Teresa Palmer back for another Aussie drama series

The Advertiser

19-06-2025

Fresh off the back of The Last Anniversary, Teresa Palmer stars in another Aussie drama.
Mix Tape, which is a British co-production, follows Alison and Daniel across two timelines. They first meet in high school in the north of England. Daniel is the more popular of the two, while Alison is quiet and reserved, but both have a love of music and an undeniable attraction to the other.
Fast forward a quarter century and their lives look very different. Daniel has become a music writer, has a wife and kid, and is still living in Sheffield. Alison, meanwhile, is now a celebrated author living in Sydney with a mostly Aussie accent, doctor husband and moody teen daughter.
News of Alison's new book reaches Daniel back in their hometown, and it seems inevitable that these two will be meeting again.
The series takes place over four episodes, with only one episode dropping each week, so we'll have to be patient as the story unfolds.
Florence Hunt (Bridgerton's Hyacinth) and newcomer Rory Walton-Smith are delightful as the teen versions of the pair in 1989. Palmer is the grown up Alison, and there's a clear sadness and underappreciation in her performance that invites you to learn more about this woman's life. Jim Sturgess (One Day) is the adult Daniel, clearly still harbouring some feelings for his high school love.
Mix Tape is a serious, music-infused romantic drama, its emotions played with earnestness. It doesn't feel the need to break tension with laughs. There's not a great deal in the way of story in the first episode, so you'll have to stick it out to see where these characters are going.
Remember the raunchy teen comedy genre? It was huge in the 80s, but where did it go?
Summer of 69 tries to resurrect that genre, and mostly does, but also manages to be unexpectedly wholesome and sweet.
From writer-director Jillian Bell (you might remember her from 22 Jump Street, Brittany Runs a Marathon, Godmothered), the coming of age comedy sees high schooler Abby (Sam Morelos, That 90s Show) determined to win the affections of her dreamboat classmate Max (Matt Cornett, High School Musical: The Musical: The Series) in the wake of his relationship ending.
Learning from a perhaps unreliable source of school gossip that Max's sexual interests tend towards the number of the film title, Abby decides she needs to become more skilled in the bedroom department and hires a local stripper to teach her the ways of the world. Enter Santa Monica (SNL's Chloe Fineman), who needs to make $20,000 fast to save her strip club from being sold to a slimy rival, and agrees to help Abby become a more confident, capable version of herself in order to woo Max.
It's a truly ludicrous premise that does feel straight out of the 80s, but Summer of 69 is actually far tamer than you'd expect. There's no nudity, and the raunchiness doesn't get much further than the title.
The heart of this film is the growing friendship between Abby and Santa Monica, who both grow under the other's influence to become more well-rounded, self-confident women.
What should have been a massive miss is actually a surprising success, and a lot of that goes down to funny and sharp writing, and committed performances from the cast, which also includes Charlie Day, Natalie Morales, Liza Koshy and Nicole Byer in support.
Julianne Moore and Sydney Sweeney are mother and daughter in this moody dramatic thriller.
Moore's Kate lives and works alone at her farm, caring for horses and teaching the occasional lesson. She's grieving the loss of her wife and struggling to pay for the upkeep of the property.
Her quiet monotony is broken one night when her daughter Claire shows up out of the blue. Claire has a history with substance abuse, and Kate - desperate for her daughter to be alright and keep coming home - is powerless to hold back assistance when she asks for it.
But this latest visit comes with trouble. Claire and her on-again-off-again boyfriend have fallen foul of their drug dealer Jackie (a long-haired Domhnall Gleeson, recently seen in Fountain of Youth) and need to go off the grid for a few days until the heat dies down.
Unsurprisingly, that's not the end of the story, and we'll see just how far Kate will go to keep her daughter safe.
Echo Valley is more of a character piece than a plot-driven affair. The pacing is slow, the dialogue sparse and the overall mood pretty gloomy.
The performances are solid, and the ending makes up for some of the experience of watching what can at times be a borderline boring film. But given the solid cast - which also includes Fiona Shaw and Kyle MacLachlan - you might be expecting more from Echo Valley than you get.
Newly-minted Oscar nominee Monica Barbaro is back in action alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger in the second season of Netflix's over-the-top action comedy FUBAR. Also on Netflix you'll find a doctumentary about the doomed submarine implosion, Titan: The Oceangate Submersible Disaster, as well as another doco on Travis Scott's festival disaster Trainwreck: The Astroworld Tragedy. Catch Nicolas Cage in an Aussie thriller in Stan's The Surfer, or check out Orlando Bloom and Bryce Dallas Howard in the hilariously silly action comedy Deep Cover on Prime Video. If you're after something a little more sci-fi, check out new series Revival on Binge, where dead folks are rising from the grave with apparently no ill effects. Ryan Reynolds tries his hand at nature documentaries on Disney+, providing the narration for the fun Underdogs, which takes a look at some of the animal kingdom's more left-of-centre creatures like the pistol shrimp and axolotl, with his trademark snarky delivery. On Disney+ you'll also find the fourth season of Wild Crime, a true crime docuseries that this season focuses on serial killer Israel Keyes.
Fresh off the back of The Last Anniversary, Teresa Palmer stars in another Aussie drama.
Mix Tape, which is a British co-production, follows Alison and Daniel across two timelines. They first meet in high school in the north of England. Daniel is the more popular of the two, while Alison is quiet and reserved, but both have a love of music and an undeniable attraction to the other.
Fast forward a quarter century and their lives look very different. Daniel has become a music writer, has a wife and kid, and is still living in Sheffield. Alison, meanwhile, is now a celebrated author living in Sydney with a mostly Aussie accent, doctor husband and moody teen daughter.
News of Alison's new book reaches Daniel back in their hometown, and it seems inevitable that these two will be meeting again.
The series takes place over four episodes, with only one episode dropping each week, so we'll have to be patient as the story unfolds.
Florence Hunt (Bridgerton's Hyacinth) and newcomer Rory Walton-Smith are delightful as the teen versions of the pair in 1989. Palmer is the grown up Alison, and there's a clear sadness and underappreciation in her performance that invites you to learn more about this woman's life. Jim Sturgess (One Day) is the adult Daniel, clearly still harbouring some feelings for his high school love.
Mix Tape is a serious, music-infused romantic drama, its emotions played with earnestness. It doesn't feel the need to break tension with laughs. There's not a great deal in the way of story in the first episode, so you'll have to stick it out to see where these characters are going.
Remember the raunchy teen comedy genre? It was huge in the 80s, but where did it go?
Summer of 69 tries to resurrect that genre, and mostly does, but also manages to be unexpectedly wholesome and sweet.
From writer-director Jillian Bell (you might remember her from 22 Jump Street, Brittany Runs a Marathon, Godmothered), the coming of age comedy sees high schooler Abby (Sam Morelos, That 90s Show) determined to win the affections of her dreamboat classmate Max (Matt Cornett, High School Musical: The Musical: The Series) in the wake of his relationship ending.
Learning from a perhaps unreliable source of school gossip that Max's sexual interests tend towards the number of the film title, Abby decides she needs to become more skilled in the bedroom department and hires a local stripper to teach her the ways of the world. Enter Santa Monica (SNL's Chloe Fineman), who needs to make $20,000 fast to save her strip club from being sold to a slimy rival, and agrees to help Abby become a more confident, capable version of herself in order to woo Max.
It's a truly ludicrous premise that does feel straight out of the 80s, but Summer of 69 is actually far tamer than you'd expect. There's no nudity, and the raunchiness doesn't get much further than the title.
The heart of this film is the growing friendship between Abby and Santa Monica, who both grow under the other's influence to become more well-rounded, self-confident women.
What should have been a massive miss is actually a surprising success, and a lot of that goes down to funny and sharp writing, and committed performances from the cast, which also includes Charlie Day, Natalie Morales, Liza Koshy and Nicole Byer in support.
Julianne Moore and Sydney Sweeney are mother and daughter in this moody dramatic thriller.
Moore's Kate lives and works alone at her farm, caring for horses and teaching the occasional lesson. She's grieving the loss of her wife and struggling to pay for the upkeep of the property.
Her quiet monotony is broken one night when her daughter Claire shows up out of the blue. Claire has a history with substance abuse, and Kate - desperate for her daughter to be alright and keep coming home - is powerless to hold back assistance when she asks for it.
But this latest visit comes with trouble. Claire and her on-again-off-again boyfriend have fallen foul of their drug dealer Jackie (a long-haired Domhnall Gleeson, recently seen in Fountain of Youth) and need to go off the grid for a few days until the heat dies down.
Unsurprisingly, that's not the end of the story, and we'll see just how far Kate will go to keep her daughter safe.
Echo Valley is more of a character piece than a plot-driven affair. The pacing is slow, the dialogue sparse and the overall mood pretty gloomy.
The performances are solid, and the ending makes up for some of the experience of watching what can at times be a borderline boring film. But given the solid cast - which also includes Fiona Shaw and Kyle MacLachlan - you might be expecting more from Echo Valley than you get.
Newly-minted Oscar nominee Monica Barbaro is back in action alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger in the second season of Netflix's over-the-top action comedy FUBAR. Also on Netflix you'll find a doctumentary about the doomed submarine implosion, Titan: The Oceangate Submersible Disaster, as well as another doco on Travis Scott's festival disaster Trainwreck: The Astroworld Tragedy. Catch Nicolas Cage in an Aussie thriller in Stan's The Surfer, or check out Orlando Bloom and Bryce Dallas Howard in the hilariously silly action comedy Deep Cover on Prime Video. If you're after something a little more sci-fi, check out new series Revival on Binge, where dead folks are rising from the grave with apparently no ill effects. Ryan Reynolds tries his hand at nature documentaries on Disney+, providing the narration for the fun Underdogs, which takes a look at some of the animal kingdom's more left-of-centre creatures like the pistol shrimp and axolotl, with his trademark snarky delivery. On Disney+ you'll also find the fourth season of Wild Crime, a true crime docuseries that this season focuses on serial killer Israel Keyes.
Fresh off the back of The Last Anniversary, Teresa Palmer stars in another Aussie drama.
Mix Tape, which is a British co-production, follows Alison and Daniel across two timelines. They first meet in high school in the north of England. Daniel is the more popular of the two, while Alison is quiet and reserved, but both have a love of music and an undeniable attraction to the other.
Fast forward a quarter century and their lives look very different. Daniel has become a music writer, has a wife and kid, and is still living in Sheffield. Alison, meanwhile, is now a celebrated author living in Sydney with a mostly Aussie accent, doctor husband and moody teen daughter.
News of Alison's new book reaches Daniel back in their hometown, and it seems inevitable that these two will be meeting again.
The series takes place over four episodes, with only one episode dropping each week, so we'll have to be patient as the story unfolds.
Florence Hunt (Bridgerton's Hyacinth) and newcomer Rory Walton-Smith are delightful as the teen versions of the pair in 1989. Palmer is the grown up Alison, and there's a clear sadness and underappreciation in her performance that invites you to learn more about this woman's life. Jim Sturgess (One Day) is the adult Daniel, clearly still harbouring some feelings for his high school love.
Mix Tape is a serious, music-infused romantic drama, its emotions played with earnestness. It doesn't feel the need to break tension with laughs. There's not a great deal in the way of story in the first episode, so you'll have to stick it out to see where these characters are going.
Remember the raunchy teen comedy genre? It was huge in the 80s, but where did it go?
Summer of 69 tries to resurrect that genre, and mostly does, but also manages to be unexpectedly wholesome and sweet.
From writer-director Jillian Bell (you might remember her from 22 Jump Street, Brittany Runs a Marathon, Godmothered), the coming of age comedy sees high schooler Abby (Sam Morelos, That 90s Show) determined to win the affections of her dreamboat classmate Max (Matt Cornett, High School Musical: The Musical: The Series) in the wake of his relationship ending.
Learning from a perhaps unreliable source of school gossip that Max's sexual interests tend towards the number of the film title, Abby decides she needs to become more skilled in the bedroom department and hires a local stripper to teach her the ways of the world. Enter Santa Monica (SNL's Chloe Fineman), who needs to make $20,000 fast to save her strip club from being sold to a slimy rival, and agrees to help Abby become a more confident, capable version of herself in order to woo Max.
It's a truly ludicrous premise that does feel straight out of the 80s, but Summer of 69 is actually far tamer than you'd expect. There's no nudity, and the raunchiness doesn't get much further than the title.
The heart of this film is the growing friendship between Abby and Santa Monica, who both grow under the other's influence to become more well-rounded, self-confident women.
What should have been a massive miss is actually a surprising success, and a lot of that goes down to funny and sharp writing, and committed performances from the cast, which also includes Charlie Day, Natalie Morales, Liza Koshy and Nicole Byer in support.
Julianne Moore and Sydney Sweeney are mother and daughter in this moody dramatic thriller.
Moore's Kate lives and works alone at her farm, caring for horses and teaching the occasional lesson. She's grieving the loss of her wife and struggling to pay for the upkeep of the property.
Her quiet monotony is broken one night when her daughter Claire shows up out of the blue. Claire has a history with substance abuse, and Kate - desperate for her daughter to be alright and keep coming home - is powerless to hold back assistance when she asks for it.
But this latest visit comes with trouble. Claire and her on-again-off-again boyfriend have fallen foul of their drug dealer Jackie (a long-haired Domhnall Gleeson, recently seen in Fountain of Youth) and need to go off the grid for a few days until the heat dies down.
Unsurprisingly, that's not the end of the story, and we'll see just how far Kate will go to keep her daughter safe.
Echo Valley is more of a character piece than a plot-driven affair. The pacing is slow, the dialogue sparse and the overall mood pretty gloomy.
The performances are solid, and the ending makes up for some of the experience of watching what can at times be a borderline boring film. But given the solid cast - which also includes Fiona Shaw and Kyle MacLachlan - you might be expecting more from Echo Valley than you get.
Newly-minted Oscar nominee Monica Barbaro is back in action alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger in the second season of Netflix's over-the-top action comedy FUBAR. Also on Netflix you'll find a doctumentary about the doomed submarine implosion, Titan: The Oceangate Submersible Disaster, as well as another doco on Travis Scott's festival disaster Trainwreck: The Astroworld Tragedy. Catch Nicolas Cage in an Aussie thriller in Stan's The Surfer, or check out Orlando Bloom and Bryce Dallas Howard in the hilariously silly action comedy Deep Cover on Prime Video. If you're after something a little more sci-fi, check out new series Revival on Binge, where dead folks are rising from the grave with apparently no ill effects. Ryan Reynolds tries his hand at nature documentaries on Disney+, providing the narration for the fun Underdogs, which takes a look at some of the animal kingdom's more left-of-centre creatures like the pistol shrimp and axolotl, with his trademark snarky delivery. On Disney+ you'll also find the fourth season of Wild Crime, a true crime docuseries that this season focuses on serial killer Israel Keyes.