Playing their biggest headline run to date, Big Scary kicked off their Animal tour at the Forum Theatre in Melbourne on Friday June 16th. Gracing the stage with a five-piece band and a shadowy backdrop, the live show proved to be just as brooding as the much loved album of the same title. Supporting Big…
Read More
Over the weekend, we came across Brooklyn based group, Caretaker. With a new single in “Swallow”, the band has firmly cemented themselves on our “Must Watch” list – a great blend of post-punk with vibrancy injected that is simply undeniable. Everything from the pace to the piercing nature of the vocals makes this track immense…
Read More
Next week, Adelaide trio DONNARUMMA will release their debut EP Billy Billy after what seems like ages, if you’re a local music fan having seen Louis Donnarumma, Anthony Costanzo and Max Tulysewski perform around the place frequently over the past year. An amalgamation of different influences and previous performance experience comes to the fold with the DONNARUMMA project and has been poured into the…
Read More
Sometimes, you just have to give a bit of a shout out to some DIY goodness. Also, sometimes you have to drag your eyes away from the East Coast, and what a better time to be alive than to be able to combine the both. Perth outfit HYLA have just dropped the video for their latest track…
Read More
This week’s wrap up of best new music comes to you straight from our writers and editors who reckon these tracks are definitely worth a listen. Catch up on Julia Jacklin’s sweet new one, the dream-pop single from newcomer Eilish Gilligan or satisfy your inner punk with additions from Sail On! Sail On! and Drown This…
Read More
On his recent tour in Sydney, we sat down with singer-songwriter Noah Kahan. Making waves on live stages during sold out shows with Milky Chance and Ben Folds, Noah is certainly one to watch. He tells us about his latest singles “Young Blood” and “Hold It Down”, currently topping Spotify Charts, song which express the passion…
Read More
Okja is a film involving a giant mutated pig. What more do you want? But seriously, in order to understand the hype of the film, you have to know the filmmaker Bong Joon-Ho. Bong Joon-Ho is an acclaimed Korean filmmaker who has made some incredible films. And the reason he is so acclaimed is his…
Read More
A song is as song except when it’s a Terrence Malick film. The famous director’s latest experimental offering is an absolute waste in that it is all show and no substance. It weaves together cameos from famous A-list creatives and a cast of Hollywood’s finest actors and then it does nothing. Absolutely nothing. For 129…
Read More
Last night’s Closing Gala for the 2017 Sydney Film Festival saw an array of diverse Australia films and talent receive distinctions, as well as the Australian premiere of highly-anticipated Netflix Original Film Okja as the 64th Festival came to a close. The prestigious Sydney Film Prize was awarded to Ildikó Enyedi‘s intriguing love story On Body and Soul, while…
Read More
Powershop and the Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) are inviting filmmakers, and anyone in the filmmaking spirit, to create a short film for the inaugural Powershorts Film Comp in Australia. To enter, contestants must shoot a film using only their smartphones, keep it anywhere between 10 sec and 3 mins and it must include the…
Read More
“100” just may be the best episode Fear the Walking Dead has done to date. Daniel Salazar (Rubén Blades) was always one of the more interesting characters – that isn’t saying much though – in the show, up until the point where the writers made the terrible decision to randomly send him into “crazy” mode…
Read More
The Sydney Film Festival has come to a close for another year – and with it come all the great memories of the films that surprised us, inspired us and left us wishing the event would never end. Alas, it has – but here are five films we’re taking away with us as the best…
Read More
Acclaimed Indigenous Australian director, writer and performer Leah Purcell has been awarded the 2017 Sydney-UNESCO City of Film Award at last night’s closing of the Sydney Film Festival. The award follows a huge year for Leah, from adapting and starring in the theatre adaptation of acclaimed Australian novel The Drover’s Wife, with which she won the…
Read More
In Home Again, Reese Witherspoon stars as a recently divorced single mother whose life is complicated with the addition of three young men coming to live with her, just after her 40th Birthday. Witherspoon is joined by the likes of Nat Wolff and Michael Sheen for this romantic comedy, which hits US cinemas in September….
Read More
To help celebrate the release of Baby Driver, Stars Ansel Elgort and Lily James will join writer-director Edgar Wright in Sydney for the Australian Premiere. The premiere will take place on Wednesday 12th July, 2017 at Event Cinemas, George St. The trio will walk the red carpet, before joining Australian director George Miller on stage to introduce…
Read More
Based on a memoir by American writer James Lord and adapted for the screen by actor Stanley Tucci, Final Portrait is a concise passion project with committed performances and evident production care that sadly doesn’t overcome its bland setting. Anchored by a wonderful turn from Geoffrey Rush as eccentric painter Giacometti, this dramedy of sorts…
Read More
Whilst animation in film has evolved immensely over the last 20 years, there’s something immediately charming about Phantom Boy‘s deliberately flat and simple palleted aesthetic. It may lack the emotional weight of the technically more refined Pixar offerings, but this film’s distinct look feels organically melded to its somber mentality. Coming courtesy of French directing…
Read More
It has been an extremely busy few weeks for The Iris, with the video game world stuck in the lunacy of E3, Supanova in Sydney and the Sydney Film Festival, we have finally calmed down a little and sunk back into some great couch time with some excellent TV and it gave me some time…
Read More
Ewen Bremner is a calm and thought provoking actor who has seen a broad variety of roles over the years in stage, TV (My Name is Earl, The Lost Room) and the silver screen (Pearl Harbor, Black Hawk Down, Trainspotting 1 & 2, Wonder Woman). Some of the best characters Ewen portrays are very left…
Read More
The Young Karl Marx (Le jeune Karl Marx) is a bio-pic that feels authentic because it captures the period well in a visual sense. But you also get the feeling that it is only telling a part of the story and not least because it is all about Karl Marx’s youth. This dramatic film is…
Read More
Before I get into this review, let’s get this out of the way. Ever since I first saw one of his films on SBS, I’ve been a huge fan of Jackie Chan, due to his incredible dexterity, creative fight choreography, amazing stuntwork and his likable aw-shucks persona. But like every action hero, the thing that…
Read More
I’d never visited Los Angeles before this week. After 17 hours in the air, a turbulent Auckland-Los Angeles leg and with the jetlag still in that quiet moment before your body realises everything is wrong, I was ready for a moment of quiet. Thankfully, quiet is exactly what the Hotel Palomar in Beverly Hills gave…
Read More
It is the night we honour and celebrate Australia’s vibrant live performance industry, and recognise distinguished achievements within musical theatre, contemporary music, comedy, opera, classical music, theatre, ballet, dance and physical theatre, presentation for children, regional touring and cabaret. Live Performance Australia Chief Executive Evelyn Richardson said, “This year has been a remarkable year for live…
Read More
We’re somehow half way through the year already! Thanks to international travel and the resulting jetlag this month’s list of the five books we think you need to be reading is a little later than planned. But here it is all the same. There’s still some time left to add them to your lists. This…
Read More
Most people would be familiar with the story of Cyrano De Bergerac – doesn’t ring a bell? – perhaps you’re more familiar with the 1987 film adaptation Roxanne, with Steve Martin as the plays protagonist Cyrano. Written in 1897, the themes of Edmond Rostand’s play are as relevant today as when he wrote it. Questions…
Read More
Outstanding performances from four extremely talented Australian actors make Sunset Strip worthy of the (relatively small) price of admission. The Uncertainty Principle and Griffin Independent Theatre have delivered a beautiful piece of theatre. Just don’t expect sunshine and laughter. By a dried up lake somewhere in regional Australia is a once-thriving holiday town called Sunset…
Read More
After selling out their Sydney and Melbourne events in less than five minutes, the team behind the UK’s popular Bongo’s Bingo have decided to bring their quirky rave-bingo to Brisbane. For one night only, Fortitude Valley institution The Tivoli will host this unique spin on bingo on Friday 30th June, joining Sydney’s Paddington Town Hall…
Read More
Sydney’s stunning open-air Zephyr Sky Bar are making the most of their first ever winter season, introducing a fresh new cocktail menu that includes a few innovative surprises for both guests of the Hyatt Regency and the general public. At the forefront is a gravity-defying Fig Leaf Sour, a levitating cocktail hovering over a magnetic…
Read More
Restaurateur and British-born chef Paul Wilson has now added Brasserie to the series of eateries he plans to roll out under his Wilson & Market stable. The new restaurant joins the busy scene at Prahran Market, bringing at 250-seater that promises lively stretches of lunch and dinner put together by a team which includes Wilson…
Read More
James Squire have opened up a new dedicated Brewhouse over in Frankston to bring Melbourne a fresh take on their awarded brews. Named The Cheeky Squire the just-opened pub serves as a substantial makeover to the former Davey’s Bar & Restaurant, which has long been a fixture on the famed “pub corner” that sits at…
Read More
