Latest news with #Muriel'sWedding
Daily Mirror
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
The top 10 best films of the 90s from an entertainment expert and where to watch
The 1990s was a golden era for cinema with a plethora of unforgettable films from the decade that have stood the test of time - here are my top 10 favourite films from the 90s The 1990s was a truly magical time for movie lovers, producing a plethora of unforgettable films. As an entertainment journalist, I've had the challenging task of narrowing down my personal top 10 from this decade. It's no easy feat to compile a list of the top 10 films from such a rich period in cinematic history, but as a dedicated film fanatic and entertainment reporter, I've given it my best shot. So, which films have made the grade? Here are my top 10 favourite films from the 1990s, chosen with the discerning eye of an entertainment journalist. Top 10 90s films ranked 10 - Misery First on the list is the 1990 classic 'Misery', based on Stephen King's chilling crime novel of the same name. The plot revolves around novelist Paul Sheldon (James Caan), who after a severe car accident, is rescued by former nurse Annie Wilkes (Kathy Bates), his self-proclaimed 'biggest fan'. Annie takes him to her secluded cabin to recuperate, but things take a sinister turn when she discovers that Sheldon plans to kill off her favourite character from his novels. Misery can be streamed on Prime Video. 9 - The Truman Show Next up is the 1998 comedy sci-fi 'The Truman Show', featuring Jim Carrey, known for his roles in 'The Mask' and 'Ace Ventura'. This film sees Carrey venture into slightly darker territory, offering a thought-provoking narrative. The official synopsis reveals: "Unbeknownst to him, Truman Burbank's (Jim Carrey) entire life is part of a vast TV set. "Executive producer Christof (Ed Harris) masterminds The Truman Show, a live broadcast of Truman's every move, captured by hidden cameras. "As Truman slowly uncovers the truth, he is faced with the decision of how to respond." The Truman Show is available to watch on Prime Video. 8 - Beauty and the Beast Before Emma Watson took on the character of Belle in the 2017 remake, there was the animated 1991 Disney film Beauty and the Beast. A heartless prince is turned into a beast as punishment for his callous ways and must win someone's love to lift the curse. This is where he encounters Belle who gradually discovers that there is much more to the Beast than initially appears. Beauty and the Beast is available to watch on Disney+. 7 - You've Got Mail The touching 1998 romantic comedy You've Got Mail chronicles the feud between the proprietors of a bookstore chain and a charming independent bookshop. They remain unaware that they have been developing deep feelings for one another through email correspondence. This beloved romantic film features Hollywood legend Tom Hanks and When Harry Met Sally star Meg Ryan. You've Got Mail is available to watch on Sky Go and NOW TV Cinema. 6 - Muriel's Wedding Featuring Hereditary actress Toni Collette, Muriel's Wedding will delight ABBA enthusiasts as it features the legendary group's songs throughout. The synopsis for the 1994 romantic comedy states: "Stuck in a small town with her dominant father, depressed mother and cruel friends, a socially awkward woman takes destiny into her own hands and sets off in search of happiness and her ideal groom." Muriel's Wedding is available to watch on Prime Video. 5 - What's Love Got To Do With It This Tina Turner biographical film recounts the genuine story of the iconic pop rock performer from departing her existence in St Louis to her ascent to fame and her violent marriage. The acclaimed 1993 film features Black Panther star Angela Bassett portraying Turner and The Matrix legend Laurence Fishburne as Ike Turner. What's Love Got to do With It can be streamed on Prime Video. 4 - Jurassic Park Kicking off the blockbuster franchise in 1993 was the original Jurassic Park movie, featuring a cast headed by Sam Neill, Jeff Goldblum and Laura Dern. Helmed by Steven Spielberg himself, the plot summary explains: "An industrialist invites some experts to visit his theme park of cloned dinosaurs. "After a power failure, the creatures run loose, putting everyone's lives, including his grandchildren's, in danger." Jurassic Park can be viewed on ITVX and Prime Video. 3 - The Silence of the Lambs Celebrated as one of cinema's most legendary horror pictures is the chilling 1991 thriller The Silence of the Lambs. The plot outline reveals: "Clarice Starling, an FBI trainee, seeks help from Hannibal Lecter, a psychopathic serial killer and former psychiatrist, in order to apprehend another murderer who has been claiming female victims." The Silence of The Lambs, which memorably stars Sir Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster, can be watched on Prime Video. 2 - The Commitments This Dublin-set 1991 musical comedy-drama centres on jobless lad Jimmy Rabbitte who reckons he'll strike it rich by assembling a working-class soul group. The Commitments showcases tracks including Mustang Sally, In The Midnight Hour, Take Me To The Little River and Try A Little Tenderness. The Commitments can be viewed on BBC iPlayer and Prime Video. 1 - The Muppets Christmas Carol Adding a charming and adorable twist to the timeless story of A Christmas Carol, this family-friendly festive film is indeed a classic. Featuring The Dark Knight actor Michael Cane in the role of Scrooge, he shares the screen with beloved and iconic characters such as Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Gonzo and Fozzy Bear.
Perth Now
13-07-2025
- Business
- Perth Now
‘Really sad': Local Perth shopping centre to be demolished
Duncraig resident Neal Meakins channelled Muriel's Wedding's character Bill Heslop when describing how he was disappointed his local shopping centre would be demolished. 'It's obviously a shame, but you can't stop progress,' he said of the proposed redevelopment of the Glengarry Shopping Centre, which is set to be demolished to make way for a Woolworths supermarket — forcing out the local IGA — as well as new shops, eateries and commercial space. Earlier this year, Woolworths — the country's biggest supermarket chain — lodged a development application with the City of Joondalup to redevelop the 20-store centre, which is currently home to an IGA, several family-owned businesses and a post office. 'I've been shopping here for a long time and it's a shame for me to go somewhere else because I know the shop so well,' Mr Meakins said. Duncraig resident Neal Meakins. Credit: Andrew Ritchie / The West Australian The controversial Glengarry redevelopment comes as Woolworths postpones new builds on Charles Street in North Perth and Murray Street in West Perth, sparking questions about the supermarket's commercial strategies. It's understood some WA sites had higher construction costs based on their designs, which had affected development timelines. A Woolworths spokesman said it was excited about the opportunity to upgrade and modernise the Glengarry shopping centre. He added the community was currently under-serviced in terms of grocery retail with no full line supermarket. Glengarry Shopping Centre. Credit: Andrew Ritchie / The West Australian Inside of Glengarry Shopping Centre. Credit: Andrew Ritchie / The West Australian 'The redevelopment would include new services and convenient shopping options, and aims to create a vibrant place for small business and the community,' the company spokesman said. 'From time to time we acquire existing neighbourhood shopping centres that are in need of investment to improve the amenity and the offer for the community, leading to a local economy and jobs boost.' IGA supplier Metcash told The Sunday Times the independent grocer planned to exit Glengarry because though Woolworths had allowed for a 'very small second supermarket', it was not tenable for an IGA for several reasons, including size and location, with no direct access to a loading dock. Render of Woolworths' proposal. Credit: Supplied Metcash supplies to over 1600 independently-owned stores in Australia across the IGA and Foodland brands. Grant Ramage, the boss of Metcash's food arm, flagged concerns about the independents' ability to remain a viable competitor when one of the bigger supermarkets could just muscle in. Coles last year acquired the Milton Village shopping centre in Brisbane's inner west and as part of the redevelopment, did not renew the lease of the IGA that had been there for decades. In NSW, the Elermore Vale shopping centre was purchased by a developer as a proxy for Woolworths, paying $27 million in 2023. Woolworths is expected to replace the IGA once the lease expires in 2028. 'The trend known as creeping acquisitions is ongoing and contributes to the erosion of independent supermarket presence in local markets over time, and the overall scale of the independent network, needed to maintain a competitive offer,' Mr Ramage said. The Outer Metropolitan Development Assessment Panel will make a decision on Woolworths' application at a later date, with the City of Joondalup yet to provide a recommendation. I'm not sure why we need another Woolworths or Coles when there are so many nearby. For marketing and retail analyst Barry Urquhart, this was just part of the near-50-year-old Glengarry centre's life cycle. 'What you've got to say is that all things come to an end,' Mr Urquhart, managing director of Perth-based research company Marketing Focus, said. 'Any business that has been around operating, in any premises, beyond 15 years, a lot of consumers will say, 'Has it had its life cycle fulfilled' and therefore, it needs to be renewed, upgraded or replaced.' Asked if he agreed with Woolworths' claims the Glengarry redevelopment would improve shopping convenience and create a vibrant place for small business tenants and the community in Duncraig, Mr Ramage said there was no new residential redevelopment to justify another large supermarket. He added there were six existing Woolworths supermarkets within a 10-minute drive of Duncraig. But for some shoppers and local businesses that occupy the centre, the proposed redevelopment is long overdue, with the roof caving in. Rosemarie Persson, owner of Duncraig-Glengarry Flowers & Gifts, said the redevelopment was 'going to be fantastic for the area'. 'It will bring in more people, which it needs. It's a tired old little shopping centre and it just needs it,' she said. 'There's going to be more coffee shops and more places to eat, a Woolworths, more variety. But hopefully all the small businesses around here can come back and benefit from that.' Shopper Moira McFarlane welcomed the news of a bigger and modern centre with basement parking, but she was concerned about the traffic it would bring. '(The redevelopment is) well overdue, well overdue,' she said. 'My concern is the traffic, because it's bad enough now. The deliveries and trucks coming in near the hospitals next door is a bit concerning.' While Woolworths had offered Holmesys Bakehouse owner Steven Holmes a spot in the new centre, he said he wouldn't be able to afford the costs of temporary relocation. 'As a small business owner, I cannot afford it. I've only been here for three years, and I haven't even got the revenue yet,' he said. 'Which I have told them . . . so yeah, I'm just taking the money and I'm gone. 'There's positives and negatives for everything, but I don't understand why (Woolworths) is building here when they've got one literally five minutes up the road in Warwick.' Duncraig local Karen Kroeger said local shopping centres like Glengarry suited independent grocers. 'I'm not sure why we need another Woolworths or Coles when there are so many nearby,' she said. 'I feel for a lot of small businesses who may not be able to operate in a new centre place because of rent increases, or there's not enough space, and it's also hard and costly for them to start somewhere again in a different location,' she said. Duncraig local Karen Kroeger and son Patrick. Credit: Andrew Ritchie / The West Australian 'It's really sad for them; they've built up their reputations here, and they know all the locals.' The owner of Glengarry IGA declined to comment. Mr Ramage said consumers could face less variety and reduced product range and availability, as well as poorer service — or none at all when they are forced to use self-checkouts — with the arrival of Woolworths. He added that despite the millions of dollars of taxpayer money spent, the string of public inquiries into Australia's supermarket sector inquiries had not adequately addressed the issue of anti-competitive acquisitions. 'We are hopeful that the new merger laws will assist when they come into effect but will only go so far and won't reverse the damage done to date,' Mr Ramage said. Treasurer Jim Chalmers last October introduced new rules requiring any mergers that exceed a broad set of financial thresholds to get approval from the competition regulator. Under the current regime, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission only has the power to stop or legally challenge mergers it deems as having a substantial impact in the market. From the start of next year, a merger will need the green light from the watchdog if the combined turnover of the merging businesses is more than $200m, and either the business or assets being bought has turnover higher than $50m, or the global transaction value is above $250m. Deals where an Australian business turning over $500m tries to buy out another smaller business, with turnover above $10m, will also be captured under the new rules. From this month, businesses may voluntarily notify acquisitions to the ACCC. The ACCC in March delivered its final report into the $120 billion supermarket sector, which confirmed Coles and Woolworths' dominance. Former ACCC chair Graeme Samuel, who led the watchdog between 2003 and 2011, criticised the report's recommendations as not having enough teeth. Among the ACCC's list of recommendations, supermarkets should be required to inform customers when product sizes have changed and this information should be in close proximity to shelf tickets and on relevant websites. In response to the ACCC report, Metcash said it was pleased the regulator recognised the competitive role independents played in local communities. But Metcash said it was concerned with the growing dominance of the major supermarkets and their ability to grow through creeping acquisitions of independents and land banking.
Sydney Morning Herald
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
Crown Lagers, Ivana Trump and prawn cocktails: Remembering the iconic Danny's Seafood
Out front, he was all charm; on the pass he was a beast with zero time for nonsense, smashing his little gold bell the moment a dish was up and dressing down anyone who didn't rush to its tinny siren call. 'Your father had a go at me a few times, sure, but it always came from the standards he wanted to set for customers,' Kiriakopoulos says. 'He taught me so much: Make the customer feel welcome, ensure they have the best time, and if something goes wrong, fix it.' While La Pa was the main event, there were side quests. The first came in 1992 when dad took over the Grotta Capri in Kensington for two years. Built in the 1950s, the Grotta looked like an underwater cave inside, with cement stalactites hanging from the ceiling, plastic crustaceans clinging to its craggy walls, and an exterior covered by an acne-like breakout of oyster shells. A review from before dad's time described it as 'one of Sydney's great monuments to bad taste'. Famously, the production crew for Muriel's Wedding took over the venue for several days in 1993, transforming one section into the Porpoise Spit cocktail bar where Muriel's friends tell her they don't want to hang around with her any more. 'Toni Collette had to keep her weight on, so I made milkshakes for her the entire shoot,' dad says. More famously, perhaps, the restaurant was a favourite of Sydney's underworld, attracting what Bruce, a former Hong Kong cop in addition to his other pursuits, euphemistically describes to me as 'various well-known racing world figures'. I always wondered what deals they made there, gorging on oysters in a rocky nook, with only a rubber crab to bear witness. Amanda Bilson, wife of the late Tony Bilson – the legendary chef known to some as 'the Godfather of Australian cuisine' – first met dad in the late 1990s. He had stepped away from La Perouse again, this time to open the first restaurant in the Bondi Beach Pavilion, and the Bilsons would stop in. Dad seemed nice enough, but Amanda didn't think much about him until late 2011. By that stage, dad had been back in La Perouse for a decade and business was once again thriving. For Tony, it was a different story. Just a few weeks after earning three chef's hats in that year's Good Food Guide, his Sydney CBD restaurant Bilson's went into receivership, along with its sister venue, Number One Wine Bar. Within weeks of that, the owner of the apartment the couple had rented for 17 years called to say it had been sold. 'Tony and I were sitting on the sofa in that apartment one day saying 'What are we going to do now?',' Amanda says. 'Then the phone rang and it was your father.' Dad heard Tony was in trouble and had a proposal: Why didn't he come over to La Perouse and help out as a consultant? When he heard about the eviction, he went one further. There were now three apartments above the restaurant: dad lived in one, my brother the other, and the middle one was empty. It was the Bilsons' if they wanted it. Tony's menu tweaks earned mixed reviews. Personally, I loved the seafood boudin, but it didn't quite connect with a crowd who liked their seafood grilled with lemon and oil or, on cheat days, interred in a flood of molten mornay sauce. 'In some ways, Danny and Tony were diametrically opposed,' Amanda says. 'Tony could have six people in his restaurant and say he was going to give them the best experience they'd had in their lives. Danny was much more about delivering comfort food, bums on seats and turnover. But there was this special bond there, this mutual respect.' Tony's years at Danny's coincided with the restaurant's last. Dad would sell in 2013 and head to Townsville to take over another seaside restaurant. Within months, that once-flailing place would be packed too. He remembers his final La Perouse years as good ones. A big part of that was the Bilsons' companionship. 'They were good neighbours and good friends,' he says. Last January, a friend sent me a picture of a digital JCDecaux street advertisement in La Perouse. Next to a giant green can of Cooper's Pale Ale were the words: 'As local as missing Danny's Seafood.' It inspired me to head to La Pa for the first time since I moved back to Sydney from the US. Walking towards the steps I'd once known so well, I felt a bit of the confusion Ivana must have felt arriving there 20 years ago. Abandoned now, the restaurant's concrete exterior was cracked in places and stained in others, with splotches of green moss and the occasional graffiti tag. Awnings bearing dad's name were spattered with grime. A couple of tables and chairs remained on the empty balcony, many overturned. I sent a few photos to dad. He said he was sad to see what it had become, then quickly texted back with a bunch of ideas for how he'd bring it back to life. He never stops, I thought to myself driving away home that day. But you'd be crazy to doubt him.
The Age
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Age
Crown Lagers, Ivana Trump and prawn cocktails: Remembering the iconic Danny's Seafood
Out front, he was all charm; on the pass he was a beast with zero time for nonsense, smashing his little gold bell the moment a dish was up and dressing down anyone who didn't rush to its tinny siren call. 'Your father had a go at me a few times, sure, but it always came from the standards he wanted to set for customers,' Kiriakopoulos says. 'He taught me so much: Make the customer feel welcome, ensure they have the best time, and if something goes wrong, fix it.' While La Pa was the main event, there were side quests. The first came in 1992 when dad took over the Grotta Capri in Kensington for two years. Built in the 1950s, the Grotta looked like an underwater cave inside, with cement stalactites hanging from the ceiling, plastic crustaceans clinging to its craggy walls, and an exterior covered by an acne-like breakout of oyster shells. A review from before dad's time described it as 'one of Sydney's great monuments to bad taste'. Famously, the production crew for Muriel's Wedding took over the venue for several days in 1993, transforming one section into the Porpoise Spit cocktail bar where Muriel's friends tell her they don't want to hang around with her any more. 'Toni Collette had to keep her weight on, so I made milkshakes for her the entire shoot,' dad says. More famously, perhaps, the restaurant was a favourite of Sydney's underworld, attracting what Bruce, a former Hong Kong cop in addition to his other pursuits, euphemistically describes to me as 'various well-known racing world figures'. I always wondered what deals they made there, gorging on oysters in a rocky nook, with only a rubber crab to bear witness. Amanda Bilson, wife of the late Tony Bilson – the legendary chef known to some as 'the Godfather of Australian cuisine' – first met dad in the late 1990s. He had stepped away from La Perouse again, this time to open the first restaurant in the Bondi Beach Pavilion, and the Bilsons would stop in. Dad seemed nice enough, but Amanda didn't think much about him until late 2011. By that stage, dad had been back in La Perouse for a decade and business was once again thriving. For Tony, it was a different story. Just a few weeks after earning three chef's hats in that year's Good Food Guide, his Sydney CBD restaurant Bilson's went into receivership, along with its sister venue, Number One Wine Bar. Within weeks of that, the owner of the apartment the couple had rented for 17 years called to say it had been sold. 'Tony and I were sitting on the sofa in that apartment one day saying 'What are we going to do now?',' Amanda says. 'Then the phone rang and it was your father.' Dad heard Tony was in trouble and had a proposal: Why didn't he come over to La Perouse and help out as a consultant? When he heard about the eviction, he went one further. There were now three apartments above the restaurant: dad lived in one, my brother the other, and the middle one was empty. It was the Bilsons' if they wanted it. Tony's menu tweaks earned mixed reviews. Personally, I loved the seafood boudin, but it didn't quite connect with a crowd who liked their seafood grilled with lemon and oil or, on cheat days, interred in a flood of molten mornay sauce. 'In some ways, Danny and Tony were diametrically opposed,' Amanda says. 'Tony could have six people in his restaurant and say he was going to give them the best experience they'd had in their lives. Danny was much more about delivering comfort food, bums on seats and turnover. But there was this special bond there, this mutual respect.' Tony's years at Danny's coincided with the restaurant's last. Dad would sell in 2013 and head to Townsville to take over another seaside restaurant. Within months, that once-flailing place would be packed too. He remembers his final La Perouse years as good ones. A big part of that was the Bilsons' companionship. 'They were good neighbours and good friends,' he says. Last January, a friend sent me a picture of a digital JCDecaux street advertisement in La Perouse. Next to a giant green can of Cooper's Pale Ale were the words: 'As local as missing Danny's Seafood.' It inspired me to head to La Pa for the first time since I moved back to Sydney from the US. Walking towards the steps I'd once known so well, I felt a bit of the confusion Ivana must have felt arriving there 20 years ago. Abandoned now, the restaurant's concrete exterior was cracked in places and stained in others, with splotches of green moss and the occasional graffiti tag. Awnings bearing dad's name were spattered with grime. A couple of tables and chairs remained on the empty balcony, many overturned. I sent a few photos to dad. He said he was sad to see what it had become, then quickly texted back with a bunch of ideas for how he'd bring it back to life. He never stops, I thought to myself driving away home that day. But you'd be crazy to doubt him.
Sydney Morning Herald
09-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
Getting Muriel's Wedding made Matt Day a household name. It's still one of the best days of his life
Matt Day jokes that he's 'part of the furniture'. His early start came as a teenager on TV classic A Country Practice, where he clocked up more than 200 episodes, before he was cast in the iconic film Muriel's Wedding and the romcom Love and Other Catastrophes. Then there is a solid list of roles in series such as Tangle, Rake and The Unusual Suspects, plus a scene-stealing turn as the villain in last year's family film Runt. Being part of the furniture is no bad thing. Many actors struggle for years to be recognised – and I'm not talking celebrity here – more like, 'Oh, he's always good, I'll watch anything he is in'. Day has long been at the level – not around a lot but just enough that, when he does pop up, it's always a pleasure to see him. 'I've been making a living out of it pretty much since I was 14 years old,' he says. 'There are quiet times but I've always worked, I've always made a living, which is something that I'm proud of, I suppose: to get to my age and to still be at it. 'I still have this very strong memory of when I was doing A Country Practice when I was a teenager, and I left that and I remember a lot of people saying, 'You're crazy. This is a proper job.' And I'm like, 'Well, that's exactly why I'm leaving – because it's become a proper job.' 'And on the final day I was running around with a video camera and I videoed this assistant director, Eddie, and he goes, 'You're gonna be OK, kid. Do you know why? Because you're a survivor. Do you know how I know? Because I'm a survivor and I know one when I see one.' And I wear that mantle quite proudly.' Day – who is now 53, with wild, greying hair and clear-framed spectacles – puts his survival down to 'having no plan B. I don't really have anything to fall back on, I never really did, so I just had to stick at it.' He jokes he has PTSD as a surviving child actor. Was that from being bitten by Fatso the wombat on A Country Practice? 'That's kind of how you knew you were welcome on the show,' he says, laughing. 'Fatso bites your leg under the table.' Day is now back in season two of Strife, the Asher Keddie vehicle loosely based on journalist Mia Freedman's book about her early days starting up the website Mamamia. He plays Jon, the ex-husband of Keddie's character Evelyn, an even-keeled yin to her neurotic yang. The couple, who separated in season one, are 'birdnesting' – splitting their time between the family home, where their two teenagers live permanently, and Evelyn's mother's house. There's a reconnection, of sorts, but otherwise they hum along in their supportive yet slightly dysfunctional way. Loading 'It was a real gift for both of us, for Asher and myself,' he says. 'There are more levels to him in this season than maybe there was in season one. You're always finding your legs in the first season. No one's sure exactly who everyone is and where they fit in but we're laying down some really great groundwork in this second season.' There is also a joy, says Day, in working on something that's grown-up. Jon and Evelyn have an adult relationship and teenage children. Yes, they also have an impossibly large and lovely TV house, but their life and worries feel real. 'Sarah [Scheller] wrote something that feels really lived in,' he says. 'And this relationship between these two characters feels very genuine. And I think that is because it's from a writer who's of a similar age – you can bring a lot of experience to it. 'And it does go beyond a lot of the cliches that we might see on screen. There's this idea that [Evelyn has that] her breaking out of this relationship was the only thing she had to do to grow, where there's a possibility that being within this relationship actually is more empowering.' Day was about 10 when he started in amateur theatre in Melbourne's Moonee Ponds, but he reckons there are only a few times in his career he's really got it right, most recently in the Melbourne Theatre Company's production of Sunday. He still finds it difficult to watch himself on screen and has only just started revisiting some of his old performances. Loading 'There are some downfalls to early success,' he says. 'You feel like, 'Oh, well, this is it. This is how it works.' You have found this thing that you do, and you think that will get you through, but I probably work a lot harder now than what I did when I was younger. 'I'm less ambitious but I'm more ambitious about the work. Opportunities and great bits of writing that fall into your lap are actually very rare, so when they do turn up I want to wring the most out of them. Every job is an opportunity to get it right. I used to say that as a joke but I've realised it's actually very true.' That early success, of course, was Muriel's Wedding, in which he played Brice, Muriel's soft-hearted first boyfriend (they met at the video store where they worked). Released in 1994, it turned a then-unknown Toni Collette into a star and gave Day an international profile. In honour of the film turning 30 last year, Collette made a surprise appearance at a screening at the Glasgow Film Festival in March and ended up dancing on stage. Has Day watched it back? 'I haven't watched it for a very long time,' he says. 'I probably will. I watched Love and Other Catastrophes a couple years ago because they had a screening at the Melbourne Film Festival, and that was quite confronting. I was watching it, going, 'Why am I doing that? Why did I do this?'' Loading He did, however, go and see Muriel's Wedding: The Musical, after much hesitation. 'I found it really, really confronting, hard to deal with, but also kind of beautiful as well, to have been a part of something that obviously means so much to people.' He still regards the day he landed the role as the best in his career. 'I grew up in the '70s and '80s, when Australian film was really prominent in the world and had a very distinctive brand,' he says. 'We had the new wave of filmmakers and I wanted to be like Barry Otto, Jack Thompson and Bryan Brown and Sam Neill. 'And the only way you could do that was to be in a film. Television was still looked down upon – that's why I left A Country Practice, because I desperately wanted to get into film. The only guys who were getting cast in films were Noah Taylor and Aden Young, so to have actually cracked a film was, it's still one of the best days of my life. 'When [director] P. J. [Hogan] told me I got the part – I'd come in to audition three times, and then I came in and did the beanbag scene with Toni – I was still sitting in the beanbag and he said, 'It's yours.' 'It did open a lot of doors. It's nice now, at this age, to know that I'm still part of the furniture in Australia and a lot of it is down to that film.' Loading Day still has big-screen ambitions – he's about to direct his first feature-length film, the thriller Killer Breed, which he also wrote – but he acknowledges it's hard in the Australian film industry to attain success these days, especially at the blockbuster level of Muriel's Wedding. Instead, he's looking to the young mavericks, such as Danny and Michael Philippou, the Adelaide twins who started with a YouTube channel and are now about to release their second horror film with the uber-cool distributor A24. Day met them while he was working on the TV series Wolf Creek and they'd show him their videos. 'I was like, 'Good luck with that',' he says. 'They just went out and shot all this crazy stuff and built their own audience and made the film that they wanted to make. That's quite inspiring. But that's no different from Bruce Beresford saying, 'I want to do Breaker Morant ', and optioning the book and then going out and shooting it for $200,000 in South Australia. The sensibilities are probably different but the step is still that drive and that desire to get it made and to tell a story.' Maybe he needs a YouTube channel. 'My boys would die of embarrassment if I did that.' Or what about a limited series about Muriel's life, covering where Muriel, Rhonda and Brice are now – that sort of thing? 'I'm available!' he says, laughing. 'That's where it's all at. At the moment it's TV, and it's incredible how that's completely flipped around. When I was a kid, like, no one wanted to do TV. Everyone wanted to do film. And now people do film as a favour. Everyone wants to do TV. That's where the storytelling is.'
