Watch in cinemas
Film: BlackBerry
Farcical phone biopic
They’ll make a movie about anything, apparently. This past year alone has dished up biographies of Pop Tarts, Cheetos, Air Jordans, and Beanie Babies – and joining the fray is BlackBerry, a film about the phone everybody wanted to use until they didn’t. It’s a little sourer than some of its peers, infused with director Matt Johnson’s sardonic wit and shot with a nervy, Succession-style camera that captures the farce and melodrama of corporate life. – Michael Sun
Film: Past Lives
Buzzy tender romance
Orbiting – when an old flame lingers on the peripheries of your digital life – is a near-universal feature of 21st century romance. Celine Song’s debut – about a pair of childhood sweethearts separated by geography and decades, who never really came apart – explores this tenuous connection with great tenderness. Called “the year’s first great film” at its Sundance debut, and later “miraculous” (by Vox) and “remarkable” (by us), Past Lives’ slow-burn critical hype feels perfectly fitting for the subject matter. – Alyx Gorman
Film: Ego: The Michael Gudinski Story
One for music lovers
Bruce Springsteen, Kylie Minogue, Ed Sheeran, Billy Joel, Jimmy Barnes, Paul Kelly and “the obligatory Dave Grohl” are among the galaxy of music stars who line up to pay tribute to Australian music promoter Michael Gudinski: tireless business man, passionate music fan and “one of the good ones” in an industry filled with the opposite. Produced by his son and presented by his company, this biopic isn’t particularly objective – but the payoff is a killer soundtrack. – Steph Harmon
Watch at home
TV: Then You Run
Derry Girls with heroin (SBS On Demand)
Four uproarious teen girls head from London to the Netherlands on what is supposed to be a brief trip, until they get caught up in a game of cat and mouse with ruthless Irish gangsters involving lots of guns, a massive amount of heroin, and a very high body count. According to Guardian critic Rebecca Nicholson, this highly stylised and funny thriller “is gruesome and gory, and obviously total nonsense from start to finish, but it is a riot, and very moreish”. – SH
TV: Painkiller
OxyContin takes over (Netflix)
Starring Matthew Broderick, Uzo Aduba and Taylor Kitsch (Riggins forever), Painkiller is a strange proposition: at once an enraging, powerful docudrama about the rise of OxyContin, and the family of Sacklers who made it happen; but also occasionally weirdly camp, with surprisingly surreal moments and cartoonish villains. I’m not sure I’d give it all four of Lucy Mangan’s stars, but I absolutely binged it in two days. – SH
Watch at home
Film: It Follows
Bawdy and bone-chilling (Stan)
One of the great genre pieces. David Robert Mitchell’s cult horror film is about a murderous demon that trails its targets, haunting their days and nights. But thankfully this demon walks at a zombie’s pace and – more importantly – one victim can palm off the curse to another by having consensual sex. We gave it five stars when it came out in 2015, calling it a “modern classic” with a “weird, alien, almost evil” camera that pulls off “sensational setpieces of fear and suspense”. – MS
Listen
Album: Voir Dire by Earl Sweatshirt
Hip-hop stars collide
You will have to give your personal data to a streaming service called Gala Music in order to listen to Voir Dire, and then they will try to sell you songs as NFTs. Yet somehow the new collaboration between rap’s one-time enfant terrible Earl Sweatshirt and The Alchemist (once Eminem’s official DJ, now one of hip-hop’s most successful producers) is good enough to jump through these hoops for. It’s an intimate listen, like a dark, deep and meaningful chat behind a closed bedroom door at a rowdy house party. – AG
Read
Book: God Forgets About the Poor by Peter Polites
Transportive, striking story
The first chapter of Polites’ third book is a monologue delivered by a migrant mother to her son. Unforgiving, scolding and bitterly funny, she wants him to write her story: “Try and write something good this time.” The sketch she delivers is filled out in Technicolor across this transportive novel, which takes us from her birthplace of Lefkada to her young life in Athens, and then to Sydney, where she would build her own family. Our critic Jack Callil agrees with me: “The author’s most striking work yet.” – SH
Book: In Her Words by Amy Winehouse
Fledgling star’s scrapbook
Featuring photographs, childhood sketches, school report cards and diary entries, this scrapbook turned coffee-table book was compiled by the late singer’s parents. Released to commemorate what would have been Amy Winehouse’s 40th birthday, proceeds go to the charities established in her name. Not surprisingly given the source, most of the material is drawn from Winehouse’s early life. For fans of her work it offers an endearing, funny and aesthetically appealing glimpse into both the talent and the torment that would define her adult life. – AG
Cook
Spring has arrived, and so have greengrocer specials on peas, asparagus – even basil. This means it is suddenly affordable to try your hand at Felicity Cloake’s perfected pasta primavera. Broad beans aren’t that easy to come by fresh in Australia, but frozen is fine. Note that basil costs about the same dead or alive, so buy a plant and keep it indoors, close to light, and you’ll have garnishes for weeks or months. Or days, if you suck at plants. – AG
Book ahead
The War on Drugs
Ambient rock alfresco
After their first gig on the Opera House forecourt sold out, the War on Drugs have added a second – and there are still tickets available in Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth, too. Every venue is outdoors, so if you’re concerned about Covid or just like your ambient rock served alfresco, this is your tour. – AG
