WHOLE LOT OF SOUL
CONTINUED FROM P31
Uke Night at the Court House Hotel in Mullum welcomes back to centre stage the towering purveyor of good vibes Soulman O’Gaia for this month’s theme, Soul Motown Disco. Miss Amber and Stukulele also proudly present The Fis – Fiona Knight and Fiona Dell – for some 3-part sista harmony action. Join the mailing list for the link to the songbook at www.ukemullum.com. Always a great night with or without a ukulele. Boogie on down and testify from 6.30pm, Thursday. Adults $10 kids $2.50.
FIRST STOP: BLUESVILLE STATION! Bluesville Station are back on track and full steam ahead after studio sessions for their seventh album. ‘The boys have some great new tunes locked down which will feature on the forthcoming album,’ says guitarist and band leader Brad Palmer. ‘Oh yeah, our fans expect us to deliver the goods, and we dig it,’ says Brad. Maybe a sneaky preview of the new songs? Thanks to sites such as Spotify and other streamers the band
CINEMAREVIEWS
can now reach a global audience with their brand of blues rock. Sick of waiting for the bus? Then jump on board the Bluesville Station Express when they head to Lennox Hotel on Saturday from 9.30pm. A show not to be missed!
THE NAME OF THE ROSE The music of Cassie Rose takes you to a place not all dare to venture. A place of honesty and heart… enchantingly deep, yet sweet and soft… with a gentle groove to keep you swaying. Her sound is an alternative acoustic infusion of flavours… and her debut EP Destiny is a true representation of this. With the release of her EP, Cassie will be doing two launch shows with a full band, one on the northern rivers where she now resides, on Wednesday at the Rochdale Theatre, Goonellabah. Show starts at 7pm; doors open at 6.30pm. Tickets $11 presale online at www.cassierosemusic.com or $15 at the door.
CASSIE ROSE EP LAUNCH AT ROCHDALE THEATRE IN GOONELLABAH ON WEDNESDAY
By John Campbell
Palace Byron Bay 6-16 Nov britishfilmfestival.com.au
tickets now on sale!
TUESDAY
28 OCT to
WEDNESDAY
FURY War is hell, so why do we want to keep watching movies that revel in it? This is an example of Hollywood hypocrisy at its most testosterone-ignited but messianic worst. It starts off with graphic, grungy violence. Mud and slush and blood – the most heroic soldiers are the dirtiest – with a sense that Hieronymus Bosch has come back to Europe in April, 1945, to show us how hellish armed conflict can be. But it ends up flogging the same old martyrdom bullshit that has poured blood and bone into the tired earth for time out of mind (wake me when the Gallipoli centenary is over). Sergeant Collier (Brad Pitt) is a tank commander who has been with his crew since the Americans joined the fight against Nazism (two years late) and, like the rest of his boys, he has been brutalised and desensitised by the experience. The new member of the outfit is Norman (Logan Lerman), an idealistic recruit who abhors what he perceives to be the murderous amorality of his fellows. It’s only a matter of time, of course, before he understands that the other blokes are just pragmatists, victims of the environment into which they have been thrust. The movie’s falseness, in posing as anti-war but gouging every buck it can out of its carnage is bad enough, but more infuriating is the piety of its self-regard. The shoot-out at the end is like any other you’ve seen over the years, with the Krauts unable to hit a target and the intrepid, fearless GIs mowing them down like flies. Even with its high-tech CGI (design and production values are super impressive) it reminded me, the longer it went, of Sarge and his invincibles in B/W TV’s Combat. It perpetuates everything that is wrong about a world that is teetering on the brink, being no more than the sort of diatribe that encourages lamebrained young men to sign up for a cause and go and kill people on the other side of the world. ~ John Campbell
North Coast news daily: www.echonetdaily.net.au
THIS IS WHERE I LEAVE YOU There is a template that is getting extremely frayed at the edges. It involves the urbane son (rarely daughter) being called back after a family bereavement to the sleepy little hamlet where he spent his youth. We saw the set-up just the other week in The Judge and, again, we find the bloke’s marriage is in tatters – it’s an easy way to both eliminate the superfluous woman from the drama and garner sympathy for the cheated-on husband (screenwriting is too often like painting by numbers). In this case it is mild-mannered Jason Bateman (as Judd) returning to home and hearth following his father’s death. If, as a perennial nice-guy, he is the extreme opposite to the abrasive Robert Downey Jnr, you know that rapprochement and a feel-good resolution will also await Bateman. And there is nothing wrong with that – except for when a script bends over backwards to find a hook for every player in a big cast to hang their hat on. The widowed matriarch is Jane Fonda (with declining facial movement), an overbearing writer who has recently had a massive boob-job – the mammaries are a running gag that gets very tired, as does the revolting little kid and his poo bucket. Judd’s three siblings (none of whom look remotely like they might be related) are Phillip (Adam Driver), Paul (Corey Stoll) and Wendy (Tina Fey), and their dysfunction echoes, if in an overly contrived manner, Tolstoy’s observation that ‘each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way’. Amidst all the outpourings and squabbles, resentments and disclosures, Judd bobs about like a cork on a stormy sea. Bateman is an unusual actor insofar as he keeps so much within – he is not ‘out there’ in a culture that lauds extroversion, so his performance comes across as more natural than anybody else’s – from the devastation of finding his wife with another man to the belated memory of his father rescuing him as a child. Overall it’s weak, but with an appealing soft spot. ~ John Campbell
5 NOV
MOVIE CLUB PRICES Adult $12.00 / Golden $8.50
tix on sale now SCREENS 6-16 NOV
OPENS THURSDAY!
NT LIVE: SKYLIGHT (CTC) (No Free Tickets) Wed 29: 12:30pm THE ALBARE QUNITET LIVE PERFORMANCE (TIX: $45) (No Free Tickets) Wed 5: 7:30pm KILL THE MESSENGER (M) (No Free Tickets) Thu 30-Tue 4: 11:15, 4:35, 9:20pm Wed 5: 9:20am, 4:10, 9:20pm PRIDE (M) (No Free Tickets) Thu 30-Tue 4: 11:30, 4:20, 6:45pm Wed 5: 11:50am, 4:20, 6:45pm THIS IS WHERE I LEAVE YOU (M) (No Free Tickets) Tue 28: 11:45am, 4:10, 7:15pm Wed 29: 9:20am, 4:10, 7:15pm Thu 30-Tue 4: 9:20, 2:00, 6:55pm Wed 5: 11:40am, 2:15, 9:10pm BEFORE I GO TO SLEEP (MA15+) Tue 28: 9:30am, 2:20, 9:40pm Wed 29: 2:25, 9:40pm Thu 30-Tue 4: 9:00am Enjoy our licensed bar
Lavazza Espresso Coffee
OPENS THURSDAY!
THE IMMIGRANT (M) Tue 28: 1:40, 4:50, 6:30pm Wed 29: 11:30am, 4:50, 6:30pm Thu 30-Tue 4: 4:10, 9:10pm Wed 5: 1:45pm GONE GIRL (MA15+) Tue 28: 10:45am, 1:55, 6:45pm Wed 29: 9:35am, 2:00, 6:45pm Thu 30-Tue 4: 10:55, 1:45, 6:30pm Wed 5: 9:30am, 12:20, 6:30pm THE JUDGE (M) Tue 28: 11:30am, 9:00pm Wed 29: 11:40am, 9:00pm Thu 30-Tue 4: 1:30, 9:00pm. Wed 5: 9:00am A WALK AMONG THE TOMBSTONES (MA15+) Tue 28: 9:25am, 4:20, 9:25pm Wed 29: 9:20am, 4:25, 9:25pm Thu 30-Tue 4: 9:00am All sessions are correct at the time of publication. Current session times at: palacecinemas.com.au Gift cards are the perfect gift
Group Bookings available
108-110 Jonson Street, Byron Bay 6680 8555 | www.palacecinemas.com.au
The Byron Shire Echo October 28, 2014 33