Green Day‘s 14th studio album, Saviors, marks a triumphant return to their roots, reclaiming the essence of their signature sound. Following the less-than-stellar reception of Father of All Motherfuckers, this latest release emerges as a refreshing revival. As the band gears up to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Dookie and the 20th anniversary of American…
T.I., Ashanti, T-Pain. The three headliners for Juicy Fest 2024, the second iteration of what is – I’m guessing – now the signature hip hop festival for Australia and New Zealand. Signature because all these other attempts at building a stable hip hop and R&B festival for Australia and New Zealand have largely fallen flat…
For his debut feature, 2011’s Martha Marcy May Marlene, writer/director Sean Durkin specified that the actions that unfolded weren’t moulded after any one specific cult – the film centred around a young woman suffering from delusions and paranoia after returning to her family from an abusive cult in the Catskill Mountains – and that he more based his narrative after his…
As someone who lost their father at a young age, and therefore never had the conversation regarding my sexuality (and all that could possibly entail), the thought process throughout and inability to hold back my emotions during All of Us Strangers was palpable. Adapted by writer/director Andrew Haigh (Looking: The Movie) from Japanese author Taichi…
For its massive (and massively generous) New Year’s Resolution sale, gulf carrier Etihad Airways has just dropped a massive international flight for Australian travellers. Running from now until January 18th, the popular airline has slashed fares to mostly European hotspots like Athens, Dublin, London and Paris, as well as to Cairo in Egypt. This includes…
Virgin Australia has started the year off with a nice little mega sale for those looking to fly both domestically and internationally in the coming months. Note that all sale fares, however, are based on Economy Lite and include return flights. The Virgin flight sale includes a return fare from Cairns and Tokyo (Haneda –…
If you’re ever looking for an affordable way to travel between North America and Australia, Jetstar are the only budget carrier that takes Australian passengers directly to the USA. The airline travels a few times a week between Melbourne, VIC or Sydney, NSW and Honolulu, offering an affordable alternative to its competition, as well as being the…
One of the wildest comedians of our time and a master of absurdity, Eric Andre, returns to Australia for The Eric Andre Show Live tour in February and March. Touring the major capitals (yes, including Perth), the funny man will be… well, it’s hard to say. He is so ridiculously unpredictable that we don’t actually…
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is right around the corner, bringing with it the return of an age-old franchise with some new tricks up its sleeve. We got the chance to speak to Abdelhak Elguess, Producer at Ubisoft, about the upcoming game and its newest features. Thank you Abdelhak for taking the time to…
Blues rockers The Teskey Brothers braved a summer lightning storm to grace Red Hill Auditorium on Friday. Celebrating the release of The Winding Way album, the 13-date tour stopped off in the stunning hillside just outside of Perth. With a dramatic backdrop of clouds and thunder, the heartfelt crooners swooned the audience easily in the…
In December last year, The Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA) proudly announced the debut of the AACTA Festival, a four-day celebration of Australia’s vibrant screen industry that promises an immersive experience for all, from industry professionals to film enthusiasts, school-leavers, families, and aspiring creatives. The festival, including the AACTA Awards presented by Foxtel Group, will be…
It goes without saying that the premise for Role Play is one that has been explored on multiple occasions. The marriage-on-the-rocks-is-rocked-even-further-by-realising-one-half-is-an-assassin is a narrative utilised by such stellar genre examples as True Lies, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, and Nobody, and to less grand effect in Apple TV’s recent misfire The Family Plan. Role Play sits…
Children can be such monsters. After a group of would-be criminals kidnap the 12-year-old ballerina daughter of a powerful underworld figure, all they have to do to collect a $50 million ransom is watch the girl overnight. In an isolated mansion, the captors start to dwindle, one by one, and they discover, to their mounting…
If there’s one thing we can rely on Jason Statham for, it’s B-movie cheap thrills that epitomise the term “guilty pleasure”. Escapism in its purest, bloodiest form, The Beekeeper (Statham took the B-movie memo a little too literally, it would seem) is a ridiculous actioner from proven genre director David Ayer (End of Watch, Fury,…
I’m all for Microsoft’s Surface range being a great Windows-based alternative for those looking for something either smaller, light or longer-lasting to take out on the go. However, over the years, Microsoft seems focused more so on refining its current range, rather than evolving it. We took a look at the latest Microsoft Surface Laptop…
After the misstep that was 2017’s ambitious Downsizing, writer/director Alexander Payne returns to more familiar territory in The Holdovers. Familiar in the sense that the high-school setting brings to mind his biting 1999 black comedy Election, his lead, Paul Giamatti, is a pitch-perfect educator, like his 2004 standout Sideways, and the dialogue peppered throughout is…
Like many a millennial, the original Mean Girls from 2004 holds a special place in the depths of my queer, quote-filled heart. It’s why there was sense of trepidation in coming into the new iteration of Tina Fey and Mark Waters’ high-school comedy. Now, I was actually fully aware that this particular version was a…
A lost father, a mute brother, a recovering addict mum, a heroin dealer for a stepfather, and a notorious criminal for a babysitter. Eli Bell is just trying to follow his heart and understand what it means to become a good man, but fate keeps throwing obstacles in his way. Based on Brisbane author Trent…
Calling all gals and guys – welcome to Rydell High, where romances are flourishing, tensions are rising, and most importantly, grease is the word. Grease the Musical has grooved its way back to Australian shores, and this time it’s bigger, slicker and sexier than ever before. Sandy, Danny, the T-Birds and the Pink Ladies all…
Declan McKenna packed out Perth’s Astor Theatre on Monday, the conclusive show of his first-ever Australian tour. The set list was a mix of chart-toppers that earned him initial success in 2017 and new singles from his forthcoming album What Happened to the Beach?. The band brought an explosive energy throughout the set, with McKenna aptly…
There comes a point in Boy Swallows Universe – Netflix’s splashy adaptation of Trent Dalton‘s semi-autobiographical novel of the same name – where you beg for the creators to let the show’s lead feature, 13-year-old Eli Bell (a standout Felix Cameron), earn a moment to catch his breath. Sure, it’d let us as viewers do…
Last year’s Heaps Good Festival was such an incredibly great show that it’s hard to understand why this year’s wasn’t bigger and better. Moving the stages from the main oval at the Adelaide Showgrounds into the pavilion area seemed to dampen the festival vibe. Fortunately, the food court was outside, which gave something of a…
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…
