Art Smitten

If you’re going to go to a magic show, you really need to let yourself try and enjoy it. It sounds weird, but if you’re skeptical and you go into a magic show, don’t expect much. Honestly you shouldn’t even really be there. So, going to a magic festival is definitely not something for the complete unbelievers. I took my partner along to this show, as I felt it would be an experience that needs to be shared. In the foyer, other magicians showed off their skills, but we were more enthralled by the friendly rabbits making their way through people's legs on the floor. Soon after we headed into a much smaller, more intimate room for the actual show we were there for, White Lies by Pierre Ulric.

Ulric is a likeable, eccentric man with a well-trimmed beard and glint behind his eyes. The main basis behind the show is time, which I liked. Every time he finished with a segment he turned over an hourglass, the room would go dark, then light again, and he would address us as though we were in a different time of the show, jumping between the ending, the start and halfway through. I liked this consistency, as he repeated tricks which shouldn’t be capable of repeating, such as emptying and always refilling a water bucket each time. No one seemed to notice what I found much more interesting, which was his watch. Each time he would lock it in his briefcase, and in the next segment it would be back on his hand. Even when i was on stage later when he had the watch on, i didn't see one in the briefcase. Magic, people.

Unsurprisingly as we even changed seats at the start of the show to be closer to the front (to the dismay of my anxiety-ridden girlfriend), we were of course targeted to be part of the show itself. We helped do a magic trick with cards which apparently would confirm if we were right for each other. Both drawing correct cards corresponding with important dates with each other, we obviously are meant to be. Other tricks in the show included a cool bending of metal, which went slightly wrong when it didn’t seem to work with a saw, and a final big reveal in the end where four cards corresponded with four different people on stage. It was slightly anticlimactic, but ended the show nicely. At the end of the show, I did notice someone who obviously didn’t seem to give in to the magic. He complained about tricks and tried to explain to others how it was done, which I think is pretty unnecessary. Magic might or might not be real, but that's the reason it has a following. We aren’t supposed to know, which the enticing feature. So go about with magic how you wish, but if you do decide to go to a show, don’t just ruin it for other people. White Lies performance at the Melbourne Magic Festival might be over, but for more info about his other shows check out his website pierreulric.com.

Written by Hamish Vallance

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Do you like music? Do you like action? Do you like fast cars speeding around and crashing which isn’t Fast and the Furious? Well this is the film for you!

Baby Driver is the new love child of Edgar Wright, known for his smash hit Cornetto Trilogy, including Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and the other one we don’t really talk about, World’s End. Baby Driver sheds Wright’s former acting duo, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, replacing them with rookie actor Ansel Elgort in the lead role of Baby, a getaway driver. Alongside Elgort is an all-star cast which beefs up an already tantalizing film, including Kevin Spacey, Jon Hamm, Jamie Foxx and Jon Bernthal. Next to Elgort is also love interest Debora, played by Lily James. It might not seem like a big deal, but honestly one of my favourite things about this film is that the love story is actually good. It doesn’t feel forced, and is projected in a totally realistic and understandable way; if realistic is driving cars and robbing banks of course. It seems like a small detail, but so many films nowadays overcomplicate their love stories, or just create awful nonsensical ones.

Baby Driver is pretty much a movie length music video, which isn’t a bad thing. Nearly every action, such as doors slamming, guns shooting, and tires screeching, are done to the beat of the music playing at the time. Everything is timed perfectly, and you can tell the care that has been put into making it. This in itself resonates very well with me, as although I don’t rob banks myself or have an ear problem, I understand where Baby is coming from. I love having music go to the beat of what I’m doing, and if it’s not, I’ll change what I’m doing so it is to the beat. The motivation of Baby is clear, with exposition being simply dropped through conversation, or through snippets of artistic flashbacks. You really feel for baby, as you know his struggle is honest and important to him, not just some unmotivated kill fest. The important thing this film does really well though is the characters. They’re written well, and there comedy is perfect, timed with the music and beats of the story. I don’t laugh out loud often in films, and if I do it’s if a lot of people are around, but for Baby Driver there was only about ten of us, and we we’re laughing all the way through.

Good characters are likeable, and mean characters are likeable, that’s how convincing everyone in the film is written and acted. Of course, special mention needs to be given to the star, Ansel Elgort. Known for Fault in our Stars and the Divergent Series, Elgort has really come out of his shell in Baby Driver. His performance is perfectly timed, down to the second with his movements, and all in all is an enthralling display of acting. Even minor characters in the film are well made and funny, like the post office lady and the old lady Baby hijacks. The music isn’t the only production value which shines in this film. The long shots and actual shooting of the music based scenes are easily standouts in the film, being the most exciting and tense, as well as just a jam session.

I found the start of the film quite segmented. However it works in the grand scheme of things in setting up the world that Baby resides in clearly. The film also has some shocks in it, which I wasn’t expecting, such as truly brutal violence at times. The film doesn’t take no nonsense, meaning nothing is taken lightly or played out unrealistically. Baby’s and the other characters’ fates, as bank robbers, do not end riding into the sunset.

All in all the film is just a fun time, and is one of the few that you’re simultaneously holding your breath, laughing and going, “wow, how did they do that?” The overall production values are top notch, making the film look sublime. The role of the antagonist changes constantly, meaning it's never just one person. This adds some real dimension to characters, showing like people, they can change. Some great throwbacks to Wright's older projects are put in, including one relating to the music video the film is based on. I highly recommend this film to nearly anyone. If you just want a good time with a bunch of laughs with a killer soundtrack, and can put up with some brutal violence, this is the film you didn't know you were waiting for.

Written by Hamish Vallance

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Christian chats to Samara Hersch about We All Know What’s Happening, a work featuring the perpsectives of seven young on offshore detention in Nauru, at Arts House (521 Queensberry Street, North Melbourne) from 19 – 22 July.

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Christian chats to cartoonist and writer Judy Horacek about her newly published ninth cartoon collection, Random Life.

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Lady Macbeth is the debut film by William Oldroyd, written by Alice Birch and based on the novella Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District by Nikolai Leskov. It's set in the mid-19th century, though it transposes the original narrative from Russia to the Northern English moors.

The film stars Florence Pugh as Katherine, a young woman who enters into a loveless marriage with an older industrialist. He gives her no attention, and when he leaves for a business trip she looks to one of her husband's workers, Sebastian, played by Cosmo Jarvis, for the affection she so desperately needs. Soon after, however, things turn harsh and murderous, putting into motion events that earn Katherine the unspoken fitting nickname of Lady Macbeth.

Shot by Melbourne cinematographer Ari Wegner, the camerawork, which alternates between still and handheld, has an effective but obvious role of mirroring characters' emotional states. The colour palette is also suitably cold except in the more tender moments between Katherine and Sebastian – even the poster features Katherine in a long, piercingly blue dress. It also has some very interesting ways of dealing with space. We never see the front of the house and indeed most of the action takes place inside with Katherine looking out through the windows.

In fact if I have any criticisms about this film it's that most of it seems effective but obvious. The puritanical, patriarchal setting of mid-19th Century Britain, for example, is an easy conduit for its necessary statements about gender politics. However, Oldroyd and the rest of the cast and crew should be commended for creating a tense and modestly troubling film.

A solid and promising debut, Lady Macbeth is in cinemas now.

Written by Ben Volchok

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Christian chats to Creative Producer Kate McDonald, Director Ian Pidd and dance teacher Anton Cleaver-Wilkinson about the Inaugural Annual Dance Affair, on at the Hawthorn Arts Centre on July 20 and 21, 7.30pm.

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Jack reviews the Melbourne Youth Orchestras' New Worlds concert at the Melbourne Recital Centre on Sunday July 2, 2017.

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Smithers chats to Karen Therese, director of the Victorian Premiere season of TRIBUNAL, running from July 20-23 at Arts House, 521 Queensberry Street, North Melbourne.

CONTENT WARNING: Suicide - Lifeline 13 11 14

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Maria and Smithers chat to actor Sorcha Breen about I Am Katherine, a theatrical adaptation and response to William Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew, playing at Hares and Hyenas (63 Johnston St, Fitzroy) from July 19-29.

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Smithers and Maria chat to actor/director Lee McClenaghan and lead actor Kelley Kerr Young about The Association, an immersive theatre experience presented by Girls Act Good that's playing at Number 64 (64 Pentland Parade, Yarraville) from July 18-30.

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