ENTERTAINMENT BY JOHN CAMPBELL
BRIGGS BRINGS IT HOME TO THE BREWERY This month, MC Ellen Briggs, natural-born storyteller, and a finalist of the Melbourne’s International Comedy Festival, RAW Comedy Competition, heads up Home Crafted Comedy at the Byron Bay Brewery. This comedy prodigy was just an open miker herself a decade ago, but now she’s one of the most in-demand acts on the circuit. She introduces the creme de la creme of Byron’s vibrant underground standup comedy scene to the mad crowd at the Byron Bay Brewery on Thursday. 8pm. Free.
FROM BEER TO MATERNITY: WOMEN LIKE US Women Like Us, the smash hit comedy show by Ellen Briggs and Mandy Nolan, has now clocked more than 50 shows around the country. So if you’ve missed out or are desperate for another night with these two irreverent ladies of the mic, then you can catch them at Condong Bowling Club when they raise money for Murwillumbah High School on Saturday 9 September (tix on womenlikeus.com.au) or at Lennox’s Park Lane Theatre in Ballina on 30 September – with tix online at communityspaces. com.au or in hard copy at the venues. Be quick; these girls pack a room about as easily as they pack a D cup.
BALLINA GOES BACK TO THE 60S The Beatles made a song of it – Revolution – reflecting the scale of change from the Fifties to the Sixties. It was a decade of seismic shifts in politics, music and society. It saw protest against many of the values held dear during the social rebuilding following World War II, including against war itself. Women demanded more rights, and as the pill and other contraceptives were introduced, it was possible for them to plan their careers and have babies when they wanted them. Social change was also reflected in the music of the decade. The likes of Dylan and Baez sang their protests at what was wrong in society while the Beatles and the Rolling Stones started a new era of beat and pop music. In Europe, Australia and New Zealand pirate radio stations defied government bans and broadcast from ships at sea. Ballina Players’ production of The Marvellous Wonderettes covers this period of revolution, using chart-topping hits from the 50s and 60s to tell the story of four girls with big skirts, big voices and big dreams and their transition from high school to womanhood. Opening night, Friday 8 September, is a special event with complimentary glass of champagne and canapés before the show. The season runs until Sunday 24 September. Tickets are available either online at www.ballinaplayers.com.au or from Just Funkin’ Music in River Street, Ballina, phone 6686 2440.
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THE DARK TOWER
es and now, probably for the biggest bucks of them all, headlining in a blockbuster that requires him to do little more than recite his simplistic lines in front of a green screen.
mentariat. The Coca-Cola 600, ticipants collaborating on a an annual NASCAR event, is grand larceny (with the audiabout to commence. ence’s approval), usually has urbane guys in Ray-Bans and Before the cars rev up, Italian suits pulling off the however, there is the obligajig (Ocean’s Eleven etc), but tory overwrought rendition Based on a series of novels Jimmy and his crew are white of America the Beautiful, by Stephen King (I am an trash, and the women, sister with thousands standing, admirer of the prolific writer, Mellie (Riley Keough – Elvis’s hands over their hearts, as a but have not read these granddaughter) and divorcee parachutist glides to ground stories), the gifted youngBobbie Jo (Katie Holmes), training the Stars ’n’ Bars. The villain is Walter (Matthew ster plays the crucial role of are not exactly blue-stocking Director Steven Sodergergh McConaughey), a satanic, catalyst and Taylor is a classophisticates. It makes for a is not mocking these people omnipotent figure whose sical Spielberg naïf. But it’s a funnier, more earthy take on goal it is to destroy the Tower particularly blokey adventure, or the culture they represent, the formula and leaves you that maintains peace in the and oddly so, given the regu- but you can’t help viewing with the strong impression Universe. This particular lar appearance in recent years the spectacle in the light of that Soderbergh was a big fan the recent incident at CharlotTower is only vulnerable to of strong female characters of TV’s My Name Is Earl. The the minds of children who who are also excellent at kill- tesville. Having just been plot stalls briefly as its comsacked and needing money have a rare ‘shine’ about ing people. plexity grows, but Tatum’s for an anticipated custody them – Jake (Tom Taylor) is boofheaded charm wins the battle with his ex-wife, Jimmy one of those rare children. day when concentration is (Channing Tatum) and his Walter wants to capture the stretched, as does Craig’s brother Clyde (Adam Driver), boy to fulfil his wicked ambiturn as a career crook with a a one-handed bartender, tion, while Roland buddies-up Southern drawl – enjoying Halfway through this heist hatch a plan to rob the till with the kid to protect him. immensely his release from flick, there is a sequence that at the big motor race. To Jake lives with his widowed the duties as 007. A beautireveals more clearly to outsid- do it they enlist the help of Mom (Katheryn Winnick) in, fully cheesy performance of ers what the US is all about renowned safe-blower Joe of all places, New York City – than anything you might see Bang (Daniel Craig), who is at Country Roads by Jimmy’s do futuristic movies such as on the news or read in count- present in the clink. This type little girl and a clever summathis happen anywhere else? tion are value-added extras. less columns of the comof movie, involving many parMeaning that what we are to accept as a given is that it is not the survival of the Universe that is at stake, but that of the Big Apple (hence the title – the Tower must not fall). There are some pretty good bits before director Nikolaj Arcel lets the action fly into overdrive, but insight, observation and character development go missing. Make no mistake, the hero of this is the Gun. Roland (Idris Elba) is the last in a long line of gunslingers living on a distant planet. His credo, pronounced with solemn piety before he shoots his victim, is ‘I kill with my heart’ – and he’s the good guy!
LOGAN LUCKY
Elba has a powerful screen presence, but it’s more interesting to watch McConaughey prance around as the black-clad Antichrist. His career has taken him from rom-com lead to highly lauded dramatic performanc-
The Byron Shire Echo August 23, 2017 35