different food options from local vendors. Expect fried things, big vats of paella, Vietnamese nosh and heaps more. Image: Fiora Sacco.
Get ready to spring into a sensational series of Sunday afternoons that are all about celebrating the early bloom of the season. For four consecutive Sundays, Saké Restaurant and Bar Manly will be serving a lineup of bespoke Roku Gin cocktails paired with a Japanese menu inspired by the freshness of spring (haru). Picture this: an afternoon hosted in a light-filled bar area decked out with stunning floral displays begging to be photographed. As you enjoy the ocean views, indulge in three courses capturing the different stages of spring. First up, Awakening. Sip a symphony of Roku Gin, tangy rhubarb and ginger cordial, zesty yuzu and prosecco. The tipple is paired with asparagus ohitashi with a kick of citrus karashi miso, yukari snapper with shiso paste and tomato miso, and tenderloin beef tataki with ginger soy. The next course is Bloom. Start with the floral concoction of Roku Gin with Junmai Ginjo Sake, Cointreau, creme de violet, cherry blossom and leatherwood tonic. This is served with salmon yaki with den miso, tempura veggies and king prawns, chirashi sushi with spring veggies topped with cherry blossom flower pickle. Last is Harvest. Roku Gin is blended with green tea umeshu, genmaicha lemongrass cordial and a burst of zesty lemon. To end this culinary journey on a sweet note, it is paired with shiratama zenzai dessert soup, matcha ice cream, mochi, red beans, and crispy sweet potato chips. Mark your calendars because the festivities are from 12–2.30pm on the following Sundays: September 17, September 24, October 1 and October 8. All this goodness can be yours for just $149 per person, drinks included. Reserve your spot on the website now. The exclusive Roku seasonal cocktails will also be available to order from Wednesday, September 6 until Sunday, October 8. Images: Brooke Zotti
More Marvels, less Marvel: that could've, would've, should've been the path to making The Marvels more marvellous as it teams up Carol Danvers aka Captain Marvel (Brie Larson, Fast X), Ms Marvel's Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani in her big-screen debut) and WandaVision's Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris, They Cloned Tyrone). Unsurprisingly for a Marvel Cinematic Universe movie that goes heavy on the first word in the ever-sprawling franchise's moniker, this 33rd cinematic instalment in the series has a glaring Marvel problem. Thankfully, as it proves fun enough, likeable enough and sweet, but also overly saddled with the routine and familiar, it never has any Captain Marvel, Ms Marvel or Monica Rambeau issues. When there's too much Marvel-ness — too much been-there-done-that formula, too hefty a focus on smashing pixels together over spending time with people and too strong a sense that this is merely another chapter in the saga's assembly line, and also dutifully setting up what's next — The Marvels struggles, even as the shortest MCU feature yet. When the main trio get the luxury of being together, just seeing them revel in and react to each other's company is a delight. When there's also singing, dancing, a hearty sense of humour and/or Flerkens involved, the film soars. Perhaps befitting a movie with three lead characters, this is a Goldilocks attempt at a picture that tries as overtly as a fairy-tale figure to get its balance just right. Filmmaker Nia DaCosta (Candyman) and her co-scribes Megan McDonnell (also WandaVision) and Elissa Karasik (Loki) can't quite find and keep their midpoint, however, due to all of the weight and demands that come after 15 years of the MCU, those 32 prior flicks, plus nine seasons of eight Disney+ TV shows since 2021 — and the many nods and references required in those directions. Marvel has cottoned on to how clunky this can be, and how exhausting to watch; the company is marketing streaming series Echo under the banner 'Marvel Spotlight' to signal that viewers can enjoy the story as a standalone experience without needing to have done copious amounts of MCU homework. If only The Marvels had been allowed to spin its tale the same way, even with Carol, Kamala and Monica's established histories across the franchise, and permitted to lean further into what makes it stand out from the rest of the Marvel crowd. One thing that audiences haven't seen elsewhere in the MCU: a wonderfully ridiculous sequence that riffs on herding cats, embraces those felines-with-tentacles that are Flerkens, makes an obvious-but-apt Andrew Lloyd Webber needle drop work and is up there among the most gloriously silly things that Marvel has ever put on-screen. Here's another: a planet where communicating via song, like life is one big Broadway musical, is the native language. And, the most crucial: a trio of female superheroes taking centre stage (2019's Captain Marvel, the 21st MCU flick, was the first to solely put a woman in the spotlight, while 2021's Black Widow is the only one since until now). The Marvels flits between two responses to the latter, though: not caring because it has the typical Marvel wheels to spin, then only caring about Carol, Kamala and Monica's camaraderie. Naturally, the second option is the entertaining and engaging winner. As anyone who has seen Ms Marvel will know going in and everyone else can glean swiftly (at 105 minutes, bloat doesn't blight The Marvels), Jersey City teen Kamala is the world's biggest Captain Marvel superfan. Having her own superhero powers hasn't curbed that Carol-worshipping enthusiasm. She's dreaming about joining forces with her idol when not just their respective light-based powers get entangled, but Monica's as well, causing the three women to switch places suddenly whenever they bust out their supernatural skills simultaneously. The reason for this body-swap comedy-esque occurrence: Kree warrior Dar-Benn (Zawe Ashton, The Handmaid's Tale), who is on a mission to save her home planet and seek revenge by destroying worlds. So, after awkward first meetings (Carol and Kamala) and reunions (Carol and Monica, the daughter of her 80s-era best friend Maria, as seen in Captain Marvel), The Marvels' three protagonists are a team on their own existence-in-peril space quest — with Nick Fury (Samuel L Jackson, Secret Invasion) running point, and Kamala's mother Muneeba (Zenobia Shroff, 7 Days), father Yusef (Mohan Kapur, School of Lies) and brother Aamir (Saagar Shaikh, Liza on Demand) worrying by his side. Regardless of whether Beastie Boys' 'Intergalactic' is on montage soundtrack duties just as the film's trailers teased, there's both spark and pace to Carol, Kamala and Monica's intermingled chaos — including when utter bedlam results, when they're training to work in sync and when they're fighting like a well-oiled machine. There's sincere chemistry, too, as bounces in comedic and dramatic moments equally. The Marvels screams to be a hangout movie, where seeing these characters spending time with each other, and getting everyone investing in their relationships, is more important than whatever the plot throws their way (especially when the storyline is so rote). That'd be Kamala's ultimate fantasy, and the infectiously charismatic Vellani plays it that way to excited perfection. That said, the MCU isn't in the business of making films about friendship, connection and kinship without facing villains and saving the universe. Long fond of layering different genres over its standard template — such as espionage with Black Widow, horror with Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, heist capers with the first two Ant-Man movies, coming-of-age with the Spider-Man entries and martial arts with Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, to name just a few examples — Marvel is currently happy to fashion its output in the mould of other sagas. Where fellow 2023 release Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania wanted to be Star Wars, keeping things in the Disney family, there's more than a sliver of Star Trek to The Marvels as it navigates its planet-hopping, civilisation-rescuing narrative. Accordingly, the generic air that regularly pulses through the movie isn't just limited to cycling through MCU staples. Unconvincing CGI doesn't help, nor does the rushed feeling that seeps into the editing to keep the film to its concise length. The first Black woman to direct a Marvel feature, DaCosta clearly has corporate-enforced boxes to tick. Luckily, she also knows The Marvels' biggest assets: Larson, Vellani and Parris; their on-screen alter egos simply sharing space and time (while sometimes toying with it); and joyous mayhem. It mightn't be present everywhere else, but there's balance in how the feature's leads complement each other — how intimately DaCosta dives into their evolving bonds as well, with help from Sean Bobbitt's (Judas and the Black Messiah) perspective-shifting cinematography — and in what Vellani's abundant eagerness, Parris' warmth and smarts, and Larson's gradual cracking of Carol's hard-forged emotional facade bring out in each other. There's heart, liveliness and something rare in the MCU here, as caught in jump-rope sessions, hugs and reaction shots, but then all of the usual MCU elements come crashing in. The Marvels needs its own place-swapping gadgets to jettison out the overused blueprint. Instead, it makes the most of what it can, but leaves viewers pondering one of Marvel's favourite questions: what if?
Woolloomooloo Wharf is set to sizzle with Mediterranean vibes as the executive chef of Europe's renowned Bungalow 7, Ntinos Fotinakis, brings a taste of Greek summer to Manta Restaurant. From March 21 to April 6, indulge in an immersive culinary experience that'll transport you to a seaside taverna – all the while soaking up stunning harbour views. Blending the freshest ingredients from Sydney's land and sea with authentic Greek flavours, Fotinakis – who's worked with Heston Blumenthal and trained under Michelin-starred chef Jacques Le Divellec – is inspired by home and heart. He'll personally welcome you, surprise you with unique dishes, and deliver tableside finishes that embody Greece's legendary hospitality. Start with mezze delights like moussaka croquettes, taramasalata with smoked yuzu, and spanakorizo (Greek spinach and rice) gyoza. Heftier plates feature succulent lamb shoulder, short rib pasta, snapper with potato skordalia, and the signature astakomakaronada – a luxurious dish of live eastern rock lobster with linguine, tomato and extra-virgin olive oil. And making the drinks shortlist? Only Greece's best, including ouzo and mastiha cocktails, and standout wines like Assyrtiko and Moschofilero. A Taste of Greece is available for lunch and dinner throughout the two-week celebration. Opt for an à la carte experience or select from set menus priced at $85 or $105 per person. With limited spots available, bookings are recommended.
The party never stops for Alison Wonderland. After hosting a slew of warehouse parties earlier this year, as well as playing just about every Australian music festival you can poke a stick at, Wonderland has dropped her Calm Down EP featuring all new original songs. Wonderland's DJ sets are known for their ability to ignite any dance floor, with her special mix of old school hip hop and modern indie dance. We were lucky enough to get Wonderland to sit still just long enough to tell us what we should look forward to with her new EP and her 'Rural Juror Touror' tour. The Calm Down EP Wonderland has previously released a compilation mix called Welcome to Wonderland, but the Calm Down EP is her first release to feature all original material. A more personal side of Wonderland will be coming through this EP, which her vast fan base has been eagerly awaiting. "This EP will be more songs rather than club jams," says Wonderland. "I'm excited and nervous to hear what people think about them." So far two singles from the EP have been released, 'Lies' and 'I Want U', the latter of which has a killer video clip, directed by local Melbourne maverick Prad Senanayake. Wonderland says the concept for the clip, which casually features possessed nuns and an old man being coddled by a younger temptress, was a collaborative effort between her and Senanayake. "It was super nice to work with Prad," says Wonderland. "He gets it, he's super smart." While Wonderland may be most well known for her work as a DJ, spinning tunes is not her first foray into music. Wonderland is a classically trained musician; she was a principal cellist with the Sydney Youth Orchestra and played bass in an indie band for a spell. "I think that the classical education that I received definitely helps me write music," says Wonderland. "I don't try and keep it at the forefront of my mind when I'm writing — I try to do that with feel — but I definitely think in the back of my mind somewhere it's a big reason why I make the music that I do." The Love Of Vinyl Wonderland is clearly excited for the release of her EP, but what's more, it's coming out on vinyl — a medium she has favoured since childhood. "When I was eight my Dad gave me his vinyl collection from when he was a teenager," explains Wonderland. So then, what was her last vinyl purchase? We don't want to be presumptuous, but it might not be what you'd first expect. "My latest vinyl purchase is actually kind of embarrassing!" admits Wonderland. "My favourite film ever is The Princess Bride, which is a 1980s fantasy film. I have the first ever release of the soundtrack on vinyl, played by Mark Knopfler." The Party Starter Before embarking on her Rural Juror Touror, earlier this year Wonderland hosted a series of warehouse parties across Australia. All the shows, held in secret locations, sold out almost immediately and in some cities venues had to be upgraded to keep up with the demand. The Wonderland Warehouse Projects were a huge success, and as per usual with Wonderland's gigs, the crowds were lively, sweaty, and brimming with riotous enthusiasm. "Getting up on stage and seeing the crowd, that was a pretty crazy feeling," explains Wonderland. "There was 2,000 people at each show." Despite being thrilled with the turn out to these events, there was one audience member in particular that Wonderland was especially thrilled about. "My Mum came to one of my shows, which was exciting!" says Wonderland. "She's only seen me play twice before, it was cool for her to see what I did." The Rural Juror Touror Wonderland has already performed the first few shows of her 'Rural Juror Touror', which will send her to all corners of Australia. The desire to take on a national rural tour was sparked after performing at Groovin the Moo last year. "I enjoyed it so much that it was kind of the inspiration for this tour," explains Wonderland. For Wonderland, there is no difference between playing to a crowd in a major city or a smaller rural venue. "I think they draw a certain type of crowd when I play," explains Wonderland. "They're usually quite educated in the type of music I DJ wherever I am." ALISON WONDERLAND'S RURAL JUROR TOUROR: Fri 27 June — Discovery, Darwin NT Sat 28 June — Argyle House, Newcastle NSW Sun 29 June — Flinders Social, Townsville QLD Thurs 3 July — Southern Cross Uni, Lismore NSW Fri 4 July — Fitzgeralds, Bunbury WA Sat 5 July — Toucan, Mandurah WA Fri 1 Aug — Star Bar, Bendigo VIC Sat 2 Aug — Amaroo Hotel, Dubbo NSW Thurs 7 Aug — World Bar, Queenstown NZ Sat 9 Aug — Movitas, Mackay QLD Sat 16 Aug — Karova, Ballarat VIC Fri 22 Aug — Secret Show, Taiwan Sat 23 Aug — Warehouse 82, Bali Fri 29 Aug — Observatory, Hobart TAS Fri 5 Sept — Plantation, Coffs Harbour NSW Sat 13 Sept — Smirnoff Snowdome, Thredbo NSW AW's Calm Down EP is out now. https://youtube.com/watch?v=YLCm9lP-3Uk
When mid-March rolls around next year, Sydney's Clark Island will play host to a weekend of vino, vino and more vino, all thanks to returning festival Wine Island. But that's just one boozy way that you can spend time on the Sydney Harbour spot come autumn. The second: a three-day celebration of Greek cuisine and culture from the same crew. Meet Greek Island, a weekend-long festival taking place between Friday, March 25–Sunday, March 27 — the very next weekend after Wine Island. The aim is to make this new fest feel like a Mediterranean holiday, something that's clearly been in short supply during the pandemic. In a case of faking it till you make it — to the real Greek islands, that is — the event will line Clark Island with Greek-style tavernas, as well as cocktail bars, a seaside stage and a spa. So, you'll be eating fried calamari, grilled octopus, spanakopita, souvlaki, gyros and loukoumades, then washing it all down with Greek beverages — including frouzo, aka frozen ouzo. And, you'll be dancing to DJs, and getting a hilltop massage. Alpha's Peter Conistis will be on food duty, alongside Kazzi Beach Greek, East 33 (yes, that means oysters), Lambda and Lookoomania — and live cooking demonstrations will also be on the menu. Drinks-wise, Drink Greek is curating the beverage list, which'll include Greek wines and sparkling from Attica, Arcadia and Macedonia; beers from Chios Island and Atalanti; and Greek-themed cocktails such as Santorini Sunsets and Mykonos Mules. DJs Tigerlily and Jolyon Petch will hit the decks, as will Daft Punk tribute act Discovery — the latter of which mightn't fit the Greek theme, but will still set a mood. Skewing far more traditional, live Greek music and dancing will also be on the bill. Parts of the island will be decked out to emulate the country in the spotlight, too, with the promise of Mount Olympus-themed stage area and a Santorini-themed spa. Trips to Greek Island will start with a cocktail on the boat ride over — and, if you're now keen for the kind of Mediterranean getaway you take when you're not really taking a Mediterranean getaway, the event is hosting two sessions per day. So, you can choose between 10am and 4pm tipples. There are three Wine Island ticket packages available, starting with the $99 'premium economy experience', which includes ferry transfers, a drink on your way over, and a branded beach tote and tumbler. Then there's the $199 'business class experience', which adds a Greek Island towel, access to the Corfu-style beach club, a meal voucher, and complimentary ouzo and wine tastings. Or, you can go all out with $3300 private waterfront cabanas for up to ten people. Greek Island hits Clark Island in Sydney Harbour from Friday, March 25–Sunday, March 27, 2022. Tickets go on sale at 12pm AEDT on Wednesday, November 24, with pre-sale from the same time on Monday, November 22. Images: Onecut Studios.
A brand new arts and culture centre dedicated to hands-on experiences has opened at the Sydney Opera House. The centre is a former office space that has been converted to facilitate immersive creative experiences including performances, workshops and installation. One of the highlights of the launch program is multi-disciplinary artist Rosie Deacon's interactive exhibition House Warming. The activation features a forest of her joyous and colourful recycled sculptures and artworks. Attendees are also encouraged to contribute to the forest as part of its two-week run. The free, family-friendly exhibition is running from Tuesday, January 4–Sunday, January 16 at the Opera House's Centre for Creativity. Sessions run 10am–3pm daily, alongside a selection of night sessions that will run on Friday, January 7 and Saturday, January 8, and again on Friday, January 14 and Saturday, January 15. Other exhibitions and workshops on offer during the centre's opening program include a workshop from western Sydney hip hop crew CanYouAfro?; a workshop lead by Barkindtji, Yorta Yorta and Dhudaroah artist Tegan Mursock that teaches participants the fundamentals of Aboriginal weaving and making wall hangings; and a vogueing class lead by Sydney's Street University. "The Centre for Creativity offers programs inspired by the Opera House and all that it does – spanning design, dance, First Nations cultures, engineering, song and storytelling – so that people of all ages, abilities and backgrounds can set their creativity free," said Sydney Opera House Director of Programming Fiona Winning. [caption id="attachment_834018" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Daniel Boud[/caption] Top image: Cassandra Hannagan
There's something nostalgically romantic about the sound and story of Warpaint. It might be the fact that they formed on Valentines Day, or perhaps the level of reverb they use on their harmonised vocals, but there's no denying the happy place Emily Kokal and Theresa Wayman take you to when they start singing. Their sweet harmonies are weighted by Jenny Lee Lindberg's lethargically bounding bass lines and the heavy tom’s of Stella Mozgawa's kit, in what seems like an effortless ensemble — even for a post-punk band. Of their live performances, it has been said that they can disarm a room and transform a crowd into a transfixed, star-gazing shuffle-ufagus. They’re coming to the Oxford Art Factory but really, these are stylish divas who should be performing in prairie fields of golden (non-GE) canola in the dusky haze of an autumn afternoon. Can someone maybe find one of those for them?
Twilight at Taronga — the after-hours live music series that boasts arguably the best view of Sydney Harbour as well as lots of adorable animals — has proven it's got some real cred when it comes to hosting outdoor gigs. Past lineups have featured the likes of The Jezabels, Courtney Barnett and Kurt Vile, and, from the looks of things, its 25th anniversary series will be just as epic. Held in Taronga Zoo's natural amphitheatre, the concert series will run from Friday, January 31 to Saturday, March 7, 2020. And we've got some real humdingers to look forward to including Aussie rockers Wolfmother, US gospel queen Mavis Staples, NZ synth-pop duo Broods and the Gravy King himself Paul Kelly (who'll be performing with composer James Ledger, singer Alice Keith and the Seraphim Trio). Band member from You Am I, Powderfinger, Jet and Spiderbait will also come together as the Australian Rock Collective to perform hits off The Beatles' Abbey Road album with Linda Bull. And, as always, the ABBA tribute act Bjorn Again will be back by popular demand. You can BYO a picnic, but there'll also be gourmet hampers available onsite alongside a handful of food trucks. Tickets include discounted same-day entry into the zoo (so you can sneak in a visit to your favourite mammal, bird or reptile beforehand) and, if you want to make a weekend of it, you can add on a night at Taronga's luxe new eco-retreat. As always, all proceeds will go back into Taronga's ongoing conservation work, including its campaign to protect our marine life. So, you can see a gig and feel good about helping the zoo. Get excited and check out the full lineup: [caption id="attachment_745448" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Taronga Zoo Wildlife Retreat[/caption] TWILIGHT AT TARONGA 2020 SUMMER CONCERT SERIES LINEUP Friday, January 31: Broods Saturday, February 1: Wolfmother Friday, February 7: Pete Murray Saturday, February 8: ARC perform 'Abbey Road' Live Friday, February 14: Bernard Fanning Saturday, February 15: Sunnyboys Friday, February 21: Kasey Chambers Saturday, February 22: James Morrison Big Band Friday, February 28: Paul Kelly in 'Thirteen Ways to Look at Birds' with James Ledger, Alice Keith and Seraphim Trio Saturday, February 29: Bjorn Again Thursday, March 5: Mavis Staples Friday, March 6: Meg Mac Saturday, March 7: Comedy Gala Tickets for Twilight at Taronga 2020 Summer Concert Series go on sale at midday on Thursday, October 31 via twilightattaronga.org.au.
At Golden Plains this year, Dick Diver played a slightly sheepish but totally heartfelt cover of Dragon's 'Are You Old Enough'. Sprawled on a North Sydney Bears blanket in the hot sun, with a cider hangover and a cider in hand and barely enough energy to roll over, I scrambled to wrench off one battered boot and earnestly thrust it to the sky (which, if you've never been to GP, is the festival's sacred shorthand for THIS IS OBVIOUSLY THE BEST THING THAT WILL HAPPEN ALL WEEKEND YOU GUYS). You don't need to expose your holey socks to show your appreciation for Dick Diver this weekend — just shell out a measly $15 (including those pesky booking fees!) for the Sydney launch of their sprawling, laconic-as-hell second album, Calendar Days. Recorded on Phillip Island with key co-conspirator Mikey Young (ECSR, Total Control, producer of just about every recent Australian record with a couple of guitars and no fucks to give), it's more sophisticated than their debut, while also sometimes being about toast. So scoot down to the newly saved Red Rattler on Saturday to enjoy laidback, comfortable music in a laidback, comfortable room. https://youtube.com/watch?v=q4ZXaj8P-UA
In Sydney's southwest, night markets with aromatic foods, lively crowds and a general hubbub of activity until 2am are held throughout Ramadan — the Islamic holy month. With fasting occurring from dawn till dusk throughout the month, Lakemba's Haldon Street turns into a festive feast as soon as the sun sets. It's melting pot of Lebanese, Palestinian, Syrian, Burmese, Malaysian, Bangladeshi, Pakistani and Indonesian cuisines offered for iftar — the evening meal ending the daily Ramadan fast. Walk through and you'll find everything from camel burgers, shawarma and kaak (a Pakistani street bread) to Syrian ice cream, knafeh (a sweet cheese pastry) and Lebanese coffee. Running from Sunday, May 5 through Wednesday, June 5, the Lakemba Ramadan Night Markets are a community-wide celebration open to all, fasting or not, with festivities running well into the evening and ending with suhoor — the pre-dawn meal before daily fasting resumes. Lakemba's night markets run from around 5.00pm till 2am. You'll find them at the station end of Haldon Street.
Just because winter is (almost) over, doesn't mean the hearty cook-ups and slow-cooked stews have to end. And some fresh kitchen gear to motivate you to cook a little more wouldn't go astray, right? Well, local cooking whizzes are in luck, because famed French cookware label Le Creuset is hosting a huge Sydney warehouse sale this September. Taking over a warehouse at Sydney Olympic Park on Saturday, September 7, it'll feature a whole heap of bargains, with up to 70 percent off across a sprawling range of high-quality stoneware, stainless steel pots, toughened non-stick pans, cast iron cookware and wine accessories. Le Creuset's colourful pieces don't usually come cheap — but they do last a lifetime — so this is an opportunity not to miss. The sale only lasts for one day, and you must book into one of the 45 minute sessions to head along. It's also a cash-free event, so be sure to bring your plastic. While the first round of tickets has sold out, another round will be released at 10am on Monday, August 19. We suggest you get in quick. Le Creuset Sydney Warehouse Sale runs from 9am–5.45pm. More tickets will be available from 10am on Monday, August 19.
Ragu Pasta & Wine Bar has officially been serving Sydneysiders top-notch Italian fare for a whole nine years. And it's celebrating that milestone by dishing up an entire month of food and drink specials. Yep, it might be the pasta and wine bar's birthday, but the diners are the ones scoring the presents. The weekday dine-in specials will be flying hard and fast all through November, with a different wallet-friendly deal each week. It all kicks off on Monday, November 4, with Ragu offering a cheeky complimentary glass of prosecco with any purchase of a main meal until November 8. From November 11 to 15, it's all about the $9 pastas, while the following week, from November 18 to 22, you'll pay just $9 for any Aperol spritz or espresso martini. The birthday bonanza wraps up from November 25 to 29, when any main dish can come teamed with a glass of wine for just an extra $1. If ever there was a time to rekindle your love for Italian eats, it's now. RAGU NINTH BIRTHDAY SPECIALS November 4–8: Free glass of prosecco with any main November 11–15: $9 pasta November 18–22: $9 Aperol spritz and espresso martini November 25–29: $1 glass of wine with any main
A night of song is coming to the City Recital Hall on Thursday, February 21 for 2019's Mardi Gras. Requiem Mass: A Queer Divine Rite is an original choral work written by American singer and composer Holcombe Waller in collaboration with local LGBTQI+ communities. The piece, performed by Sam Allchurch and the Sydney Chamber Choir, reflects on the persecution faced by LGBTQI+ people and gay history from the 1980s to the present day. Remaining tickets are still available for $39, but get in quick before the event fully sells out.
Love the vibe of après ski but can't afford a whole trip to the snow this ski season? Thankfully, you can get your post-ski party fix without trekking to the slopes this year courtesy of the team at Golden Sheaf. From Wednesday, July 6 till Wednesday, August 10, the Double Bay mainstay will transform into a European-inspired alpine lodge, complete with après ski-themed snacks, cocktails and more. There'll be cheese and chocolate fondue, next-level Grey Goose cocktails (hello Toasted Marshmallow Espresso Martini) and loads of soft blankets to cosy up to with your crew. Plus, a snow machine will be in action on Friday and Saturday nights for added impact. You can even win a trip to Thredbo valued at $3000 at the event. To be in the running, simply get your ski pass punched each time you order a Grey Goose cocktail. Once you've got four punches on your card, you can enter the draw to win. Keen to check it out? Chalet Sheaf will take place till Wednesday, August 10 and entry is free. For more information, visit the website.
Fresh from curating Laneway's gourmet food menu, acclaimed Longsong chef David Moyle will join Flinders Island residents for the inaugural Food and Crayfish Festival. Taking place across April 14 and 15, the weekend festivities will focus on a special long lunch, celebrating the wealth of fresh produce and ingredients available on the island. To cook up a storm, Moyle has invited fellow chefs James Viles from Biota, Mark LaBrooy from Three Blue Ducks, and Matt Stone and Jo Barrett from Oakridge Wines to join him in creating the April 14 beachside feast. In line with the festival's first theme —Mother Nature + Human Nature — the quintet will spend a week on the island visiting local producers, foraging and diving to create the perfect menu. "It is such a great treat as a chef to be able to cook dishes directly from the location and connected to the land you are standing on" Moyle noted. Because all great meals need a nice drop to go with them, sommelier Alice Chugg from Hobart bar and bottleshop Ettie's will join the chefs, matching their culinary delights with a selection of Tasmanian wines and beverages. Fish for the festival will come from the island's only crayfish fisherman, 74-year-old Jack Wheatly, who captures the ocean's bounty like his father and grandfather before him. Other celebrated ingredients to be incorporated into the festival include saltgrass lamb, wallaby and mutton bird. The exact beach location of the lunch will be revealed 48 hours before the event, taking into account the microclimate. Islanders will lend chairs from their own dining tables for the event, and the local 'Men's Shed' is crafting the long tables for the lunch. Open to only 100 'off-islanders', tickets for the lunch — which has a dress code of barefoot cocktail — are currently available for the grand price of $240. Flinders Island Food and Crayfish Festival takes place across April 14 and 15 on Flinders Island. Visit www.visitflindersisland.com.au for tickets and further details. Image: Kara Hynes.
Every good pub needs a great bistro — and when it came to adding one to their Randwick venue, The DOG Hotel took the task seriously. Of course, you have to when you're opening up a new American-French-themed kitchen. Duke's Bistro is the end result. Located upstairs at the St Marks Road pub, Duke's Bistro knows that hungry diners can't get enough of US-style food. The 170-seat space, that's been renovated to heed a lodge-like look, also knows how to make the most of its art deco origins. That's why Executive Chef Dwayne Baber's menu is filled with modern twists on classic dishes that offer a bit of both, such as French escargot beurre parsillé vol au vent and smoked pumpkin tartine, as well as hanger steak and beer-brined chicken. In fact, slow-cooked, roasted, rotated meats are quite the feature at Duke's, as are two specially designed rotisseries that diners can easily spy in the open-plan kitchen. Those keen on pairing their meal with a beverage will find 12 taps pouring craft brews, plus a hefty wine list, and cocktails ranging from French favourite Soixante Quinze (with cognac, lemon, syrup and Crémant sparkling) to New Orleans tipple Sazerac (with absinthe, rye whiskey, sugar and peychaud bitters). Find Duke's Bistro at The DOG Hotel, 2 St Marks Road, Randwick. Check out their website for more information.
Salty, sour, just sweet enough and refreshing; the classic margarita ticks multiple flavour boxes and it's synonymous with fun bars, holidays and sunshine. And now is the perfect time to head to your favourite tequila watering hole to order a salty-rim marg in celebration of National Margarita Month, running throughout February. The key to a moreish margarita is to use high-quality ingredients, like 100-percent agave tequila. We've partnered with Herradura, one of the longest running tequila makers in Mexico, to dive into the detailed history of the humble drink, to bring you fun facts to impress your mates with, and to give you an easy recipe for a Horseshoe Margarita to make at home. A BRIEF HISTORY OF MARGARITAS Though simple and short on its ingredients, the margarita's origin story is not so simple or short. There are many varying stories of its conception, such as the tale that it was invented especially for a showgirl in Tijuana, who was allergic to all alcohol except tequila. She didn't like the agave-based spirit straight, so restaurant owner Carlos 'Dann' Herrera whipped her up a lime and tequila-based cocktail and the rest is history. Or perhaps not. Some say the cocktail could have evolved from a now-forgotten 1930s gin or bourbon and citrus cocktail dubbed the Daisy, which eventually morphed into the margarita as we know it (the word 'margarita' is Spanish for 'daisy' so it's convincing). There are also tales of a Texas socialite Margaret 'Margarita' Sames popularising the drink (though recipes for the cocktail were around before she was), and in the 1937 book Café Royal Cocktail Book there's a tequila, Cointreau and lime juice concoction called a Picador, which is also cited as an early margarita. Origins aside, the drink has continued to develop through the decades, from slushie versions, mango, coconut or passionfruit takes, and hundreds of other permutations. We like it traditional — no matter where that original recipe came from. [caption id="attachment_761450" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Abel S García[/caption] FUN FACTS TO IMPRESS YOUR MATES WITH Ever heard of a jimador? They're Mexican farmers who harvest agave plants and are skilled at identifying ripe agave. Agave plants (the core of which is the base for tequila) are a type of succulent. Frozen margaritas were popularised after the creation of a custom machine invented by Mariano Martinez in the 70s. The drink became so in-demand that staff (especially the blenders) couldn't keep up with demand, and so Martinez took an old soft serve machine and tinkered with the frozen recipe until it was the perfect consistency for the machine. The original machine is now part of the collection at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, in Washington. Casa Herradura (where Herradura tequila is made) is the last tequila-producing Hacienda on the planet. RECIPE: HORSESHOE MARGARITA This classic margarita recipe showcases the smooth, distinctly sweet taste of agave and the subtle oak notes of Herradura tequila. Produced in the small town of Amatitàn in the heart of Mexico's tequila region, Herradura grows millions of blue agave — and has done for 150 years. These are harvested by jimadors, and the piñas (the plant's heart) are cut out and then slowly steamed to convert the starch into sugars. This is then milled in order to extract the sweet agave nectar, before being distilled to make the final premium tequila. But leave this complex and traditional process to the professionals and get ready to enjoy the fruits of Herradura's labour of love with this simple and elegant Horseshoe Margarita recipe. INGREDIENTS 60ml Herradura 30ml fresh lime juice 15ml agave syrup Sea salt Lime slice to garnish METHOD Pour Herradura tequila, lime juice and agave syrup into ice-filled cocktail shaker. Shake vigorously. Run a lime wedge around the rim of a glass, and dip the glass in sea salt (optional). Pour your mix into an ice-filled tumbler. Easy! Celebrate Margarita Month in Sydney at Assembly, Barrio Cellar, Bella Vista, Bondi Beach Hardware, Cherry Bar, Chin Chin, Chula, Fonda Mexican, Frank & Blanco, Jade Rabbit, JB & Sons, Mejico, New Brighton Hotel, Parkhouse, Steyne Hotel, Taylor's Rooftop, The Unicorn Hotel, Tio's Cerbeceria, Two Wolves, Websters Bar.
To all intents and purposes, it was just another ordinary morning in Newtown: bottle-necked traffic, bleary-eyed uni students clinging to coffee cups, wandering musicians who’d been heading home since late Friday night. And then, a couple of hours ago, two water buffaloes started running down King Street. Not just any old beasts taking a casual stroll looking for a spot of grass, but steaming angry ones. Online speculation is rife. Was it a piece of Biennale performance art? A premature April Fool’s prank? A visit to Enmore’s Cow and Moon Cafe? Clive, an eyewitness in Sydney Park, told ABC Radio’s Linda Mottram that the beasts were fresh escapees from a film crew. “They were at a Samsung film shoot,” he said. “Everybody’s out with mobiles, trying to find them. I saw them heading towards King Street and they vanished ... they’re pretty angry apparently.” Onlooker Abril Felman described the scene in Newtown to ABC Radio. “Everyone was on the street, just shocked, looking at these bulls running. It was crazy ... There was this jeep with filming equipment running behind them.” Mystified and terrified spectators started calling the police, but not before the buffaloes managed to cover about 2 kilometres in a city-bound direction. On the corner of Carillon Avenue and Missenden Road, a NSW Fire and Rescue truck confronted them, unintentionally. “One of our crews from Newtown was returning from an automatic fire alarm call,” spokesman Ian Krimmer explained to ABC Radio. “They were driving down Missenden road, turning into Carillon, when they were confronted with two water buffaloes ... They’ve taken the ladders off the fire trucks and used them as movable gates to corral the buffaloes into the front yard of a house ... I’ve been advised that the film crew in charge of the beasts is now taking care of them.” Image by Abril Felman.
Slurpees served from a treehouse? A grass-covered Hobbit-like rooftop? Things have gotten fantastical on the Bondi to Coogee walk. After keeping art lovers fuelled and feasted last year, The Grounds of Alexandria have popping up again at Sculpture by the Sea in 2015. This time, their temporary cafe has taken its inspiration from the literary endeavours of English authors J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. So be careful about slipping any rings onto your fingers or stepping inside wardrobes. The Grounds have been dreaming and scheming about this pop-up for ages. In fact, for the past six months, they’ve been growing grass specifically for the rooftop. And like any respectable Hobbit home, the pop-up is designed to blend in with its natural surroundings. Food-wise, you can enjoy healthy, hearty breakfasts and lunches, including legendary The Grounds burgers, slow-cooked lamb shoulder wraps and sausage sandwiches. To match all this deliciousness, they're serving top-notch drinks like The Grounds’ slurpees, dispensed from a purpose-built treehouse.
Have you made plans to dial up the romance with your partner on Valentine's and shower your friends with love on Galentine's? But what about your four-legged bestie? Enter the Lonely Barks Club — a free pop-up event hosted by Kip to reduce your pets' loneliness and separation anxiety this V-Day. From Monday, February 12 to Friday, February 16, you can drop off your pooch at Kip's doggy daycare in Alexandria, where they'll be treated to activities ranging from a cuddle corner and dog-themed movies to romantic storytime and a Yappy Hour speed-dating event on Thursday, February 15 from 6.30—7.30pm. Kip is on a mission to transform dog daycare with pick-up and drop-off services, daily activities and state-of-the-art facilities so you can trust that your loved ones are in good hands. Attendance to the Yappy Hour is free with registration, but in order to ensure a safe and fun experience for other dogs, all pups will need to pass a temperament test and complete a profile before entry. If you can't make it to the event but still want to check out Kip's doggy daycare, Kip has a limited-time offering for first-time customers: a deal of three visits for $78. The Lonely Barks Club runs from Monday, February 12 to Friday, February 16 at Kip's Alexandria Dog Daycare. Register your spot and find out more at Kip's website. Images: Ruthless Photos
Every January the New South Wales town of Parkes more than doubles its population for a very special birthday celebration — Elvis Presley's. The King may be long gone, but the regional town keeps his spirit very much alive when 27,000 loyal fans flock to five-day festival from January 8–12, proving that he was always on their mind. Elvis tribute artists from all over the world come to Parkes to battle it out to be named the Ultimate Elvis Tribute Artist. There's a Miss Priscilla competition, rock 'n' roll dancing, daily markets, trivia, bingo, movie screenings of films like Frankie and Johnny (this year's theme) and Love Me Tender. And there's never been a better time to kick off your blue suede shoes for Elvis karaoke. Cue up 'Jailhouse Rock' and bring the house down. The huge celebration of the hip shaking hound dog started life in the early 90s and it has grown in popularity with more than 200 events on the bill, many of which are free to attend. If you're a diehard regular, make sure you get into theme, which is the name of 1966 movie where Presley plays a riverboat gambler. It's now or never.
Gelato Messina is about to become a place both wonderful and strange. With Twin Peaks finally happening again in the form of an eagerly anticipated third season, the gelato kings are getting in on the action by turning two of their stores — one in Sydney and one in Melbourne — into the show's iconic Double R Diner for one day. Naturally, there'll be themed frozen goodness aplenty, as well as free scoops. It's going to be damn fine indeed. In what will be Messina's first ever store transformations, the Double R Diner is set to take over the Newtown store on May 22 and Richmond on May 25. There mightn't be staff called Norma and Shelly on-hand, but there will be custom-made cherry gelato 'pie'. If that's your idea of dessert heaven, then here, the ice cream is what it seems. This must be where pies go when they die. In addition to the limited edition pie — there will only be 50 slices available per store — Messina has created three custom Twin Peaks flavours. They'll be served up for free (yes, free) between the hours of 12pm and 4pm, and then again from 5pm to 10pm. Just what those varieties will be, if they'll be wrapped in plastic, and whether there'll be a jukebox on-site playing tunes you just want to click your fingers to — well, you'll have to head along to find out. You can probably expect good, hot, black coffee too. Let's just hope there isn't a fish in the percolator. Unless you've been trapped in the Black Lodge for the past 25 years, you'll know that the whole thing is timed to coincide with the start of new Twin Peaks season, which will drop on Stan in Australia at 2pm on Monday, May 22. All 18 episodes have been directed by David Lynch, so we're in for quite the treat. Celebrating with pie and gelato is something Special Agent Dale Cooper would approve of — remember his wise words of advice: "every day, once a day, give yourself a present". The Double R Diner will pop up at Gelato Messina Newtown on Monday, May 22 and at the Richmond store on Thursday, May 25 from 12–4pm and 5–10pm. For more information, visit the Sydney and Melbourne Facebook event pages.
There's no doubting the difference a cool $8 million can make. Should you be wondering, get along to The Buena in Mosman, which has been revamped by The Public House Management Group. Teaming up with SJB Interiors and Tess Regan Designs, the group has added some serious grandeur to the pub's entrance, courtesy of a massive brass sign. Heading inside, you'll notice marble-covered bench tops, pressed-leather booths and stunning wooden panelling. In keeping with its new look, The Buena has made a return to the gastropub scene. Guillaume Brahimi has worked closely with the group's executive chef, Ben Varela, to come up with a bunch of classic dishes with contemporary twists, including wood-fired pizzas and share plates. Dining takes place in the pub's upstairs Vista Bar. Meanwhile, the group's mixologist, Kurtis Bosley, has been turning his powers to the cocktail list, so you can expect some summery creations coming up. Live entertainment, featuring local musos and DJs, happens from Thursday through til Sunday. "Public House Management Group recognises the historically broad appeal of The Buena," said Mitchell Waugh, Founder and Managing Director of Public House Management Group. "And like to think that, in this renovation, they have catered for everyone, from families and sport fanatics to groups looking for afternoons and evenings of entertainment." Find The Buena at at 76 Middle Head Road, Mosman, is open Monday to Saturday, 11am-midnight, and Sundays, 11am-10pm. Visit their website for further information.
As played as an unrelenting force by Mia Goth (Infinity Pool), even when slasher killers have other plans, Maxine Minx was always going to go big and never go home. To wrap up the horror trilogy with the ambitious actor at its centre (when Goth hasn't also been playing Pearl, its other protagonist, as both an elderly and a younger woman), MaXXXine shoots for the stars as well, including in shifting to new surroundings. Gone is the New Zealand-standing-in-for-Texas production base of X and its prequel Pearl. Absent is the claustrophobic feel of mainly making one spot the franchise's location, whether it was taking place in the 70s in its first entry or in the 1910s in its second. This Los Angeles-set leap to 1985 sparkles with the same scorching drive and determination as its titular figure — and Minx, Goth, writer/director Ti West (Them) and MaXXXine alike won't accept a life, or a swansong instalment in one of the best sagas in the genre in the 2020s, that they do not deserve. From its debut with 2022's X, which turned a porn shoot in a remote farmhouse into a bloody stalking ground, West's big-screen series has always understood that sex and violence so often intersect in the arena that it's paying tribute to: moving pictures. X, Pearl and now MaXXXine also see how censors and the pearl-clutching equate one with the other. Equally, these pictures glean how a woman with a libidinous appetite — or simply the craving to succeed and the unwillingness to settle — can be deemed a larger threat to morality than a murderer. They also spy what a battle it too frequently is for women to chart their own path free of society's expectations, no matter their aspirations. West not only continues splattering these ideas through MaXXXine, but layering them, plus stacking his latest unpackings of them with X and Pearl. The true target in his current sights, however: what it just might cost to make it in a realm as ruthless and ravenous as stardom. The wannabe adult-film performer of X circa 1979 is now the hottest name in skin flicks six years later, a status that matches the sleazy gleam that West and cinematographer Eliot Rockett — who also returns from X and Pearl, and lensed the filmmaker's The House of the Devil, Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever and The Innkeepers before that — afford everything in sight in her new Hollywood life. Minx's existence and career is glowing, but she wants it to shine far and wide beyond porn's shadows, not to mention brighter. Only mainstream stardom will do, albeit with her attempts to break into legit on-camera work squeezed between her usual shoots and doing nights at a peep show. She's certain that she'll get there, though. After striding out of an audition early in the movie, Minx tells the long parade of other actors lining to be seen not to bother trying to walk in her footsteps. That quest to secure the lead in The Puritan 2, which British filmmaker Elizabeth Bender (Elizabeth Debicki, The Crown) is directing, is a helluva early character-defining moment — and moment in general. It's also cannily juxtaposed with a glimpse of Maxine's pre-X background, when she was a kid (Charley Rowan McCain, SWAT) in the 50s that Pearl cribbed its style and cinematic influences from, as seen on a TV set as black-and-white home-movie footage. Not giving up has been her mantra for decades, West makes plain. As Bender looks on with a steely stare, 80s-era Maxine performs her monologue with not just precision but conviction that's clearly been forged since her youngest days. She snaps into it instantly, summons tears just as commandingly, then switches back to her regular self as quickly. Digging into trauma is that easy for her. So is agreeing to the next audition request: baring her breasts. Booking the gig makes Minx a kindred spirit to Bender, in a way: both see MaXXXine's film within a film as a springboard to broader credibility, which is no straightforward task given the period or industry. But The Puritan 2's lead is also a woman haunted, though not in the soul-shaking sense, as X established isn't in this character's wheelhouse. Rather, her past keeps making its presence felt, especially via shady private detective John Labat (Kevin Bacon, Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F) and his mysterious employer, who know what Maxine did a few years prior to last summer. Additional torment comes via mounting deaths around her, which are chalked up by some to the Night Stalker — aka Richard Ramirez, the IRL serial killer who terrorised mid-80s LA — yet not by persistent detectives Williams (Michelle Monaghan, The Family Plan) and Torres (Bobby Cannavale, Bupkis). Also backdropped by the real-life campaign against purportedly inappropriate pop culture, such as the Parents Music Resource Center's "Filthy Fifteen" songs (tracks by Prince, Madonna, AC/DC, Cyndi Lauper, Mötley Crüe and Def Leppard all featured), MaXXXine might involve a realm that's all about money shots, but it's a neon-lit movie to scour while savouring the moment, not to watch waiting for the climax. That's no knock on the picture's finale, which knows how to deliver. Instead, it's recognition that West is having fun overall, and in slipping in nods to the film's predecessors, getting meta with his casting and riffing with screen history — all smartly and entertainingly. Putting Bacon, who is visibly having a ball, in an 80s-set horror flick while also winking to Footloose is the franchise's second-best use of talent since choosing Goth as its centre. Literally wandering around Tinseltown's past on the Universal lot, including the slasher ground zero that is the Bates Motel set, brings mood, meaning and more musings. The latter also gets a-layering itself, operating as an acknowledgement of how the work of Brian De Palma, whose four-decades-back releases Dressed to Kill and Body Double are clearly influences here, itself owed a debt to Alfred Hitchcock. For even more company for Goth, West finds space for Giancarlo Esposito (The Boys) as Maxine's agent and lawyer, Lily Collins (Emily in Paris) as a fellow actor, Sophie Thatcher (Yellowjackets) as an FX artist, and Halsey (Americana) and Moses Sumney (The Idol) as friends, too. With its roster of talent, MaXXXine also goes big. Still, it knows its star. Goth is the sun in this franchise, to be accurate, whether she's busting balls — which isn't a metaphor on every occasion — or stopping at nothing to be in the world that she so deeply and feverishly covets. There's wit, insight, gore, and both horror and cinema affection galore across X, Pearl and MaXXXine, and West gives it his all, but Goth's efforts over and over have sent this saga soaring. No viewer can doubt that as Maxine here and in X, as Pearl in X and the character's own eponymous flick, and as Mia after prior parts in Nymphomaniac: Vol II, A Cure for Wellness, Suspiria, High Life and Emma, that she would ever tolerate a single thing that she doesn't feel that she's earned and is entitled to.
Located in the sleepy backstreets of Rosebery, The Cannery is a hub of butchers, bakers, coffee roasters and world-class restaurants. It houses Sydney favourites like Archie Rose, Three Blue Ducks and Black Star Pastry. Now, just in time for the holiday season, the inner-city retail and dining centre is bringing back its old monthly markets that have sadly been missing from the majority of 2020. There will be plenty of local businesses on hand to support. If you're looking for unique presents you'll find handmade candles, jewellery, Christmas cards and artwork. If your sweet tooth gets the better of you, Christmas pudding, vegan macarons and Thicc Cookies will satisfy any festive cravings. Of course, a market at The Cannery wouldn't be complete without a tasting from some quality wineries and distillers. Never Never Distilling, Château Les Mesclances and Frerejean Frères will all be conducting tastings over the course of the weekend, Saturday, December 12 and Sunday, December 13. Plus, you can snag a sample of Blue Mountains Grown Gin, which is raising money for regeneration efforts at the Blue Mountains Botanic Gardens. While you're there you can also explore The Cannery's regular stores and vendors, or stick around for dinner at one of its many restaurants. The Cannery Christmas Market are open from 10am–3pm.
Australia's states have been known to serve each other some pretty stiff competition when it comes to world-class boozing and bartending. We've usually got a handful of cocktail haunts vying to take the top Aussie spot in the annual World's 50 Best Bars list (last year, that was Sydney's Maybe Sammy coming in at number 22) and innovative new venues are emerging on the scene all the time. In May, global bartending competition Diageo World Class ignited even more of that interstate drinks rivalry when it named its Top 100 Australian Bartenders for 2022, who would go on to compete for the coveted title spot. And now, after a few rounds of fierce contest and some exceptional mixology, we have a winner — Nick Tesar from Melbourne's Bar Liberty has been crowned this year's Diageo World Class Australian Bartender. Held in Sydney overnight, the final stage of the annual drinks competition saw five Aussie finalists battle it out behind the bar, as they showed off their skills across three whisky-focused challenges. Joining Tesar in the ring were fellow Victorian, Black Pearl's Kayla Saito, as well as Maybe Sammy's Sarah Proietti, Eduardo Conde from Glebe's No.92 GPR and Samuel Cocks from Western Australia's Bar Rogue. The night's challenges included a mystery box-style task centred on Talisker Scotch, which Tesar owned with a cumquat-based cocktail creation, and a speed round during which the winner managed to smash out 12 show-stopping drinks in just five minutes. [caption id="attachment_623310" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Bar Liberty, by Brook James[/caption] The newly-crowned bartending king will now go on to compete in the Diageo World Class global final in September, where he'll shake and stir up a storm alongside 55 other international hopefuls in a bid to be named World Class Global Bartender of the Year. He'll have a home-field advantage, too, with the competition to be held in Australia for the first time ever. It'll descend on Sydney as part of the World Class Cocktail Festival, from September 9–18. For full details on the Diageo World Class Australian Bartender competition and more info on Diageo World Class, check the Diageo Bar Academy website.
Stepping inside any Greek eatery should conjure up the sights, tastes and sensations of dining in the Mediterranean; however there's the usual Greece-inspired food and flourishes, and then there's 1821's epic, eye-poppingly opulent addition to the fold. That's what happens when you design and build the entire restaurant in the country in question, then ship it to Australia. No wonder it took longer than expected to come to fruition. 1821 opens more than a year after its initial planned launch in 2015, and reportedly cost more than $3 million, but it looks like it was worth the wait. Inside the Pitt Street spot you'll find three levels of architect-crafted eating and drinking luxury, as designed by hospitality specialist Dimitris Economou. That includes the main dining room, a private dining area upstairs, and a high-end vodka bar that's set to start serving beverages later this year. When it comes to meals and drinks, the indulgence keeps on coming thanks to chef David Tsirekas. Think lobster pasta, Greek san choy bow, white chocolate feta cheesecake, and caramel baklava ice-cream, plus a Aphrodite Bellini with solitaire sparkling Greek wine, and the Ouzotini with ouzo 'mini', mint infused vodka, peach schnapps and lime. And if you're wondering about the name, it commemorates the the first year of the Greek War of Independence, with 1821 specifically inspired by the Odessa bunker where a group of ambitious Greeks started the Greek Liberation Movement. Plus, in a restaurant that proudly champions the fact that it really is made in Greece, it also represents the venue's hopes to unite people fond of Greek culture. Find 1821 at 122 Pitt Street, Sydney. Visit their website and Facebook page for more information.
It's been a big year for Sydney hospo group Merivale. On top of reopening The Newport back in March, they've rounded out the year by opening their long-awaited Oxford Street double venue Fred's and Charlie Parker's and also buying Botany Road's Tennyson Hotel for a cool $37.5 million. And to top off a huge 2016, they're opening another new venue today, Monday, December 12. In April of 2015, they bought the iconic Queen Victoria Hotel in Enmore — and now, 19 months later, they're ready to open her back up. Like Fred's and Charlie Parker's, the Queens Hotel (as it's now known) will comprise of two venues: a restaurant and a bar. Downstairs will be home to Queen Chow, a Cantonese restaurant lead by Papi Chulo duo Christopher Hogarth and Patrick Friesen and dumpling master Eric Koh, formerly of Mr. Wong. The menu is packed full of twists on traditional Hong Kong street fare like salt and pepper cuttlefish and silken tofu and prawns with chilli bean mayo. They'll also have a whole roast duck with plum sauce on the menu, and a typhoon shelter crab, which is deep fried and served with garlic, chilli, black bean and pulp from soybeans. Dayum. If your tastes run more towards delicious pillows of filled dough, the dim sum menu has been lovingly designed by Eric Koh, guided by his 30 years of dumpling experience. He'll be serving up steamed, baked and fried dumps for lunch, dinner and late night supper — the latter of which should really be a legal requirement of all bars. And once you've gorged to satiation at Queen Chow, head upstairs to The Smelly Goat (excellent name, team) for some bizarre cocktail combos. We've got a lot of faith in the Merivale team (we recently drank a cocktail flavoured with grass from Centennial Park at Charlie Parker's), so we're willing to give their weirder inventions a try — like the Dutch Courage cocktail with carrot, Maker's Mark and white wine. Could go either way. But we're champing at the bit to try the Moloko Plus – it comes with Crunchy Nut milk, white rum and cardamom. Sounds very Momofuku Milk Bar and totally acceptable to drink at breakfast. Naturally, because it's Merivale, you'll be sipping these concoctions in supremely well-styled surrounds. The bar will have a salon feel with fabric-lined walls and black timber panelling, plus an onyx bar top and taxidermy bird boxes filling the space. It's been done in collaboration with Merivale regulars Amanda Talbot and Kelvin Ho of Akin Creative, who have also styled the downstairs restaurant as well. The Queens Hotel is Merivale's first venture into Sydney's inner west, so it'll be interesting to see how to the venue is received by locals. End-of-year drinks, anyone? The Queens Hotel opens at noon on Monday, December 12 at 167 Enmore Road, Enmore. It will be open for lunch, dinner and supper seven days a week. For more info, visit merivale.com.au/queenshotel.
