TELEVISION
Orphan Black | SBS2, Tuesday March 11, 8.30pm
» www.bbcamerica.com/orphan-black/
This addictive new Canadian thriller reaches its exciting finale this week. For those who came in late, outsider Sarah’s life is transformed when she witnesses the suicide of a stranger who looks remarkably like her. Adopting the dead woman’s identity, boyfriend and bank account, Sarah finds herself entangled in a sci-fi conspiracy involving illegal clones.
Being the first drama commission from BBC America, there’s a curiously transatlantic feel to this series. The action is fast-paced, but the complex plot strays into wonderfully weird territory.
This is a show in which a soccer mum can spend an episode torturing her deadbeat husband with her handicraft gear while her punk rock clone-sister is upstairs, entertaining the neighbourhood socialites.
While the storytelling is gripping, the series’ real strength comes from star Tatiana Maslany. Her ability to make each of Sarah’s clones utterly distinct ensures that the core concept of “one woman, nine characters” works seamlessly.
The tone isn’t always perfect, but it’s refreshing to see a series that understands that darkness shouldn’t exclude humour, nor high-stakes thrills exclude braininess.
FILM
Tracks | Opens March 6, Rated M, 113 min
» www.transmissionfilms.com.au
Based on Robyn Davidson’s memoir of her renowned trek from Alice Springs to the Indian Ocean, Tracks is an endurance tale in which the focus is as much on nature’s beauty as its horrors. We meet Davidson (Mia Wasikowska) as a 20-something, stepping off a train at Alice, already armed with her mad plan. She spends more than a year learning to train wild camels before setting off into the desert with little more than a rucksack. The reason for her trek is left pleasingly obscure. Today such a stunt would no doubt be dismissed as an act of self-promotion, but here Davidson merely wants to be left alone with herself. As such, Tracks works well as a general metaphor for young adulthood, where we abandon childhood comforts to test ourselves in a hostile world. Wasikowska is a fascinating, opaque lead, appealing to the audience through courage rather than charm. Director John Curran transforms the stark Australian outback into breathtaking landscapes, ensuring we weary of Davidson’s journey around the same point she does. For the most part, this is an immersive, memorable experience that lingers as tangibly as sand between the toes.
MUSIC
Bryce Dessner and Jonny Greenwood | St Carolyn By The Sea and Suite From There Will Be Blood (Universal)
Bryce Dessner and Jonny Greenwood are best known as rock guitarists – for The National and Radiohead, respectively – but have long-running sidelines as classical composers. Some of the tracks on this split album are lifted from film scores, the others merely sound as if they are. Listening to Dessner’s St Carolyn By The Sea, you can almost picture its three acts. It opens with a jittery sense of foreboding, builds into adrenaline-soaked pyrotechnics, then relaxes briefly into uneasy woodwind before a final, all-in climax. Part of the joy, for me at least, lies in conjuring action to match the music. (Dessner’s Lachrimae is a gritty period drama, I’ve decided, ending with a thrilling horse-and-carriage race through stormy wilderness). Even those with a less-developed celluloid fixation will appreciate the drama Dessner brings to his compositions. Greenwood’s tracks, from Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood, are more abrupt propositions; vignettes invoking a particular mood rather than charting a range of emotions. The most memorable is character suite Henry Plainview, with its discordant, see-sawing strings working like inner demons beneath a more composed, genteel melody.
PERFORMANCE
How She Gives Me Death | St Ali South, 12-18 Yarra Place, South Melbourne, 8pm, $15/$10
Classic coffee meets classical music this Wednesday as St Ali South hosts an evening of madrigals inspired by Gesualdo’s Moro, lasso. Some of Melbourne’s finest composers, musicians and singers will unite for a program that mixes 17th century fare with modern compositions of horns and electronica. The evening is the brainchild of horn player Georgia Ioakimidis-MacDougall, who hopes to find new and interesting venues for local musicians to flaunt their wares.
GIG
Yo La Tengo | Corner Hotel, Sunday March 9, 8.30pm, $54+BF
It’s 30 years since experimental New Jersey three-piece Yo La Tengo first played together. While their best work hails from the late ’90s, melding folk, post-rock and electronica, recent LP Fade was a playful, engaging affair. Lured south by the Golden Plains Festival, they’re in town for their second show in six months (the last was a Melbourne Festival exclusive), supported by local stars Dick Diver. Expect sprawling, anarchic and lush compositions, taking in all corners of their lengthy career.
MYKE’S WATCH
LISTENING | Lo-Fang Blue Film. Soulful, eclectic electronica from the classically trained LA artist.
WATCHING | Hannah Gadsby’s OZ. (ABC1, Tues) The deadpan comedian and amateur art scholar looks for our nation in its paintings.
ATTENDING | Empire. Spiegelworld’s circus and contortionist extravaganza returns to Melbourne for a limited run.
