Long term readers will note I’ve seen a few productions of Act/React and have enjoyed their work. For Anywhere Festival this year they have brought back a production they mounted back in 2016 before I knew of them called Titanic: The Movie, The Play.
After checking out Chris Martin’s Claw Machine at Pincadia, Karen and I headed off to the nearby Queensland Maritime Museum to see a late performance of the comedic take on the film.
Unlike their production of Kiss of the Vampire Squid which was performed on HMAS Diamantina last year as part of Anywhere Theatre Festival 2018 this was not a fully improvised production but scripted. It did feature some mainstays of Impromafia and the newly formed The Shadow Collective in the cast so there was lots of laughs had from on the moment developments.
The immersive aspects of the production mean no two performances will be the same and create a real joy in the audience. I thought there was a real charm to the production and following the excellent Love/Hate Actually I expect big things to continue happening for Act/React. Amy Currie and Natalie Bochenski are taking Love/Hate Actually to Edinburgh Fringe Festival this year for starters.
The Anywhere Festival for 2019 is a marvellous thing that happens in my city and I feel very grateful to have taken in two great shows this year at such interesting venues.
Weekend Notes are a growing online magazine with a wealth of contributors based out of several cities across the United Kingdom, Australia and New York. Articles are leisure related and can include a wide variety of subjects from rainforest hikes to cultural festivals, from what hot new play is on at your underground theatre to a ultra trendy eatery. Writers are paid for their work based partly on how many views their articles get so please feel free to stop by and show some love.
It was a lot of fun to be on assignment for X-Press Magazine for the first time this year to review John Wick: Chapter 3 -Parabellum. Karen and I returned to the Myer Centre in the Brisbane CBD to check out the sequel at a preview screening the night before opening day.
To give a comparison I would say John Wick was a pleasant surprise I enjoyed late one Friday night after getting the DVD from my now defunct local blockbuster. John Wick Chapter 2 I know got around to at some point either DVD or steaming. I thought there was less to that film than there was to the original but I still marvelled at the action in particular a fight scene featuring Keanu Reeves and Common.
X-Press Magazine was established in 1985 and at one point was Australia’s highest circulating free weekly entertainment publication with over 40,000 copies reaching 1,0000 outlets every week. On the 24th May, 2016 Issue 1527 hit stands. Like many publications of its ilk X-Press Magazine is now foremost an online magazine engaged globally and making the most of the possibilities that new digital technology offers. It’s roots though are tied to its home city, love of local artists and productions and music which it supports wholeheartedly. Perth a capital city most isolated from all the other capitals is continuing to grow and develop culturally and artistically with its own identity and talent. X-Press has always been there to capture this growth and will continue to do so.
I do my best to get my car after work and travel to and from these events that way, but on occasion I catch the train home instead. Sometimes we have dinner after a show too before we head home but not this time. As we arrived at central station and were heading towards the escalators for our platform I noticed something off-putting.
In a split second I came to realise there was someone on the ground. I dropped the bag of Karen’s I was carrying and jogged over and got to my knees next to the body. Somethings are a blur and can be coloured by our own perceptions but I will try to recall to the best of my perspective what happened next.
There was a small middle aged Asian woman on the ground too lying next to the fallen person who was an older white woman. Her husband was leaning over the scene. I asked if she was okay and she said she was fine, she had taken a fall. She explained that she was on medication and I had drunk a little too much which had led to the fall. I think I told her we should get her up, of course I was concerned that something was broken or sprained.
Her husband carried the air of someone who had to deal with such concerns from time to time and his wife’s personality. He bent down and put back one of her shoes that had fallen off her foot, he struggled to get past the heel initially but was soon successful.
The woman’s pants were made of soft material and her legs slid across the floor. Initially when I had gotten to her she was pushing her top half up off the ground almost like she was just hanging out at a picnic.
This was a setback and she now almost had her face on the ground and was lying down on her front completely. At the sound of my worry she said “I just need to rest here for a minute, I’ll be fine.”
I don’t know what got into me next but I leaned over her and in a calm voice said into her ear “Ma’am I used to be a hospital wardie, I don’t think you should stay in this position, I would like to roll you onto your back. Okay?”. I think she nodded and I could hear her husband agreeing and urging her.
I placed one hand on her hip and one on her shoulder and attempted to pull her onto her side but her positioning and mine were not well placed. I didn’t move her far but then she moved with me and she was now on her back and she raised her torso up.
Her husband grabbed both of her hands and she anchored her feet pushing the soles down on the ground. I clambered up behind her squatted on my feet and put both my arms underneath her armpits. The Asian lady who had been with us throughout held onto her left arm and as we lifted a young man raced to our side and grabbed her right arm.
Then she was up.
Throughout her husband had known what to do, gotten the shoe back on, talked to her and kept calm in what any one of us would find distressing. Both he and she had really played the most important part in positioning her body correctly and most importantly with the anchoring of her feet for the lift. For me she was light as a feather and I think part of that might have something to do with the husband lifting her with her hands. The other woman had stayed throughout and reacted with nimble swiftness as the body got moved around and when the young man arrived we had gained someone with more strength than any of us three.
She repeated she was alright to me, she had just had something to drink with her medication and it had caused her to lose balance a bit. I was thankful she was not in any real pain otherwise my untrained involvement could have been a disaster.
She looked over at me with a smile and touched my cheek and thanked me. Given how little I had helped I felt a bit undeserving but I suspect it was due to the calmness and confidence I had given her when I whispered in my ear.
Looking back there was a lot I would’ve liked to have done differently but it was a good feeling to have done anything and to have it turn out alright. I asked if she felt anything kind of broken or really painful and to maybe look for an escalator. The stationmaster was with us now and she repeated her story that she was alright. I and the husband suggested she go with him just to be sure.
I think I asked again if she would be alright, to see if there was anything I could do and she smiled that smile. I joined Karen and looked back one last time as they moved away with the stationmaster.
On the train home I told Karen a story, many years ago I was in Queen St Mall in the middle of the day and I saw some middle aged business men help someone back into their wheelchair or stop them from falling out. One of them had reacted the fastest and helped the most. He was middle aged, overweight and in a nice suit. I don’t remember which year this was, it could be anywhere from 1998 to 2007 I guess. I can’t even really remember what happened. Afterwards as they stopped at the lights to cross the street, I saw the middle aged man look back at the person in the wheelchair. There was a haunted look on his face. Was he shaken by what could have happened had he not been there? Did he think therefore but the grace of God go I? Had it triggered a memory of someone he cared about? I don’t know but I remember that look and I suspect I always will.
It is a great privilege to have been on assignment with Weekend Notes for the second time last Saturday to review comedian Chris Martin’s new show Claw Machine. Claw Machine is being performed at Pincadia (a bar serving a burger joint menu and full of pinball and retro arcade machines and I mean full to the brim) as part of the Anywhere Festival where shows happen all around the city in odd venues. Albeit down in the bowels of Pincadia the setting didn’t appear too different from any comedy club basement but the venue itself the heritage listed Moreton Rubber Building is impressively unique.
I was looking forward to the show after seeing Chris Martin as one of the commentators at the Queensland Theatresports Championships which was part of the Brisbane Comedy Festival this year. He did not disappoint, the show ambles along for close to an hour and Martin has a way of relaxing you into his set that you almost forget a punchline is coming. He’s got an interesting style, solid timing and an effortlessly likeable quality about him. A scientist by trade I stand in awe of him and so many other talented artists in my fair city plugging away at their craft and creating so much entertainment and culture for Brisbanites. You can read my review here https://www.weekendnotes.com/chris-martin-claw-machine/
Weekend Notes are a growing online magazine with a wealth of contributors based out of several cities across the United Kingdom, Australia and New York. Articles are leisure related and can include a wide variety of subjects from rainforest hikes to cultural festivals, from what hot new play is on at your underground theatre to a ultra trendy eatery. Writers are paid for their work based partly on how many views their articles get so please feel free to stop by and show some love.
-Lloyd Marken
This precinct isn’t very far from where I worked for most of 2017, was nice to be back. Copyright Lloyd Marken.
Karen and I in Pincadia after the show. I like this picture of her. Copyright Lloyd Marken.
It has been a while since I’ve done an interview for Scenestr magazine due to a variety of reasons. Thankfully it was a delight to get back in the saddle for them and interview theatre director Xanthe Jones.
Saying Jones has multiple talents does not even remotely do her justice.
She wrote and directed Cluedo! The Interactive Game and is also the Artistic Director for Brisbane Immersive Ensemble which produced the show.
We spoke just after they had their preview night where she had stepped into the role of Miss Scarlett at the last minute.
Talking to her was a pleasure as she described genre tropes, having fun with the audience and what she tries to impart with her work.
Produced by Eyeball Media Enterprises Scenestr. is an online national magazine with local offices around Australia. Having started in 1993 they’ve excelled at moving into the digital realm but they remain at heart from the streets.
They still publish magazines in print for Western Australia, South Australia, New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland every month.
This interview was published in print on page 38 of the Queensland issue for May 2019.
Game of Thrones is the one show I can’t miss when it is on and more and more it feels like the end of an era. Is there any other show where the next day work colleagues rush to discuss with each other, some slouch scampering away to avoid spoilers because they missed it last night. People watch on their tablets and phone in their lunch breaks to see it as soon as it hits midday Monday morning Australia time. This is the last of the water cooler shows, something that has infected the pop culture so much that there is common ground amongst fandom. As we fall more and more into echo chambers and niche markets Game of Thrones is the closest thing we have to a unifying thing. In America it rates 17 million viewers but per captia that’s nothing compared to the well over 1 million Australians who tune in one way or another.
Yet when it comes to Australia, one woman reigns supreme and that is Mother of Kittens Natalie Bochenski. Her written recaps have been published nationally and she has developed a podcast where she recaps with her fellow writer Stuart Layt.
Recently on assignment for Scenestr magazine at the Brisbane Powerhouse I saw a sign indicating a live recording of the podcast. I first found out about Bochenski when I saw her perform in ImproMafia’s Lord of the Thrones two years ago. I’ve seen a few of her shows since then and always been impressed by her talent – this was a no brainer.
So following the all important and action packed Battle of Winterfell episode I headed back to the Powerhouse last Tuesday to see the live recording of the Raven On podcast. We were located in the Mary Mae’s bar which is the one of the last places at the Brisbane Powerhouse I hadn’t been to before. You can read my review here https://www.weekendnotes.com/raven-on-game-of-thrones-recaps-mary-maes/ or download the podcast here https://soundcloud.com/girlclumsy/raven-on-s8e3 . By the way Karen gets mentioned at one point during the podcast at around the 32 minute mark.
Weekend Notes are a growing online magazine with a wealth of contributors based out of several cities across the United Kingdom, Australia and New York. Articles are leisure related and can include a wide variety of subjects from rainforest hikes to cultural festivals, from what hot new play is on at your underground theatre to a ultra trendy eatery. Writers are paid for their work based partly on how many views their articles get so please feel free to stop by and show some love.
A little later than usual this year but here is my third annual favorite films of the year list. I was fortunate with my freelance work, Karen winning comps and just being in a general a regular cinemagoer to see 58 films either in cinemas, via screeners or released via Netflix. This includes films that were 2018 American releases but reached Australian cinemas early 2019 hence why this list is always a little delayed. I’ve also been part of end of year lists for X-Press Magazine and put together an end of year list for HEAVY magazine which includes disappointments and surprises for the year in cinema.
There were some films I’m sad to say I haven’t got around to seeing yet that I think might have made the list if I had, Sorry To Bother You, If Beale Street Could Talk, BlacKkKlansman, Cold War, Isle of Dogs and most of all You Were Never Really Here and Won’t You Be My Neighbour? So that tradition continues for another year but this is a list of the ones I did see below. I had a good run of films at the Brisbane International Film Festival this year and some screeners for my work for X-Press magazine turned out to be some of the most interesting and rewarding films of the year. Star ratings are on a four star scale as per the reviews I read from the late great film critic Roger Ebert.
It is just as well this list is called My Favourite Films of the Year rather than the Best of. It’s hard to remember the distinction sometimes and to make peace with those that end up in the Top 10 and those that don’t even rate a mention. The Mission Impossible films are style over substance, nothing has quite matched the 1996 original and yet in director/scribe Christopher McQuarrie they have found something new that works. They’re all set up and payoff for mind blowing action but cleverly staged with tongue firmly in cheek. In briefing rooms characters murmur about their past and stare off into the distance but the best performers are those who convey much with little. Rebecca Ferguson and Vanessa Kirby I’m looking at you. My father once told me the James Bond books by Ian Fleming were light fare but the character of Bond became more whole and nuanced as you read more of them and that is the case with Ethan Hunt and his movies and to a lesser extent his team. McQuarrie plays with the history finally and gets some good results. There was a moment with a sweeping shot of Tom Cruise running across a rooftop with a panoramic view of London and I just thought who the hell else is making movies like this anymore with a movie star. Barring Christopher Nolan, the answer is no one and Nolan doesn’t shoot action like this.
For a while there, Roma was the frontrunner for Best Picture and I would’ve been perfectly happy if it had won. Roma is gorgeous, spiritual, moving and audacious. For the first time in my life I saw a film on my television and I thought it really needed to be seen on the big screen. The fact that it was Netflix release is beyond ironic. Things seem to be happening in the foreground that are missed way too often. I admire the approach of director Alfonso Cuaron demanding that we pay attention, meditate on what is being shown and consider our own lives and what is truly important. There are scenes that I still think about now that exemplify his skills as a master storyteller. The central performance by Yalitza Aparicio is one for the ages. Yet some things, passed me by, some things dragged on too long and some things were hard to take in on the TV. I really wonder if seeing it on the big screen really would’ve rendered a completely different experience?
Brushing aside Oscar controversies, the behaviour of Spike Lee who if he was white would have been called a sore loser, I’d ask you to reflect on this film on its own merits. Maybe you will find it lacking and if you do that’s fine and valid. Me? Well I liked it, the audience I saw it with liked it, they laughed and cried in all the right places. Just like they had in Hidden Figures or Darkest Hour or any other number of mainstream history films where filmmakers seek to evoke emotions and play things as broadly as possible. Maybe you wanted something more incendiary or original and I hear you but I liked this movie. I liked the central relationship, I liked how it made me feel and I liked what happened to the characters along the way and how they could be honest about where they started. This was definitely one of the best films I saw last year.
The Old Man and The GunNot Reviewed ***1/2
Seldom is a film star alllowed to retire with grace in a bookend project that recognises all that comes before but stands on its own. It would have been nice to have Gene Hackman or Sean Connery awarded a similar swansong but at least Robert Redford got this film. Filmed to look the time period of the early 1980s it is set in, it follows Redford as an ageing bank robber Forrest Tucker but the one last heist angle is given a twist here. Redford imbues Tucker with all his weathered charm yet one of the most admirable aspects of the film is the way it subtly reveals the cost of a career in crime. Tucker may appear a gentleman but that does not mean there has been no collateral damage from his activities and being a charming isn’t the same as being there. Sissy Spacek and Casey Affleck support him well in their own performances. It’s simple tale well told, dripping with nostalgia and charm but also a little edge.
Annihilation is not a fun movie but it will become a modern sci-fi classic. A mystery at the centre of it is genuinely thought provoking and the film proves unsettling with no real easy answers and horrifying images. The complex characters don’t ask for your sympathy either. This may be the scariest film of the year. The lack of success for the film and its distribution by Netflix worldwide speaks to the changing nature of blockbusters in Hollywood but as long as people like Alex Garland get to tell stories we can all breathe a sigh of relief.
7.The EndlessPublished at X-Press Magazine 29MAR18 ***1/2
Cracking the Top 5 is Ladies in Black, an Australian film from director Bruce Beresford about a young girl Lisa (Angourie Rice) coming of age in post-war Australia. There were times I thought of my own parents and the households they grew up in and the friendships they made during this movie. It’s true the film is gentle and broad and comforting in a way that it could have chosen not to be but in looking back it is a reminder that change has always been present and always navigated by the young and old. There is a moment when a young couple talk about their past lives while looking out over a mountain range. In the end while they’re honest about the past they choose to not dwell on it but to move forward and it is one of my favourite scenes.
4.In the AislesNot Reviewed But Mentioned in Our BIFF 2018 Coverage ****
Seen at BIFF 2018, In The Aisles is a film I hope many others discover in time. Set around a night shift of retail workers it is meticulously constructed and moving. We get to know these people but only gradually outside of the prism of who they are at work. The film understands the landscape of the shelves, the grace of the pallet jacks, the secrets of the back rooms, the tensions of the work parties and the longings created by a staff member not showing up. It is aware that while not all of who we are is what we do at work it is where most of our waking hours are spent and how much purpose and identity the roles and relationships we have there give us. Just a fantastic movie.
3.The FavouriteBeing Edited ****
A perfectly rendered period film with a little bit of edge to it. Forget all the talk about historical accuracy, the film is a character piece about three fascinating women and the changing nature of their relationship. The three leads Olivia Colman, Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz revel in the opportunity to sink their teeth into such meaty parts too. There is some very clever choices made visually which harken back to different periods and commentary on gender tropes throughout. “We begin with Queen Anne guided by Lady Churchill almost maternally. Weisz cuts a figure often in men’s clothes, constantly shooting off rifles in the field and meeting the gaze and remarks of the men of parliament as she runs the country. Queen Anne relies on her a great deal for confidence and affection and Lady Churchill never lies to her about anything. Enter the younger impoverished cousin of Sarah Churchill, Abigail Hill. She needs work and patronage and we find out quickly that she is a survivor.“
Well that’s it for another year, hope you enjoyed and please feel free to share your own thoughts and feelings about your favourite films from 2018. I’m also sharing Honest Trailers Oscar 2019 from the team at Screen Junkies or as they are now called Fandom Entertainment.