ENTERTAINMENT
THE RETURN OF
MS STELLA WHEN I MET
MS STELLA HER N A M E WA S STILL BARBARA .
She was this intensely clever and attractive 20-something young woman who’d rolled into town from Melbourne, scored herself a primo job writing the entertainment pages of The Echo and was soon to join me on stage in the Queen Bs.
Over three years we satirised, plagiarised and outraged as many people and venues as we could find. From the six-week residency doing Friday arvo downloads at The Rails to forgetting to bring a tent to Maleny Festival and having to sleep on our jackets on the grass, to feature shows at Cocomangas, where our doorman turned out to be none other than Puppetry of the Penis’s co creator David Friend. (He would later go on to blow us right out of the water. Embarrassing when the bouncer has a better career than you do.) It was a wonderful, free and evocative time in Byron, full of nudity, sanyassins and satire, and perhaps I remember it even more fondly because I was in my late twenties and the book of my life hadn’t been written yet. Barbara changed her name to Stella and got into documentary making. I kept getting pregnant. Stella left. I stayed. Eventually, after some stealthy moves I scored Stella’s job at The Echo as entertainment editor and the rest I guess is history. In the last few years Stell and I have reconnected comedically, with me performing at the comedy room she runs in Newport in Melbourne where she lives. So as part of her winter soujourn it only seems right that Ms Stella should jump up at some of my gigs. You can catch her supporting Mick Neven at the Big Gig at the Ballina RSL on Thursday, working at the Byron Services Club on Monday with Andy Saunders, and MC of the regular standup comedy open mic on Thursday 4 August at the Court House Hotel in Mullumbimby. All shows start at 8pm.
READ THE FULL STORY AT echo.net.au/the-return-of-ms-stella Guest and the pick of his satirical semi-improvised ‘mockumentaries’. In true Picture House style, each film will feature a ‘live’ element! Screening on Friday is A Mighty Wind, the hilarious but heartfelt tale of a folk-music reunion concert in which three folk bands reunite for a TV performance for the first time in decades. There is also a very special performance from a local underground folk duo making their debut at the Picture House! Show at 7pm. On Saturday, it’s guests cult opus This is Spinal Tap. The wickedly satirical romp has amassed a huge cult following and spawned the insult ‘so Spinal Tap’ for those rock and metal bands for whom this movie cut a bit too close to home. The Picture House will also be presenting Brunswick’s first ever
air-guitar competition. Think teased hair, power ballads, tongue-out, balls-to-the-wall lip-synching and power strumming, riffing and picking. 7pm.
cinema Reviews
BY JOHN CAMPBELL
LOVE & FRIENDSHIP GHOSTBUSTERS
It’s early days yet, but this dreadful movie of mind-numbing noise and bluster has shot into contention, with a bullet, for a leading place among the year’s Joe Cockers. Old-school ghosts, the ones that you rarely ever see other than as creepy, shadowy apparitions – the ones that actually scare you and make you wonder about whether the phenomenon could possibly be true – have been made a thing of the past by splatter-fest CGI. As a new take on the unfathomably highly regarded 1984 original, with women instead of men as the saviours of New York City from dastardly paranormal activity, I certainly didn’t go along expecting anything other than vaporous green monsters causing idiot mayhem. But it is even more brain-dead than its spectral villains are ridiculous – it’s like a ghost story written by Donald Trump instead of Edgar Allen Poe. The gang this time around is Erin (Kristen Wiig), Abby (the cheaply stereotyped Melissa McCarthy), Jillian (Kate McKinnon, in a performance that provokes jaw-grinding irritation) and Patty (Leslie Jones, who, for some reason, has attracted more online ire than director Paul Feig). The girls, as serious believers in ghosts, have to prove themselves in the eyes of the doubters and the government, which is at pains to keep the truth from the public (yawn). Chris Hemsworth as Kevin, their beefcake Aussie secretary, does a you-beaut dumb blonde routine without any memorable lines (the script is slipshod throughout), Ozzy Osbourne gets the briefest of cameos, playing himself at a heavy metal concert, and Bill Murray, in homage to Bill Murray, has seven figures added to his bank account for reciting some lines as a ghost sceptic. You get a few bars of Ray Parker Jr’s classic theme song, but it’s not nearly enough to lift the leadenness. The last twenty minutes are as loud as these sorts of action flicks always are now – I left with a splitting headache – and if you care in the least what happens you’re easily pleased.
As a proto-feminist (long before the term was ever coined), Jane Austen will always remain relevant. Her Pride And Prejudice and Emma are unlikely to ever be out of print. This movie, adapted for the screen by American writer/director Whit Stillman, is based on a lesser known novella, Lady Susan. Portrayed with precision and unflappable calm by Kate Beckinsale, the eponymous heroine of the story (if we can call her that, so duplicitous is she), the widowed Susan Vernon, has made a mission of seeing to it that her daughter Frederica (Morfydd Clark) makes a match that will ensure her future happiness, wealth and security. To do this, she must outwit and manipulate the gentlemen with whom she cavorts in London and rural Kent. There is a lot of information to be absorbed in the first five minutes as Stillman introduces us, in a bookish, almost stilted manner, to the players who will be caught in Lady Susan’s web. There are the Manwarings and the DeCourcys, of whom young Reginald (Australian Xavier Samuel) will be her target, and a coterie of gentry, including the gibbering idiot, Sir James Martin (Tom Bennett), the doughty butler Wilson (Conor Lambert), and Lady Susan’s American confidante, Alicia Johnson (Chloë Sevigny, adorable as ever). All of the characters are so finely drawn and the dialogue, as you’d expect, razor sharp (you actually need to listen closely) and wry. Art direction is a feast for the eye – although my companion informed me that the fabulous costumes were not all strictly in period, ranging between Restoration and Regency, which is neither here nor there for a mungo like me – and the edit never lets the narrative become bogged down in wordiness. Lady Susan’s, and true love’s, ultimate triumph is only slightly diminished by the partner she chooses for herself, but in the back of your mind you understand that she knows exactly what she’s doing and that all will end well for her. Great stuff – if only we could get more of it.
And on Sunday, it’s Best in Show: A quirky film that follows five entrants in a prestigious dog show and how the slightly surreal personalities and characteristics of the owners match those of their dogs. Before the film, there’s a special Best in Bruns Show, featuring local residents and their canine partners! Bring your dog along pre-show and let your loved one strut its stuff. 4pm! If you are keen to be part of the Air Guitar Comp and Best in Bruns Show, get in touch with us at brunswickpicturehouse@gmail. com and stay for the film free of charge.
North Coast news daily: www.echonetdaily.net.au
The Byron Shire Echo July 27, 2016 35