This year’s Toronto International Film Festival is welcoming back a sense of normalcy after the year that wasn’t. Ticket buyers – both those attending TIFF in person and those staying at home with TIFF’s virtual platform – are spoilt for choice, with over 100 films on the line-up, ranging from blockbuster special events, gala screening…
It’s hard to see how JBL could have arrived at a better design for the latest in their tiny JBL Clip series. The JBL Clip 4 looks infinitely more attractive than its preceding models – a petite oval speaker with a fabric grille all over it, attached to a built-in carabiner that can hook onto…
Arlo’s Essential series has completely redefined the reliable smart home security brand. I’ve been thoroughly impressed by the balance of price and performance with devices like the Arlo Essential XL Spotlight Camera and Arlo Essential Doorbell. It’s no surprise that the Arlo Essential Indoor Camera continues the series’ dominance over the category, offering a lot…
The convenience, and now safety, of having stuff delivered straight to your door has been one of the major things helping us get through health-mandated lockdowns since March of last year. And if anything, it’s also exposed just how flawed and backed up a lot of these systems are. Ordering from Coles and Woolies online…
Consuming alcohol might help slow the brain down and shed a bit of that lockdown anxiety, which explains why alcohol brands have been making bank this year, but rarely does drinking one come with the knowledge that you’re also making a positive impact on the world. C.A.N is out to change that. Australia’s newest vodka…
PlayStation Showcase will kick off this Friday, September 10, 2021, with a look at upcoming titles from Sony’s first-party video game studios. It’s an interesting time of year for PlayStation to hold a show like this, though unsurprising if we’re honest. Since pulling out of E3 several years ago, and its relative lack of presence…
Contemporary music accompanying a period set film is not exactly a personality that a production should solely rely on. And whilst this unnecessary, but completely harmless, “re-telling” of the classic Cinderella does its damnedest with admittedly catchy (and colourfully choreographed) numbers – ranging from Janet Jackson’s “Rhythm Nation” to Jennifer Lopez’s “Let’s Get Loud”, by…
Filmed in a “revolutionary” manner, the trailer for the new Peacock thriller My Son highlights the improvisation from actor James McAvoy, who during filming wasn’t given a script or any outline of the story at hand. A remake of the 2017 film Mon Garcon, My Son, co-starring Claire Foy, details the missing persons case of…
Gesticulations, fronted by Graham Ashton of The Shambolics and Way Cool Jnr., is seemingly in the midst of a purple patch of productivity. They have just released Threadbare, which is their second long-play album of the year, following from Sense of Purgency which dropped in April. Ashton has collaborated again with multi-instrumentalist and producer Benny…
Best known as the drummer and joint frontman of Grammy Award winning hip-hop band The Roots, Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson is adding to his already overflowing resume with the credit of director as his acclaimed documentary Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) releases across Australian cinemas. Uncovering decades-lost footage of the…
At one point in his career David Arquette was poised to be a potential acting force among the other stars of his generation. He worked the indie cinema circuit, he was profiled alongside such talent as Leonardo DiCaprio, Will Smith, and Matthew McConaughey, his work in the Scream films earned him box office clout, and…
Acclaimed author Paula Hawkins (The Girl on the Train, Into the Water) returns with yet another nail-biting thriller. A Slow Fire Burning follows a cast of characters living along the Regent’s Canal in Shoreditch; each of them inextricably linked through events of the last few decades. The murder of Daniel Sutherland inside his canal boat…
Somehow, a festival situated in the heart of Harlem, one that featured such performers as Stevie Wonder, B.B. King, and Nina Simone, had been written out of the history books. In 1969, a year on from the assassination of Martin Luther King, over six weekends in Mount Morris Park, overseen by the liberal New York…
As easy as it would be to accuse a film like Streamline of adhering to the stereotypical tragic narrative that seems to be at the undercurrent of the majority of Australian dramas, Tyson Wade Johnston manages to include subtle commentary on the notion of toxic masculinity within the sporting field – here, specifically swimming –…
Singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Brigitte Bardini has just released her gorgeous debut album, Stellar Lights. It’s a collection of fourteen tracks, wonderfully diverse, showing a maturity way beyond what you would expect for a debut album. It perhaps shouldn’t come as a surprise that Bardini produced eight of the tracks herself, and the other six were…
Familiar with a little father-son friction thanks to his role on TV’s Kim’s Convenience, Simu Liu experiences similar, though considerably higher emotional stakes, but no less dramatic, as the titular warrior-to-be Shang-Chi in Marvel’s latest extravagant offering, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. There’s the typical end-of-the-world dilemma to contend with, but Destin…
If you’ve ever wondered what Sir George Martin – the legendary Beatles producer – did after the Fab Four split then Under the Volcano is the film for you. Sir Martin remained prolific in the music industry and opened up his own studio-cum-playground in Montserrat. This state-of-the-art workspace was the birthplace of many hits and…
It’s been eighteen long months since we heard any new music from Brisbane rockers WAAX, but they have returned with a vengeance, blowing the doors off, with “Most Hated Girl” that dropped today. Lead singer/songwriter Maz DeVita says of the blistering new tune: “‘Most Hated Girl’ was definitely a COVID song that came out of…
Believe it or not, Call of Duty: Vanguard was just announced. And with that release trailer barely two weeks old, PlayStation owners got the chance to test a slice of the multiplayer pie that is yet to come; Champion Hill. For what’s being touted as a brand new mode, feels like a callback to the…
Melbourne producer Max Wolf recently released his anthemic “Children on the Street”. It’s a pulsating, high-energy track reflecting the visceral rage against a system that doesn’t adequately support the youth. We are thrilled to have the premiere of the video for the track, which is as captivating as the song is powerful. Wolf blends his…
The Shut Ins – the second novel from 2016 Vogel Award winner, Katherine Brabon – takes its readers to Japan, pre-pandemic but post tsunami, and is a meditation on the all too timely and relevant themes of loneliness and isolation. Using a frame narrative of an Australian writer travelling Japan and feeling increasingly disconnected from…
If you’re an NBA fan like I am, this time of the year feels different. Spring is on the way for us Australians, and there’s just something special in the air. The fact that a new NBA 2K game is upon us, that is. Even though the wait is almost over, fans were gifted a…
“Actors are egomaniacs, we need to be complimented at least once a day” It was that self-deprecating note that began a conversation between our Peter Gray and actress-turned-writer Siobhan Fallon Hogan for the film Rushed, a dramatic thriller marking the actress’s debut as a screenwriter. Known for her more comedic stylings, seen in such efforts…
Siobhan Fallon Hogan may not be the most recognisable name, but you best believe she’s someone you notice when on screen. Perhaps best known for her stint on Saturday Night Live, as Elaine’s roommate in TV’s Seinfeld, and films such as Men In Black, where her character was perplexed by the sugar intake of the…
As a live music photographer, the pandemic and resulting lockdown has been pretty bleak. Instead of going to multiple gigs a week, and capturing the joy and essence of live music, like everyone else I’ve been confined to home counting my legs. During this extended period of reflection, one of the seasoned photographers from the…
The Sonos Beam may hold court when it comes to budget-friendly, compact soundbars but Bose has emerged with a solid competitor that, in many ways, is one of the best. That’s no surprise really; Bose has always been impressive when it comes to packing audio prowess into more than just traditional Bluetooth speakers and headphones….
You know what’s coming around this Sunday 5th September, and by now you should know what kind of last-minute gift you want to pick up for the old man. Yep, Father’s Day is going to be an important one this year. If he’s like most people in Australia right now, Dad is locking down amongst…
Sennheiser’s pedigree when it comes to superior sound cannot be denied. Their Momentum 2 earbuds are still some of the best on the market, despite being released a few years ago. They’ve since started playing around on the lower end of the price spectrum, attempting to provide value that stretches beyond the price point. The…
JBL’s Charge series has always justified popularity, and no more was that true than for the Charge 4. It’s still one of my favourite portable, durable speakers to take on a short trip away. The Charge 5 is a meaningful improvement over its processor, edging that out and reiterating JBL as a company that really…
The creator of the 2020 Olympic/Paralympic centrepiece is building stylish public toilets and looking at the city like a cat. With the Olympics and Paralympics proving a welcome distraction from the current issues impacting our daily lives right now, Kengo Kuma, is a man you should know. He’s the Japanese architectural icon behind the Japan…
