EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert
(Directed by Baz Luhrmann) (2025) Luhrmann’s biopic, Elvis – The Movie came out in 2022 (reviewed here), and whilst it was in preparation, Baz learned of the existence of over 60 boxes of 35mm and 8mm film footage of Presley in concert, in rehearsals and interviews. They were stuck in a Warner Bros vault in a salt mine in Kansas, of all places, negatives near to perishing, with no accompanying sound. Luhrmann had to spend a lot of his own money, and two or three years technical time, to have selections of the film retrieved and synced to existing audio….
Continue Reading →The Mushroom Tapes
Conversations on a triple murder trial (By Chloe Hooper, Helen Garner, and Sarah Krasnostein, 2025) Erin Scutter was born in 1974 . Her mother Heather is said, rather vaguely, to have been an academic (“an expert in children’s literature”) and her father, even more vaguely, “a company director”. Although her mother is important in this tale, her father is not. In May, 2025 Erin (now Patterson) was tried for three murders and an attempted murder. Famously, in 2023, Patterson had invited her estranged husband Simon, his parents, his aunt and his uncle, to lunch at her house in Leongatha, New…
Continue Reading →Sentimental Value (dir. Joachim Trier)
[Norwegian, 2025] Nora (Renate Reinsve) is an acclaimed actress. She lives in the family home which changes from traditional, dark and maximalist to sleek, pale and minimalist during the film. Which is better – messy, intricate family life or a cleaned-out refurbished freedom, with everything open to view? Nora, as a child, decided that the house was happiest when full of people, – namely her parents, her sister Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas) (Ibsen seems to be getting a workout here) and herself. Now that they are adult, Nora is a bit miserable. We think it’s more than just being Scandinavian….
Continue Reading →Le Pas Sage
(“The Naughty One” – 24 Hindmarsh Square, Adelaide, February 2026) This delightful French brasserie is in the north-eastern corner of the Square, tucked-in between the Pullman Hotel and the Griffins Pub. It is very pretty (though small) inside (one can also laze on the terrace out front) and the staff are fully switched-on, hip and amusing. The maître d charmingly explained that whilst we were in the premier wine state of Australia, they only served French wines – Hourra pour l’arrogance francaise!! We had: Médaillon de Poulpe – a fresh and colourful dish consisting of Octopus medallion, red capsicum coulis,…
Continue Reading →The Camp of the Saints
(By Jean Raspail) (1973) [Trigger Warning] Western self-loathing has been increasingly documented, with the focus rarely on shame (the healthy recognition of past cultural excesses and infamies) but more particularly on Guilt and Submission. And white people have had their anti-racism homework set. Despite and perhaps because of this, we’ve seen, in recent decades, an elitist multi-cultural rejection of assimilation, an undocumented invasion of the West, run by an unholy trinity of criminal networks, corrupt NGOs and cynical governments (on the supply side, sending away not-their-best; on the demand side, pursuing a growth mirage and co-opting a furtive voting demographic)….
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