Hot Takes: Phantastic Ferniture, LGBT Netflix films and Hir

Julia Garner and Lily Tomlin in Grandma. Photo / supplied

GROOVE

Julia Jacklin's finely painted folk music left me winded when I first discovered it, and I've returned to her debut album Don't Let the Kids Win over and over since its 2016 release. When I recently discovered the band Phantastic Ferniture via a Spotify playlist, I knew the vocalist sounded familiar; it was Jacklin herself, as part of the garage-rock band she formed with her pals Elizabeth Hughes and Ryan K Brennan. Their self-titled debut album arrived a couple of weeks ago, and it's a crafty, jubilant collection of pacy rock-pop – the kind that can only come from a band clearly having a hell of a lot of fun.

Julia Jacklin's new band Phantastic Ferniture. Photo / supplied

STREAM

Now that NZIFF has bowed for another year, niche cinema goes back to being a scarce resource. Thankfully, Netflix is finally starting to expand its once-dire LGBT section, which I know I'm not the only person to have trawled through in search of a good queer film. The streaming service just added an old festival pick, Grandma, following a lesbian woman who helps her pregnant granddaughter out of trouble. There's also The Feels, starring Crazy Rich Asians' Constance Wu; the acclaimed coming-of-age story Princess Cyd; and the experimental comedy Duck Butter, starring Search Party's Alia Shawkat.

GO

The coming week offers the last few chances to see one of the best pieces of theatre I've seen in years – Silo Theatre's Hir. The play, starring the great Rima Te Wiata, follows a son who returns from Afghanistan to his family home in rural America – only to discover the once-nuclear unit has been upended by his sibling's gender transition, his mother's liberation, and his father's stroke. The chaotic set captures the political messiness of our time with an almost stressful excellence, and Sophie Roberts' taut direction draws enthralling performances from Te Wiata, Nathaniel Lees, Adam Rohe and Arlo Green. It's at the Herald Theatre until next Saturday; don't miss it.

Rima Te Wiata in Hir. Photo / David St George

LISTEN

I devour interview podcasts with artists and performers from the US and the UK, so I was very excited to find Going Off Script, a local podcast featuring long-form interviews with New Zealand artists, performers, and actors. Hosted by theatre-makers Alice Canton and Matt Eller, the show's first season features insightful interviews with artists such as Kura Forrester, Johanna Cosgrove and Awhimai Fraser. The chats offer insight into what it means to be an artist in New Zealand today, and how our country values the profession as a whole. There's plenty of laughs – and some wine drinking thrown in the mix.