The real-life roots of outback horror film The Royal Hotel

WATCH / Outback noir

Alcohol-fuelled toxic masculinity: the real monster in The Royal Hotel.

The declared inspiration for Australian writer-director Kitty Green’s latest film The Royal Hotel (in cinemas now) is Hotel Coolgardie (2016), a brilliant fly-on-the-wall documentary about the misadventures of two Finnish backpackers whose stint as barmaids at an outback pub is announced with the words “fresh meat” scrawled on a chalkboard. But it has other antecedents, too, Wake In Fright and Wolf Creek chief among them. It’s a slab of outback horror in which remoteness is the greatest threat – not in its own right, but because it gives cover for the real monster, alcohol-fuelled toxic masculinity, to roam free.

Julia Garner (above; Ozark) and Jessica Henwick are Canadians who reluctantly take jobs in a dusty, one-pub Queensland town after they run out of cash in Sydney, but it’s the men who hold sway here: Hugo Weaving as the publican determined to drink whatever profits he turns and Daniel Henshall, James Frecheville and Toby Wallace as the miners and drinkers whose clumsy advances offer thin cover for their violent intentions. The girls get a fright when they find a snake in their room, but it’s the serpents in the hallway outside they really need to worry about.

In a handful of docos and narrative features to date, Green (The Assistant, Casting JonBenet) has honed an astute critique of the ugly side of maleness, but it’s never looked quite as hideous as it does here. Maybe it’s the fact she’s on home turf – or, rather, home dirt – but this is her most damning critique to date. She’s held a mirror up to the male gaze, and it’s well and truly cracked. Karl Quinn

For Sy Baumgartner, life is pain as he mourns his wife’s death.

READ / Good grief

To live is to feel pain. So thinks Sy Baumgartner, the 70-year-old protagonist of celebrated American writer Paul Auster’s latest novel, Baumgartner ($33), which opens in 2018 in Princeton, New Jersey. Baumgartner is still struggling to come to terms with the unexpected death of his beloved wife, Anna, after a freak accident 10 years earlier. Together for 40 years, Anna and Sy were soulmates: she a freelance writer and translator, he a philosophy professor. They had no children. Baumgartner, “half a man” without her, reminisces about their life together, rereading Anna’s early writing to connect with her. This novel is a beautiful, quietly devastating meditation on love, memory and grief. Nicole Abadee

WEAR / Short notice

Venroy’s tropical print linen skirt.

The miniskirt is back. But before you groan, we’re not talking about the micro, tiny, may-as-well-be-a-belt variety (although if that’s your jam, then all power to you), but something that falls mid-thigh and looks equally great with a heel, sandal or sneaker. This tropical-print linen skirt by Sydney unisex resortwear brand Venroy ($180) hits the spot in more ways than one. Pair with a tank for beach days or an oversized shirt for the perfect work outfit. Melissa Singer

LISTEN / Get smart

The podcast tackles airport bestsellers trading in pseudo-science.

If taking the piss out of non-fiction “pop science” books like The Secret, Atomic Habits and The Rules sounds like your idea of fun, you’re going to enjoy Michael Hobbes’ and Peter Shamshiri’s If Books Could Kill podcast a whole lot. On each episode (22 so far), the duo takes on what they describe as the “superspreader events of American stupidity”: airport-bookshop bestsellers that trade in pseudo-science, often spurious logic and flippant truisms. There’s eye-rolling and fun-poking aplenty, but an undercurrent of intellectual criticism, too. A super-smart take on super-dumb books. Deborah Cooke

SHOP / Green clean

A Leaf Health Kit with gloves offers hands-on plant TLC.

Become a plant whisperer with these leaf-cleaning gloves that help maintain happier, healthier plants. Simply slip them on, spritz leaves top and bottom with Protect Spray with Neem Oil, an Aussie-made, organically certified formulation designed to protect leaves from environmental stressors (250ml bottle included in Leaf Health Kit with gloves, $50), and lovingly wipe down using your flat palm for big leaves and fingertips to access the nooks and crannies of smaller ones. After your plant pampering, toss the gloves in a cold wash and eagerly anticipate the lush, green embrace of your thriving plant babies. No green thumbs required. Frances Mocnik

DRINK / Liquid spirit

Grape-based spirits blended with botanicals: an alternative base for a weekend cocktail.

Nothing says summer like the plink, plink fizz of a condensation-glazed highball on a Friday night. Lately, we’ve been getting our weekends on in the company of a high-proof (43 per cent!) eau de vie from a little distillery in the Adelaide Hills. This isn’t brandy, though: more a grape-based spirit that’s been blended with a range of botanicals – some of them Aussie (hello, quandong, Illawarra and Kakadu plums) – to create four intriguing flavour profiles; just add your mixer of choice. “Vivify”, with its keynotes of coconut, turmeric and ginger, can’t wait for sundown: use it as a mojito base, mix with ginger ale and lime for a spicy, up-tempo kick or with yuzu soda and lemon for a chill, more tropical vibe ($82/500ml). Salut! Sharon Bradley

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