Advaitic palmistry with neo-Vedic astrology and esoteric Tarot.
musical duo, circus performances, live auction – proceeds to directly to disaster relief for people of Langtang Village and surrounds. For tickets go to www.seechangebyron.com.au/ langtangnepal. Magic Bus pickups from Sunrise, Byron and Suffolk from 5.30pm for coin donation.
mullum flicks
SHOWING HIS HAND International magical mystic minstrel Bharat Rochlin is in Byron for the first time in a decade for an entertaining, interactive palmistry workshop on Sat 13 June. Bharat has 30 years’ hands-on experience with what he considers ‘the human biocomputer printout of who you are’, and supports his multi-levelled private sessions of
For practical help with your karmic evolution or if you just want to hold hands, check YouTube palmistryunplugged, palmistryreading.com or contact 0423 562 532 for info/bookings.
AM I RIGHT OR AM I WRONG?
Things Just Wrong? The topic will be outlined by local philosopher Christine Willmot and will address problems such as: What do we do when we make ethical judgments or engage in ethical argument? Are we trying to get the facts right as a scientist might do? Or simply expressing our feelings, or perhaps the feelings and conventions of our society as a whole? Friday from 6pm till 8pm. Meals, snacks, tea and coffee available. $5 donation.
Byron Café Philo has moved to a new venue – the Bangalow Historical Society Museum and Tea Room in Deacon St, Bangalow. Everyone is welcome to join in for This Sunday Writers at the Rails a lively discussion on the topic: will feature two top performance Ethical Relativism – or – Are Some poets with local poet/songstress/
WRITERS AT THE RAILS
piano maestro Vasudha Harte Slow West and Strangerland are and Brisbane feature poet Angela both screening at the Palace in Pieta. The afternoon show will also Byron Bay. include invited readings and the ever popular Poetry Slam. Show stars 2pm
SLOW AND STRANGE
TRAINS AND BOATS AND PAPER PLANES
Travelling Flicks presents Paper Planes, a film about 12-year-old Palace Byron Bay Cinema is screening two outstanding festival Dylan, who lives with his father films, Slow West and Strangerland. Jack in the Western Australia outback. Dylan finds himself Slow West is an unconventional caught up in the world of western that is both thrilling competitive paper-plane making, and romantic. Kim Farrant’s leading to new friendships, new Strangerland marks Nicole rivalries and new revelations Kidman’s welcome return to about his own family. The Drill Australian independent cinema Hall Theatre, Mullumbimby, on with a fearless performance of deep vulnerability and emotion. Saturday at 7.30pm.
Saturday June 6 Drill Hall Theatre Mullumbimby
6.30pm: Hot Soup & Sweets 7.30pm: Film Film Tix: $15/13 Kids: $10 at Mullum Bookshop
travellingflicks.com
WEDNESDAY
3 JUNE to
WEDNESDAY
10 JUNE
OPENS THURSDAY
THU-SUN ONLY
OPENS THURSDAY
NOW SHOWING
NOW SHOWING
NOW SHOWING
TOMORROWLAND (PG) (NO FREE TICKETS) Wed (3) 10.20am, 1.50, 7.10, 9.10pm Thu-Sun 9.45am, 1.45, 8.40pm Mon-Wed (10) 9.45am, 3.50, 8.40pm WOMAN IN GOLD (M) Wed (3) 12.00, 4.30, 6.50pm Thu-Sun 9.00, 11.10am, 6.30pm Mon-Wed (10) 9.00am, 12.20, 6.30pm MAD MAX: FURY ROAD (MA15+) Wed (3) 11.20am, 4.45, 7.00, 9.30pm Thu-Wed (10) 1.30, 6.15, 8.50pm PITCH PERFECT 2 (M) Wed (3) 9.40am, 2.20, 9.45pm Thu-Wed (10) 9.00, 11.20am Enjoy our licensed bar
ENTOURAGE (MA15+) (NO FREE TICKETS) Thu-Wed (10) 2.30, 4.40, 9.00pm ALOHA (PG) (NO FREE TICKETS) Thu-Sun 12.20, 4.20, 6.50pm Mon-Wed (10) 11.15am, 1.40, 4.00, 6.50pm Sydney Film Festival presents: SLOW WEST (M) Thu-Sun 4.00pm EXHIBITION: THE IMPRESSIONISTS (CTC) Wed (3) 1.00pm A ROYAL NIGHT OUT (M) Wed (3) 9.15am, 3.00pm WHILE WE’RE YOUNG (M) Wed (3) 4.40pm
Lavazza Espresso Coffee
Gift cards are the perfect gift
Group Bookings available
108-110 Jonson Street, Byron Bay 6680 8555 | www.palacecinemas.com.au
28 June 3, 2015 The Byron Shire Echo
SPY
John Newcombe, the Australian tennis legend, reputedly insured his trademark Zapata moustache. Whatever the premium, it can’t have come anywhere near what Jason Statham would be paying for his macho stubble. What a man it makes him. Statham’s Rick Ford, the boastful but accident-prone CIA agent, is one of a handful of overdone but irresistible support characters in this broad-brush spy spoof. Director Paul Feig’s credo – ‘you can never stoop too low for a laugh’ – is reprised and, as he did in Bridesmaids (2011), he has built his story on the simple of idea of women behaving like blokes. The Heat (2013) was an improvement on its predecessor and Feig has managed to raise the bar again, but not without what has become a habitual over-reliance on foul language. I’m not in the least bit offended by it – I spray plenty of it myself – but the incessant use of the f-word, instead of colouring the script, tends to overwhelm the humour in it. Most frustrating of all, it pays a terrible disservice
to Melissa McCarthy, an outstanding comic actress whose talents are drowned in a torrent of phoney cussing. Rose Byrne, too, as the villain Rayna, sounds just plain tacky delivering her undergraduate expletives. Apart from that caveat, there is a lot of fun to be had here. The movie is cleverly plotted, fast paced and, in the sequences shot in Budapest, loaded with escapist eye-candy. Susan Cooper (McCarthy), a desk-bound CIA agent, has an impossible crush on the glamorous spy Bradley Fine (Jude Law) – in much the same way that Miss Moneypenny had eyes for Bond. When Fine is taken out of action, Susan gets the gig to replace him and prevent a nuclear device from falling into the bad guys’ hands. Though not as subtle as Johnny English, it is very funny in parts, with Statham showing that he is not above self-parody and Miranda Hart hilariously stealing a couple of scenes as Susan’s gauche off-sider Nancy. Highly recommended.
TOMORROWLAND: A WORLD BEYOND In the dim and distant, Tomorrowland was one of the four kingdoms on TV’s Disneyland. It was, above all, positive in its take on what lay in store for our planet, and that optimism is referred to when the disillusioned, reclusive Frank Walker (George Clooney) looks back to his boyhood as a young inventor attending the 1964 World’s Fair in New York. The movie’s preamble has Frank and a representative of the younger generation, Casey (Britt Robertson), in philosophical debate, while addressing the audience, about whether or not Earth’s fate is sealed. Frank is resigned to the worst-case scenario, while Casey prefers to believe in the story of the two wolves within us – despair and hope; the one that thrives is the one we feed. The idea that ‘attitude’ itself might fix the mess we find ourselves in and avert the apocalypse is perhaps fanciful, but it is the American way, and who knows – they might be right? After this opening, however, Brad
Bird’s narrative gets awfully confusing, as Frank and Casey, in the company of an android little girl, Athena (Raffey Cassidy), are pursued by men-in-black type robots from another dimension in the future. Their master is Nix (Hugh Laurie), and his brief is to prevent humans from despoiling his brave new world of many years hence. The entire middle section of the movie seems to be taken up by CGI and ‘action’, with Nix’s representatives in the present-day hellbent on preventing Frank and Casey from distributing the magic pins that will help us see Tomorrowland – or something like that. The clamour and clutter has the effect of making you forget that the film is trying to present an urgent message. It is left to Nix to force the issue in what is essentially a beautiful but sad soliloquy to us punters – the canaries are dying in the mines and we’re taking no notice. Worthy, but long-winded and (pardon my pettiness) marred by an outrageous piece of product placement for Coca-Cola.
Byron Shire Echo archives: www.echo.net.au/byron-echo