It’s a new year and The AU book team are already eyeing up the release charts and penning in their most anticipated releases for the year. The beginning of 2024 brings in a host of exciting books. With everything from mythical sea creatures, 1800’s apothecaries, America as seen through the eyes of its First Peoples,…
The Holdovers reunites Sideways’ director Alexander Payne and Paul Giamatti in a holiday story of three lonely, shipwrecked people at a New England boarding school over winter break in 1970. Giamatti stars as Paul Hunham, a curmudgeonly instructor who is forced to remain on campus during Christmas break to babysit the handful of students with…
Despite threatening thunderstorms in the morning, it all heated up for Wildlands Festival in Adelaide on Sunday afternoon. Set in the parklands near the Adelaide High School, it was an easy venue for the predominantly young crowd to access. A large tent in the centre of the grounds provided shade, with the single main stage…
Wildlands returned to Perth on the second-last stop of the Aus-wide festival tour. It was nothing short of a classic Western Australian summer day, with temperatures reaching a blistering 35C. Despite the heat, punters packed out Claremont Showgrounds and the lineup more than delivered, with a focus on hip-hop and electronica bringing international acts and…
The Breeders return to Australia in January 2024 for an East Coast tour, their first tour of Australia in five years. The Breeders, originally conceived by Kim Deal and Tanya Donelly, emerged as a creative outlet, became one of the biggest bands of the early 90s, and influenced many bands that followed. Their second album,…
The Holdovers reunites Sideways’ director Alexander Payne and Paul Giamatti in a holiday story of three lonely, shipwrecked people at a New England boarding school over winter break in 1970. Giamatti, in his Golden Globe Award-winning role, stars as Paul Hunham, a curmudgeonly instructor who is forced to remain on campus during Christmas break to…
You’ve never been to a pub quite like this. Where music, mates and good times collide, Choir of Man is more than a musical – it’s also a play, a concert and a celebration of the pub as a place to share a laugh, some banter and your feelings. From creatives Nic Doodson and Andrew…
From the moment the curtain rises on the Miss Saigon stage, the audience knows that they are in for an incredible journey. The Adelaide Festival Centre stage has been skilfully transformed into a Saigon war zone. Soldiers run roughshod through busy villagers’ lives, choppers flying noisily overhead, bombs exploding in the distance, and chaos and…
Groove Armada have been releasing banging dance tunes such as “I see You Baby” and “Superstyling” for over 25 years. The British duo of Andy Cato and Tom Findlay are bringing their DJ set back to Australia in January for Adelaide’s Vintage Vibes Festival. We chatted about what’s kept the show fresh over all these…
In the same week that Ferrari arrives in Australian theatres, Race for Glory: Audi vs. Lancia hits American multiplexes, digital and On Demand (an Australian release is yet to be determined), showcasing a more accessible racing story and the men driving such to fruition. Creative licence and enhanced melodrama are unavoidable in telling this particular…
A silky smooth hook on GoldLink’s 2017 hit “Crew” was all it really took for Brent Faiyaz to become one of the brightest R&B stars of the past decade. The earnestness in his soft, vulnerable vocals can carry any message and deliver it with sweet, sharp and precise tones. Back that with deep, bass-driven beats…
Plastic is forever! To celebrate the release of MEAN GIRLS, with thanks to Paramount Pictures and Superdream, we are giving away 5 double in-season passes (Admit 2) to see the fetch new comedy from Tina Fey, based on the MEAN GIRLS stage musical, and starring Angourie Rice, Auli’i Cravalho, Reneé Rapp, Jaquel Spivey, Avantika, Bebe…
There’s nothing wrong with a movie being nice, but George Clooney‘s old-fashioned drama The Boys in the Boat is a little too sweet and tropey for its own good. Based on Daniel James Brown‘s best-selling nonfiction novel of the same name, the 1930s set tale feels as if it’s been made in that era through…
Given the calibre of horror talent on board with Night Swim (between them, producers Jason Blum and James Wan have such genre treats as the Halloween series, The Conjuring films, M3GAN and Malignant), as well as the fact that the short film it’s based on earned critical acclaim upon its release a decade ago, one…
Following his interviews with executive producer Ryan Turek and writer/director Bryce McGuire, Peter Gray wrapped up his talks for the forthcoming Night Swim with the film’s lead actors, Wyatt Russell and Academy Award nominee Kerry Condon. Based on McGuire’s acclaimed short film, Night Swim stars Russell as Ray Waller, a former major league baseball player…
Compared to the other “exceptional man” biopics of the last year (Oppenheimer, Maestro, Napoleon), Michael Mann‘s Ferrari is, sadly, the least interesting. Whilst it doesn’t take an entirely traditional narrative – the film only shows us a certain chunk of the man’s life – and Adam Driver does his best with his showy role, to…
Based on his own acclaimed 2014 short film, Night Swim high dives into the deep end of horror as it takes the most banal pleasure of suburban life and transforms it into a wellspring of demonic evil in a movie that combines the style, impishness and wicked world-building that audiences have come to expect from …
A backyard swimming pool. A symbol of youth, status and wish-fulfillment, quintessentially American yet universal in its shimmering appeal. A life-enhancing luxury to those who can afford the cost, an absolute necessity for those poor souls who live in the most hellishly hot of places. A heavenly playground for people of any age, a devilish…
Quickly rising to fame as one half of the comedy duo Armstrong and Miller in the late 90s alongside fellow English talent Alexander Armstrong, Ben Miller has amassed a plethora of famed and acclaimed credits, including the Johnny English films, Paddington 2, and as Lord Featherington in Bridgerton. Currently on our screens in Professor T….
Most people would be familiar with F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1925 novel The Great Gatsby (or at least Baz Luhrmann’s 2013 film of the same name) and the story of mysterious and wealthy Jay Gatsby, his love for Daisy Buchanan and his unfortunate end. GATSBY at The Green Light, playing at the Sydney Opera House, transforms…
If you browse long enough on Twitter, sorry, X, you’ll note that there’s still chatter and self-diagnosed “hot takes” regarding Taika Waititi‘s 2019 outing Jojo Rabbit. The film already had its share of detractors in the immediate aftermath of its release, but an Oscar win for Best Screenplay and the general good word for its…
And just like that, the DCEU comes to a close with a droplet rather than the splash we were expecting a decade ago. In 2013, when Man of Steel premiered, there was the promise of an exciting future of storytelling to be told for the variety of characters within the DC lore. There was rousing,…
There’s been a lot of chatter around Wish and the fact that its release celebrates Disney’s centennial, where the major theme across a heft of the studio’s films – that of wishes being granted – would be tied together. It’s a sweet notion, without question, but it would appear that the creatives behind the film…
In a year that was ruled by Barbenheimer and mortally wounded the once-unstoppable superhero genre, 2023 definitely saw audiences shift their minds (and money) towards more original content. Perhaps an indication as to where the industry should place its focus, The AU’s best of list similarly echoes the sentiment that bigger doesn’t always mean better,…
Like his previous works that celebrate their fantastical, absurdist nature with a certain gravitas, Yorgos Lanthimos grounds Poor Things, an undeniably wild, oft-offensive, sexually liberated black comedy, with a stirring sense of emotion and topical commentary. In 19th century London – or what such a time period looks like within Lanthimos’ vivid imagination – the eccentric…
Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell may be generating plenty of heat throughout their new romantic comedy Anyone But You, but there’s some distinct Australian flavour ready to challenge the duo in the form of one Joe Davidson. The Queensland-born actor, who looks as if he’s a long-lost brother to the famed Hemsworth clan, has snared…
Even if Anyone But You isn’t the type of film that would ordinarily interest you, it’s difficult to not know about Will Gluck‘s frisky romcom due to the “Are they/aren’t they” chemistry of stars Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell, two impossibly gorgeous actors who leaned into their own sex appeal during the filming in Sydney…
The Girl In The Band is a tell all memoir from Australian singer, creative director and interior designer Belinda Chapple. Chapple made a name for herself as a singer, dancer and model, starting her performing career at just ten years old. She shot to stardom as a member of the award-winning and platinum-selling band Bardot….
Given how implicitly we (mostly) trust those in the medical profession it makes sense that such praise could give way to their intentional negligence. And such is the case with the stories behind Dr. Death, a (now) anthology series that takes its inspiration from the Wonderey podcast that detailed egregious cases of medial malpractice. The…
There are circus performances, and then there are circus performances. Circus 1903, with a very limited run at the Sydney Opera House, is a visual feast, dazzling audiences and leaving jaws on the floor with serious talent. This show has aerialists, contortionists, cyclists, jugglers, strongmen, clowns, and everything in between. Circus 1903, which toured across…
