STARS
BY LILITH
THIS WEEK’S BIG NEWS IS URANUS MAKING ITS LONG-TERM MOVE INTO TAURUS THE SENSUAL SIGN OF CONSISTENCY, ROUTINE AND NATURAL PLEASURES…
ARIES: Uranus leaving Aries as Chiron arrives heralds the end of one cycle and beginning of a less fraught, more settled one. But these transitional times can be antsy and edgy, so take it easy - especially with yourself. Slow and steady, no abrupt moves. Apply the ancient Buddhist mantra: Be kind. Have fun.
TAURUS: Da dah! Sound the pan pipes, strew flowers, lay out the festive table for this year’s most significantly Tauran week as Mercury and Uranus join the sun and midweek new moon in your sign. Farewell the comfort couch for the next seven years, as Uranus introduces some fancy new steps in the dance of supple change. GEMINI: This isn’t a week for risky tangents, putting all your eggs in one basket or thinking a spending spree will relieve existential tension. But with Mercury in Taurus and a clearthinking Venus, it’s excellent for long range planning as Uranus begins your seven year voyage of self-discovery: the most rewarding kind. CANCER: This week’s people won’t leave you in doubt about how they feel and where you stand. Midweek Taurus new moon sets the pace to stability and consistency, late week Gemini moon focuses on adjustments to group activities so plans can progress, then it’s weekend moon in your home-loving sign… LEO: Whether this is a week of bold decisions or you’re just contemplating making that courageous move, you’re at the start of a change cycle both challenging and satisfying. If sudden news alters your plans, think even keel - don’t start mashing accelerator or brake. About which, be especially aware of road rage, outer and inner... VIRGO: Mercury your mentor planet in earthy Taurus is good medicine for this nervy week. Another recommended therapy’s touch, so book a restorative massage if at all possible. Weave your way gently through the current discord, dissent and unsettling news. Enjoy small, ordinary pleasures. Make practical plans, avoid complications.
LIBRA: Uranus the planet of unexpected change heading into your house of power, intimacy and joint resources could herald an abrupt exit or influx of funds. But wait! Mars in the sign of ingenuity and wildly inventive ideas is flinging open new windows and doors of opportunity, making any change of status a cause for celebration. SCORPIO: This week unusual news, unpredictable people and unexpected events may mean having to let others, or perhaps current conditions, set the pace. As transitional energies speak to the need for finding a balance between saying too much and not enough, you, more than any other sign, will appreciate silence as a powerful form of communication. SAGITTARIUS: Opinions have been compared to a nether part of the human anatomy, as in everyone has one - but we never have the complete picture or all the jigsaw pieces. This week challenges cherished beliefs, stimulates fresh thinking, offers eureka realisations - and if you look with fresh eyes, voila! people could mightily surprise you CAPRICORN: With Uranus booking into your zone of creative fun for the next eight years, expect ongoing tutorials in rolling more easily with what you can’t control. Plus this week’s Mars eases out of judge and jury, rule book decision-making into more diverse ways of problem solving via negotiation, discussion and compromise. AQUARIUS:: This is a hugely happening week in Aquarius world, with your sponsor planet Uranus making its seven-yearly move into Taurus. While it might seem initially that altered circumstances narrow options and offer less choice, late week Mars in your sign brims with inventive brainstorming and out-of-the-ordinary alternatives. PISCES: Possibly not the year’s most peaceful week. You could be called to play the calm in someone else’s storm, which may take a bit of manoeuvering for solid ground – but it’s there, underneath the temporary turmoil. So are fun, flirty times with companionable others, and a caution around midweek’s unstable, accident prone Mars/ Uranus mashup.
36 May 16, 2018 The Byron Shire Echo
CINEMA REVIEWS BY JOHN CAMPBELL
CROOKED HOUSE I don’t know about you, but if I were a potential suspect in a murder case and found myself in possession of an incriminating diary, I’d burn it immediately rather than bury it in a bucket of lime in the potting shed. That second option might seem dumb, but as a plot-point in this ripping who-done-it, it is forgivably implausible. Julian Fellowes, so at home in an English manor house – he wrote Gosford Park (2001) and much of Downton Abbey – has adapted Agatha’s Christie’s uncommonly spiteful
novel and, with director Gilles Paquet-Brenner, transformed it into a movie of seething jealousies and lasciviousness – ie, one that, though set in 1949, is perfectly suited to the twentyfirst century. In order to keep the scandal out of the public eye, Sofia (Stefanie Martini) employs her former lover and exspy, Charles (Max Irons), to investigate the poisoning death of her grandfather, the humungously wealthy Aristide Leonides, under whose roof the freeloading clan live. Any one of the family members might be the killer, for they are all nasty types and none of them are without a motive. There is a wannabe screenwriter and his dipsomaniac wife, a son who has failed in business, Glenn Close as a spinster with a shotgun, a couple of grandkids who need a good clip under the ear, and even Sophie herself. It is classic Christie, as red herrings and subtle clues are threaded throughout, but it might have been improved by the involvement of a more imposing sleuth. The wishy-washy Charles is not in the same street as Hercule Poirot or Miss Marple, so it’s up to the evergreen Terence Stamp as Chief Inspector Taverner of Scotland Yard to bring some focus to proceedings. Location shots were done at a number of lordly estates, including the obscenely grand Minley Manor, and production values are of the highest order, with gorgeous interiors and fabulous frocks. The unforeseen and genuinely shocking ending is nothing like what you would expect from dear old Agatha, but it works a treat.
of entitlement can override common, law-abiding decency. In July 1969, while the world was watching the Apollo 11 mission put a man on the Moon, Senator Edward (Ted) Kennedy, after leaving a party, drove his car off a bridge on Chappaquiddick island. His young passenger, Mary Jo Kopechne, died in the submerged vehicle. Kennedy fled and did not report the incident until nine hours later, by which time the PR machine that would do all it could to soften the blow to his public standing had been set in train. Beforehand, I feared that director John Curran might whitewash Kennedy’s actions and present him as a great guy who merely made a foolish error of judgment. Not so. The Senator from Massachusetts, as portrayed by Jason Clarke, is, if not quite a dimwit, certainly not the sharpest tool in the shed. Intimidated by his wheelchair-bound father, the carpetbagger Joe Kennedy (Bruce Dern), and living in the shadow of his revered, assassinated brothers Jack and Bobby, Teddy’s first instinct is to look after number one and he lies shamelessly to In its own bloodless way, this is a horror movie. Not that it will all who question him. His close friend and ‘go-to’ man, cousin make your hair stand on end with gore and suspense – the horror Joseph Gargan (Ed Helms), is dismayed by Teddy’s unwillingness of this true story lies in how wealth and privilege and a sense to own-up to his moral responsibilities. To Curran’s credit, he has no interest in cashing in on the more salacious line that there may have been a sexual relationship between Teddy and Mary Jo, instead he shines a laser beam on the way that those with money and influence can exploit the lustre of a name to manipulate the media – and get away with it. It’s about caste and class and how pampered men believe that they are above the concept of right and Girls Night Out Preview wrong. Both Clarke and Helms Screening - Wednesday 6th June - 6.30pm arrival for a give persuasive, multi-faceted 7pm screening. All Tickets $25. Pre-Show snacks and performances. A must see.
CHAPPAQUIDDICK
Complementary Glass of Champagne on arrival served by Wicked Waiters.
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