TV
In Her Skin | SBS2, Sunday, August 31, 10.30pm
According to the New York Post, this Mexican telenovela inspired a prison riot when Rikers inmates were sent to bed early without their weekly fix. Cynics might put this down to the vague air of soft porn that pervades the production, but it could just as easily have been the pain of an unresolved cliffhanger. Barely a scene passes without a betrayal, a marriage proposal, a kidnapping, an out-of-body experience or an attempted rape.
It’s not giving too much away to reveal that the first episode ends with the death of both main characters. Indeed, it’s this double demise that gives the series its bizarre premise, in which a world-famous pianist finds herself in the body of a poor waitress.
Make no mistake, this is deeply trashy TV. Its vibe is cheap soap opera meets surreal student film, with a soundtrack from taken from a 1980s easy-listening CD. There are echoes of Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace, without the intentional humour. There are better shows to be watching, but it’s compelling stuff. Freed from the confines of taste and decency, it promises to go gloriously off the rails at any moment.
MUSIC
EP | Banoffee (Remote Control)
The debut EP from Melbourne’s Martha Brown (aka Banoffee) is an intimate affair. Its five sparse and scruffy songs, little more than drum machine, vocal samples and keyboards, feel like the aural equivalent of diary entries or, sometimes, spiteful love letters. They’re not always easy listening despite Brown’s suave vocals, R&B stylings and subtle pop melodies. Ohhhh Owwww, for instance, seems to find Brown in the midst of a breakdown, her honesty as brutal as the music is fragile. For the most part, there’s a wonderful, tragicomic approach to these emotional disasters. Let’s Go To The Beach undercuts its giddy air with the sober refrain “Friends don’t do this”. Highlight Ninja wryly leads us through a relationship from the morning after to post-break-up. When Brown sings, “I will make you breakfast … I know how you like it” on a bed of swirling synths, the effect
is something like an icy, slacker take on Kelis’ Milkshake. Playful, layered and inventive, this EP offers five good reasons to be excited about Brown’s first album.
BALLET
Motion Transcend: Le Sacre Du Printemps | Hawthorn Arts Centre, August 29, 7.30pm, $29-$40
» www.hawthornartscentre.com.au
The Melbourne Ballet Company, a team of 10 world-class performers, fuses the modern and the traditional for this new anthology piece, featuring four original works. Motion Transcend: Le Sacre Du Printemps promises to be an athletic and thrilling celebration of hope, embracing classical and contemporary ballet techniques. This sense of duality and contradiction extends to the performance’s themes, which balance the importance of the physical with a somewhat spiritual and ethereal setting.
FILM
Locke | Cinema Nova, opens August 28, rated MA15+, 85 minutes
When Ivan Locke (Tom Hardy) climbs into his car at the beginning of this taut, thrilling drama, he knows he has a transformative journey ahead.
Locke is a precise, decent and utterly reliable man who has made one (rather permanent and intimate) mistake. Setting out on a 90-minute drive to London, he hopes to make amends, no matter the damage it wreaks on his work and home lives. It would be easy to judge Locke harshly, so familiar is his transgression, but Hardy plays him as a wounded knight, driven by duty and honour to right his world despite being guaranteed a pyrrhic victory at best.
Given the entire film plays out inside Locke’s car, the drama is mired in the character’s contradictions and conflicts. Luckily, he’s a fascinating study. Here is a good man causing pain, to abide by a code that appears meaningless to others.
Some of Locke’s trials are almost comical in their banal melodrama. In a main plot thread, he negotiates a tricky construction job over the phone, leading to important-sounding talk about concrete pours. Through a combination of claustrophobia and Hardy’s intense, understated performance, even these trivial things take on a compelling significance. Despite its small scale, Locke is a bold and cinematic affair, with a rich emotional narrative.
FESTIVAL
Bayside Film Festival | Palace Dendy Brighton, August 27-31
With the Melbourne International Film Festival over for another year, cinephiles should look southward for their next film fix. For five days, the Bayside Film Festival will serve up unusual treats from home and abroad. On the home front, a pair of Sydney teenagers will present their award-winning claymation short No More Mister Mice Guy, in which a couple try to rid their home of cinema-obsessed rodents. From the US, thriller Cold In July will have its Victorian premiere.
DANCE
Patyegarang | Arts Centre, August 18 – September 6, 75 minutes, $29-$89
Bangarra Dance Theatre celebrates its 25th anniversary this year. In the past quarter century, Bangarra has worked to uphold Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander traditions while fusing them with aspects of contemporary performance. Acclaimed new production Patyegarang aims to embody this approach, making a modern story from a 200-year-old tale about two cultures meeting for the first time, and in which a young Eora woman encounters one of the first European settlers.
MYKE’S SPACE
Watching | Westbrook (CI Network, August 28) Gripping two-part doco about the infamous Toowoomba boys’ home.
Listening | Sinkane Mean Love. Inventive, modern soul music with a pan-African flavour.
Attending | Intimate Letters (Arts Centre, August 31 – September 1) . Bell Shakespeare and the Australian Chamber Orchestra bring to life a passionate affair between a Czech composer and his married mistress.
