As much as The Oak Room‘s narrative basis of “A man walks into a bar…” sounds like a gag set up, Cody Calahan‘s slow burning thriller is anything but a humorous punchline. The man walking into said bar is Steve (RJ Mitte), a prodigal son of a small Canadian town who, as we learn through…
Yb. is Brisbane’s next big thing. And considering the track record of the city, he’s about to be huge. The recent writing rooms and nods of industry are a testament to his trajectory, with Touch Sensitive, Winston Surfshirt and Stevan all jumping at the chance to collaborate and the likes of Tom Misch sliding into his…
With Nomadland having just earned Academy Award accolades as the Best Picture of 2020, a film like Land being released is curious timing. It’ll inevitably be compared to Chloe Zhao’s inward masterpiece and, in its own way, it’s something of a more digestible, audience friendly take on the narrative of finding yourself in the wilderness. The…
Laura Bates is an author, educator and the founder of the Everyday Sexism Project. In interviews she states that she’s witnessed a change in the young men she’s been teaching; and that she has more hostility and resistance to her lessons about feminism and sexism. In identifying this, she had the kernels of an idea…
Someone really didn’t want Northeast Party House‘s (NEPH) Perth Factory Festival show to happen. The gig was rescheduled four times due to COVID-19 restrictions, eventually going ahead in the shadow of Perth going into lockdown at midnight that evening. But the party went ahead, with NEPH hitting the stage at 9:30pm, two-and-a-half hours before Perth’s…
Arriving off the back of a successful run at the Adelaide Fringe, A Flying Photon at Giant Dwarf in Sydney is science, with a twist. The twist being – it’s actually interesting. We are introduced to Rachel Rayner, Science Explainer, who is a ‘science communicator, poet and performer’. With a background in physics, Rayner begins…
It Takes Two is a charming, cooperative adventure game by Hazelight Studios. The game centers on Cody and Mae, an estranged couple beaten down by the complexities of their unfulfilling lives. Their dreams, individually and together, are unrealised. The passion of their early relationship is long extinguished. The slim thread that has kept their relationship…
Stumps played a pair of sold-out shows at the Lansdowne this weekend. In a strong lineup, they were supported by Kitschen Boy and The Grenade Jumper Band. The band was on a high, after a long wait for these rescheduled shows to take place. I’ve seen the band live a few times now, and each…
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…
The Teskey Brothers have just completed a run of sold-out shows at Forum Theatre in Melbourne. They were supported by Mia Wray. Dan was there to capture all the highlights. You can read his review of the show HERE. You can check out all of his photos from this band who are very much in their…
An incredible return to the Forum Theatre played out on Wednesday night as The Teskey Brothers joined by Mia Wray played two shows across a packed sold-out venue. Mia Wray was a revelation to open both sets. Her powerful vocals set a wonderful tone for the set to come. Yet, Mia wasn’t to be outclassed…
The first thing you notice about the0 Diablo 2 Resurrected technical alpha is the way it looks just the way you remember it. The (by today’s standards) low-res models and environments have given way to a crisp, clean visual overhaul. It’s exactly the kind of remaster a community like the one that clings to Diablo…
Shortlisted for the inaugural Fogarty Literary Award, Where the Line Breaks, the debut novel by West Australian writer Michael Burrows is stylistically a little out of the ordinary for Fremantle Press. For a start, a large part of the story is told in the form of a fictional PhD thesis. Writing the thesis is Matthew Denton, a “starry-eyed…
“We are all struggling. To acknowledge that is to connect to our fellow human beings and to nature…” In an evening centered around the theme ‘If They Could Talk: On Voice and Voicelessness’, Evie Wyld took out the 2021 Stella Prize and the $50,000 prize for her novel The Bass Rock, “a fearless novel that…
The first ever African-American film producer to solely produce an Oscar-winning film (when Halle Berry won her Best Actress statue for Monster’s Ball), Lee Daniels has long associated himself with acclaimed fare throughout his career thus far. After a near-decade long break from directing films, the Academy Award-nominated director of such lauded features as Precious…
After making a name for himself in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Sam Claflin soon earned global recognition as Finnick Odair in The Hunger Games series. Romantic leading roles and character driven projects followed, with his exercises in the dark psyches of his roles continuing with the release of Every Breath You Take….
The spirit of the 1990’s thriller is alive and well within Every Breath You Take. The upper-middle class family having their perfectly manicured lives upended by the arrival of a mysterious figure – this one British and in the form of the disarmingly handsome Sam Claflin – is a road travelled many times before; hell,…
Introducing another member of TikTok’s Class of ’21, Ashley Kutcher – the Maryland artist going viral for her brilliant and beautiful songs crafted from comments and Tweets. Prior to her Internet fame, the American was graduating her nursing degree while performing occasionally at a local restaurant. But since her skyrocketing rise through the social media…
Though the battle grounds of Mortal Kombat are far from the usual comedic landscape Josh Lawson is used to, the Australian actor/writer/director has certainly put his own stamp on proceedings in bringing the character of violent mercenary Kano to life. Touching down in Sydney to discuss his foray into the world of blockbuster cinema, Lawson…
Mortal Kombat fans rejoice! The hotly anticipated (and fantastically violent) cinematic re-adaptation of the best-selling game has arrived in cinemas for all eager, and legal, eyes to see (you can read our review here). In conjunction with the film’s release, Peter Gray caught up with its director, Simon McQuoid, and producer, E. Bennett Walsh, to…
I remember the first time I played Mortal Kombat, or at least I vaguely recall its influence and how ahead of its time it seemed to be. I remember how real it looked and sounded. I remember having the fatality codes tucked in its Mega Drive case in a time before the internet. But most…
The older I get, the more I realise it really doesn’t matter what people think about you and what your hobbies, style or tastes in the things are. Now in my late 20’s, I’ve come very comfortable listening to (and reviewing for that matter) albums and artists younger me wouldn’t have given the time of…
Bree Rusev is only seventeen years old and is making her mark on the folk-rock scene, with her assured and instantly accessible songs. We are thrilled to be premiering her third single to hit the airwaves, “Fade Away”. This follows on from her debut and sophomore releases, “Coastline” and “Drift”. There is a maturity to…
Max Leone has been making waves since his bold decision to drop out of Berklee College of Music and pursue his artistry in Los Angeles. The Portland-native draws from a vast pool of influences: from Jack Johnson inspiring his love of guitar, Tom Misch’s experimentation, Frank Ocean who he drew his pseudonym from, to his…
Since the release of Daisy Jones and the Six back in 2019, narratives about fictional bands, singers and songwriters have undergone something of a renaissance. Dawnie Walton’s debut The Final Revival of Opal & Nev builds on the oral history format of Daisy Jones, and takes the next step. Walton succeeds in telling a story…
West-Australian trio, Pretty Uglys, have just released their sophomore EP, Party Friends. It’s a five-track collection of surf and punk-rock tunes, which have been a staple of their live set for some time now. The band were pretty pumped to get it out into the ether, saying “Feels epic to get this release into the world…
Sister tells the story of An Ran (Zhang Zifeng), a nurse who is on a strong career path to become a doctor and move out her home and go to Beijing as a full-time student. She is estranged from her family due to the ongoing fact that her parents always preferred a son over her….
Kevin Mitchell, aka Bob Evans, has marked his genuine graduation from Suburban Kid to ‘middle age’ with his sixth studio album Tomorrowland, evolving musically with a level of grit combined with his treasured pop hooks. When I spoke to Mitchell ahead of the album launch, he said: “I’m in a period of my life/career where…
The Elder Scrolls Online: Blackwood is trying to solve to an impossible problem the game has grappled with for most of its life. Unable to fully emulate the trappings of its beloved parent series, and willing to fully embrace being its own thing, TESO has instead tried to do both. For the longest time, it has…
“We Got Gods to Blame” is the latest single from electro-folk singer-songwriter Hayden Calnin. Infused with hymn-like harmonies that will leave you feeling positively devout, it’s a gorgeous track from the Aussie artist, and a shoo-in for this week’s Track of the Week. When he’s not crafting his own tracks, and sharing the stage with…
