How'd you like to populate your Christmas feast with local, artisanal goods to make your relatives impressed and your in-laws floored? Carriageworks is bringing back its Christmas Market, where you can buy fresh seasonal produce just a couple of days before Christmas. Importantly, you can also buy gifts just days before the big day — because we know what you're like. Taking over Carriageworks' regular Saturday morning meet on December 22, the market will go all Christmas with a cornucopia of the spoils of 115 of Australia's best producers, restaurants and designers — think homemade plum puddings, succulent hams, fresh cherries, smelly cheeses and more. Expect the best from the weekly Carriageworks Farmers Market and more, including Christmas hams from Linga Longa Farm, cherries from Kurrawong Organics, gluten-free mince tarts from Kitchen Green, Andy Bowdy, from Enmore's Saga, famed desserts and much festive gin from Archie Rose. Plus, there'll be plenty more joining the party — more than 120 stallholders, to be exact — so expect to see Continental (and its much-loved tinned goods), Flour and Stone, Pasta Emilia, Smoking Gun Bagels and Pepe Saya there too. Of course, you can grab a snack as well, with the Fish Butchery, Bar Pho, Single O and Bibim Bowl setting up stalls for the morning. Look at that, Carriageworks just saved Christmas. Images: Jacquie Manning.
He's soft and cuddly, has a hankering for honey and hibernating, and believes that doing nothing leads to the very best something. With wisdom like that, he could be a wellness guru — but instead, Winnie-the-Pooh is a walking, talking teddy bear. There are many reasons to love the best-known inhabitant of the Hundred Acre Wood. Taking inspiration from a stuffed toy cherished by his son Christopher Robin, author A.A. Milne crafted the cute creature with ample affection, making him feel like the best friend that every kid always wanted. With dashings of black ink on white paper, illustrator E. H. Shepard also brought the bear to life with grace and care in drawings that felt like they could wander off the paper. Thanks to an array of short films, features and television shows over the past six decades, Pooh did mosey beyond those pages. That said, he has never taken a stroll in quite the fashion seen in Christopher Robin. With director Marc Forster (World War Z) mixing live-action and CGI, Pooh is an adorable ball of fluff that couldn't look more realistic. He's covered with tufts of naturalistic fur that viewers will instantly want to run their fingers through and, thanks to special effects that give him a well-worn appearance, it looks like plenty of people already have. Courtesy of a script by Alex Ross Perry (Golden Exits), Tom McCarthy (Spotlight) and Allison Schroeder (Hidden Figures), Pooh is also actually dispensing wellness advice to a now-adult Christopher Robin (Ewan McGregor, charming even when he's haunted by stress). Indeed, if there's one thing that Christopher Robin takes seriously, it's the idea of not taking life too seriously. In a movie with the sweetness of Pooh's preferred food — but a dose of melancholy too — the childhood character pops into Christopher Robin's life when he least expects it. (Not that anyone expects a living teddy bear to find them in a London garden, follow them home and start putting their sticky paws on everything.) It has been years since Christopher farewelled Pooh, with boarding school, the Second World War, and now work and his family all monopolising his attention instead. But trying to balance his personal and professional lives, or failing to, has left Christopher in a spot of bother. While his wife Evelyn (Hayley Atwell) and daughter Madeline (Bronte Carmichael) head out to the country, he's stuck at home alone working for a luggage company. Then Pooh shows up, searching for the missing Tigger, Piglet, Eeyore, Kanga, Roo, Owl and Rabbit, and making Christopher realise exactly what he's missing. Much of Christopher Robin follows its two central characters as they roam around the Hundred Acre Wood. It's a hangout movie — viewers not only hang out with characters they love, but watch them hang out as well. While the drama about meeting work deadlines feels somewhat flimsy as a result, just soaking in the film's scenic surroundings and loveable figures offers enough to enjoy. Forster certainly thinks so, with the movie never as buoyant as when it's focusing firmly on Christopher Robin, Pooh and their green sanctuary. Intricate production design assists, ensuring that every swaying tree and meadow of grass is as eye-catching as a certain bear of very little brain. As viewers rove their eyes over Christopher Robin's splendid sights, they're doing just what the film espouses: slowing down, enjoying the moment, and switching off from the hustle and bustle. Still, as you're clearing space in your head thanks to this nice little movie — and it's truly the epitome of nice, soothing, cosy and comfortable — you might notice a few familiar elements. Forster has dallied with a beloved childhood story before in Finding Neverland, while the idea of a fictional animal character coming to life smacks of Paddington and its sequel, and Hook told overworked men to reconsider their priorities more than two decades ago. You may also recall 2017's forgettable Goodbye Christopher Robin, but thankfully Christopher Robin doesn't underestimate its audience or smother anyone in treacly sentiment. In imagining a new adventure for Pooh and his human pal rather than revisiting their beginnings, the film simply wants viewers to delight in the big-hearted pleasures of its gorgeous world. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PakpWVOK37Y
Market City is adding a new food hub to its offering, launching eight Asian eateries as part of the new 1909 Dining Precinct on its third floor. The precinct will open in stages, beginning with the unveiling of Australia's second Mr Meng Chongqing Gourmet outpost today, Thursday, March 8. Cheeky If You Are The One host Meng Fei is swiftly expanding his noodle franchise since opening in Melbourne in mid-2017. Sydney patrons can expect the chongqing spicy noodles and signature deep fried spring rolls on offer. This might seem a little weird, but Grandpa Meng is actually a Kim K-level celeb in China thanks to his shenanigans on the cult dating show and already has a string of noodles shops to his name. The remaining seven restaurants will all be open by mid-2018. They'll range from casual takeaway joints to full-on dining rooms, like the 200-seater that will house the first Australian site for Macau's popular hot pot chain, Dolar Shop. The other eateries will be Kogi, a Korean barbecue restaurant specialising in soju-marinated meats; YAYOI Japanese Teishoku, offering up set meals like wagyu beef hot pots and grilled eel on rice; Chinese eatery Beijing Impressions; and sushi train Fugetsu. Two additional restaurants are yet to be announced. The precinct's design is focused around a communal lounge area, with each restaurant boasting a custom fit-out. Jin Wu Koon, a Sydney-based dragon and lion dance team, will perform an official blessing ritual in the space today, which is meant to bring luck, fortune and prosperity. "We are excited to be evolving our offer to deliver an elevated day-to-night food experience, heralding a new era of dining at Market City and something we believe will further underscore our position as one of the city's most authentic and vibrant Asian food destinations," says Market City manager David Yam. The opening coincides with Market City's 21st anniversary and the dining hall's name reflects the year the building was constructed — then housing Sydney's first fruit and veg market. The precinct's launch marks the second stage of renovations, with the first floor food court revamped last year. 1909 Dining Precinct opens Thursday, March 8 on level three of Market City , 9–13 Hay Street, Haymarket. It will be open seven days a week until late. We'll keep you updated and you can check marketcity.com.au for more information.
A thrilling sports film, heartbreaking drama and eye-opening cautionary tale all rolled in to one, All This Mayhem will transcend your expectations of its subject matter. Ostensibly a documentary about the rise and fall of two former skateboarding champions, in execution the Australian-made production bears closer resemblance to (in the words of its director) a modern-day Greek tragedy, full of hubris, temptation and a reckless disregard for long-term consequences. The larger-than-life characters at the heart of the real world drama are Melbourne-born brothers Tas and Ben Pappas. As kids, the siblings found escape at a skate ramp Prahran, where they quickly gained a reputation as two of the most daring skaters around. As teenagers in the early '90s, they travelled to the United States, where their incredible ability would bring new life to the sport they loved. But with the success came a hard partying lifestyle — and the catalysts for a truly spectacular downfall. Director Eddie Martin uncovers an incredible wealth of footage, drawing on old home movies and DIY skate vids to glossy tournament coverage broadcast on ESPN. Through this mix of high- and low-res video, we watch the Australian duo turn the flagging world of skateboarding on its head. No matter your level of interest in the sport, it's difficult not to be wowed by the aerial acrobatics on display. Moreover, Martin demonstrates a natural flair for narrative, honing in on the bitter rivalry between Tas and Tony Hawk as a means to sucking non-fans into the drama. But as any skater would tell you, what goes up must eventually come down. So as the film moves into its second half, the sense of exhilaration is replaced by feelings of horror and despair. In an extended present-day interview, a rueful Tas speaks with devastating candour about the decisions that ultimately ripped apart his life. At the same time, the absence of any recent footage of Ben makes it clear that something is terribly amiss. Rarely does a movie, documentary or otherwise, make you care so deeply about its characters. It's for that reason that All This Mayhem is as emotionally wrenching as it is. In what is shaping up to be a banner year for Australian cinema, this wild and powerful doco has officially stolen the lead. https://youtube.com/watch?v=8mPlO1WnLHQ
UPDATE, April 21, 2021: A Simple Favour is available to stream via Netflix, Stan, Google Play, YouTube Movies and Amazon Video. A Simple Favour is an unashamed delight: a deliciously twisty mystery with the zest and kick of a strong gin martini (and the visible gloss and sparkle of one too). Based on Darcey Bell's 2017 novel of the same name, the film slings its thrills with an upbeat vibe from director Paul Feig, dynamic performances from Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively, plus a knowing but never mocking tone. It's the fun, fierce movie that Gone Girl might've become had it been vastly more playful, and boasts the flair that The Girl on the Train desperately needed. That's not a criticism of the former film, although it definitely is about the latter. If there's one thing that A Simple Favour knows above all else, it's how to turn a pulpy airplane read into an irresistible big-screen experience. Kendrick plays the widowed Stephanie, a perky, perennially helpful mum who lives for her young son. From overzealously signing up for every school activity that she can, to dispensing mothering tips on her vlog, she's a maternal wind-up bunny, to the point of ridicule by other parents (including Andrew Rannells as a snarky, scene-stealing dad). No one, including Stephanie, would've expected fashion executive Emily (Lively) to pay her any attention. The duo only start spending afternoons together downing cocktails and listening to jazzy French pop because their kids beg for a playdate. It's a chalk and cheese relationship, with Stephanie awed by her new pal's glamorous home, life and husband (Henry Golding), while Emily maintains an air of aloof, self-involved intrigue. Then Emily asks Stephanie to do her a simple favour, and nothing is ever simple again. One of Stephanie's video blogs kickstarts A Simple Favour, instantly revealing that Emily has disappeared. That's the film's basic premise — and when the movie fills in the gaps via flashback, it sets up one of its recurring motifs. As this sleuthing story slinks and snakes along a trail of gloriously unhinged developments, the truth proves slippery. Any good thriller involves duplicity, and all notable detective tales have their fair share of zigzags. Feig frequently serves up both while simultaneously fracturing the flimsy facade of suburban bliss, letting his characters spin their stories as his images expose the reality behind them. It's a technique that the filmmaker has cause to use often, and it adds to an enjoyably devilish atmosphere. Indeed, the director of Bridesmaids, The Heat, Spy and Ghostbusters might be in less overtly jokey territory than usual, but Feig's trademarks are all still on show. His latest female-focused flick throws women into a realm often populated by men, yet firmly retains its own personality. As the movie charts a knotty whodunnit narrative, it also follows its protagonists as they realise just what they're really capable of — be it nice or nasty. Furthermore, A Simple Favour brandishes a cutting, subversive sense of humour, while ensuring that viewers are always laughing with rather than at his on-screen ladies. Even when Kendrick is at her peppiest, and Lively at her most gleefully cunning, siding with the two is consistently on the cards. Whatever Stephanie and Emily get up to — and this is a film with a body count, oh-so-many deep secrets and more than 50 shades of darkness — the actors behind them are flawless. Kendrick nabbed an Oscar nomination for Up in the Air almost a decade ago, and Lively ruled New York's Upper East Side for six seasons on Gossip Girl, but here they're both given roles that are intricately attuned to their individual talents. That remains true emotionally as well as physically, with Stephanie a pocket livewire who's enthusiastic, awkward but never out of her element, and Emily seductive yet savage whether she's decisively making the perfect drink or devastating everyone around her with the sharpest of dialogue. Screenwriter Jessica Sharzer is in her element, too, even if a A Simple Favour doesn't initially seem an obvious companion to 2016's tech-savvy Nerve, her previous screenplay. Both movies share a knack for finding the sweet spot between the silly and sublime as their warped plots turns themselves inside out, A Simple Favour more successfully so. Sharzer's scripts veer into ridiculousness but float above B-grade schlock, and throw winks at the audience yet never act like the whole thing is just an ironic gag — although the source material assists considerably in this case. With help from Feig, Kendrick and Lively, the end result is slick, smart, slightly sleazy and ruthlessly entertaining, and remains thoroughly committed to making viewers eat up every moment. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqsdrYBPjv8
UPDATE, November 3, 2021: The Harder The Fall is available to stream via Netflix from Wednesday, November 3. Idris Elba. A piercing gaze. One helluva red velvet suit. A film can't coast by on such a combination alone, and The Harder They Fall doesn't try to — but when it splashes that vivid vision across the screen, it's nothing short of magnificent. The moment arrives well into Jeymes Samuel's revisionist western, so plenty of stylishness has already graced its frames before then. Think: Old West saloons in brilliant yellows, greens and blues; the collective strut of a cast that includes Da 5 Bloods' Delroy Lindo and Jonathan Majors, Atlanta's Zazie Beetz and LaKeith Stanfield, and If Beale Street Could Talk Oscar-winner Regina King; and an aesthetic approach that blasts together the cool, the slick and the operatic. Still, Elba and his crimson attire — and the black vest and hat that tops it off — is the exclamation mark capping one flamboyant and vibrant movie. Imaginative is another appropriate word to describe The Harder They Fall, especially its loose and creative take on American history. Where some features based on the past take a faithful but massaged route — fellow recent release The Last Duel, for example — this one happily recognises what's fact and what's fantasy. Its main players all existed centuries ago, but Samuel and co-screenwriter Boaz Yakin (Now You See Me) meld them into the same narrative. That's an act of complete fiction, as is virtually everything except their names. The feature freely admits this on-screen before proceedings begin, though, and wouldn't dream of hiding from it. Team-up movies aren't rare, whether corralling superheroes or movie monsters, but there's a particular thrill and power to bringing together these fictionalised Black figures in such an ambitious and memorable, smart and suave, and all-round swaggering film. After proving such a commanding lead in HBO series Lovecraft Country, Majors takes centre stage here, too, as gunslinger Nat Love. First, however, the character is initially introduced as a child (Anthony Naylor Jr, The Mindy Project), watching his parents get murdered by the infamous Rufus Buck (Elba, The Suicide Squad). A quest for revenge ensues — and yes, Nat shares an origin story with Batman. Samuel definitely isn't afraid to get stylised and cartoonish, or melodramatic, or playful for that matter. One of the keys to The Harder They Fall is that it's so many things all at once, and rarely is it any one thing for too long. This is a brash and bold western from its first vividly shot frame till its last, of course, and yet it's also a film about the tragedies that infect families, the violence that infects societies, and the hate, abuse, prejudice, discrimination and bloodshed that can flow from both. It's a romance, too, and it nails its action scenes like it's part of a big blockbuster franchise. As an adult, Nat still has Rufus in his sights. It'll take a few twists of fate — including a great train robbery to free Rufus en route from one prison to the next — to bring them face to face again. The sequence where the outlaw's righthand woman Trudy (King) and quick-drawing fellow gang member Cherokee Bill (Stanfield) take on the law is sleek heist delight, and the saloon clash with marshal Bass Reeves (Lindo) that gets Nat back on Rufus' trail is just as dextrously handled. Nat also has bar proprietor and his on-again, off-again ex Stagecoach Mary (Beetz) on his side, plus the boastful Beckwourth (RJ Cyler, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl), sharp-shooting Bill Pickett (Edi Gathegi, Briarpatch) and diminutive Cuffee (Danielle Deadwyler, P-Valley). Everyone gets their moments, and every one of those moments sashays towards a blood-spattered showdown. It might seem like a pure boilerplate affair on the page, particularly when getting roguish with the western genre — and using it to muse on race — has peppered Quentin Tarantino's resume courtesy of The Hateful Eight and Django Unchained. One of the other keys to The Harder They Fall is how openly and confidently that Samuel knows whose footsteps he's following in, because this is a realm with a past as sprawling as the plains it frequently covets. Seasoned fans can spot the nods in a multitude of directions, including to 60s and 70s spaghetti westerns, and to plenty of other flicks from the same era starring Clint Eastwood. But this is act of reclamation built on the bones of all that's come before, rather than a homage; it slides into a busy field to assert a place for Black cowboys, and does so as beguilingly as Samuel knows how. Perhaps better known as a songwriter and music producer, aka The Bullitts, Samuel brings a thrumming, dynamic, take-charge energy to The Harder They Fall. He writes, directs and composes the movie's soundtrack, too, so that applies across the board. Indeed, the way that he weaves the sounds of hip hop, reggae and afrobeat into a score that also takes cues from the late, great Ennio Morricone — the man behind the music to all of Sergio Leone's spaghetti westerns, as well as an Oscar-winner for The Hateful Eight — perfectly encapsulates his overall approach. Samuel has room for all that's come before, and reverence for it, but he's also committed to challenging and redefining the stories and mythology it represents. The Harder They Fall has purpose, pluck and panache — oh-so-much flair, in fact, that it drips across everything from the cinematography to the production design and dapper costuming. It has pace as well, with its 130-minute running-time whizzing by amid several shootouts filled with rapid-fire bullets and enough strong glares to fuel a franchise of flicks. It also boasts the absolute best posse that Samuel could've hoped for. The Harder They Fall's cast is the kind you build an entire movie around, not that that's the gambit here. It'd be hard to thrust this ensemble together and have something other than a spectacular acting showcase result, but this is a rollicking pleasure with the exact right cast, an abundance of smarts, savvy and style, and an unwavering backbone. Top image: David Lee/Netflix.
Prepare for an unforgettable night of elevated dining as Toko partners with Haku Vodka to host an intimate omakase experience. On Tuesday, October 15, just ten guests will have the chance to enjoy a bespoke evening of premium Japanese cuisine paired with luxurious House of Suntory Haku Vodka cocktails, all in Toko's private dining room, for $295 per person. Where's This Exclusive Omakase Evening Happening? This exclusive event will take place in the private dining room in the sleek subterranean restaurant, which is mere footsteps from Wynyard Station and the Light Rail on George Street. Known for its elegant atmosphere and top-tier Japanese dining, Toko is the perfect backdrop for this intimate culinary experience. What's on the Menu? Guests will indulge in a tailored omakase menu featuring expertly crafted Japanese dishes complemented by the refined flavours of Haku Vodka. Guests will be greeted on arrival with a Superstar Martini (more details on the drinks below) before being seated to enjoy the omakase experience. Several dishes throughout the evening will feature Haku Vodka as a hero ingredient, showcasing the versatility of the premium spirit. The first plating includes Pacific oysters with pink grapefruit dressed with Haku Vodka tozazu sauce and topped with ikura (red caviar). This is served along with steak tartare with crispy rice and caviar and Hokkaido scallops with a zingy yuzu granita with Haku Vodka ponzu. The second course is a chef's selection of sashimi and Toko's signature nigiri starring the freshest raw seafood, which may include melts-on-the-tongue tuna, snapper and salmon, along with whatever else is in season and of the highest quality. These are served with Haku Vodka-infused soy sauce. The next plating includes succulent Skull Island Prawn masago arare seasoned with lobster salt and lime. Guests will get their tastebuds tingling with its accompanying dish: seafood gyoza with a fiery sauce. Next, guests will enjoy freshly cooked king crab legs with Hau Vodka-infused miso butter and Wagyu Tajima, one of the most prized Wagyu breeds. Finally, the dessert course. Toko's culinary team have crafted a delightful meringue tofu mascarpone with passionfruit and coulis, plus a palate-refreshing mandarin sorbet. What's Included in the Cocktail Flight? The evening kicks off with a Superstar Martini upon arrival. This special cocktail blends Haku Vodka, apple juice, lime juice, and white chocolate syrup for a softly sweet, fruit-forward drink that pairs perfectly with the omakase offering. But the indulgence doesn't stop there. Throughout the evening, guests will enjoy a five-cocktail flight, each featuring Haku Vodka. The cocktails are designed to complement and elevate the dining experience, offering a sophisticated pairing with each dish. First up is the Amondo Sour, a Japanese twist on a traditional amaretto sour to pair with the first course; next is a Strawberry Firudo a delicate fruity number that perfectly complements the sashimi course; that's followed by Hansamu Twist, literally translated to "a handsome twist"; that's followed by the Obi Wan Wasabi a spicy cocktail to refresh the palate and great contrast for the wagyu Tajima; the final cocktail is the Watashi Kudasai, a subtle sweet concoction that is an excellent pairing to the final dessert course. What's Haku Vodka? Haku Vodka is a premium Japanese craft spirit crafted solely from 100 percent Japanese white rice. Its name, which means 'white' and 'brilliant' in Japanese, reflects the purity and craftsmanship behind its creation. The vodka undergoes a meticulous distillation process and is filtered through bamboo charcoal, resulting in a smooth and refined spirit. With its clean, delicate flavour profile and a hint of natural sweetness, Haku Vodka offers the perfect base for Toko's culinary team to explore a harmonious blend of flavours, textures and aromas throughout their dishes. How to Nab a Spot? This exclusive event is limited to just ten guests, so book your spot as soon as you can. The omakase evening takes place on Tuesday, October 15, at 6.30pm in Toko's private dining room. Seats are $295 per person. Don't miss your chance to be part of this extraordinary event — book now to secure your spot. The Exclusive Omakase Evening with Haku Vodka will be held on Tuesday, October 15, at Toko. You can make your reservation on the website. Haku Vodka's signature serve is the Haku martini — a drink that showcases the craftsmanship, nuanced flavour and exceptional quality of the premium Japanese liquid. To learn more, head to the House of Suntory website. Image Credit: Jude Cohen, Steven Woodburn and supplied
Over the past six months, Fleabag picked up six Emmy Awards and two Golden Globes, becoming the most-acclaimed TV comedy of the past year. Sadly, that isn't enough to inspire Phoebe Waller-Bridge to make more episodes of the hit show — but for everyone lamenting the Fleabag-sized hole in their lives, the multi-talented Brit has a new project landing soon. She has a couple, actually. Waller-Bridge helped write the script for delayed Bond flick No Time to Die, which is no small feat. If you're keen to see her on-screen, however, then you'll want to add Run to your must-watch pile. Waller-Bridge executive produces and pops up among the cast, with Vicky Jones — the director of her Fleabag stage show, and a script editor on Fleabag's first TV season — writing and producing the series. Hitting HBO in the US in mid-April and Foxtel in Australia around the same time, Run spends time with ex-lovers Ruby Richardson (Unbelievable's Merritt Wever) and Billy Johnson (Star Wars: Episode IX — The Rise of Skywalker's Domhnall Gleeson). They dated in college and, 17 years ago, they made a pact. First, one of them has to text the word 'run' whenever they feel like it. Next, the other has to respond the same way. After that, they both have to drop everything, step away from their everyday lives and meet at Grand Central Station, then travel across the America together. For Ruby, that means escaping her monotonous existence and leaving her husband (Mad Men's Rich Sommer) at home. As for what happens next, while last month's first teaser gave a bit of a glimpse, the just-released full trailer provides more of a sneak peek. Expect plenty of chatty train trips, as well as both tension and laughs — with HBO badging the series as a romantic-comedy thriller. And if you're wondering about Waller-Bridge, she plays Laurel, a woman who Ruby and Billy meet on their journey. Check out the full trailer below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9TjitrfeMo Run starts streaming on Foxtel Now and screening on Foxtel Showcase in Australia, Thursdays at 8.30pm from May 7. Image: Ken Woroner/HBO. UPDATE: MAY 7, 2020 — Run was initially meant to hit Foxtel back in April, but it was postponed till May 7. The above copy has been updated to reflect this.
A character drama about a West Texas woman who wins the lottery, but six years later has nothing to show for it except pain, alcoholism and burned bridges, To Leslie is all about English talent Andrea Riseborough's remarkable performance — famously so thanks to her Best Actress Oscar nomination for an indie film widely underseen until that nod of approval. Nothing can take away the power of the Mandy, Possessor and Amsterdam star's stunning portrayal. A spectacular performance is a spectacular performance regardless of what surrounds it. So, Riseborough's work in the debut feature from seasoned TV director Michael Morris (Better Call Saul, 13 Reasons Why, Brothers & Sisters) remains a gut-punch no matter the controversy around the campaign by high-profile names to help get her the Academy's recognition, with Kate Winslet, Edward Norton and Jennifer Aniston among those advocating for accolades. To Leslie remains Riseborough's movie despite comedian and actor Mark Maron uttering the words that sum it up best, too. In his latest compassionate performance — with a less-gruff edge than he sports in GLOW — he plays Sweeney, the co-proprietor of a roadside motel in Leslie's hometown. That's where she ends up again after the money runs out, plus her luck and everyone she knows' patience with it. As scripted by Ryan Binaco (3022), Sweeney is another of To Leslie's flawed characters. The movie teems with such folks because everyone of us is flawed, and it sees that truth with the clearest of eyes. In a sincere but awkward chat, Sweeney explains how his now ex-wife's drinking helped end his marriage; however, he catches himself afterwards, making a point to say that just because his story turned out like that, that doesn't mean Leslie's will as well, or that he thinks it that'll occur. One person's tale can be everyone's — cinema, and storytelling in general, thrives on the fact that the deeply specific can be profoundly universal — but no one's experiences ever play out exactly as another's have. That's an essential message at the heart of To Leslie, and it's one that asks for understanding but not judgement. While watching the film's very fictional namesake on-screen, it's easy to spy parallels, to relate, and to feel what it is to be in Leslie, Sweeney or the feature's other figures' shoes. Movies are empathy machines, after all. That said, battling assumptions about what the course that Leslie's story has to follow, and what that says about her and other people who've struggled with addiction and poverty, is as important to Morris and Binaco's picture as Risebourgh's awards-worthy performance. There's such weight and soul to the actor's titular portrayal in this tale of redemption — when Leslie is at her best, worst, hovering in-between and splashing between the two extremes alike. In early footage that's repeated later, Riseborough is giddily ecstatic holding a giant cheque for $190,000 and hollering in a local news interview about what an impact it'll make (and promising to spoil her young son). She cuts a still-wiry, still-determined sight, but now fraught rather than euphoric, in the hard jump to after the cash has been drunk away, which is when she's being kicked out of her The Florida Project-style digs for not paying her bill. There's a visible difference between the two Leslies, as her grown-up boy James (Teague, The Stand) notes without saying when she reunites with him next — but much of Riseborough's efforts are about what's churning inside Leslie moment by moment, whether inebriated, desperate for whatever she can sip or stone-cold sober. When she turns up carting a pink suitcase containing all of her worldly belongings, James has one rule for Leslie's attempts to reconnect: no booze. Part of the heartbreak of To Leslie, and of Riseborough's performance, is foreseeing what might happen while witnessing how Leslie endeavours to battle against it. Similarly, part of the film's joys and surprises spring when addiction doesn't win out. With James, though, Leslie can't keep her promise. When she's sent home to Dutch (Stephen Root, Barry) and Nancy (Allison Janney, Breaking News in Yuba County), pals she was once as close as family with, she's met with the spite and bitterness of former friends rather than a son's disappointment and hurt. The bulk of the small town's residents similarly have long memories, largely treating her as a joke. And Sweeney's colleague Royal (Andre Royo, Truth Be Told) is hesitant when the former sees her sleeping outside their motel, initially runs her off, but then generously offers her both a place to stay and a cleaning job. Country music echoes within the film, heard and spoken about, in a telling choice for a movie about second, third, fourth and fifth chances (and more). Notes of Wild Rose, another feature about a woman piecing her life back together, filter in with that in mind; the two pictures have plenty of dissimilarities, too, but share exceptional leads. Indeed, simply watching Riseborough sit at a bar nursing a drink and listening to a twang-filled tune makes for an astonishing scene, with Morris shrewdly holding the moment, and cinematographer Larkin Seiple (Everything Everywhere All At Once) lighting a lengthy closeup like it's extraordinary and ordinary all at once. In what might be her biggest acting feat in a deservedly well-regarded career, Riseborough knows how to be Leslie, not play her — in this scene and from start to finish. This isn't a performance courting attention, but one committed to conveying what's swishing and swirling within a tumultuous character whose strengths and missteps are both always in view. To Leslie's least impressive trait is its fondness for neat and conventional beats, although Riseborough ensures that even the most predictable plot developments never feel like a standard pour (as does Morris' ability to recognise what he has with Riseborough as the narrative's anchor). Stories can turn out like this, traversing the highs as well as the lows, and To Leslie certainly isn't afraid of getting messy through its protagonist and her lifetime's worth of tussles before it starts letting hope loiter. It definitely isn't scared of showing what's worth striving for, either, be it the tenderness of Leslie and Sweeney's blossoming bond, the yearning of a mother who wants to finally be able to do right by her son, or a path to a future that's safe and sustainable. Riseborough is striving, of course, but her every move and expression — alone, and when paired with the also-excellent Teague, Maron and Janney — couldn't be more raw, complex and lived in.
Masters of late night snack fuel Ben & Jerry's have been dishing out pop culture-riffing flavours like Liz Lemon Greek Frozen Yoghurt, Stephen Colbert's AmeriCone Dream and, of course, Schweddy Balls for years. Now, the the masters of frozen confection have gone and opened their seventh store in western Sydney's suburb of Wetherill Park. And, to celebrate, they're giving away free — free! — scoops for four whole hours. Head along to the new shop between 4–8pm on Thursday, August 15 and you can score an ice cream on the house. The hardest part of the night will be deciding what flavour — should you go chocolate fudge brownie? Salted caramel? Vegan caramel almond brittle? Dairy-free coconut almond fudge chip? See, it's not easy. As the new Scoop Store is located inside Hoyts, it could be a good excuse to organise a movie date night, too.
In an attempt to reduce the spread of COVID-19 across Australia, Prime Minister Scott Morrison has announced an indefinite ban on non-essential organised gatherings of more than 500 people from Monday, March 16. The decision was made this afternoon at a meeting of Council of Australian Governments, which is made up of the PM and state and territory First Ministers, on the recommendation of Australia's Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy. Schools, universities, public transport and airports will not be impacted by the ban, but the government is recommending Australians reconsider all non-essential overseas travel, regardless of their age, health or destination. Large sporting games, concerts and food festivals will all be impacted by the ban and it's possible venues with a capacity of over 500 people will, despite not falling under the banner of 'organised events', also decide to close. We'll let you know if and when these are announced. While the ban does not come into place until Monday, many large-scale events across the country have taken precautionary measures and already cancelled or postponed, including Melbourne's Meatstock, Parramasala in Sydney's west and Brisbane's Paniyiri Greek Festival. Australia's ban follows a similar one introduced in New York yesterday, as well as the closure of large swathes of cinemas in China, Iran, South Korea, Japan, Italy and France, and theme parks in Shanghai, Hong Kong and Tokyo. We've also seen the cancellation of Texan music and film festival South by Southwest and postponement of Coachella. More locally, Tasmania's Dark Mofo and the Grand Prix in Melbourne have both been cancelled. The World Health Organisation (WHO) announced early this week that COVID-19 is a pandemic. As at 11am on Friday, March 13, Australia has 156 cases confirmed cases of COVID-19. To find out more about the status of COVID-19 in Australia and how to protect yourself, head to the Australian Government Department of Health's website.
It was just a matter of time, really. Belvoir's new artistic director has been rummaging through the canon again and come across Henrik Ibsen's Ghosts. Eamon Flack will direct his own adaptation of the work with a cast that includes Pamela Rabe, Colin Moody and Robert Menzies. Captain Alving has kicked the bucket. Mrs. Alving couldn't be happier about this, owing to the Captain being a serial adulterer and inviting quite a bit of scandal round for tea. Fearful that their son Oswald might take after his father, Mrs. Alving sent him away to France, but now she wants him back. When he returns, she'll come to realise how the sins of the father have been preying on Oswald since birth. Even adapted, Ibsen plays are always total shame parties. If you've any moral decadence in your bones, purge yourself of it now. If not, you risk having it guilt-flogged out of you by the 19th century's master of the dirty secret in the Upstairs Theatre this month. Image: Daniel Boud.
UPDATE, June 29, 2022: Midsommar is available to stream via Netflix, Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. In the dark, sprawling house at the centre of Ari Aster's Hereditary, nightmares flourished in even the safest of spaces. In the writer-director's sophomore release, Midsommar, devilish deeds and diabolical forces thrive in lush meadows dappled with unrelenting Swedish daylight. Once again weaving a maze of death, trauma, family, secrets, strange sects, unnerving rituals and eerie altercations, the acclaimed filmmaker is clearly fascinated with specific themes and motifs. He has a type, even with the evident change of location and colour scheme. And yet, Aster can't be accused of making the same movie twice. Watching on as a group of Americans encroach upon a secret Nordic community near the North Pole, joining their celebrations during a once-in-a-lifetime festival, Midsommar dives into a whole new world of terror. Crucially, it thrusts the horror genre's lingering malevolence out of dim rooms and musty corners, and into the fresh, vibrant, perennially sun-drenched air. Midsommar commences with the passing of loved ones, in what's become the director's typical fashion. That Aster has already established an authorial pattern just two movies into his feature-filmmaking career (across less than two years) speaks volumes. Midsommar doesn't seem like a rehash, nor like he's filtering his past hit through the somewhat similar The Wicker Man or Kill List. Instead, it feels as if Aster is finding new ways to unpack ideas that keep devouring his mind and soul. Through the grief-stricken Dani (Florence Pugh), he gives the bone-rattling pain of mourning the most distraught face he can, his committed new lead matching Toni Collette's turn in Hereditary for intensity. Then, he pushes his bereaved protagonist much, much further out of her comfort zone. Tagging along with her barely caring boyfriend Christian (Jack Reynor) as he accompanies his college friend Pelle (Vilhelm Blomgren) back to the close-knit commune where the latter grew up, Dani is an interloper twice over. The frat boy-ish Mark (Will Poulter) is visibly unhappy that she's joined their trip and, though fellow anthropology student Josh (William Jackson Harper) offers her kindness, it's obvious that she wasn't initially part of the group's plans. Of course, like their unwanted guest, this motley crew of self-absorbed men don't quite gel at their destination. They're met with hearty smiles, plastered across the faces of serene Swedes who wear white cotton from head to toe, sport floral headdresses and spend their afternoons tripping on mushrooms, but the visitors still stand out. And the more time that Dani, Christian, Mark and Josh spend with the Hårga, as Pelle's pagan community is known, the further they become entrenched in the summer solstice festivities. While it begins with feasts, ceremonies, love runes and laced drinks, disappearances, ominous maypole dances, deaths and worse soon follow. A film steeped in loss, Midsommar is also a movie as much about belonging as longing. The agony and uncertainty someone feels when they don't fit in, and the contentment that springs when they're welcomed with open arms, courses through the picture's veins. Tied to both is Aster's favourite sensation, with dread the movie's emotional baseline. Wherever and whenever he can, the filmmaker layers his sights and sounds with anxiety and apprehension — and with fear and foreboding on top. Unease ripples across the Hårga's leafy haven like a slight but quickening breeze, as made all the more disquieting by the long, wide shots favoured by returning cinematographer Pawel Pogorzelski, and the needling, string-heavy refrains that mark The Haxan Cloak's stirring score. Once again, Aster has crafted a work of commanding control and startling technical precision, each element carefully calculated to disturb viewers with maximum effect. Midsommar is also a work of meticulous pacing, a factor that has more of an impact than might be anticipated. As anyone who has experienced it knows, mourning is a process of waiting for time to tick by, and for soul-crushing sadness to fade from a searing flame to a bearable simmer. Likewise, relishing the joys of feeling safe and wanted also hinges upon time — although, in that situation, no one ever wants their bliss to end. Starting patiently then working up to a frenzy, Midsommar packs much into its 147-minute duration, but mirroring these feelings of grief and of comfort just might be its most devastating achievement. With that in mind, Dani is torn in two conflicting directions, simultaneously wishing her ordeal would finish and hoping that it keeps branching into eternity. Reynor's largely dazed and confused Christian feels the same way, but for his own reasons given that their relationship keeps snapping and straining towards its breaking point. The duo are distressed and drugged, yet they're also caught in the commune's thrall, and Aster asks his audience to share their sentiments. It's easy to do as the director asks, unless you're squeamish. A hallucinatory horror trip that doesn't hold back on its deranged imagery, Midsommar is a glowing, sinister dream. It couldn't look more alluring and idyllic, all while exposing festering miseries and inescapable woes. Every inch a sunlit nightmare, it shocks by bathing its dark heart in gleaming brightness, and intoxicates even as it repeatedly unsettles viewers to their core. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_I9ZeUWXI2s
If seasonal change has left you in a dizzy headspin of brand new colours and fabrics and prints and jackets — or if, y'know, you just like some fancy new clothes now and then — you'll be pretty pleased to know that the Big Fashion Sale is coming back to Sydney for four days this October. The name pretty much says it all. This thing is big. You'll find lush items from past collections, samples and one-offs from over 50 cult Australian and international designers, both well-known and emerging, including Stella McCartney, Missoni, Karla Špetić, Studio Elke, Christopher Kane, Benah, Marni and more. With discounts of up to 80 percent off, this is one way of upping your street cred with designer threads that'll leave your bank balance sitting pretty too. Prices this low tend to inspire a certain level of ruthlessness in all of us, though, so practise that grabbing reflex in advance. This is every man and lady for themselves. The Big Fashion Sale will be open 9am till 8pm Thursday, 9am till 6pm Friday and Saturday, and 10am till 4pm Sunday.
South Eveleigh's wellness festival, Live Well 2025, is officially in full swing (just like a pickleball racquet), and there are only two more weeks to enjoy the lineup of mindful activities. The month-long festival has been designed to be budget-friendly, with many of the events being free. Kicking off lunchtimes is Happy Hoops at the Village Green on Saturday, September 20. Led by Fembot JuJu, this high-energy hula hoop fitness class is equal parts core workout and nostalgia trip, so it's the perfect exercise regimen for those who love a bit of entertainment with a side of abs. Then, for the latter half of the day, you can head to BrewDog for Bonsai and Brews from 5.30-7pm. For $50 per person, sip craft beer while learning the ancient art of bonsai shaping and take home your very own miniature tree. If you love Pilates, but not the price tag, then you'll be pleased to find out about free Pilates sessions at Body Fit Redfern. Every Friday until the end of the month, the mat-based class is beginner-friendly and runs from 12.30-1.15pm for a perfect midday reset. Running alongside it all is the Pickleball Pop-Up at Innovation Plaza (8am–6pm daily until Saturday, September 20). The fast-growing paddle sport has taken the world by storm, and this week you can drop in, grab a racquet and try it for yourself. Plus, it's completely free. South Eveleigh's Live Well festival runs until September 30. To find out more about these wellness-focused events and what else is on offer, head to the website. Images: Supplied
All hail the Keanaissance — for bringing him back to our screens, and for making it acceptable to love his past hits as well. Before he was Neo and John Wick, he wasn't just one half of Bill and Ted and surfing FBI agent Johnny Utah but also a guy trying to stop the bus that couldn't slow down. We know you're a fan, and we know you've always wanted to relive the action movie magic that was Speed — so here's your chance. Step on board a vintage bus and prepare for the ride of your life. After thrilling fans and making plenty of new ones during several Brisbane Comedy Festival runs, Speed: The Movie, The Play finally brings its high-octane thrills to Sydney. It's hitting town as part of this year's Sydney Fringe Festival, and taking on passengers between Friday, September 20 and Sunday, September 29 — and this is one stint of public transport chaos you should willingly sign up for.
"We found love in a hopeless place," sings Rihanna, the sound of exuberance in her voice. With her declaration of romance gracing the soundtrack several times, American Honey has its unofficial anthem. The song in question couldn't be more fitting in the latest exploration of individuality and independence from Fish Tank and Wuthering Heights director Andrea Arnold. The film treks through desperate, desolate towns, but doesn't dwell in any one spot, or indulge in hopelessness for long. Instead, it combines the heady excitement that accompanies the first flourishes of something new, with the less-than-glamorous reality that inevitably seeps to the surface. Indeed, love isn't the only thing the film's road-tripping teen protagonists find, as they go door to door selling magazines across middle America. Cramped in close confines in cars and cheap hotel rooms, they witness wealth and poverty, meet kind and predatory strangers, and confront memories and emotions they don't have the words to express, but can convey only through their eclectic taste in music. That, plus a crew member who whips out his manhood whenever he can, and Shia LaBeouf sporting one hell of a rat tail. It's LaBeouf's Jake, a middle manager, who inspires 18-year-old Oklahoma resident Star (Sasha Lane) to flee from her sleazy dad and into a vehicle with the ragtag gang. She seeks nothing more than a pay cheque and a different scene, even if the former isn't easily earned, and the latter isn't quite the escape she thought it would be. The quick-thinking, smooth-talking salesman tricks that have served the charismatic Jake so well don't come naturally to Star, though amorous feelings for her new pal quickly do. Staying on the good side of the group's scantily clad, profit-obsessed leader, Krystal (Riley Keough), is a taxing job in itself. Landscapes fly by, spied out the van's windows, yet the more things change, the more they seem the same. Star can't help but have the celestial bodies she's named for in her eyes as fresh experiences, people, places and parts of life open up to her. A first-timer spotted on spring break by writer-director Arnold, Lane is as unguarded and realistic as you could want in such a film, and gives the impression of living rather than acting. Likewise, LaBeouf appears to coast rather than perform, in what may be the perfect vehicle for his careening off-screen ways. In support, Keough electrifies with little more than a steely glare and a no-nonsense demeanour. The entire cast, both leading and background, feel totally authentic — and while that's a term that gets bandied about a lot by film critics, the truth is American Honey oozes it from every frame. It's a product of Arnold truly going the extra mile, taking the cast on the road just as seen in the movie, and adopting stylistic choices designed to immerse viewers in the story. Boxing the film into a 4:3 aspect ratio demands the audience's focused attention, as does the dream-like sheen that tints her minutiae-filled images. Accordingly, there's potent, probing poetry in every shot, just as there is in every element of Star's ebbing, flowing life. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJbJsAdDilk
When Studio Ghibli was first formed back in 1985, the Japanese animation house came about thanks to three parties: filmmakers Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata, and producer Toshio Suzuki. While Miyazaki has become synonymous with the company in the three decades since and Suzuki is now one of Japan's most successful producers, Takahata deserves just as much acclaim and attention. Indeed, it was his first stint behind the camera that helped establish Ghibli on the international stage. Further, his most recent movie earned him an Academy Award nomination for best animated feature. Before his passing this week at the age of 82, Takahata's career also spanned a busy stint in television during the '60s and '70s, as well as producing roles on three important animated titles — Miyazaki's pre-Ghibli flick Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, his first studio effort Castle in the Sky, and the company's gorgeous collaboration with Dutch animator Michaël Dudok de Wit, The Red Turtle. As a filmmaker himself, he may have only helmed five features, but they're all Ghibli classics. In fact, if you're a fan of the beloved outfit, they're definite must-sees that demonstrate the studio's visual, emotional, thematic and narrative range. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vPeTSRd580 GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES The most heartbreaking animated film ever made — and one the most heartbreaking films ever made in any format, too — Grave of the Fireflies proved Studio Ghibli's first masterpiece. In fact, it's a movie the studio has never come close to matching since, even though the company's stellar flicks continually enchant and delight. Given the war drama is a rare Ghibli effort that plunges into dark territory, telling the tale of two siblings desperately struggling to survive in the last days of the Second World War, that's completely understandable. Takahata's handling of the film's moving and sorrowful story couldn't be more astonishing, from the fleshed-out characters tussling with life and death, to the striking visuals, including the titular glowing bugs. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfkQlZArxw0 ONLY YESTERDAY Like his filmmaking debut, Takahata's second directorial effort doesn't resemble much of Studio Ghibli's output. Based on the 1982 manga of the same name, Only Yesterday eschews child-focused fantasies for the incredibly relatable inner turmoil of 27-year-old Tokyo worker Taeko. Rather than entering fanciful worlds, the film follows its protagonist's attempt to reconcile her childhood dreams with the life she's now living. It's a mature, thoughtful effort — and one that was only re-released two years ago, with an English-language voice cast of Daisy Ridley and Dev Patel. Upon its initial stint in cinemas in Japan in 1991, it became the highest-grossing Japanese film of the year. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7cowIHjCD4 POM POKO Another box office hit — in fact, Pom Poko was the highest-grossing Japanese film in Japan in 1994 — Takahata's next flick introduced the world to mischievous racoon-like critters. Called tanuki and finding their basis in folklore, the creatures can transform into almost anything; however their habitat outside of Tokyo is under threat from developers. With ecological matters a common thread in Ghibli movies, this touching delight proves a quintessential addition to the fold, combining magical wonder with a message. It's an endearing fable, and one that matches its narrative with memorable imagery, as always. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1C9ujuCPlnY MY NEIGHBOURS THE YAMADAS My Neighbours the Yamadas is the studio's most visually distinctive effort. Based on the manga Nono-chan, it's the company's first fully digital film, but it favours the look of a hand-drawn, watercolour-painted comic strip over the usual Ghibli aesthetic. The stylistic choice suits the content perfectly, not only immersing audiences into the series of vignettes about the Yamada family, but offering a visible reminder that nothing is ever as simple as it appears. That's a statement that keeps bubbling to the fore as the quirky flick delves into recognisable situations with humour and heart. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9QnebAVHVk THE TALE OF THE PRINCESS KAGUYA In The Tale of the Princess Kaguya, the eponymous girl blossoms within a bamboo shoot. She's not the only thing that blooms in this hand-drawn beauty, which marked Takahata's first film as a director in 15 years. Rumoured at the time to be his last feature and sadly proving to be case now, it's a gentle, elegant and entrancing story that charts the princess' growth, depicts her turmoil as her own desires clash with everyone else's expectations, and evolves from a seemingly standard setup into something subversive and meaningful. And, like almost everything throughout the filmmaker's career, it's a movie that no one else could've made in the same way.
If you've even the smallest creative bone in your body, Django Unchained will tickle it. Wildly creative, funny, and frightening, true to form yet never predictable, this is one of those films that makes you want to write one of these kinds of films. Set two years before the start of the American Civil War when slavery was still rampant in the south, it's tempting (if also stupid) to think of Django Unchained as some sort of bizarre prequel to Spielberg's Lincoln. Initially the eponymous Django (Jamie Foxx) walks wearied and defeated in a chain gang until he's unexpectedly freed by the eccentric dentist Dr King Schultz (Christoph Waltz). This mannerly yet murderous bounty hunter then offers Django the chance to both exact revenge and make his fortune by murdering white outlaws in exchange for money. With the crosshatched scars of countless lashings on his back a daily reminder of such men's cruelty, Django leaps at the chance and soon proves a natural in the business. His wife, however, remains the property of vile plantation owner Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio), a character so heinous and sadistic that Tarantino subsequently deemed him 'beyond redemption', and hence a rescue plan takes form. It's perhaps no surprise, then, that this Tarantino tale of slavery and vengeance dials the violence up to 11 from almost the opening scene and never looks back. It does occasionally border on 'look-away' levels of horror; however — just as it was with Inglourious Basterds — this 'revenge porn' sub-genre of cinema uncomfortably satisfies through its savagery. Moreover, Tarantino's preparedness to brutally kill off any (and, often, all) his principal characters without even a moment's notice lends every scene an undercurrent of unpredictable tension that commands your attention. Traditionally, Tarantino's main shortcoming as a director has been his fondness for playing with form in a manner that denies his audiences the opportunity to entirely immerse themselves in the experience. Whether through unexpected soundtrack choices, mid-movie title sequences or just direct conversations with the audience, you're aware you're watching a movie and hence sit entertained but not always engrossed. Those same elements are at play again in Django, but for the first time since Kill Bill, they advance and enhance the plot rather than specifically (and jarringly) draw your attention to it. In short, it's a delightful return to form. https://youtube.com/watch?v=_iH0UBYDI4g
Indigenous Australians were the world's first astronomers, using the stars and planets for navigation, to predict the weather and as part of Dreamtime storytelling. You can get a peek at some of this vast knowledge on an Aboriginal Sky Dreaming Cruise. During the one-hour cruise, First Nations astronomers will guide you through the landscape of the sky and share stories as you float around Darling Harbour. You'll also get to learn about the famous emu-shaped dark installation Gugurmin, an important part of the Wiradjuri Peoples' skylore. A cruise on the harbour can sometimes cost you upward of $200, but this eye-opening experience will set you back just $30. [caption id="attachment_814486" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Destination NSW[/caption]
Prepare to exclaim "yeah, science!" like Jesse Pinkman — and to see a whole lot more of Aaron Paul's Breaking Bad character. The acclaimed series is making a comeback, cooking up a movie that serves as a sequel to the show's finale. In the spotlight: Walter White's former student and protégé, who happens to be in a spot of trouble (again). When we last saw Pinkman in Breaking Bad's final episode six years ago, he had just escaped captivity, all thanks to Walt (Bryan Cranston). The latter was injured in the process, but when he asked his former meth cooking partner to kill him, Pinkman couldn't bring himself to do it. So, Pinkman ran, and Walt lost consciousness just a cop arrived. And, that's how the series ended. As happens when every great show comes to a conclusion, we've all wondered what happened next. Come October 11 — that's in just over two weeks — fans can find out. First revealed last year, and initially given the working title of Greenbriar, El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie will continue Pinkman's tale in a thriller written and directed by Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan. Although this follow-up will span a single package rather than run across multiple episodes, it is still coming to a small screen near you thanks to Netflix. Dropping the debut teaser in August, and another one during this week's Emmy awards, the streaming service has, finally, blessed us with a full-length trailer today. The film is set "in the wake of his dramatic escape from captivity", with Pinkman being forced to "come to terms with his past in order to forge some kind of future", according to the official synopsis. In the trailer, you see him hiding from police, digging holes in the desert and instantly ageing after showering and shaving — all dropping small clues to what you can expect next month. Whether Cranston will show up in El Camino is still the subject of rumour, but the trailer does reveal a couple of familiar faces, with Pinkman seeking shelter with Skinny Pete (Charles Barker) and Badger (Matt Jones). And, right at the end, an unidentified voice asks Pinkman, "you ready?". Could it be Walt? Ed the Disappearer (Robert Forster)? We'll find out very soon. Check out the El Camino trailer below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JLUn2DFW4w El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie hits Netflix on October 11.
It is no secret that op-shops are a gold mine for vintage label pieces and one-of-a-kind gems. And what the op-shop is located in one of the most eclectic suburbs of Sydney, there is truly no telling what you might find. Covering off the usual suspects in CD's, books, homewares and fashion, the only guarantee in this store is that the pieces are in good condition and the volunteers are welcoming. Like most op-shops, successful shopping will be entirely dependent on the stock on the day and your outlook. But if your taste mirrors that of the suburbs quirky identity - in that basically anything goes - you're likely to find something.
UPDATE, November 25, 2020: The Man Who Killed Don Quixote is available to stream via Amazon Prime Video, SBS On Demand, Google Play and YouTube Movies. Has there ever been a filmmaker more suited to a story than Terry Gilliam and Don Quixote? In trying to get his adaptation of Miguel de Cervantes' 16th-century novel off the ground for three decades, the Monty Python alum shares many a trait with the literary hero — they're both dreamers driven to persevere, and to see the world as they choose, regardless of the factors stacked against them. Given that Gilliam's The Man Who Killed Don Quixote has been in and out of production since 1989, the odds were rarely in the film's favour. Given that he turned a past failed shoot into making-of documentary Lost in La Mancha, it seemed like this movie would never come to fruition. But Gilliam kept toiling as funding came and went, and cast members too. Everyone from Johnny Depp, Ewan McGregor and Jack O'Connell to Jean Rochefort, Robert Duvall, Michael Palin and John Hurt have been attached to the project at various points. Starring Adam Driver and Jonathan Pryce, The Man Who Killed Don Quixote now definitely exists, as if Gilliam willed it into being with the sheer force of his undying dedication. If you still feel like you need to see the film with your own two eyes to believe that it has finally been unleashed onto the world, that's perfectly understandable. Awaiting in this comic adventure is an obvious passion project — the clear product of a single-minded talent with a specific vision, boundless enthusiasm and the willingness to devote a big chunk of his life to a particular cause. It's also gleefully anarchic, a missive on both making and being transformed by movies, and a romantic ode to the unflinching combination of fantasy and fortitude. A straightforward version of the tale, this isn't. Instead, Gilliam steeps his filmmaker protagonist, Toby Grisoni (Driver), in several layers of Don Quixote connections. (If you're wondering how much humour the writer-director brings to the movie, he co-wrote the screenplay with his Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas scribe Tony Grisoni, who, yes, has an immensely similar name to The Man Who Killed Don Quixote's main character.) In Spain shooting a Quixote-themed commercial and sleeping with his boss' (Stellan Skarsgård) wife (Olga Kurylenko), Toby is reminded of his last visit to La Mancha, when he made a black-and-white version of the classic story for his student film. Alas, journeying down memory lane, and reuniting with shoemaker-turned-leading man Javier (Pryce), has repercussions. As Toby discovers, Javier has spent the past decade or so thinking that he really is the chivalrous knight. Spying the director's familiar face doesn't snap him out of it; rather, he believes that Toby is his squire and sidekick Sancho Panza. When Pryce's Javier bellows "you think you can hide from me?" while immersing Toby in his fanciful quest, it doubles as The Man Who Killed Don Quixote's statement of intent. This flick spent so many years eluding audiences, and now it's determined not only to exist, but to go forth and prosper on its own terms. Go forth, Gilliam does — with the feverish inventiveness that made his early greats such as Brazil and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen such delights, and with a sense of spectacle and occasion to go with it. But there's no mistaking that the filmmaker has much in common with the movie's cynical on-screen filmmaker, too. He knows the reality of his chosen business, and how difficult and convoluted it can be. He also knows what's at stake when you don't follow your dreams. Perhaps that's why The Man Who Killed Don Quixote is so joyous, even when it's ambling about and feeling more than a little shambolic in sections. The film is the product of a guiding hand who's pursuing his passion, is aware of the costs and challenges, and knows that anything worth having is worth working and fighting for. More than that, he's decided that the fruits of his sacrifice and labour are worth sharing as well. As a result, every frame, whether rollicking across dusty plains or literally tilting at windmills, is infused with a can-do, must-do, never-say-die attitude. And while they mightn't have been the director's original choices, Driver and Pryce's intensely committed performances possess the same spirit. After spending so long lost in La Mancha, Gilliam has found his way out, and he's in great company. The twist: even when this loony labour of love proves unsurprisingly indulgent, audiences will still want to get lost in the madcap epic along with him. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pf17xRtthc
We've all seen films where star-crossed lovers ride the rollercoaster of romance. And we've all seen films where aspiring artists weather the ups and downs of chasing their dreams. Starting with a series of awkward encounters, and focusing on a struggling actress and a jazz pianist, La La Land offers both. But the thing that makes writer-director Damien Chazelle's musical follow-up to his breakout hit Whiplash shine isn't the familiar path it wanders down. Rather, it's how it takes audiences on that journey. When Mia (Emma Stone) and Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) first meet on the streets of Los Angeles, they're hurling ire at each other in traffic. When they finally get the chance to chat at a party, there's teasing in the air, with a romantic connection soon blooming. As their relationship continues, Sebastian inspires Mia to break free of the soul-crushing audition cycle and write her own one-woman play. In turn, he keeps working towards opening a jazz club, while also taking up the opportunity to pursue something more lucrative and concrete. So far, so straightforward. But all isn't fair when you're simultaneously trying to find love, seek your chosen career and carve out a fulfilling life. While it might not feature J.K. Simmons screaming "not my tempo" a la Whiplash, Chazelle's latest effort certainly doesn't shy away from the costs and consequences of trying to succeed. Nor does the film pull its punches when personal and professional matters fail to align. Instead, erupting with gorgeous colour and energetic choreography one moment, then taking time to brood and contemplate the next, La La Land offers a delicate balance of dreaming big while realising that not every wish can or will come true. Moreover, it does so while celebrating the Hollywood musical genre, and at the same time fashioning its trademarks and style into something bittersweet and melancholy. The traditions of grand song-and-dance flicks gets their time in the spotlight, though in truth they're only one part of the story. As characters shuffle through the streets and float through the air in '50s-style numbers, churn out '80s covers, play contemporary jazz, and croon mournful ballads, audiences will find themselves swept along the entire musical and emotional spectrum. For that, a fair share of the credit should go to co-stars Stone and Gosling. In their third on-screen pairing after Crazy, Stupid, Love and Gangster Squad, both are in stellar, swoon-worthy form. Whether they're belting out a tune, tapping their toes, or quietly expressing the feelings that lurk beneath, the duo navigate the melange that comprises La La Land with the same flair and thoughtfulness as their director, while sharing in his not-to-be-underestimated task. After all, at the heart of the luminous and lively film sits a stark truth: fantasising is easy, but embracing reality is hard. It's no surprise that the movie that results is clearly crafted with this in mind as it soars high but dives deep, evoking affectionate wonder, heartfelt tears and the knowledge that life usually lurks somewhere in between.
Art Pharmacy is all about getting emerging artists’ works on sale at affordable prices. They’ve done a number of pop-ups over the last couple of years, and for this year’s Fringe they’re throwing up the Lab for two weeks on the edge of Oxford Square. The Lab will feature free artist talks and an introduction to starting your own art collection, but the highlight of the Lab is likely to be the art itself. The Fringe selection includes work from Mulga the Artist and Will Coles, probably best known for his ambulant, grey mobile phone sculptures. The Lab is one of our picks of the Sydney Fringe Festival. Check out our other highlights.
Following the success of her debut album Lungs, English vocal goddess Florence and the Machine will be back on Australian shores in November for a one-off show at the Seymour Theatre to showcase songs from her sophomore album, Ceremonials. As part of Debit Mastercard's Priceless Music Series, Florence Welch will provide Sydneysiders with one of the first opportunities to hear her new music performed live anywhere in the world. Known for her whimsical stage presence and costumes (and costume changes), Welch's follow-up album is a solid installment peppered with epic tracks that compliment her vocal range. The success of Lungs - the album won Best British Album Award at the 2010 BRIT Awards and a nomination for Welch as Best New Artist at the 53rd Grammy Awards - has not only attracted comparisons to the chart-topping vocalist Kate Bush, but has established Welch's distinct genre-mixing pop sound. Her preview tracks 'Shake It Out' and 'What The Water Gave Me' don't stray too far from the formula she perfected in songs like 'Dog Days Are Over' and 'You've Got The Love', and the album's production is packed with layer upon layer of instruments - piano, organ, strings, tambourine, drums and signature harp - all of which carry Welch's voice to notes that she delivers with raw intensity. The album will be released in Australia on October 28 and Florence and the Machine will be playing at the Seymour on November 15. To get your hands on tickets to the concert, you'll need to have a Debit MasterCard and register your interest before November 7. Update: The concert is now sold out. https://youtube.com/watch?v=WbN0nX61rIs
Much-loved farm-to-table eatery Three Blue Ducks has expanding its ever-growing suite of establishments to regional NSW, with the Sydney restaurant group opening an outpost at Nimbo Fork Lodge, at the bottom of the Snowy Mountains, in late November. Originally opening in Bronte back in 2010, before expanding to Byron Bay, Rosebery, Brisbane (in the W Hotel) and Melbourne (inside a surf park), the restaurant collective is known for its dishes packed with locally and ethically sourced produce. The group's latest iteration is no different. The menu has been designed around the on-site kitchen garden, award-winning sustainably farmed Provenir Beef and trout from local Tumut waterways. If the locally sourced trout isn't fresh enough for you, though, you can head out to the renowned fly-fishing areas nearby and provide your own catch of the day for the chefs to use. You can eat that trout as an entree — smoked atop crisp bread with dill and crème fraîche — or as a main, where it comes whole, butterflied and with lashings of garlic, lemon and dill. Elsewhere on the menu, you'll find crumbed pork terrine, roasted beets with almond cream, Nimbo tomahawk lamb chops and harissa-spiced cauliflower with chimichurri and roasted hazelnuts. [caption id="attachment_788800" align="alignnone" width="1920"] The Three Blue Ducks team by Nikki To[/caption] You can pair this food with cocktails filled with Aussie ingredients and spirits, such as the Native Negroni made with Brookies gin and Poor Toms Imbroglio; all-Aussie brews, including Bright Brewery sour ales and Heaps Normal's Quiet XPA; and local and international wines helpfully listed under headings like 'fruit forward and food friendly red' and 'light and aromatic white'. For a sweet finish, you've got three options: crema catalana (very similar to a crème brûlée), sea salt meringue with lemon curd and, the most decadent option, self-saucing choc pudding. We think the latter will be just what you're after when you head back to the lodge after a chilly day out on the snowfields — or down by the river fishing for trout. Because, of course, it's all about location at this latest Three Blue Ducks. While you could, on some days, convince us to drive four hours for the perfect chocolate pudding, that's not the only drawcard here. Located in the heart of the picturesque Tumut Valley, 30 minutes' drive from Gundagai, Three Blue Ducks is situated inside a boutique hotel with six cottages, five suites and a bar and restaurant. There are a host of activities you can experience nearby, including bike rides, bushwalks, fly-fishing and horse rides — or, if you're an avid skier or snowboarder, you can jump in the car and head to Selwyn Snow Resort, just under two hours away, when it reopens. The snowfield was extensively damaged during the 2019-20 bushfires, but is currently being rebuilt. The new restaurant is open for dinner from Wednesday to Sunday, with lunch available on weekends. For more ideas, check out our guide to activities in the Snowy Mountains region. Find Three Blue Ducks at Nimbo Fork Lodge, 330 Nimbo Road, Killimicat. You can make a booking at the restaurant here and at Nimbo Fork Lodge here.
"For traditionalists, Gelato Messina has all the staples of the classic gelato repertoire. There's vanilla bean, chocolate and all manner of fruit sorbets. But for the daring, the store's real specialty is it's conceptual ice cream flavours," says Gelato Messina's co-owner, Declan Lee. Conceptual ice cream flavours? It sounds like crazy talk, some kind of inner city, performance art hijinx, right? In fact, it's the perfect fusion of creativity and logic. Once Donato Toce (head chef) and Nick Palumbo (head gelato science guy) think of a theme, they then negotiate the complex gastronomical terrain of proteins, fat and flavour to create the smooth, creamy milk confection we know as gelato. It's this Heston Blumenthal-style art/science nexus that has resulted in the genius combos of Number Two (peanut butter gelato, dulce de leche and chocolate brownie), Nacho Libre (avocado cream, salsa and crushed corn chips) and Porky's Revenge (pancake-flavoured gelato with maple syrup and bacon). This week's special, Spider (vanilla cream and creaming soda sorbet) is right on, fizzy and creamy, as if a gourmet grown-up hijacked my primary school tuck shop. What's next? Penne Napolitana sorbet? Notions of Australian Landscape? At their new Crown Street store, co-owner Declan Lee says, "our best seller is Salted Caramel and White Chocolate". And it is pretty spectacular - that precarious balance of creamy, salty, sweet, crunchy and nutty. "This week's special is Melba's Peachy," says Declan, "It's our take on the old peach melba: raspberry coulis, vanilla cream, peaches and meringue. All of us come up with the flavours. We have a list of specials that we roll out that we know are great - about five hundred that we've done over the years. This is one of them. And every week we add another two specials. With a flavour like Nacho Libre, you need to work out a way to keep the corn chips crunchy. So we covered it in cocoa butter." Tradition be damned - we're converts.
Byron Bay's annual Bluesfest is an absolute monster of a festival, spanning all five days of the Easter weekend, and has a supersized lineup to match. But if you can't make it up north for the festival itself (though you really, really need to make that a priority) at least there are some scintillating sideshows to ensure you don't miss out on the incredible roster of artists who will be in the country in March and April next year. To help you with your planning (and to stop the FOMO from totally taking over), we've picked eight of the best sideshows taking over Sydney next Easter. ROBERT PLANT & THE SENSATIONAL SPACE SHIFTERS One of the greatest frontmen in music history returns to our shores with his band, The Sensational Space Shifters. Celebrating 50 years since the release of Led Zeppelin's debut album plus their own 2017 release, Carry Fire, these shows will celebrate a whole lotta music drawn from Robert Plant's peerless back-catalogue. The Sensational Space Shifters formed in 2002, a loose collective of brilliant musicians that take their inspiration from "the roots music of Mississippi, Appalachia, Gambia, Bristol and the foothills of Wolverhampton and drawing on influences collected in a lifetime of meandering and journeying." These shows are truly not to be missed. Friday, March 23 at the State Theatre. THE NEW POWER GENERATION The extraordinary legacy of Prince lives on in The New Power Generation, a band of friends and collaborators that were the driving force behind some of the Purple One's greatest latter-era hits. Led by Morris Hayes, Prince's long-time musical director, The NPG aim to honour the life and artistry of their friend and make sure everyone in the audience parties like it's 1999 — just like he would have wanted. Says Hayes, "This band has a huge repertoire, we have got a lot of music that we've learnt over the years and we're prepared to play whatever. We just want to make sure we touch on things that the crowd connects with and make them go 'oh that's my song! That's my jam'." Wednesday, March 28 at Enmore Theatre. GOMEZ — CELEBRATING 20 YEARS OF BRING IT ON When Gomez released their brilliant Mercury Music Prize-winning debut album Bring It On in 1997, Britpop was dominating the charts and Tony Blair became prime minister, signalling a new era for the UK. But Gomez never quite fits alongside Jarvis Cocker, Damon Albarn and the Gallagher brothers, writing songs that were far more bar-room blues than witty, knowing 'cool Britannia'. 20 years later, Gomez is still growling and drawling their way into our hearts, never changing their sound to suit the zeitgeist but instead doggedly persevering, steadfast in the knowledge that great songwriting and rock-solid riffs never go out of style. Saturday, March 31 at Enmore Theatre. HURRAY FOR THE RIFF RAFF At first listen, Hurray for the Riff Raff has all the trappings of so much 21st-century folk music à la Gillian Welch or Laura Marling: intricate guitar playing, lush hushed vocals, songs about introspection. But when you dig a bit deeper you start to hear sounds from New Orleans, from Puerto Rico, from the Bronx — everything that singer and songwriter Alynda Segarra absorbed after she ran away from home at the age of 17 with dreams of becoming the next great blues singer. 2017's The Navigator, their fourth album, sees Segarra becoming more and more confident in the stories she tells and in how she tells them, her life and influences intertwining like two vines growing alongside each other. It's an album about growing up, finding yourself and realising that you are a part of all that has come before you. Monday, March 26 at the Factory Theatre. MORCHEEBA Morcheeba — the legends of lounge, the champions of chill-out — return to our shores after four years away. In a career spanning 22 years, they have been responsible for soulful sounds like 'The Sea', 'Even Though', 'Otherwise' and 'Rome Wasn't Built in a Day' (you're humming it already, aren't you?), and did as much as any act to popularise and make ubiquitous their style of electronic, chilled vibes. Back with a new album and a new lease on their musical life after a few tumultuous years, singer Skye Edwards and producer Ross Godfrey are going to get you grooving. Thursday, March 29 at the Metro Theatre. GOV'T MULE WITH LUKAS NELSON & PROMISE OF THE REAL Gov't Mule are one of the world's great jam bands, carrying the torch of The Allman Brothers Band and The Grateful Dead one spectacular guitar solo after another. Initially formed as a side project by then Allman Brothers Band members Warren Haynes and Allen Woody, Gov't Mule quickly became the main game after audiences fell in love with their big, bluesy sound. Like Gov't Mule, Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real boast unimpeachable music pedigree — Lukas' father, Willie, is a singer/songwriter you may have heard of. Making music with dad was one thing, but when Neil Young picked Promise of the Real to be his touring and studio band a further crash course in all things rock and roll followed. Fans will be in for an absolute treat with these two tremendous bands on the same bill. Monday, March 26 at the Metro Theatre. WALTER TROUT In a career spanning six decades, Walter Trout has learned a thing or two about playing guitar — from John Lee Hooker, from John Mayall, and from Canned Heat — all of whom he has played with for significant stretches. Trout is a bluesman through and through, a guitarist and bandleader with rhythm in his bones. Following a near-fatal brush with liver disease in 2014, Trout is playing and writing music with the zeal of a man who knows he dodged a bullet. His return to health and his long-awaited return to Australia are cause for celebration for anyone whose gospels are drums, bass guitar, a Hammond organ and an electric guitar. Saturday, March 31 at the Factory Theatre. CANNED HEAT One of the iconic rock and roll bands of the 1960s, who played at the storied 1967 Monterey Pop Festival and co-headlined the original Woodstock Festival in 1969, Canned Heat is on the road again to play their hits for audiences in Sydney, Melbourne, Newcastle and Adelaide. Anchored by drummer/band leader Adolfo 'Fito' de la Parra (a member since 1967), Canned Heat are carrying their pioneering band of electric blues into their sixth decade and showing no signs of slowing down. Thursday, March 22 at The Basement and Friday, March 23 at the Factory Theatre. Bluesfest 2017 will run March 29 to April 2 at Tyagarah Tea Tree Farm in Byron Bay. More details and ticket info here. Top image: Bec Taylor.
Kynd & Wylde is a boutique florist and gift shop in Mona Vale on Sydney's northern beaches. Boasting a beautiful selection of seasonal flowers including wildflowers such as proteas and banksia as well as white blooms like hydrangeas and dahlias roses. There's also a selection of lush greenery to pair with your flowers. Kynd & Wylde offer same day delivery on orders made before 12pm if you live between Collaroy and Palm Beach. So, you can get a bunch of flowers delivered quickly and make someone's day. Or, head to the store in person to see the stems up close and carefully select bunch of blooms for yourself. If you're a fiend for flowers, check out their subscription options to have fresh bunches delivered to your door in weekly, fortnightly or monthly cycles. Make sure you check out their website and socials for upcoming flower workshops, too. Images: Mel Koutchavlis
He turned the world's most famous shipwreck into one of biggest movies in history and reinvented 3D filmmaking to make another box office behemoth — and now James Cameron is bringing the ocean's depths to Sydney. Making its world premiere at Sydney's Australian National Maritime Museum from May 29, 2018 until January 30, 2019, James Cameron – Challenging the Deep will dive deep into the Titanic and Avatar director's rather expensive hobby: deep-sea exploration. When you make a movie about a necklace called the Heart of the Ocean, becoming obsessed with the sea is understandable, and Cameron has quite the array of artefacts, specimens, underwater recordings, inventions, cinema-scale projections, and film props and costumes to prove it. They'll all be on display, in a showcase that examines the filmmaker's passion for understanding and wading through our oceans. According to the The Sydney Morning Herald, Cameron himself will be in attendance to open the exhibition — taking a break from making four (yes, four) Avatar sequels. And if you're wondering why he's launching his latest project here, it could have something to do with his custom-built Deepsea Challenger submersible, which was made in Sydney. Back in 2012, Cameron piloted the vessel to the Mariana Trench, a cool 10,994 metres below the sea and also the deepest part of the ocean, becoming the first person to venture there solo. You might've seen a documentary about his efforts, 2014's Deepsea Challenge 3D, which is just one of the many movies to chart his fascination with what lurks beneath. After kicking things off with 1989's The Abyss, he not only sent Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio running around the RMS Titanic, but made his own documentary about exploring its real-life ruins, aka 2003's Ghosts of the Abyss. Expect The Abyss and Titanic to feature heavily in the exhibition. James Cameron – Challenging the Deep will display at Sydney's Australian National Maritime Museum from May 29, 2018 until January 30, 2019. For more information, visit the exhibition website. Image:NOAA/Institute for Exploration/University of Rhode Island via Wikimedia Commons.
Simone Weil was one of those 20th-century overachievers who seemed to be everywhere, doing everything at once. Political activist? Check. Groundbreaking philosopher? Check. Mystic? (consults Ouija board) Check. Way to make us feel like we've accomplished nothing, Simone. Now, director Imara Savage, composer Kaija Saariaho and soprano Jane Sheldon will bring a large portion of her crazy genius to Carriageworks with the Australian premiere of La Passion de Simone during Sydney Festival 2019. This one-woman chamber opera will deliver a blast of vocal energy backed up with a fierce ideology, that'll inspire all in attendance to get cracking on their own life goals. Philosopher and author Albert Camus was said to have referred to Weil as "the only great spirit of our times". As we continue to defy and tear down our own heroes at dizzying speed, La Passion de Simone may just point you in the direction of a more durable icon. La Passion de Simone is part of Sydney Festival's dramatic and diverse 2019 program. Check out the full lineup here. Image: Samuel Hodge.
Sydneysiders, if you've spent some time in the eastern suburbs over the past few days, you might now need to get tested for COVID-19 and self-isolate. Today, Wednesday, June 16, NSW Health has advised that a new locally acquired coronavirus case has been identified in the area — which means that a new list of exposure sites has just been posted. You know the drill from here, because naming locations and venues that positive coronavirus cases have visited is key element of NSW's containment strategy, and has been for months. The just-reported case is in a man in his 60s who hasn't travelled overseas recently — but he does work as a driver, including transporting international flight crew. Based on the man's whereabouts between Friday, June 11–Tuesday, June 15, NSW Health has identified eight places that Sydneysiders need to note. Some of the venues appear multiple times on the list, but only one requires contacting NSW Health immediately, getting tested and self-isolating for 14 days no matter what: the 1.45pm screening of The Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard at Event Cinemas Cinema 1 at Bondi Junction on Sunday, June 13, with the exposure period running from 1.30–4pm. The last time Bondi Junction was listed as an exposure site back in May, a movie session was also named, if you're wondering why this sounds a little familiar. Also on the list this time: the cinema itself between the above window of time, covering all other sessions. If you were there, you'll need to call NSW Health immediately, get tested and self-isolate until you receive further information from the authorities. https://twitter.com/NSWHealth/status/1405038475246596099 The rest of the current exposure sites fall into the same category — so, if you went to them, you need to phone NSW Health right away, get tested and self-isolate until you receive further information. On the list: Belle Cafe in Vaucluse at 9.15–9.50am on Friday, June 11; from 10.20–10.45am and 1.20–1.50pm on Saturday, June 12; from 11.30am–12pm on Sunday, June 13; and from 9.50–10.25am on Tuesday, June 15. Sourdough Bakery at Bondi Junction is also listed, from 12.40–1.10pm on Friday, June 11, as is David Jones and Myer at Bondi Junction on Saturday, June 12 (from 11–11.40am and 11.40am–12.15pm, respectively). And if you went to Washoku Vaucluse between 12–1.30pm on Saturday, June 12 and Rocco's in Vaucluse from 10.55–11.30am on Monday, June 14, you'll also need to follow the same instructions. One other place beyond the eastern suburbs has been named, too: Celeste Catering Macquarie Park Cemetery Cafe in North Ryde from 1–1.20pm on Tuesday, June 15. If you were there then, you'll be calling NSW Health now, getting tested and self-isolating until told otherwise. As it has throughout the pandemic, NSW Health is maintaining an ongoing register of locations that have been visited by positive COVID-19 cases — you can check out the entire list on its website. And, if you need a reminder, the symptoms to look out for are coughs, fever, sore or scratchy throat, shortness of breath, or loss of smell or taste. You can find a rundown of testing clinic locations online as well. For more information about the status of COVID-19 in NSW, head to the NSW Health website. Top image: Westfield Bondi Junction via Google Maps.
In Never Did Me Any Harm, Sydney Theatre Company has collaborated with Force Majeure dance company to create a challenging conversation piece about contemporary family life. Director Kate Champion combines contemporary dance, spoken word, physical theatre and the common vernacular to challenge the idea that parents instinctively know best, or that parenting is simply a natural instinct. Taking Christos Tsiolkas’ controversial novel The Slap as its inspiration, Never Did Me Any Harm uses the stage at Wharf 1 to recreate a 'typical' suburban backyard. Through theatricalised gestures, seven performers transform the audio text recorded over 90 interviews into a feat of physicality that is fiercely immediate and confronting. Does it sound a bit heavy? Rest assured, it isn't. Kate Champion deftly offsets the more depressing vignettes with domestic slapstick and cleverly avoids taking sides by having all the performers play both children and parents. Each disconnected narrative is drawn together by the familiar thread of domestic experience, making you wonder if middle-class Australia will forever be wound up about the 'correct' way to raise children. The diverse stories are alternately painful and amusing, infuriating and touching. One of the performers is heavily pregnant, and it's hard not to wince when she dives into a break-dance tumble routine; however, she's fine, and the fact that she's so conspicuously 'with child' merely adds to the authenticity of the performance and its insistent faithfulness to real-life experience. It's hard to describe something like Never Did Me Any Harm without sounding over-earnest, because the subject matter itself is so intense. But this is candid, controversial and very clever theatre. It explores corporal punishment, the pros and cons of breastfeeding, teenage girls gone feral and the realities of raising a child with a disability, and, unlike the TV mini series of The Slap, doesn’t star Melissa George. Go and see it this week — it certainly won't do you any harm.
Speaking prior to the screening of his movie in Sydney, director Christopher Miller explained: "Our one, enduring rule for this film was that it had to be story focused. It could never be permitted to descend into a 90 minute toy commercial". For he and co-director Phil Lord, then, The LEGO Movie is mission accomplished. Set entirely within a world of those clickable bricks and yellow-faced characters, LEGO tells the story of Emmet Brickowski (Chris Pratt), an eternally optimistic construction worker whose pep is matched only by his extraordinary genericism. Emmet is the epitome of commercial dronery: a franchise-coffee-drinking, pop-music-listening nobody who always follows the instructions. That all changes, however, when he stumbles upon the 'Piece of Resistance' and becomes entangled in a power struggle between the ruthless President Business (Will Ferrell), his enforcer 'Bad Cop/Good Cop' (Liam Neeson) and the resistance agent 'WyldStyle' (Elizabeth Banks). It's...a little hard to describe the sensation of watching this film. Yes, it's computer generated, but what those computers generated were Lego pieces. So, if there's an explosion, that explosion is made up of thousands of tiny red, yellow and white lego circles — not CGI fire. The effect is mesmerising. The digital design team (Australia's Animal Logic), wholly adopted the 'rules and grammar' of Lego, meaning characters could only bend at the waist and all vehicles moved as they would if being controlled by a human hand. That device alone lends itself to dozens of jokes, and in terms of laughs, The LEGO Movie delivers in spades. This is, after all, the team behind both 22 Jump Street and the sublime Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs — two films that wield pop-culture references and drop cameos like nobody's business. Where other movies in this genre can often lapse into brand promotion or smulch, The LEGO Movie retains an acute self-awareness that never permits itself to take anything too seriously. As such, the in-jokes are amongst the strongest and nostalgia is used almost exclusively as a source of comedy rather than to pull on the heart strings. That's not to say the film is without a point. Its jabs at corporatisation land more heavily than one might expect for a 'kids movie', and its determination to encourage imagination and exploration 'beyond the instructions' is at times so concerted it borders on pro-anarchism. In the end, this is a family-friendly movie in every sense, yet the truth is, adults will derive more pleasure from the viewing than their children. LEGO is a wry, playful and intelligent piece of filmmaking that, like Toy Story before it, rises far above its station and offers up a truly enjoyable experience. https://youtube.com/watch?v=fZ_JOBCLF-I
Darlings, it's time to beat the Monday blues and kick off your week in truly fabulous fashion. Escape on a desert holiday (hip hip hip hip hooray!) with a night of bespoke cocktails and a screening of one of Australia's most iconic films. Thanks to STOLI Vodka, you can see The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, in all its colourful glory when it returns to the big screen this September. The vodka brand has long been a proud supporter of the LGBTQIA+ community, and it's inviting you to celebrate the film's 30th anniversary with cocktails crafted by martini expert Ana Page. Leave your dreary Monday behind and catch a ride on the budget Barbie camper on Monday, September 16, September 23 and September 30 at Golden Age Cinema and Bar. At just $50, including not only a ticket to the screening but also two STOLI Vodka martinis, popcorn and a choc-top, Martini and Movie Mondays is the best bang for your buck you're ever gonna get, sweetheart! Book your tickets to Martini and Movie Mondays at the Golden Age website and find out more about STOLI Vodka on the website.
Who isn't going to see Avengers: Age of Ultron? Since 2008, almost everyone has watched at least one movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, this being the 11th. It's the TV approach to film, with an episode or two released each year. By now, we've all consumed enough to get hooked on superhero shenanigans. Such a history might seem like a blessing, sending audiences to cinemas; however, it can also be a curse. Viewers know what Marvel excellence looks like; they've seen it, and they've laughed and cried along. They also know when a comic book adaptation doesn't make the grade. And, in good but not great efforts, they can spot the formula at work, see when a film is stuffed with a few too many characters, and recognise when it feels like it's going through the motions. That's where Avengers: Age of Ultron lands, a by-the-numbers outing not without its issues, but still enjoyable. Everyone's favourite gang of better-than-average folks is back, and this time they're responsible for their new worst enemy. That'd be the titular addition to the fold, a program with artificial intelligence created by Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr) and Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) in the name of world peace. Alas, after taking robotic form, Ultron (voiced by James Spader) has different ideas about how to protect the planet. Basically, it's the Frankenstein narrative, as the creation turns against its creator and the uncaring masses. It's not an original story, but it remains intriguing, exploring Iron Man, the Hulk, Captain America (Chris Evans), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) coming to terms with the reality of their powers, roles and ability to play god — and Thor (Chris Hemsworth), too, even though he genuinely is one. Joss Whedon being Joss Whedon, the returning writer/director dresses it all up with more than a few complications — think ideological clashes and romantic subplots — plus comic touches. He's simply doing what he does, as fans of his television shows like Buffy and Firefly will recognise. He crafts scenes of spectacular chaos and continent-hopping carnage thankfully given time to play out, and wraps up the standard set-pieces and fight sequences in pithy quips. Yes, you've seen and heard much of it before, and yes, the film can never quite shake that feeling. Instead, flitting from one drama to the next and giving everyone their moment, it relies upon the fact that you already know and love the characters, the actors and their camaraderie. While spending time with the bulk of the bunch and spotting other familiar faces is hardly a chore, veering off in different directions is certainly welcome, particularly when twins Pietro and Wanda Maximoff (Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Elizabeth Olsen) — aka Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch — join the fold. That's where the entertaining yet never game-changing effort shines brightest, actually: in setting up the next offerings in a long list of Marvel movies, including two Avengers sequels already slated for 2018 and 2019 respectively. Age of Ultron may not be the best instalment so far, and you'll walk out well aware that what you just watched was only the latest chapter, but you're still enthused for things to come. Next stop: Ant-Man.
UPDATE, April 7, 2021: Weathering with You is available to stream via Netflix, Google Play, YouTube Movies, Amazon Video and iTunes. To watch as Weathering with You roams around Tokyo, wandering through its alleys and roving beyond its well-known tourist spots, is to almost feel like you're walking through the sprawling city yourself. That's an uncanny achievement for an animated film, however it speaks volumes about the level of detail evident in Makoto Shinkai's first movie since his huge 2016 hit Your Name. The luminous lights, towering structures and Shibuya's famous scramble crossing all feature, rendered as vividly as they demand. Also present: the rows of nondescript buildings that stretch across the Japanese capital, its maze of laneways, the blue vending machines on every block, and everything from everyday cafes to love hotels to small markets. While Weathering with You serves up a mix of romance, fantasy and drama in its narrative, it is fiercely determined to steep even its most fanciful narrative leaps in a realistic setting — and that choice has an impact not just visually, but emotionally. Three years after Your Name became the second-highest-grossing Japanese animated release ever around the globe — a feat that places it behind only Studio Ghibli's beloved Spirited Away — Shinkai's latest film once more ponders love, disaster and whether some things are just meant to be. Like the director's last movie, it also pits star-crossed teenagers against forces outside of their control, and aims for something offbeat yet insightful in the process. Themes of identity and self-exploration bubble to the fore again, albeit without Your Name's body-swap gimmick this time around. Instead, Weathering with You ponders societal and environmental changes, placing its high school-aged protagonists in the middle of both figurative and literal storms. If Hirokazu Kore-eda's Palme d'Or winner Shoplifters swapped actors for anime, added teen relationships and otherworldly elements, and examined global warming as well as life on the Japanese margins, it might actually look like this. Introduced on a boat approaching Tokyo just as a typhoon hits (and just as he's saved from a grim watery end by a stranger), 16-year-old runaway Hodaka (Kotaro Daigo) is a fresh-faced arrival in the big city. He has nowhere to stay, no job and no way to scrape by, failing to even find work in seedy bars or to get a moment's rest behind bins in an alleyway. When he first crosses paths with the orphaned Hina (Nana Mori), she's a fast food employee who gives him a free burger. When they meet again, he saves her from an exploitative new gig. A connection springs, but it's Hodaka's new place of employment that intertwines their fate. Hired as a live-in assistant to the jaunty Suga (Shun Oguri), who runs an occult-focused magazine out of his house, the teen is charged with tracking down people who can reportedly control the weather — and, following an eventful visit to a rooftop shrine during a time of trauma, that's a skill that Hina happens to possess. Writing as well as directing, Shinkai soon tasks his central duo with starting their own business to make the most of Hina's gift. As Tokyo's prolonged spell of unseasonable rain just keeps falling day after day, she brings sunshine to folks needing a reprieve — in small spots, only for short periods and for a fee. Of course, as many a movie has stressed, with great power not only comes great responsibility, but considerable consequences. It's here that Weathering with You starts weaving its various threads together — and although they don't all shine as brightly as the rays that Hina commands, the film still offers a smart and moving contemplation of one's place in, and impact upon, the world. That's true when it's poking into life at street-level and taking the planet's changing weather systems in a drastic direction, and remains the case when it's exploring individual decisions and influential relationships, too. As he did with Your Name, Shinkai packages his tale with an upbeat pace, expressive character animation, delicate voice work and music from Japanese pop band Radwimps, with the group's songs given pride of place across the picture's many montages. Indeed, while the filmmaker helms his sixth movie (with Children Who Chase Lost Voices and The Garden of Words also among his credits), Weathering with You often feels like it's following closely in its immediate predecessor's footsteps. That's where the film's finessed use of detail not only proves pivotal, but makes an immense difference. Its gorgeous frames serve up more than just something vibrant to look at, although they easily tick that box. A strikingly lifelike, never-romanticised vision of Tokyo anchors the narrative's Shinto-inspired spiritual and supernatural leanings. More importantly, it gives weight to both Hodaka and Hina's sizeable struggles, and to the movie's musing on where massive weather events could take today's society. Embracing fantasy, yet always ensuring that it remains equally enchanting and grounded, the result is a dynamic, stunningly animated outsider story with a heart and a conscience. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouLO5iPc1yo
On the road between Broken Hill and Silverton — around 1200 kilometres west of Sydney — lies Day Dream, one of Australia's first coal mines. Built in the 1880s, it's now a tourist attraction, where you can experience a day-in-the-life of a 19th century miner. Prepare for darkness, dust and lots of squeezing through teeny-tiny spaces — all 30 metres underground. Mining is still a dangerous business, but was way more terrifying back then. In fact, workers did it so tough that their bosses handed out opium to ease the pain. When that wore off, horehound beer, which caused temporary blindness, was the next refuge. You'll hear these and other tales on a 1.5-hour tour. Find more tips for exploring Broken Hill over here. [caption id="attachment_710913" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Day_Dream_Mine_Bonzle_Website.jpg[/caption] Images: Destination NSW
Inspired by the theme "fearless", the 2019 Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras is promising more than 100 events and over 400 artists running across 17 days. In addition to the signatures — including the Mardi Gras Parade on Saturday, March 2 — there's a bunch of new happenings this time round. One of the most anticipated is the Strictly Kaftan Party, a new pool party to be held at the Ivy on Tuesday, February 19. Don your favourite kaftan or hottest moo-moo and spend the day kicking back to New Zealand country duo The Topp Twins and various DJs. There'll be prizes for Best Kaftan, Best Cabana Lounging Ensemble and Most Outrageous Summer Accessory. Meanwhile, the Sissy Ball is back for another round, after selling out last year. Taking over Carriageworks on Saturday, February 23, this NYC ballroom-inspired event centres around vogue battles in the categories of dance, movement, fashion and air. In between watching acts of unabashed self-expression, you'll be kicking back to live music and DJs. On a more solemn note is the Requiem Mass: A Queer Divine Rite, which will fill the City Recital Hall with song on Thursday, February 21. This choral work, written by American composer Holcombe Waller in collaboration with LGBTQI+ communities, is informed by research into the persecution that LGBTQI+ people have experienced over the past 50 years. It'll be performed by Sam Allchurch and the Sydney Chamber Choir. The Seymour Centre, Newtown, will host Mardi Gras Central, the festival hub. Head down there anytime to catch theatre, music, dance, circus, cabaret and burlesque shows. Among the headliners is the inaugural Bent Burlesque, a feast of outrageous underground cabaret, circus, drag and performance art to take place over February 16 and 17 , as well as Club Briefs, set to bring you disco hits and dance moves from Wednesday, February 20 till Friday, March 1. You can look forward, too, to the return of longstanding favourites, including Fair Day at Victoria Park on Sunday, February 17; Pool Party at the Ivy on Monday, February 25; the Mardi Gras Party on Saturday, March 2 at the EQ Moore Park; and Laneway – the Parade's official recovery party – on Sunday, March 3 at The Beresford, Surry Hills. The 2019 Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras will take place February 15– March 3, 2019. Check out the rest of the program over here. Images: Jeffrey Feng and Clare Willcox.
UPDATE, July 10, 2023: On Monday, July 10, KFC is serving up $1 Zinger crunch twisters — and original crunch twisters. And on Tuesday, July 11, the $1 Zinger burger special is back for one day only. Who doesn't love to gift themselves a little treat meal on the weekend? Think: a pizza, a couple of scoops of gelato or a fried chicken burger. Well, KFC is here to facilitate just that last one with its ever-popular Zinger burgers available for just $1 for two hours on Saturday, July 1. The promotion is part of the chicken chain's 11 Days of Christmas, which will see it serve up a different finger-licking deal for the first week and a half of July. Kicking things off is the Colonel's classic burger for just a buck. If you want to claim your dollar Zinger Burger, just head to the KFC app and place your order between 3–5pm on July 1. So, what's in store for the rest of the month? $1 Twisters, 30 nuggets for $10 and a Double Zinger Feast featuring two burgers, ten nuggets and sauce for just $12. To check out each day's deal, just hit up the KFC app. Plus, the fast food chain's Christmas in July merch is also making a comeback. The viral ugly Christmas sweater, a KFC Christmas t-shirt, a corduroy bucket hat, socks, fingerless gloves and the line of matching pet sweaters — they're all available to purchase. Head to the KFC website to place an order.
The last time that Joaquin Phoenix appeared in cinemas, he played an overlooked and unheard man. "You don't listen, do you?" Arthur Fleck asked his social worker, and the entirety of Joker — and of Phoenix's magnetic Oscar-winning performance as the Batman foe in the 2019 film, too — provided the obvious answer. Returning to the big screen in a feature that couldn't be more different to his last, Phoenix now plays a professional listener. A radio journalist and podcaster who'd slide in seamlessly alongside Ira Glass on America's NPR, Johnny's niche is chatting with children. Travelling around the country from his New York base, C'mon C'mon's protagonist seeks thoughts about life, hopes, dreams, the future and the world in general, but never in a Kids Say the Darndest Things-type fashion. As Phoenix's sensitive, pensive gaze conveys under the tender guidance of Beginners and 20th Century Women filmmaker Mike Mills, Johnny truly and gratefully hears what his young interviewees utter. Phoenix is all gentle care, quiet understanding and rippling melancholy as Johnny. All naturalism and attentiveness as well, he's also firmly at his best, no matter what's inscribed on his Academy Award. Here, Phoenix is as phenomenal as he was in his career highlight to-date, aka the exceptional You Were Never Really Here, in a part that again has his character pushed out of his comfort zone by a child. C'mon C'mon's Johnny spends his days talking with kids, but that doesn't mean he's equipped to look after his nine-year-old nephew Jesse (Woody Norman, The War of the Worlds) in Los Angeles when his sister Viv (Gaby Hoffmann, Transparent) needs to assist her husband Paul (Scoot McNairy, A Quiet Place Part II) with his mental health. Johnny and Viv haven't spoken since their mother died a year earlier, and Johnny has previously overstepped when it comes to Paul — with the siblings' relationship so precarious that he barely knows Jesse — but volunteering to help is his immediate reflex. As captured in soft, luxe, nostalgic shades of greyscale by always-remarkable cinematographer Robbie Ryan (see also: I, Daniel Blake, American Honey, The Favourite and Marriage Story), Johnny takes to his time with Jesse as any uncle suddenly thrust into a 24/7 caregiving role that doesn't exactly come naturally would. Jesse also reacts as expected, handling the situation as any bright and curious kid whose world swiftly changes, and who finds himself with a new and different role model, is going to. But C'mon C'mon is extraordinary not because its instantly familiar narrative sees Johnny and Jesse learn life lessons from each other, and their bond grow stronger the longer they spend in each other's company — but because this tremendously moving movie repeatedly surprises with its depth, insights, and lively sparks of both adult and childhood life. It's styled to look like a memory, and appreciates how desperately parents and guardians want to create such happy recollections for kids, but C'mon C'mon feels unshakeably lived-in rather than wistful. It doesn't pine for times gone by; instead, the film recognises the moments that linger in the now. It spies how the collection of ordinary, everyday experiences that Johnny and Jesse cycle through all add up to something that's equally commonplace, universally relatable and special, too. Conveying that sentiment, but never by being sentimental, has long been one of Mills' great powers as a filmmaker. He makes pictures so alive with real emotion that they clearly belong to someone, and yet also resonate with everyone all at once. With C'mon C'mon, the writer/director draws upon his own time as a parent, after taking inspiration from his relationship with his father in Beginners, and from his connection to his mother and his own upbringing in 20th Century Women. The conversations that the rumpled Johnny and precocious Jesse exchange might be exactly the kind that adults and children always have — the earnest talks that Johnny has with his interview subjects as well, which help place the movie's musings in a broader context — but that doesn't make them any less perceptive and memorable. The key to the film is the key to its central duo's blossoming bond, to Johnny's rapport with the kids on his podcast, and to everything that Phoenix as Arthur Fleck wanted and demanded: genuinely listening. C'mon C'mon builds wonderfully detailed and intricate character studies by doing just that with Johnny and Jesse — and, albeit in less screentime, with Viv. Trips around the US play like big adventures, including when Jesse keeps wanting to explore NY and laps up a New Orleans street parade, but the contents of late-night phone calls, the newly single Johnny's diary-like recorded dispatches about his days, Viv's maternal routine and Jesse's favourite play-acting game — where he pretends he's an orphan — frequently feel just as immense. As C'mon C'mon observes and unfurls these textured slices of life, it also takes the act of listening as seriously as Johnny does. Mills has directed a gorgeous-looking film, any frame of which would make a postcard-perfect memory — its closeups are revelatory, its wide shots that place its characters in their surroundings while surveying the minutiae around them are transcendent — but his soundscape does just as much essential work. Viewers hear the hustle and bustle, the noise of the street, the silence that lingers indoors and the clattering chaos one small boy can incite. Jesse hears it, too, and soon becomes enamoured with listening through his uncle's headphones as Johnny records on-the-ground material for his podcast. The National's Bryce and Aaron Dessner also layer in a melodic and dreamy score that both sets and suits the reflective and warm-hearted mood, while the soundtrack's jumps between genres — opera, Lou Reed and Lee Scratch Perry included — are dynamic. For all of Mills' outstanding choices with C'mon C'mon, a feature filled with them, the care and love he gives his characters and ushers out of his actors is his biggest feat. Phoenix's endlessly impressive work as a man both exhausted and rewarded by pseudo-parenthood is matched by Norman, who turns in a spontaneous and instinctive performance, and by the ever-reliable Hoffman as a woman constantly striving for her own space beyond her roles as a mother, partner and sister. Indeed, watching them together, and seeing their reactions and responses while talking to each other via phone, is as crucial as hearing every word spoken. Yes, C'mon C'mon listens devotedly, but it's just as committed to simply being in these characters' presence, soaking in all that comes with it, and finding the aching and affecting truth in every second.
It's the best action movie of this century. The best Australian flick of the same period, too. And, it's one of the very best in general as well. But, because the arid expanse that usually surrounds Broken Hill was too green when filming took place, six-time Oscar-winner Mad Max: Fury Road was actually shot overseas. That won't be the case with its follow up Furiosa, though. Focusing on a younger version of the character played by Charlize Theron in Fury Road, Furiosa is actually a prequel — and it'll begin filming in New South Wales in June this year. The Queen's Gambit lead Anya Taylor-Joy will be stepping into the formidable figure's shoes, and starring opposite Chris Hemsworth. Watchmen's Yahya Abdul Mateen II will also feature and, although no other cast members have yet to be announced, it's safe to expect that plenty of local faces will pop up as well. It has been six years since Fury Road first motored its way across the big screen, so Furiosa can't arrive soon enough. Exactly when the latter will actually hit cinemas is yet to be revealed, but it'll do so after a relatively short gap by Mad Max standards. If you feel like you've been waiting for ages to see the franchise continue, it's worth remembering that there was a 30-year gap between 1985's not-so-great Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome and Fury Road's triumphant arrival in 2015. NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian announced the news today, Monday, April 19, noting that the shoot "is expected to support more than 850 local jobs and bring in around $350 million into the NSW economy". And while it's all good and well that the Mad Max series is continuing, that it'll be shot in Australia and that it has quite an impressive cast, that'd really mean nothing if director George Miller wasn't involved. Thankfully, he'll be back behind the lens, as he has been on 1979's Mad Max, 1981's Mad Max 2, and both Beyond Thunderdome and Fury Road as well. Obviously, a sneak peek of Furiosa won't be available for quite some time given that it hasn't even begun shooting yet, but you can relive Fury Road's glory in its trailer below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEJnMQG9ev8 Furiosa will start filming in NSW in June. Exactly when the film will hit cinemas hasn't yet been revealed, but we'll update you with details when they're announced
Travelling from Bengal to Iraq, to the Kimberley, Temporary Certainty explores the tensions between certainty and permanence and doubt and ephemerality through new works by Bangladesh-born Sarker Protick, and Kununarra artist Alana Hunt, and Kurdistan-born, Melbourne-based Rushdi Anwar. All three investigate interactions between identity, geography, political interventions and the passing of time. Protick, in his work-in-progress Exodus (2015–ongoing), takes us to the decaying buildings and overgrown grounds of East Bengal's abandoned feudal estates, which once belonged to rich, powerful Hindu jamindars (landlords). Also occupied with built environments are two works by Anwar. His video and sound installation Facing Living: The Past in the Present (2015) delves into Saddam Hussein's dictatorship over Iraq, while We have found in the ashes what we have lost in the fire (2018) is his response to visiting a church in Bashiqa, Mosul, which lies in territory disputed over by the Kurdistan Regional Government and Iraqi government. Meanwhile, Hunt's Faith in a pile of stones (2018), visits Lake Argyle, a freshwater reservoir 18 times the volume of Sydney Harbour, in Kununurra in the Kimberley. Built in 1971 for irrigation, the structure caused major changes to country belonging to Miriwoong, Gija and Malgnin people, including the drowning of places of significance. If you're willing to get up early on Saturday, September 22, you can join the gallery for a breakfast tour — you'll go for congee in Chinatown, followed by a guided tour of the exhibition. It costs $25 and you can book here. Image: Sarker Protick, Disintegration, from the series Exodus (2015—ongoing). Photographic installation, variable dimensions. Courtesy the artist.
UPDATE, November 19, 2021: Tick, Tick… Boom! screens in select Sydney cinemas from Thursday, November 11, and streams via Netflix from Friday, November 19. "Try writing what you know." That's age-old advice, dispensed to many a scribe who hasn't earned the success or even the reaction they'd hoped, and it's given to aspiring theatre composer Jonathan Larson (Andrew Garfield, Under the Silver Lake) in Tick, Tick… Boom!. The real-life figure would go on to write Rent but here, in New York City in January 1990, he's working on his debut musical Superbia. It's a futuristic satire inspired by George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, and it's making him anxious about three things. Firstly, he hasn't yet come up with a pivotal second-act song that he keeps being told he needs. Next, he's staging a workshop for his debut production to gauge interest before the week is out — and this just has to be his big break. Finally, he's also turning 30 in days, and his idol Stephen Sondheim made his Broadway debut in his 20s. Tick, Tick… Boom! charts the path to those well-worn words of wisdom about drawing from the familiar, including Larson's path to the autobiographical one-man-show of the same name before Rent. And, it manages to achieve that feat while showing why such a sentiment isn't merely a cliche in this situation. That said, the key statement about mining your own experience also echoes throughout this affectionate movie musical in another unmissable way. Lin-Manuel Miranda didn't write Tick, Tick… Boom!'s screenplay; however, he does turn it into his filmmaking directorial debut — and what could be more fitting for that task from the acclaimed In the Heights and Hamilton talent than a loving ode (albeit an inescapably overexcited one) to the hard work put in by a game-changing theatre wunderkind? If this was a case of telling viewers that this is Miranda's movie without telling them, the concept would obviously do the trick. So would a few notable cameos in a standout song-and-dance number that's best discovered by watching. There's plenty in Tick, Tick… Boom! that was already layered with musical theatre history before it became a film, too; in the source material, Larson even wrote in a homage to Sondheim's own musical Sunday in the Park with George. That's the level of insider knowledge that's a foundation here, and the film frequently reverberates in an insular, theatre-obsessive, spot-the-references register. As great as it is if you stan the same productions and people, it also makes Tick, Tick… Boom! less accessible and resonant. It's as if Miranda can't choose between indulging his own adoration or truly sharing that love with his audience. (Tick, Tick… Boom! also became a three-person stage musical in 2001, and Miranda played its lead in a 2014 revival opposite Hamilton's Leslie Odom Jr and In the Heights' Karen Olivo.) Garfield's sing-to-the-rafters version of Larson is first seen in faux home-video footage, performing the rock monologue iteration of Tick, Tick… Boom!, his bouncy hair waving about as he croons and plays piano. Miranda and screenwriter Steven Levenson (Dear Evan Hansen) then segue between the lively presentation and the tale it also tells about Superbia, the looming workshop and the impending birthday. In the latter scenes, Larson can't come up with the missing song, earn enough as a composer to keep the power on, or juggle his pursuit of his dream with the complexities of his personal life. The alternative: opting for a safe career, which his ex-actor ex-roommate Michael (Robin de Jesus, The Boys in the Band) has done in advertising, and his dancer girlfriend Susan (Alexandra Shipp, X-Men: Dark Phoenix) is contemplating with teaching. Selling out is the villain here, but while there might've been bite to that idea in 1990, when Tick, Tick… Boom! debuted off-off-Broadway, there's far less in a film that's also an origin story for a famous theatre name. Recognising this, Miranda and Levenson start the feature not just with nods to Rent's success — the reason that Larson's dilemma is absent tension in the first place — but also with the tragic news that their subject died on the morning of Rent's first off-Broadway preview performance in January 1996. The passage of time indicated by the movie's moniker takes on an added dimension as a result, as does all the on-screen frenzy about making it before it's too late. Wanting to succeed now, and to savour every moment, also gets another refrain in a HIV subplot, albeit in a more cursory and gratuitous fashion than Larson must've originally intended. Still, when Tick, Tick… Boom! works, it's largely due to its energy — more so than its attempts to hit huge emotional beats. There's no mistaking the two wellsprings of experience that are so crucial to the film, with both Larson and Miranda working with what they knew or know, but that echoes loudest is the frantic and urgent atmosphere. The movie plays like something that desperately had to come to fruition, both in Miranda's quest to pay tribute, and in Larson's initial efforts to turn his Superbia experience into something creatively meaningful. The feature's seemingly non-stop musical numbers bound across the screen with that type of attitude, and Miranda unsurprisingly has the eye and timing to stage them with flair. Perhaps Garfield's on-screen fortunes sum up Tick, Tick… Boom! best, though; he's always on, eager and singing with his fullest voice, and also always putting on a forceful performance. He impresses with his commitment and gusto, yet is less convincing at finding nuance in Larson's frustrations, the daily grind of trying to start his career, and in his relationships. Trying to do too much and swing too big isn't the worst thing that a film and a lead portrayal can do, especially in a stage-to-screen musical that also doubles as an exuberant eulogy — and weaves in a Rent origin story of sorts via its protagonist's everyday life, too — but it's still noticeable. It's clearly a case of art imitating life, with Larson's enthusiasm for the art form he cherished so feverishly coming through strong; however, it also always feels like a show. Top image: Macall Polay/Netflix.
Choose life. Choose celebrating a movie that defined the '90s, made Ewan McGregor a star and instantly made everyone's favourite flicks of all time list. Choose spending 2017 revelling in all things Trainspotting. Film fans already have long-awaited sequel T2: Trainspotting (which is scheduled for a February release) to look forward to, and now theatre fans in Australia can choose something else: Trainspotting Live. Choose 75 minutes of intense, immersive page-to-stage antics, as based on Irvine Welsh's 1993 novel about Edinburgh heroin addicts, and first adapted for the theatre in the UK back in 1995. Yes, that means that Harry Gibson's award-winning original stage version was written before Danny Boyle's iconic 1996 movie — and you haven't really experienced the story of Renton, Begbie, Sick Boy and company until you've seen it acted out, live and in person, right in front of you. Transporting its all-Scottish cast and their distinctive accents to Adelaide from February 17 to March 19, Melbourne's fortyfivedownstairs from March 22 to April 13, and Brisbane Powerhouse from April 19 to 22, Trainspotting Live does more than that — it also brings the audience into the show, starting with an extended rave, and even including the infamous 'Worst Toilet in Scotland' scene. It's no wonder that the production has been selling out shows in London, and earning rave reviews for its no-holds-barred approach. The fact that it's being staged by In Your Face Theatre should give you an indication of what you're in for. Welsh — that is, the man who literally wrote the book, plus a sequel, prequel and Begbie-focused spin-off, and recently floated the idea of a TV adaptation — called Trainspotting Live the "best way to experience Trainspotting", in case you needed any more convincing. Just don't go confusing it with the BBC television program of the same name, which is actually about looking at railways. Trainspotting Live plays in Adelaide from February 17 to March 19, at Melbourne's Fortyfivedownstairs from March 22 to April 13, and at Brisbane Powerhouse from April 19 to 22, 2017. For more information, visit the production website.
There's a great mystery to be solved in Hollywood's remake of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, but it's not the brutal spate of murders Stieg Larsson's heroes are trying to solve. Instead, it's why a movie with all the ingredients for perfection somehow fell short of that mark. It's certainly not the case that this was an unnecessary remake of Niels Arden Oplev's 2009 Swedish version, a great and faithful adaptation of the novel but by no means a consummate picture warranting no further attempts (compared to, say, Point Break. D'ya hear that Warner Bros? For God's sake just let it be!!). Directed by David Fincher (Fight Club, The Social Network), Girl seemed like the ideal project for a man who's made an art form out of humanity's dark side. Set in the frosty countryside of Sweden's snow-covered north, it covers kidnapping, torture, murder, rape and — without giving too much away — Nazism. If you're not one of the 65 million people who've already bought the book (or the billion who then borrowed it off one of them), Girl tells the story of Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig), a disgraced investigative journalist reeling from an embarrassing and possibly career-ending libel lawsuit. Absent any other options, he begrudgingly accepts the invitation of a reclusive industrialist named Henrik Vanger (Christopher Plummer) to help him solve the 40-year-old mystery of his missing niece. Recruited to assist Bomkvist is the dragon-tattooed Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara), a bisexual savant hacker with an abrasive personality and (entirely justifiable) penchant for punishing abusive men. Just as it was with Noomi Rapace in the Swedish film, Mara is the standout performer in Fincher's version. Her transformation from the aggrieved ex-girlfriend of Mark Zuckerberg in the opening scene of The Social Network to this pierced, animalistic and almost androgynous avenger is nothing short of astonishing. Compared to Craig's altogether monochrome performance, Mara's scenes are tense and compelling throughout, yet even they aren't enough to save this violent, 2 hour 40 minute epic from periodically dragging. Perhaps it's because as a murder mystery Girl is a far cry from the complex and sophisticated plot of Fincher's earlier film Zodiac, just as it fails to unsettle in quite the same way Se7en did. Not that there isn't also a lot to love. Jeff Cronenweth's cinematography is exquisite and the movie's opening credits are simply breathtaking. Highlighting Fincher's background in music videos, Girl opens with a pulsing goth-rock cover of Led Zeppelin's 'Immigrant Song' by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross while fetish-infused visuals of oil-drenched figures writhe across the screen, not unlike the introduction to 1999's Bond film The World Is Not Enough. Which brings us back to the start. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is a stylish, confronting and faithful adaptation of Larsson's novel that for some reason just fails to match its potential. It's a fascinating mystery — only not quite the one Fincher set out to tell. https://youtube.com/watch?v=WVLvMg62RPA
Minimalist Aussie clothing designer Assembly Label is currently hosting a massive online charity sale so you can upgrade your wardrobe with linen pants and a comfy woollen knit tee— and help Aussies doing it tough. With both men's and women's wear on offer, you'll find both cosy outfits for those chilly La Niña days such as denim, jumpers and jackets, plus swimwear, dresses and shorts ready for when the next summer heat wave hits. Best of all, you can nab it all at up to 50 percent off. There's a whole range of summer essentials available for cheap on the site. You could be sporting this cord drawn black dress, for example, at your next beachside brunch or sunny summer picnic for $60 down from $100. As part of the sale, Assembly Label has a choose-what-you-pay initiative raising money for the Curing Homesickness, an organisation that helps kids get home from hospital sooner. When you buy a sale item, you can choose to pay an extra $5, $10 or $15, with that amount then matched by Assembly Label and donated to Curing Homesickness. So, you can grab some new threads and feel good about it too.
Fair Day is traditionally one of the first events of Mardi Gras each year, but in 2023 it's going one better: it's also the first major event of Sydney WorldPride. Get ready for a family-friendly, pup-friendly, eco-glitter-friendly day in Victoria Park that's inclusive, relaxed and free. This year's Fair Day will feature a fancy dress competition for dogs, over 300 market stalls, pop-up bars, a main stage with leading queer performers in Australian music, plus the chance to shine brightly with your nearest and dearest chosen family. Highlights of the performance lineup include Eurovision champion Conchita Wurst, a Sissy Ball vogue showcase, The Buoys, Nana Miss Koori, Carla Wehbe, Jamaica Moana and Latifa Tee. Elsewhere around Fair Day, the First Nations Circle will celebrate LGBTQIA+SB Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, a live recording of the ABC's The Party Room will be talking politics, The Absolut Dancefloor will be serving up party-starting dance tunes, and the likes of Archie Rose, Little Creatures and Squealing Pig will be supplying refreshing drinks.
A few people are saying the Simon Pegg/Nick Frost/Edgar Wright partnership is getting tired. There might be some truth to that, but it isn't tired yet. The World's End — the third film in their 'Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy', a series of comic genre mash-ups that also happen to feature a random Cornetto ice-cream in each one — is a whirlwind of exuberant humour it's easy to get swept up in. Sure, some of the surprise of the mash-up twist has faded since 2004's breakthrough Shaun of the Dead, but the team has also matured as actors, filmmakers and observers of the human condition. The particular human condition they're concerned with this time around is the sad state of being stuck in one's halcyon days, particularly when they're situated in high school, particularly when you're now nearing 40. Pegg plays the thusly afflicted man-child, and it's far from the loveable, self-effacing type of loser character we're used to seeing him be. As Gary King, he is a real loser, still sporting his teenage sludgy black hair and greatcoat, still driving 'The Beast' registered in someone else's name, still embarrassingly overconfident and still sleazing onto women in the loos. He's so close to being unlikeable, yet there's just enough good in him — and just a smidge of relatability — that we want him to win on his ridiculous quest to unite his high school buddies and claim the victory that should have been theirs 20 years earlier: completion of a 12-stop pub crawl known as the Golden Mile. Gary's more capably adult friends — Andrew (Frost), Steven (Paddy Considine), Oliver (Martin Freeman) and Peter (Eddie Marsan) — want out of the caper not long after arriving back in their insular home town, Newton Haven. But then they discover the place has gone Invasion of the Body Snatchers in their absence, and fighting off invading alien robot hordes takes precedence over fighting each other. All the while, following some spectacular drunk-person reasoning, they continue the course of their pub crawl to the mythic World's End bar. In some ways, The World's End doesn't feel like the final movie of the trilogy; it has the anarchic, careening, appropriately drunken energy of an early oeuvre picture, but one suspects that mood is actually harder to control than it looks. The movie is also unexpectedly mature in its human drama, teasing out the fraught relationship we have with our histories and ultimately encouraging us to go a little less hard on our past selves. There's great joy in watching The World's End, and plenty of rewards in the team's signature brand of comedy. Maybe it is time to move on from the genre mash-up, but this is a thundering way to go out. https://youtube.com/watch?v=7ibQvQUpMTg
