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Sydney Morning Herald
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
What to stream this week: A supernatural Australian murder mystery and five more picks
This week's picks include a creepy Australian thriller with supernatural vibes, an Eddie Murphy and Pete Davidson action comedy and a three-season binge of Reservoir Dogs. Playing Gracie Darling (Paramount+) ★★★ Opening with a flashback to a teen seance in an abandoned shack that quickly spins out of control, this Australian mystery comes on strong. There are signs of possession, ominous nightmares and a nerve-jangling score. 'Let me out!' demands an unseen presence at the seance, and the show has the same desire. Playing Gracie Darling wants to take the small-town murder mystery, where the crime of a previous era seeps to the surface, and use the supernatural to bend the genre's conventions. We should appreciate that seditious intent. Without it, this limited series could be overly familiar. The seance's convenor in 1997, 14-year-old Gracie Darling (Kristina Bogic), was never seen again, leaving her best friend, Joni Grey (Eloise Rothfield), traumatised. Cut to today and mother of two Joni (Morgana O'Reilly), now a child psychologist, is drawn to her coastal hometown, where Gracie's niece, Frankie, is now the face on missing posters. It is, as on so many other shows, happening again. Loading The show's creator, Miranda Nation, previously made the 2018 independent feature Undertow, and her work examines how female perception can be a source of strength and vulnerability. Once Joni starts making inquiries, at the request of local police officer Jay Rajeswaran (Rudi Dharmalingam), who was also present on the fateful 1997 night, her empathy and expertise encounter supernatural portents, not least recurring sightings of the secret symbol she and Gracie created as teenagers. Every flashback adds to the unease. Nation has her own take on the procedural. Joni and Jay are sidelined by barely seen homicide detectives, so their unofficial search unfolds in family visits and difficult reunions. Joni's understanding is stretched by the presence of her mother, the flinty Pattie (Harriet Walter), and her two daughters. Conversations between teenagers, including Jay's daughter Raffy (Saiesha Sundaralingam) and Joni's Mina (Chloe Brink), illuminate their parents. Suspects of various kinds dot the narrative, including the friction of Joni possibly being compromised in some way. Director Jonathan Brough (Bay of Fires) accentuates all this without initially tipping over into pure horror. Only the first three of six episodes were provided for review, so it's unclear how Playing Gracie Darling resolves what is a pungent, occasionally blunt, set-up. Certainly, with its dark forest canopy and a sense that past crimes and otherworldly incursions are one and alike, the show taps into a lineage that spans Picnic at Hanging Rock and The Kettering Incident. 'Can you feel it?' are the very first words spoken, and the answer is a clear yes. Reservation Dogs (seasons 1-3) ★★★★½ (Disney+) Any serious list of the best new shows from the past five tumultuous years of television has to include 2021's Reservation Dogs. The three seasons of this bittersweet coming-of-age comedy, set on a Native American reservation in the back blocks of Oklahoma, constitute a small miracle. Now that all three seasons have found a permanent home on Disney+, this series should be a binge to savour. Please put it atop your to-view list. Few shows have a more telling, idiosyncratic sense of place, or the harsh hold it exerts on the next generation. Creator and showrunner Sterlin Harjo, with some doors meaningfully opened by his successful co-creator, Kiwi filmmaker Taika Waititi, offered a lived-in experience of intergenerational poverty, idiosyncratic spiritualism, collective trauma and deadpan hilarity. You quickly understood why the teenage protagonists were determined to skip town, and how difficult that would turn out to be. Loading The young Native American leads, including Devery Jacobs as Elora and D'Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai as Bear, gave terrific performances that grow with their characters. It's striking how the show evolved, capable of taking in a hang at the local medical clinic, a self-contained episode where Elora's driving test with Bill Burr's instructor goes sideways, and community events where multiple generations hold a mirror to each other. The characters felt marooned, but Reservation Dogs never failed to take you somewhere new. Leanne ★★½ (Netflix) While it's not as common now, stand-up success to sitcom star has long been an entertainment assembly line in America. It gets a southern gal spin in this latest variant, which was co-created by comic Leanne Morgan and sitcom bigwig Chuck Lorre (The Big Bang Theory). Morgan's fictional alter-ego is a wife and mother from suburban Tennessee whose husband (Ryan Stiles) walks out on her for a younger woman after 33 years together. After the punchline-friendly anger comes starting over in her 50s. It's predictable, and it starts slowly, but Morgan is undeniably likeable. Emmanuelle ★★ (Binge) A 21st century feminist remake of the 1974 softcore porn hit about a young woman's search for sexual pleasure in Thailand is a valid concept, and everyone involved in this erotic drama has first-rate credentials, from French filmmaker Audrey Diwan (Happening) to stars Noemie Merlant (Portrait of a Lady on Fire) and Will Sharpe (Too Much). But the film, in which Merlant's title character travels to Hong Kong for her job evaluating luxury hotels, is moribund in its contemporary critique and cinematic chemistry. It's a tepid piece, nowhere near daring enough. Revealed: Building Bad ★★★½ (Stan*) The Revealed series works extremely well as recaps of complex investigative journalism: detailed reporting across the print and broadcast outlets of Nine (the owner of Stan and this masthead) can be woven into a comprehensive narrative. That's the case with this feature-length documentary about rampant corruption and underworld infiltration of the powerful CFMEU, a union now under administration. The journalists, including Revealed mainstay Nick McKenzie, explain how a culture of fear and extortion took hold across the construction industry. 'That's business,' says a fixer covertly recorded. 'Everybody eats.' The Pickup ★½ Amazon Prime Video Painfully long at just 96 minutes, this inert Hollywood action-comedy has a placeholder script that was never updated, instead hoping that the stars – Eddie Murphy, Pete Davidson and Keke Palmer – could manufacture laughs on set with their performances. They do not. Veteran director Tim Story (Ride Along) can only pad a plot that has Murphy and Davidson as mismatched armoured car guards whose vehicle becomes the target of professional thieves. The implausible ensues, which would be fine if the action and/or comedy was entertaining enough to allow for the suspension of disbelief. It is not.
Sydney Morning Herald
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
Missing girls, seances and the supernatural: This Australian murder mystery has it all
Playing Gracie Darling ★★★ Opening with a flashback to a teen seance in an abandoned shack that quickly spins out of control, this Australian mystery comes on strong. There are signs of possession, ominous nightmares and a nerve-jangling score. 'Let me out!' demands an unseen presence at the seance, and the show has the same desire. Playing Gracie Darling wants to take the small-town murder mystery, where the crime of a previous era seeps to the surface, and use the supernatural to bend the genre's conventions. We should appreciate that seditious intent. Without it, this limited series could be overly familiar. The seance's convenor in 1997, 14-year-old Gracie Darling (Kristina Bogic), was never seen again, leaving her best friend, Joni Grey (Eloise Rothfield), traumatised. Cut to today and mother of two Joni (Morgana O'Reilly), now a child psychologist, is drawn to her coastal hometown, where Gracie's niece, Frankie, is now the face on missing posters. It is, as on so many other shows, happening again. The show's creator, Miranda Nation, previously made the 2018 independent feature Undertow, and her work examines how female perception can be a source of strength and vulnerability. Once Joni starts making enquiries, at the request of local police officer Jay Rajeswaran (Rudi Dharmalingam), who was also present on the fateful 1997 night, her empathy and expertise encounter supernatural portents, not least recurring sightings of the secret symbol she and Gracie created as teenagers. Every flashback adds to the unease. Loading Nation has her own take on the procedural. Joni and Jay are sidelined by barely seen homicide detectives, so their unofficial search unfolds in family visits and difficult reunions. Joni's understanding is stretched by the presence of her mother, the flinty Pattie (Harriet Walter), and her two daughters. Conversations between teenagers, including Jay's daughter Raffy (Saiesha Sundaralingam) and Joni's Mina (Chloe Brink), illuminate their parents. Suspects of various kinds dot the narrative, including the friction of Joni possibly being compromised in some way. Director Jonathan Brough (Bay of Fires) accentuates all this without initially tipping over into pure horror. Only the first three of six episodes were provided for review, so it's unclear how Playing Gracie Darling resolves what is a pungent, occasionally blunt, set-up. Certainly, with its dark forest canopy and a sense that past crimes and otherworldly incursions are one and alike, the show taps into a lineage that spans Picnic at Hanging Rock and The Kettering Incident. 'Can you feel it?' are the very first words spoken, and the answer is a clear yes.
The Age
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Age
Missing girls, seances and the supernatural: This Australian murder mystery has it all
Playing Gracie Darling ★★★ Opening with a flashback to a teen seance in an abandoned shack that quickly spins out of control, this Australian mystery comes on strong. There are signs of possession, ominous nightmares and a nerve-jangling score. 'Let me out!' demands an unseen presence at the seance, and the show has the same desire. Playing Gracie Darling wants to take the small-town murder mystery, where the crime of a previous era seeps to the surface, and use the supernatural to bend the genre's conventions. We should appreciate that seditious intent. Without it, this limited series could be overly familiar. The seance's convenor in 1997, 14-year-old Gracie Darling (Kristina Bogic), was never seen again, leaving her best friend, Joni Grey (Eloise Rothfield), traumatised. Cut to today and mother of two Joni (Morgana O'Reilly), now a child psychologist, is drawn to her coastal hometown, where Gracie's niece, Frankie, is now the face on missing posters. It is, as on so many other shows, happening again. The show's creator, Miranda Nation, previously made the 2018 independent feature Undertow, and her work examines how female perception can be a source of strength and vulnerability. Once Joni starts making enquiries, at the request of local police officer Jay Rajeswaran (Rudi Dharmalingam), who was also present on the fateful 1997 night, her empathy and expertise encounter supernatural portents, not least recurring sightings of the secret symbol she and Gracie created as teenagers. Every flashback adds to the unease. Loading Nation has her own take on the procedural. Joni and Jay are sidelined by barely seen homicide detectives, so their unofficial search unfolds in family visits and difficult reunions. Joni's understanding is stretched by the presence of her mother, the flinty Pattie (Harriet Walter), and her two daughters. Conversations between teenagers, including Jay's daughter Raffy (Saiesha Sundaralingam) and Joni's Mina (Chloe Brink), illuminate their parents. Suspects of various kinds dot the narrative, including the friction of Joni possibly being compromised in some way. Director Jonathan Brough (Bay of Fires) accentuates all this without initially tipping over into pure horror. Only the first three of six episodes were provided for review, so it's unclear how Playing Gracie Darling resolves what is a pungent, occasionally blunt, set-up. Certainly, with its dark forest canopy and a sense that past crimes and otherworldly incursions are one and alike, the show taps into a lineage that spans Picnic at Hanging Rock and The Kettering Incident. 'Can you feel it?' are the very first words spoken, and the answer is a clear yes.
Washington Post
31-01-2025
- Entertainment
- Washington Post
Guitars, masks and defiance: Kenya's rock and metal scene catches fire
NAIROBI — The guitar thrummed, the drumsticks smashed into a quivering cymbal, and the lead vocalist for Rash howled into the mic, electrifying the night air. After years in the wilderness, Kenya's tiny rock and metal scene is exploding — and bands like Irony Destroyed, Last Year's Tragedy and Rash are clawing their way up the charts. Very few Africans have traditionally listened to rock music, said Nick Wathi, one of Kenya's first rock producers. Its reputation for rebelliousness and subversion creates suspicion in a society that values religion and respect for elders, Wathi said. But that's what drew him in. 'It was the devil's music!' he laughed. Samuel Gakungu, Rash's drummer, has his musical roots in a church choir. He came to rock, he said, because it spoke to him more deeply. 'There was no structure, there was no right way or wrong way to do things, I just had to be me, without any judgment,' said the 31-year-old car dealer. He met the other four band members through a friend 11 years ago, creating hits like 'Darkness and Witchcraft' and 'Do or Die' — attracting a fan base of restless young urbanites increasingly furious with authority. In a few hours, they would be taking the stage at Nairobi's premier rock and metal festival: Undertow. Rock in Kenya has had an uneven ride. A decade ago, bands would sometimes show up for gigs that had been canceled without their knowledge. Audiences were tiny. The closure of Kenya's only rock radio station, XFM, in 2019 and the arrival of covid in 2020 nearly smothered the scene altogether. The first Undertow concert in April 2022 rescued bands on the brink of collapse by providing a dependable gig and venue. Now a well-established quarterly event held in Nairobi's upscale Westlands District — its neon-nightclub-lined promenade nicknamed Electric Avenue — the concert has featured most of Kenya's 16 commercial rock bands, said Wathi. The musicians still have day jobs. Irony Destroyed, a metalcore group with pugnacious lyrics and reverberating bass, is composed of a lawyer, a writer and a product manager for a fintech company. The howling, thrashing sounds of Last Year's Tragedy are generated by an advertising strategist, a product designer, a logistics manager and a journalist. Practice time is scarce and precious. In a last-minute rehearsal in the lead-up to Undertow, Last Year's Tragedy's vocalist David 'Madman' Mburu paced across a tiny floor writhing with cables, crowding pianist Rono Kipkulei and nearly knocking over bass guitarist Mahia Mutua. A copy of Leo Tolstoy's 'Anna Karenina' muffled the drum set as they thrashed out 'Of Villains and Heroes' from their first record, released last year. Irony Destroyed, meanwhile, had to scramble to replace drummer Cyrus Kamau after he dislocated his arm in a motorbike accident just a week before the concert. Kamau, only able to use one hand, had to train his replacement, Larry Kim, after they both finished work. 'Start with a little ascent, tone it down and build it up again,' he advised Kim. They practiced until midnight, when police prowled the empty streets and the last vibrations rolled over the lone tea seller still in the alley outside. Some bands have made it onto streaming platforms like Spotify, which hasn't brought in much cash but has broadened their reach. Last Year's Tragedy's song '47' has become an anthem among Kenyan youths, with its lyrics raging against the country's politicians. 'These so-called leaders/ Who sit on their ivory towers/ (These never-ending cycles)/ Stealing and killing,' raged the band. 'We will watch them all/Burn!' Anne Mwaura, 29, is the host of Capital FM's rock show 'The Fuse,' which now gets around 3 million online listeners every month. She has hosted the show since its inception and remembers when it used to be the same handful of bands all the time. Now, she says, the scene is much more diverse, with all-female bands and Christian rock groups breaking onto the airwaves. 'It's really a genre for everyone,' she said. When the radio station once considered axing the show, she said, enough people wrote in to persuade the managers to keep it on air. Undertow's ticket prices mean the audience is mostly middle-class. An advance ticket goes for around 1,000 Kenyan shillings (a little under $8), and it's a bit more at the door. That's more than two days' wages for most people. About 200 men and women, some with thickly mascaraed eyes and studded collars, head-banged in a mosh pit. A tarot reader read palms on the balcony, and a cloud of cigarette smoke enveloped the barman as he sloshed beers to the crowd. Regulars Margaret Nekesa, 29, and husband Dennis Mwangi, 33, met because Mwangi had a home studio, and they had both been in local bands. Now they have a 1-year-old son — home that night with a sitter — but they still compose and play music. They're seven songs into an album, Nekesa yelled over the music. 'I come from a very, very strict family, a military family … you had to dress in a certain way, you had to appear in a certain way,' she said. 'There was no space for exploration or discovery of self, so rock music gave me all that I missed.' She was drowned out as Irony Destroyed stormed onto the stage. Masked musicians belted out their single 'Najiskia Kuua Tena,' which translates to 'I feel like killing again.' A bloodred liquid oozed from the mouth of Preston 'Riot' Mado, Irony Destroyed's guest vocalist, as they broke into the crowd's favorite hit, 'Scholar of First Sin.' Later, Rash belted out a rendition of the Cranberries' song 'Zombie' — a scream against the brutality of Northern Ireland's Troubles, the decades in which British security forces battled Irish paramilitaries and civilians were caught in the crossfire. The lyrics resonate in Nairobi, where young demonstrators have been shot, kidnapped and teargassed as they protest government corruption and police violence. The protests saw parliament set aflame and the bodies of slain college students wrapped up in Kenyan flags, fished from dams or carried through the capital before banks of television cameras. 'But you see, it's not me, it's not my family/ In your head, in your head, they are fightin',' the crowd screamed along with the band. 'With their tanks and their bombs and their bombs and their guns/ In your head, in your head, they are cryin'.'
