cinema Reviews
ENTERTAINMENT BY JOHN CAMPBELL
THE LEGO BATMAN MOVIE
THE KAGOOLS – AT THE MULLUMBIMBY EX-SERVICES ON SATURDAY 22 APRIL
BEST OF COMEDY Multi-award-winning physical comedy act from the UK, The Kagools, present their five-star comedy show at the Mullumbimby Ex-Services. That’s right. You don’t have to go to Melbourne to see the show that has been listed as one of the Top 5 Internationals to see this year at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival – you can see it right here in Mullumbimby! Supported on the night by Guinness Book of Records holder of the World Record for the Longest Comedy Show (over 36 hours!) Lindsay Webb, and MC Mandy Nolan.
CIRCUS OZ PERFORMS MODEL CITIZENS 12 & 13 MAY AT LISMORE CITY HALL WITH WORKSHOPS 27–29 APRIL – BOOKINGS: NORPA.ORG.AU nonesmannslond, she explores the themes of obsoletism and decolonisation through discarded objects. Find out about her process and her concept at Sarah-Jane’s free artist talk Saturday at the gallery, 11.30am–12.30pm.
GHOST IN THE SHELL
I arrived at the Tweed City Cinema to be confronted by a sign that read ‘due to the dangerous weather conditions, our last screening today will be at 2.30pm’. Unfortunately, this movie was on at 1.30. It is, like so much else that is being churned out by the masters of CGI who now rule the roost, a pervy fest of violence as porn with a faux naked Scarlett Johansson shooting people with lustful abandon. Lifted from a Manga The Kagools at the Mullum ‘classic’ (the Japanese always do kinky stuff a bit kinkier than Ex-Services on Saturday 22 Hollywood), it is set in the not-too-distant future, when science Local emerging artists with April at 8pm. Doors at 7pm. is capable of reconstructing, by cyber enhancement, damaged a disability will be exhibiting humans and then employing them as superior, virtually Tickets are $25/30, available their work at the Lone Goat invincible warriors in the fight against terrorism. Major Mira at the club or online at Art Gallery in the Byron Bay Killian (Johansson) is the femme formidable. The line between mandynolan.com.au. Library complex. The REDinc man and robot is one that will increasingly become blurred, Enquiries and phone artists will share with the local one suspects, in more and more sci-fi stories (and in real life? bookings to 6619 0529. north coast community a fresh Shudder). Visually this is nothing short of stunning – especially and unique view of the world the sequence in which the Major’s creation is detailed – but through various arts media: the complexity of the narrative, the brain strain of it, is strictly acrylic, mixed media, ceramics for fans of the far-out. And, ironically, it is the gorgeous eyeYoga isn’t just good for adults; and works on paper. The fest that tends to overwhelm the single most intriguing idea incREDible Art Exhibition will it also benefits kids. This that director Rupert Sanders wants to deal with: that of our kick off with an opening night Saturday at Temple Byron own individuality. The Major understands that she has been Deer-Lightful by Suzanna Thell on Friday 6–8pm at the Lone programmed, but she also comes around to realising that and illustrated by Yuti McLean Goat Gallery, Byron Bay (part there is something else within of Byron Bay Library). Everyone is being launched. The book her, something that she has is welcome. The exhibition will focuses on a narrative of a not been told about. Action be open until Wednesday 19 deer searching to satisfy a always takes precedence when April 2017. longing, and discovering an filmmakers are catering to inner secret… all the while modern audiences (it’s an outtaking the reader through a of-control spiral), meaning that playful stress-releasing yoga the philosophical subtleties sequence originating from the Amma is 63-year-old Indian that might emerge in a movie Dru Yoga tradition. woman who has travelled such as this are never given the world for the past 30 enough time or air to breathe. years hugging people. Her Strangely soporific and, in unique gift is to personally the end empty, I couldn’t hug everyone who comes help feeling that my lack of to see her, no matter what knowledge of the Manga race, religion, gender, age source made it not so much or affiliation. She embraces unintelligible as uninteresting them all equally with a – apart from the intensely powerful display of oneness chilling view of where with humanity. It is estimated technology is taking us. that Amma has now hugged SARAH-JANE MCGRATH more than 36 million people PRESENTS HER WORK AT worldwide, regularly spending THE BYRON SCHOOL OF ART more than 18 hours a day PROJECT SPACE hugging, sometimes hugging in excess of 20,000 people in a single session! This woman isn’t going to stop until she’s embraced the world! Local artist Sarah-Jane McGrath will be showing her Amma will be at the Gold latest body of work Survival, Coast Recreation Centre, A Punctuated Equilibrium! 15–25 Gold Coast Highway, at the BSA Project Space Palm Beach QLD for a retreat in Mullumbimby opening over 21–23 April. Preon Friday at 6pm and registration required. A free running through until 19 public program and Devi April. Sarah-Jane is the Bhava evening will be held recipient of the 2016 Lismore on Sunday 23 April, starting Regional Graduate Award. at 7pm. In her work, taken from the Tickets and info on series The decolonisation of ammaaustalia.org.au.
SEE RED
There was a laugh-out-loud moment halfway through this movie when Batman (made from LEGO pieces and voiced by Will Arnett with Christian Bale gravel) is told to take off his shoes for a security check. But because they are attached to his pants he has to remove them as well, resulting in the superhero doing the whole scene in his black undies. The incident is worth mentioning insofar as the grand illusion of art lies in its primal ability to make you believe in what is so patently not true – ie, despite the silliness of the concept, a LEGO Batman works! The setup is nothing out of the ordinary – the green-haired Joker (Zac Galifianakis) is back with a host of monsters hellbent on destroying Gotham City, and it is yet again Bruce Wayne who will don the pointy ears and cape to repel them. But it is an introspective Wayne, living alone with loyal butler Alfred (Ralph Fiennes) and still mourning the death of his parents (they were gunned down on the street when he was just a little boy – perhaps the most famous back-story in the history of comic strips). The drama within the film deals with Batman’s needing to overcome the fear of loss that has haunted him since that fateful day and led him to reject any form of commitment to other people. Cracks will inevitably appear in the masked crusader’s cold façade when the cute detective Barbara Gordon (Rosario Dawson) arrives to help fight Gotham’s latest scourge. The movie alternates between plot development, with a lot of savvy dialogue laden with pop culture references – a computer password is ‘ironmansucks’ – and you-beaut humungous action. Adults might be surprised to find themselves easily taken in by the former, while the youngsters, above whose heads most of the script’s wittiness will fly, are bound to get off on the action. It is brightly coloured and the pace is frenetic, but an annoying self-awareness diminishes its otherwise life-affirming message.
YOGA FOR KIDS
THE BIG HUGGER
ON SURVIVAL
36 April 5, 2017 The Byron Shire Echo
Byron Shire Echo archives: www.echo.net.au/byron-echo