A suburban family finds a prehistoric egg. A lonely woman aids a fallen angel. An American woman plots to take the Parisian honey industry by storm. These are just a few of the moments captured in Bindy Pritchard‘s stunning short story collection Fabulous Lives. Curious, yet always relatable, Pritchard’s vignettes are filled with the sort of…
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The year is 1930. With talkies on the rise, the age of silent cinema is coming to a close, and it seems there’s someone on the Berlin streets who’s not quite ready to let it go. Cinema starlets are showing up dead at an alarming rate and, as if Inspector Gereon Rath doesn’t already have…
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In October 2017 when the hashtag #MeToo went viral, a lot of the popularity was chalked up to some rich, white celebrities speaking out. What these media reports failed to acknowledge however was that the movement’s true founder was Tarana Burke. This new anthology, #MeToo: Stories from the Australian Movement, is broadens #MeToo’s scope, whilst…
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The body count is high in Amanda O’Callaghan’s debut short story collection, This Taste for Silence. From the very first story, death, murder and unexplained disappearances emerge as a dominant theme in this collection which has been described by Ryan O’Neill as ‘utterly haunting.’ Brisbane-based author O’Callaghan is an internationally acclaimed writer of short (and very…
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Over the recent years, it has come to my attention that some of the most problematic films that have attained a lot of critical derision have come from films that explore the trope of magical realism. Recent efforts such as Collateral Beauty, Life Itself and The Book of Henry have tried to be life-affirming by…
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Little Stones might be the debut novel from Australian writer Elizabeth Kuiper, but it won’t be her last. The novel, of which an early version was long listed for the Richell Prize, published in Award Winning Australian Writing and received the Express Media Prize for the best work of fiction, marks the arrival of a new voice in Australian writing. One…
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UK outfit Rudimental closed out the rescheduled Australian leg of their massive “Toast To Our Differences” world tour in style at Melbourne’s Margaret Court Arena on Sunday night, helping to elevate their fantastic album Toast To Our Differences to even greater heights. Joining the band to bask in the musically driven madness of the Melbourne crowd,…
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It feels absolutely wonderful to see a Vietnamese film in this year’s Sydney Film Festival. Of course, there have been many Vietnamese film in film festivals before but, with a stronger focus on genre-centric cinema over the recent year, it feels invigorating for a Vietnamese critic such as myself. This year, we have Ash Mayfair‘s…
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If you had never been to a Seth Sentry show, you would probably be unprepared for the shenanigans, or at the very least you’d know his personality was inclined towards them through his music. Seth has been away from the touring circuit for awhile but, alongside the release of his recent single “Wrong One” seemingly…
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Hope can be a genuinely hard thing to find these days, but can often be found in the places we don’t think to look. Meg Mac’s new album offers us a quiet moment of hopeful reflection, and also brings with it a gentle reminder of her vocal and lyrical talent. Recently coming off the end of…
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Most documentaries are good at providing observations about a subject. They are often unobtrusive and just like a fly-on-the-wall. But what do you do when you’ve chosen to chronicle an individual who is an illusionist and expert prankster by day? TV director, Ben Berman grapples with this as well as the notion of the truth…
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Here’s a fun fact: despite the commonly held belief that they can do it whenever they please, Iguana’s can only change colour when placed under stress or basking in the sun. Now that I’ve dazzled you with my Year Seven standard understanding of the animal kingdom, you must know that just like Iguana’s, Polish Club…
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It’s finally here! The Godzilla franchise continues with Godzilla: King of the Monsters! Previous director Gareth Edwards has been replaced by Michael Dougherty, best known for his horror efforts like the Halloween anthology film Trick ‘R Treat and the Christmas movie Krampus. With an all-star cast of acclaimed thespians, rising talents and franchise returnees and free reign…
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Only several months after cinema screens were graced with Bohemian Rhapsody and part of the journey of Queen’s meteoric rise to fame. We now have Rocketman, which examines another flamboyant and influential musician, Elton John, and unlike the former, this film decidedly takes a bit more of a leap both stylistically and also narratively. Because…
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Since Crooked Colours‘ release of Vera back in 2017, the trio has become something of a ‘tour de force’ within Australia’s production scene. Vera, built around a profound introduction of their sound, was the perfect launching pad for the group; with outstanding singles such as “Come Back To You”, “Vera” and “I Hope You Get It”…
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When one brings up the word “survival” in cinematic terms, usually some would think adventure stories in foreign environments like tropical islands, forests or jungles. Others would think of contained thrillers, where stories would be set in one small setting like a hostage situation in a building ala Die Hard, Under Siege or Speed. But…
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Even a week after the release of Kim Churchill’s new EP I Am, I still have positive, yet complicated, feelings about an EP that has provided me with a little solace in a life that has recently taken a turn for the busier. I’ve particularly enjoyed the juxtaposed nature of the collection, with its moments…
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Three years since the release of their debut EP, Golden Guns in 2016, Brisbane blues rockers Fire and Whistle Theory, have released their sophomore EP Take Me Alive. Featuring a collection of tried and tested crowd favourites and new songs, the band took a live approach to the recording, hoping to capture a raw, genuine…
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In the country for a string of sold out shows, Jungle played their second Sydney show of the tour and brought the Enmore Theatre crowd to life with their own brand of downbeat dance music. Playing their second Sydney show of the tour (after a headlining slot at last week’s Bad Friday Festival), the seven-piece lords…
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Marrickville was turned into a grungy experimental boombox as Bad Friday Festival rolled in. The annual event held each Easter Good Friday was celebrating its 10th anniversary with a killer line-up featuring The Avalanches, DMA’s, Jungle, DZ Deathrays and more. But, importantly in a time where the political climate of live music festivals is souring,…
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Some people read books to escape their lives. For other readers, they want to consume a story that mirrors their own. Author, Melina Marchetta certainly fits into the latter camp. Her latest novel – the third in her Inner West trilogy, set in the suburbs of Sydney – is a close examination of the issues…
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For what was a return to music after over a decade, Art of Fighting‘s live return on Thursday night was a low-key affair. Sporting a sold out crowd, the mid 2000’s outfit, brought Leo Mullins, along in support, with Mullins quickly garnering a crowd as excited to see them as they were the evening’s headliners. Leo Mullins…
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Matt Corby is on a home run in support of last year’s long awaited Rainbow Valley, with a national tour booked a little later than the album’s release and following a run through Europe. Melbourne singer Eliott opened the show with a brand of electro soul and a huge voice, while second support Blessed turned…
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An assemblage of scrunchies and cheerleader bows spilled into Sydney’s Enmore Theatre for what was many young Anne-Marie fans’ first ever concert. The tweens filled the venue with high shrills and shrieks, waiting in anticipation for their UK pop princess. Warming up the sold-out night was Sydney-export GLADES, with lead singer Karina Wykes dressed in…
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There’s something funny to me referring to Alexander Wolfe as “an unknown, unheard of artist”. Most definitely to almost all Australian audiences he would be, but the British folk singer-songwriter has been releasing music since 2009. And even though it would be impossible to find one of his physical CDs in a store, he’s quite…
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The unnamed protagonist of Carrie Tiffany’s new novel, Exploded View, lets us into her life by increments. Immediately, as readers, we are welcomed into her interior world– a place where the only things that make sense are cars, and engines. It is the late 1970’s, and the girl and her brother watch things like Hogan’s Heroes on the TV, careful…
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Relationship advisor Zoë Foster Blake takes us on an enthusiastic journey through matters of the heart and offers a fresh perspective in her new reference guide: Love! The book offers hints, solutions and ideas on how to deal with many of the issues us women experience when dating, whilst also giving some insight into why we…
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Based on a true story (well-documented in the Channel 4 documentary The Wrestlers: Fighting with My Family), born into a tight-knit wrestling family, Paige (Florence Pugh) and her brother Zak (Jack Lowden) are ecstatic when they get the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to try out for the WWE. But when only Paige earns a spot in the…
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Adapting tragic events of the world to the cinema screen can be a very risky proposition. There are many ways to get it wrong and very few ways to get it right. The wrong ways can lead the film to be considered exploitative, cheap, insulting, xenophobic and even laughable. It would also depend on the…
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Washed ashore on the island of Janda Baik, sisters Muni and Satki have no memory of their former lives. Mak Genggang, the region’s foremost witch, knows a curse when she sees it and in the mortal Muna and the magical Satki, it’s clear as day to her what has happened. Unable, or unwilling, to answer…
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