See & Do
A compendium of idiotic ideas, from hacky sack to influencers
Former Chaser member Dominic Knight explores millennia of bad ideas.
- by Pat Sheil
Latest
Helen Garner’s new book celebrates the purity in observance
The Season is a the acclaimed author’s memoir-diary of her time watching her grandson’s football team. It’s Death in Venice with Sherrin balls.
- by Declan Fry
How rock’s coolest woman blew Olivia Rodrigo’s mind
Kim Deal says opening for big headliners is to “watch people find their seats”. But Olivia Rodrigo made a sweet gesture for her supporting act.
- by Michael Dwyer
Tired tropes, purple prose: Murakami’s new novel is for diehard fans only
The writing in The City And Its Uncertain Walls is so overwrought, the prose so purple, I half expected Prince to come back from the dead to sing about it.
- by Bram Presser
Romcom, horror and Indigenous romance: 2024’s best queer YA novels
The queer genre in young adult fiction is booming. Here are four of the year’s best.
- by Frances Atkinson
Jack White returns to the grimy intimacy of the Melbourne venue where he wrote one of his hits
Jack White, rock and roll royalty, could fill a much bigger venue than the Corner Hotel several times over – but this grimy intimacy is what he prefers.
- by Will Cox, Vyshnavee Wijekumar, Cameron Woodhead, Andrew Fuhrmann and Tony Way
Michael Caine’s guide to life bursts with legendary anecdotes
Now 90, the storied actor reflects on his long career with charm and honesty. The result is riveting.
- by Peter Craven
‘Fighting the good fight’: King Stingray finds new ears for an enduring campaign
They may have new-found fame in the US (and partied at the NBA), but the Yolngu surf rock band’s heart remains in the Northern Territory.
- by Michael Dwyer
Exclusive
Art
She died a ‘housewife’, now Ethel Carrick breaks art auction records
From the streets of Paris to the beaches of Australia, Ethel Carrick was ahead of her time.
- by Linda Morris
‘I make the movie I want to see’: The unusual side of Viggo Mortensen’s new western
The Dead Don’t Hurt is both a traditional western and a reinvention – one that puts the story of an ordinary woman front-and-centre.
- by Karl Quinn
★★½
Review
Pharrell Williams tells life story in Lego: genius, or blockhead move?
A star-filled cast including Snoop Dogg and Gwen Stefani is still not enough to save this hyperactive film that ultimately doesn’t do justice to its subject.
- by Sandra Hall