Year: 2025

Ahead of the release of their tenth studio album, Futique, Ben and James Johnston took time out to have a chat with me about embracing the moment, Biffy’s longevity, and their plans to return to Australia soon. Congratulations on the album. It’s a double chef’s kiss. Both: Thank you so much! Number ten! James: Number ten!…

The Jewish International Film Festival (JIFF) returns from 19th October through to the 21st December 2025, presenting 50 new films, documentaries, shorts and a television series. Screening in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Hobart, Canberra and Perth, the festival brings together the best Jewish-themed stories from around the world. Together they span history and contemporary life, the…

One of the most poignant lines of Eleanor the Great is “Talk about the things that make you sad,” and it’s with such a notion that Scarlett Johansson‘s affecting dramedy takes it on as a throughline.  A film that so easily could have been about deception becomes something far greater and more profound, transforming itself…

There’s a quiet sense of artistic rage that lingers under the surface of Alice Winocour‘s delicate Couture, a small drama that looks at the intersecting lives of a trio of women in Paris, all working in one capacity or another around the fashion industry.  Creation and the unexpected interruptions that can derail one’s own process…

Comedy, action, horror and nostalgic pop culture have fused together for the experience that is Zombie Plane, a wild new Australian feature that has everyone from Sophie Monk and Chuck Norris, to Sir Bob Geldof and Vanilla Ice teaming up as they have to save themselves from a plane overrun by zombies. Directed by Lav…

After proving he’s just as adept at helming fear as he is farce, director Paul Feig (Bridesmaids, A Simple Favour) takes on another thrillingly entertaining best-selling novel for The Housemaid, a film that plunges audiences into a twisted world where perfection is an illusion, and nothing is as it seems. Starring Sydney Sweeney and Amanda…

Laneway Festival is officially 21, and if the newly announced lineup is anything to go by, the AUS/NZ touring festival is entering 2026 with its most stacked edition yet. While countless other summer festivals have disappeared from rotation due to industry and financial pressures, Laneway continues to thrive as one of Australia’s most enduring and…

Musicians taking centre stage on Broadway is nothing new. In recent years, artists like David Byrne and Bruce Springsteen have transformed the Broadway stage into long-running residencies. Scripted productions about real and imagined musicians, like MJ The Musical (about the life and music of Michael Jackson) or the play Stereophonic, have been awarded Tony’s, and have…

Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the Amazon… Doug (Jack Black) and Griff (Paul Rudd) have been best friends since they were kids, and have always dreamed of remaking their all-time favourite movie: the cinematic “classic” Anaconda. When a midlife crisis pushes them to finally go for it, they head deep…

Director Kogonada (After Yang) and screenwriter Seth Reiss (The Menu) ask a lot of their audience with A Big Bold Beautiful Journey.  It’s a hopeful romance of sorts that intends to utilise its magical realism to sweep viewers away into its odyssey of fantastical nature, with the added bonus of proven charm inhabitants Colin Farrell…

2004’s Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater is not only my favourite game in the long-running series, but one of my favourite games of all time. Metal Gear Solid isn’t even one of my favourite game franchises (strange, I know), but that third game just hit all the right notes for me. A cinematic, espionage-fuelled…

With less than a month to go, PAX Australia 2025 is shaping up to be one of the biggest celebrations of gaming culture in the country’s history. Returning to Melbourne this October, the three-day festival has revealed a blockbuster exhibitor line-up that brings together the biggest names in gaming, unmissable activations, exclusive demos, and a…

Ever since her mother left, Dusty has always been a little withdrawn. Eschewing crowds and sticking with her younger sister Opi and best friend Mali, her books and the beautiful wilderness that surrounds her mountain home are enough for her. But one morning Dusty wakes with dirt on her feet, and no recollection of how…

Anne Frank is a name synonymous with youth, innocence, and heartbreaking tragedy. Her diaries, published after her death in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945, detailed her life, and that of her family, hiding in an annex in Amsterdam during World War II. The Diary of a Young Girl, commonly referred to as The Diary…

It had been 13 years since I’d set foot in Nice, but I still had vivid memories of posing for photos in front of the Fontaine du Soleil, resting in bright blue chairs on the promenade while gazing out over the Mediterranean Sea, and gorging myself on socca as I strolled down Old Town alleyways….

Inspired by the music of Dolly Parton, Here You Come Again is a new musical that celebrates the country musician in the most unique way. The story centres on a forty-year-old man, Kevin (Dash Kruck), who is caught in a mid-life crisis during the pandemic. For this iteration of Here You Come Again, he is…

Detox retreats, infrared saunas, ice baths, sound healing, cacao ceremonies. Some of these practices, once relegated to the mystical realm of “woo-woo,” are now becoming increasingly mainstream in travel spaces around the world. So, should you be donning a kaftan and ecstatically dancing your way to wellness? Let’s delve into wellness tourism and find out….

Nina and Patrick first meet at the age of 12, whisked away to Belavere City to undergo a traditional rite of passage. Here, children discover their calling: the alchemical magic of the Artisans or the essential yet undervalued work of the Craftsmen. But, as they wait to find their fate, Nina and Patrick uncover a…

This weekend saw legendary Sydney band Drop City play Sydney’s Factory Theatre to mark the 30th Anniversary of their seminal 1995 release Magic Transistor Radio. From the moment the first chords rang out, the crowd was transported back to the 90s psychedelia sounds from Drop City. The guitars shimmered with reverb-soaked textures, layered against a…

There’s been no shortage of sequels thus far across cinema screens in 2025. And, for the most part, they’ve all proven themselves worthy of existence (Freakier Friday), been a satisfactory entrant in their franchise (The Final Reckoning), or, at least, gone for broke in their attempt to distance from their predecessor (M3GAN 2.0). So where…

For years, Ready or Not has built a reputation on PC as one of the most hardcore tactical shooters around. A throwback to the unforgiving SWAT-style sims of old, but with modern weight and grit. Now it’s made the jump to consoles with cross-play intact, and against all odds, the leap has paid off. What…

It’s not often I say things as outlandish as the title above suggests, but I’m here to reassure you it is 100% correct: Playlunch just played the best and most fun live set of the year. Hot on the heels of the release of the second album, Sex Ed, Playlunch returned to Sydney’s Manning Bar…

Following overwhelming demand from presale, Olivia Dean has announced new arena shows in Melbourne and Sydney as part of her The Art of Loving tour for October 2026. These additions mean Australian audiences now have an extra chance to see her, joining previously confirmed dates. The tour celebrates Dean’s forthcoming second album The Art of…

Kangaroo is a heart-warming family comedy about ex TV personality Chris Masterman (Ryan Corr), who becomes stranded in an Outback town outside Alice Springs. There, he teams up with 12-year-old Indigenous girl Charlie (Lily Whiteley). The pair form an unlikely friendship and work together to rescue and rehabilitate orphaned joeys in the remote but stunning…

Kangaroo is a heart-warming family comedy about ex TV personality Chris Masterman, who becomes stranded in an Outback town outside Alice Springs. There, he teams up with 12-year-old Indigenous girl Charlie. The pair form an unlikely friendship and work together to rescue and rehabilitate orphaned joeys in the remote but stunning Outback community – an…

Breakout singer-songwriter and rising pop sensation Audrey Hobert has announced two debut Australian shows for early next month. Marking her first performances Down Under and some of her first live performances ever, Melbourne and Sydney fans will be given the rare chance to see her up close before she inevitably takes on much larger stages….

Skilled filmmaker and whodunnit expert Rian Johnson has, once again, subverted the expectation of what should constitute a Knives Out mystery.  Whereas the first film in this now continuing franchise was a tight riddle and the sequel (Glass Onion) indulged in its vacation villainy, Wake Up Dead Man takes its cues from such gothic fiction…

Selected for the Toronto International Film Festival’s Short Cuts program, Dust to Dreams, courtesy of actor Idris Elba flexing his directorial muscle once more, is a soft meditation on on love, music, and reconciliation, set against the backdrop of Lagos, Nigeria. There’s such a rich tapestry of narrative and the emotional outlay that comes from…

Inspired by Adam Baldwin’s song “Lighthouse in Little Lorraine”, and based upon on a true story of a cocaine smuggling ring that ran through the eponymous small Nova Scotian town in the 80s, Little Lorraine is a harrowing dramatic thriller that served as one of the prime Canadian spotlight titles at this year’s Toronto International…

When I tell people I spend the summer in Geneva every year, their first question is always, “Why?” Why spend months in a city known for politics, finance, and diplomacy when there are arguably better places to explore? I can assure you that by the end of this feature, you’ll have fallen just as much…