You’ve only got a couple of days to relax over the weekend. Don’t waste it poring over listings for the local cinema or standing around indecisively at your favourite bookstore. The New Daily has compiled options for fans of every form of entertainment. Sit back, relax and browse through the following options for your precious downtime over the weekend.

Movies

Image from Belle and Sebastian. Photo: Supplied

Calvary
The movie of the week. Director McDonagh (The Guard) teams up again with fabulous Irish actor Brendan Gleeson in this story about a priest whose life is threatened in confession. Calvary tackles deeply serious subjects, including child abuse, murder, adultery, but juxtaposes the heavy with some very dark humour.

Jersey Boys
Hollywood legend Clint Eastwood shows no signs of throwing in the towel on his directing career despite being 84 years of age. In Jersey Boys he bring the famed stage musical to life on the silver screen. Critics have been luke warm to this biopic but the music alone is worth a watch.

Belle and Sebastian
Belle and Sebastian is a classic French story and to see it finally come to the big screen is wonderful. Set in the Alps during World War II, Sebastian is a charming six-year-old and Belle is the large dog he wants to protect. As well as having a fast-paced storyline, the cinematography is incredible.

Yves Saint Laurent
An exquisite film about the legendary French fashion designer. It’s been a bad year for biopics (ahem, Diana, Grace of Monaco) but Yves Saint Laurent is one worth considering.

The Last Impresario
Directed by Australian Gracie Otto, daughter of Barry and sister of Miranda, the all-star cast should tell you something about this documentary on one of Britain’s greatest talent scouts, producer Michael White.

Frank
Possibly the year’s most surreal, yet perfectly pitched film. Oddly moving.

Books

Missing Christopher
Jayne Newling
Allen & Unwin

A startling first paragraph can be all it takes to reel you in, and Jayne Newling’s powerful true story of her teenage son Christopher’s suicide immediately floors you, as she relays her memory of witnessing a young toddler accidentally fall on the same rocks after losing her son and thankfully surviving.

With suicide a subject so often hushed from polite conversation, often with devastating effects, Newling’s decision to share the story of her son’s diagnosed depression and the debilitating and ultimately devastating effect it had on him is a commendably brave and incredibly vital service to all parents, friends and lovers.

For many years Newling would say she had ‘lost’ her son, but she never uses that euphemism now. Her candid relaying of these terrible events, and of her slow recovery from grief and the broader effects on those who shared Christopher’s life, is powerful stuff. With youth suicide rates increasing, now, more than ever, we have to face the truth and read a memoir like this, no matter how painful and frightening the experience may be. Society can only benefit from the wisdom offered by those who have endured such tragedy and survived.

Buy Missing Christopher here.

The Skeleton Cupboard
Tanya Byron
Macmillan

Going head-for-head in the arresting first paragraph stakes is British clinical psychologist Tanya Byron’s account of her fascinating professional training that opens with the line, “I first became fascinated by the frontal lobes of the human brain when I saw my
grandmother’s sprayed across the skirting board of her dark and cluttered house.” This shocking discovery at the tender age of 15, following a violent break in, sets her on the path towards using her vast intelligence to help people through the worst that life unleashes on them.

Byron’s incredible abilities have seen her in demand by governments and broadcasters alike, including the BBC, and her voice translates perfectly in this incredible memoir that reveals her startling professional beginnings. Her first office had no window because, “fresh blood see the jumpers”. She also reveals how much you get kicked in the face when you try and prevent a hanging and gently relays the traumas of an old Jewish couple dealing with the shattering effects of Auschwitz. It’s not easy reading, per se, but it’s an incredible insight into the complexities of the most troubled human psyches and a compelling journey indeed.

Buy The Skeleton Cupboard here.

The Confabulist
Steven Galloway
Text Publishing

Steven Galloway’s fourth novel is a fascinating exercise in misdirection that hides the truth in plain sight in its intriguing opening pages.

Our narrator, Martin Strauss, attends a hospital appointment with a specialist who informs him that he has a rare condition that means his brain is slowly wiping all of his memories and replacing them with new, unreal, ones.

From here the book is split between his historical recollections of his interaction with the famous magician and escapologist Harry Houdini, and teases out his belief that he’s responsible for the death of that celebrated figure, and by a retelling of Houdini’s rise to fame and the shady characters surrounding him.

But who, or what, can you trust? As unreliable narrators go, one who is literally losing his mind presents an intriguing puzzle for the reader that’s almost as intricate as one of Houdini’s tricks. This is one book you may just have to re-read to figure out exactly what’s going on.

(All reviews by regular TND writer Stephen A Russell)

Culture

NAIDOC Week launches this weekend in Sydney. Photo: AAP

Adelaide: Shaun Gladwell: Afghanistan Exhibition. Details here.

Brisbane: Teneriffe 2014 – Street festival. Saturday, July 5.  Details here.

Melbourne: Les Miserables. Her Majesty’s Theatre, Melbourne. Buy tickets here.

Perth: Fremantle Truffle Festival. Details here. 

Sydney: NAIDOC Week kicks off in Sydney this Sunday. Events all over town until July 13. Details here. 

Music

Ray Lamontagne
Supernova
(4 Stars)

Stands to reason when you win a Grammy for Best Contemporary Folk Album you head to Nashville for the follow-up. Especially when the record in question, the achingly beautiful God Willin’ And The Creek Don’t Rise, was just your third. If you’re on a good thing you stick to it, right? Well, not in this instance.

The studio in question belongs to Dan Auerbach (The Black Keys) and that’s him in the producer’s chair. So what you get is nothing like you’ve done before – but plenty like Auerbach has. That is, White Stripes lite. But that’s OK, after all you once wrote a song called Meg White, so if you’re going to do a musical U-turn maybe this isn’t as crazy as it seems. And it’s not. Supernova is a souped up mash of swamp/psychedelia/Motown that is upbeat, invigorating and inviting. Hell, you even find yourself whistling along to some of these songs. In short, it’s a little Ray of sunshine. Review by Frank Porter for The New Daily.

Dan Sultan
Blackbird
(3.5 Stars)

Dan Sultan. He’s so close to becoming a superstar he can almost taste it. And it’s been an old-school build: a couple of indie albums, some compelling live shows, a passionate following and a little bit
of hype. Everything is set for a big album. “It’s time for a change,” Sultan sings in the powerful closing cut, Gullible Few.

At one point, he wonders, “How you ever gonna realise your dreams if it’s all mixed up inside your head?” Live, Sultan oozes charisma and soul, but not enough of his character shines through here. Can’t Blame Me – all ache and desperation – shows what his voice can do, Nobody Knows is a beautiful ballad, and Kimberley Calling sounds like a genuine pop hit. Read more at STACK Magazine. 

Chet Faker
Built on Glass
(4.5 Stars)

In 2011, Chet Faker introduced himself to the world with a tastefully inventive revision of the r’n’b classic No Diggity. It appealed to fans of the Blackstreet original, and represented the strongest qualities of the electronically manipulated soul music rising to popular prominence at the time.

That cover version has since taken on a life of its own, even appearing in a Superbowl commercial, and in the meantime Chet Faker himself has quietly and determinedly produced a body of original work founded upon those same sonic qualities.  Read more at STACK Magazine.