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Byron Shire
March 28, 2024

Cinema Review: Greta

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Where should affordable housing go in Tweed Shire?

Should affordable and social housing in the Tweed Shire be tucked away in a few discrete corners? Perhaps it...

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Queer family visibility

Did you know that, statistically, if you’ve met a redhead, you’ve also met a trans person? Over 800 trans and gender diverse people live in the Byron Shire, which includes at least 200 children. They’re often a bit hidden though, so come on down and celebrate with them this Trans Day of Visibility!

Byron Council staff baulk at councillors’ promise of free parking for locals

Will Byron Council deliver on its pledge to make parking permits free for locals across the Shire when paid parking comes into force in Brunswick Heads?

Mayoral casting vote gets Lismore’s Affordable Housing Strategy over the line

At the recent Lismore City Council meeting former Mayor Vanessa Ekins and councillor Elly Bird moved the motion to introduce an Affordable Housing Contribution Scheme and submit it to the state government for a gateway determination. 

The Picture House is turning 8

It feels like we were only just ringing in the new year days ago and here we are approaching Easter weekend at The Brunswick Picture House. It’s already been a whirlwind start to 2024 with their biggest and busiest program so far, bringing an eclectic mix of some of the hottest stand-up comedy, music gigs, film screenings and cabaret – and that was just last week!

Biz confidence up, says Business NSW

The state's peak body for business says confidence in the sector has increased but cost of living pressures continue to impact customer spending.

Caper Byron Bay Food & Culture Festival

Caper Byron Bay Food & Culture Festival returns to Byron Bay in May, and this year ‘locals favourite’ pub...

Greta

You only need to look at the Oscars to see that it is the formulaic flicks that get the gongs. Even the unresolved ending is now par for the course, particularly in the psycho genre. Neil Jordan, who weirded us out all those years ago with ‘The Crying Game’ (1992), is back to give us the heebie-jeebies again with a slow-burn thriller that keeps you guessing without ever flouting the conventions of its form. Frances (Chloë Grace Moretz), still mourning the loss of her mother, works as a waitress in a Manhattan restaurant – how she and her flatmate Erica (Maika Monroe), who appears to do nothing more than attend parties and practise yoga, can afford to live in their spacious loft is unexplained, but it’s an irritant that becomes an irrelevance as the story finds traction. Which it does, after Frances returns the handbag that she has found on the subway to its owner, Greta (Isabelle Huppert), whose daughter is studying music in Paris – or so she says. Greta’s house is as unlikely as the girls’ apartment, being a cute brick cottage that you might find in a French village, but such lack of subtlety is forgiven when lonely Greta starts playing mind games with vulnerable Frances. Dining at chez Greta one evening, Frances discovers that she is not the first person to have fallen for the handbag bait, so she tries to ‘unfriend’ the older woman – but to no avail. Greta calls constantly and stalks her every movement, and as she does so Frances begins to unravel emotionally and mentally. Jordan cranks up the creepiness to great effect – there is a genuinely scary scene in which Erica is being followed by Greta, who photographs her as she goes and simultaneously shares the pics with Frances – but there are also a couple of dream sequences that confuse and briefly derail the drama’s momentum. Huppert, an actress generally cast as the pale and fragile heroine, is unexpectedly disarming and Franz Listz’s ‘Love Dream’ has never sounded so edgy.


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Making Lismore Showground accessible to everyone

The Lismore Showground isn’t just a critical local community asset that plays host to a number of major events each year, but has also been used as an evacuation centre during past natural disasters in the region. 

Iconic Lennox beach shed upgraded –  not demolished

Lennox Park and the shelter shed has now been upgraded and reopened.

Govt cost-shifting ‘erodes financially sustainable local government’

Byron Shire Council looks set to add its voice to the growing chorus calling on the state government to stop shifting responsibilities and costs onto local government.

Saddle Road group home DA decision this week

Plans to build Byron Shire’s first permanent group home for women and children in housing stress are moving ahead, with the development application for the project coming before Council this week.