Month: April 2024

Golden Globe and Emmy Award-winning actress and comedian, Amy Poehler will join this year’s Vivid Sydney line-up for a special Vivid Ideas event at the Sydney Opera House on Monday 27 May. Poehler, who is one of Hollywood’s most versatile and sought-after talents, with credits including actress, writer, director, producer, and bestselling author, will front Vivid Sydney Presents…

Childlike yet ultra violent, there’s a lot of style over substance when it comes to Mortiz Mohr‘s Boy Kills World, an exaggerated, audacious, attention-seeking actioner that doesn’t have much to say, but succeeds at being a delirious slice of escapism that deserves points for the fact that it’s a bonkers, live-action (R-rated) cartoon that speaks…

In her latest novel The Clinic, Cate Quinn invites you to escape to a luxury rehab facility for the rich and famous. Fans of Liane Moriarty will devour the glamorous setting and hooky murder-mystery investigation. Hidden in the fog-laden American North-West, The Clinic is the world’s most exclusive and secluded rehab centre. When country superstar…

TopSpin 2K25 marks the return of the beloved tennis franchise after more than a decade, and I could not be happier. While TopSpin 4 was released back in 2011, I still find myself going back to it now and again, simply because it’s one of the best tennis games ever made. Thankfully, TopSpin 2K25 serves…

Adelaide’s loved festival, Spin Off, has just announced their 2024 line up and it’s a corker. In a world of festivals cutting back or taking a hiatus, this year the Spin Off crew have announced not one, but two stages of music. It all happens at the Adelaide Showgrounds on Friday 19th July. What do…

When it came to the individual members of One Direction embarking on their inevitable solo careers, it would be a fair assumption that not many expected Niall Horan to emerge as one of the most successful.  Sure, he hasn’t risen to Harry Styles’ level of manic fandom, but Horan, with his easy Irish charm, blend…

Billie Eilish will be releasing her third studio album HIT ME HARD AND SOFT on the 17th May, and has just announced that she will be touring Australia in February, 2025. The world tour kicks off North America in September this year, and will be hitting Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne in February. She will be performing…

Your fate is in the cards. Thanks to Sony Pictures Australia we have 5 double in-season passes (Admit 2) to see the chilling new horror film Tarot, starring Jacob Batalon (Spider-Man: Homecoming) and Mean Girls‘ Avantika, in Australian cinemas from May 2nd, 2024. When a group of friends recklessly violates the sacred rule of Tarot…

This past Friday (26th April), under the theme of “Celebrating Friendship and Beyond”, Disneyland kicked off Pixar Fest 2024 – six years after the first took over Disney’s two California parks. The event comes almost three months to the day that the park unveiled the brand new Pixar Place Hotel, and less than three months…

Stellar Blade caught my eye a few months ago for its dazzling visuals and downright bonkers gameplay. It was something fresh, yet familiar, with developer Shift Up drawing on a number of inspirations from the hack-and-slash genre. While Stellar Blade’s story is either tired or outright ridiculous at the best of times, it absolutely shines…

ARIA Award winners Holy Holy rocked Forum in Melbourne on Friday night. The project brought two interstate musicians/frontmen Timothy Carroll and Oscar Dawson for a stunning night under the theatre roof in Melbourne for the Cellophane tour. Standouts were “You Cannot Call for Love Like a Dog” and “True Lovers” with encore “Teach Me About Dying”…

Australian singer/songwriter AYLA began releasing music at the tender age of 18 – before starting a University degree in audio production and music business. Fast forward almost a decade and she is releasing another single from her forthcoming debut album, Dopamine. A string of heavy-hitting singles such as “Like the Other Kids”, “Waiting”, “Shallow End”…

With Mother’s Day coming up, the inevitable choice anxiety is starting to settle in. “Mother’s Day Gift Guide” is frantically being searched on Google in the hopes that dependable publishers will sort through the product bog and serve up some curated suggestions. We aren’t sitting this one out at the AU review. Here’s our annual…

Fiji Airways, known for having one of the most extensive networks in the world, has just dropped a surprise sale that’ll run from now until 17th May. With a flexible travel window of 12 months, it marks one of the best ways for Aussies to jump of overseas and, most importantly, control when they actually…

After breaking as the lead in 1995’s Species, Natasha Henstridge soon took the silver screen by storm with roles in such high-profile projects as Maximum Risk, opposite Jean-Claude Van Damme, the comedy The Whole Nine Yards (and its sequel, The Whole Ten Yards), John Carpenter’s Ghosts of Mars, and the Hugh Jackman thriller Deception. Cinderella’s Revenge…

We have added another ten tracks to our Discovery playlist on Spotify and Apple Music, including two tracks from exclusive premieres this week. Our track of the week is “One Last Drag” from one of our most talented singer/songwriters, Hayley Mary. The track was co-written and co-produced with her husband, Johnny Took of DMA’S. The…

Alex Proyas has long been one of Australia’s greatest directorial exports.  Biding his time between international and local fare – in the same sentence of his work you can mention 1994’s defining The Crow, the ambitious neo-noir sci-fi thriller Dark City, and the blockbuster Will Smith outing I, Robot – the filmmaker has made a…

Australian pop superstars Sheppard have announced the release of their fourth studio album, sure to be one of the most anticipated records of 2024.  Zora will be released worldwide on June 21st on the back of their move to Nashville, a run of headline shows in the US, and the tenth anniversary of their global…

There’s a fascinating premise at its core and an impressive heft of body horror effects abounding throughout, but The Demon Disorder never quite conjures enough other-worldly strength to rise above its structural flaws. A tale of three brothers and the demonic trauma they share off the back of their father’s death – presumably the result…

To call Hanky Panky inexplicable at times would be an understatement.  And in no way is that intended to be an overt criticism towards Nick Roth and Lindsay Haun‘s wild comedy-horror effort that delights in its science-fiction mentality whilst bathing itself in batshit insanity. It’s an acquired taste of a film, and it definitely benefits…

Flipping through this unassuming pocket book, you become privy to a kaleidoscope of exotic rooms. One has seedy fluorescent lighting and a gritty VCR playing an unknown pink film, another is done up like a convenience store, another looks like a child’s playroom, and yet another has steel doors, brick walls and a dentist’s chair….

Blick Bassy is a master of world-building. One need only listen to songs like “Bengue” and “LoBa” to hear this African artist’s unquestionable talent at creating music that drips with feeling. Although his instrumentation is sparse and earthy, his vocals fill spaces with a soaring sense of soul. Having such a gift for vocals and…

Newcastle/ Awabakal’s alternative-pop fem four-piece band Butterknife have been making waves in the local scene since they dropped their 2019 debut single, “misty”, which has amassed over 1.8 million streams on Spotify alone. Since then, they have gone from strength to strength, and we are thrilled today to be premiering their debut EP, Lilith, ahead of…

Zoë Kravitz is stepping behind the camera for Blink Twice, a twisted, sinister thriller that is sure to raise a few questions about its certain topicality. Originally titled “Pussy Island”, Kravitz – who also co-wrote the screenplay with E.T. Feigenbaum (TV’s High Fidelity) – directs Channing Tatum as tech billionaire Slater King, who charms (or…

Not that we needed reminding, but Ryan Gosling‘s distinct energy – rightfully rebranded as “Kenergy” in the culture-shifting buzz surrounding last year’s Barbie – is entirely unmatched.  We saw it earlier this year with his boisterous rendition of the Oscar-robbed “I’m Just Ken” at the Academy Awards where, without even taking off his sunglasses, he…

Yes! Norweigan’s girl in red has announced today that she is heading back to Australia in July, playing in Perth, Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. Her latest album, I’M DOING IT AGAIN BABY! has just been released, and her DOING IT AGAIN tour is heading our way. Marie Ulven, the moniker for girl in red, won…

Australia’s summer of 2019/20 was one of the most catastrophic bushfire seasons ever recorded. Dubbed ‘Black Summer’, the fires killed 33 people, burned more than 24 million hectares of land, and saw three billion animals killed, injured, or displaced. Few will forget the smoke-shrouded season, the ramifications of which are still being felt today and…

Last week, Naarm/Melbourne-based indie band Wilding released the catchy Brit-pop-inspired “I Am”, the lead single from their upcoming album, Whatever I Am, due out on the 3rd of May. We’re pumped today to be premiering the video for the track, a startling and twisted clip which suits perfectly the playful nature of “I Am”. It’s…

As easy as it is to call something like The Raid (released in some territories as The Raid: Redemption, this the result of certain legalities) a “thin” movie in terms of plot and character, Gareth Edwards ultimately thrives on such a simplistic nature, turning in a slaughterhouse of an action movie that rarely lets up…

Given the ambition he showed with his Mad Max-meets-Dawn of the Dead B-grade genre piece Wyrmwood (and its respective sequel), it makes sense that Australian director Kiah Roache-Turner would continue his genre mash-ups for his follow-up.  What proves surprising, however, is that for Sting, an ode to the creature feature (and, fittingly, Australia’s fear of…