We’re halfway there! It’s June, the perfect time to take a pop culture inventory of the best things we’ve watched, listened to, read and can’t stop thinking about for the first half of the year. Plus, we preview the books, movies, TV, films and live shows that will get us through the rest 2024.

LOOKING BACK

MUSIC: Fabiana Palladino, Fabiana Palladino
The London musician’s unassuming debut remains the sort of album destined to be rediscovered by future generations as an underappreciated masterpiece. The daughter of session legend Pino Palladino and a protege of Jai Paul’s forward-thinking Paul Institute, Fabiana Palladino’s self-titled slab was a skip-free triumph. Booming songs such as I Can’t Dream Anymore and Give Me a Sign showcased her intellectual appreciation for timeless sophistipop and the melodic bounce of ’80s new wave and ’90s R&B, yet bubbled with dense, unexpected textures and off-kilter, maximalist production. RM

MOMENT: Ryan Gosling performing I’m Just Ken at the Oscars
From the moment Ryan Gosling flashdanced his way through the central number in Greta Gerwig’s Barbie last July, we sensed this was coming. Even while Finneas and Billie Eilish’s maudlin What Was I Made For? started winning all the accolades, there was no way the Oscars’ organisers could miss the opportunity. Gosling, flexing the Mouseketeer chops forever lying dormant in his deepest cells, didn’t disappoint. The opening behind a giggling Margot Robbie, the playful shimmy alongside his La La Land co-star Emma Stone, the pink leather glove draped over a slashing Slash, Greta Gerwig’s incredulous “what the f—” stance at its close, the whole thing deserved its standing ovation. Stick it in an apocalypse-proof time capsule so future civilisations can understand just how fabulous we were in 2024. RM

TV: Such Brave Girls (Stan)
Given we’ve reached the middle of the year, I think it’s permissible to claim that Such Brave Girls might be the best new comedy series of the year. The British six-parter tracks the dysfunctional relationship between single mother Deb (Louise Brealey) and her two daughters Josie (the show’s creator Kat Sadler) and Billie (Sadler’s sister in real life, Lizzie Davidson). It’s a bonkers show, in the best possible way. Themes of trauma, depression and poverty are dealt with so deftly that the show pulls a Mary Poppins on you, serving up a spoonful of sugar to make the medicine go down. The dialogue is something to be savoured, so fair warning, you’ll probably find yourself rewinding because you missed a joke while laughing at the previous one. MK

LIVE: The President (Sydney Theatre Company)
A co-production between the Sydney Theatre Company and Gate Theatre, Dublin, this staging of Austrian playwright Thomas Bernhard’s 1975 political satire had a bloviating performance from Hugo Weaving as the Trump-like dictator of an unnamed country under siege from anarchic dissidents. Loud and pompous and gross, Weaving seemed to revel in the scene-chewing possibilities of the character, in what was his first production with the STC in three years. The play’s final scene, a marvel of impracticality, was the sort of playful, ambitious closer audiences don’t soon forget. RM

BOOK: Knife, Salman Rushdie
On August 12, 2022, Salman Rushdie was delivering a public lecture about violence against writers when he was stabbed multiple times. The optic nerve in his right eye was damaged, and the post-traumatic stress led him to think that he might never write again. But Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder - his 22nd book and third memoir - offered a way to take charge of the attack, turning a hateful story into one, ultimately, of love. “Writing about the attack felt like being in charge of my life again and not just being a victim of a knife attack,” Rushdie has said. MK

MOMENT: Kendrick Lamar vs Drake, the feud
Back in March, when Kendrick Lamar dropped the first shots in his battle with Drake on Future and Metro Boomin’s Like That, I’ll admit I brushed it off as playfully inconsequential, passing clickbait. Months later, it’s become a defining thread in the year’s pop cultural narrative. The feud has been mesmerising, with Kendrick and Drake upping the stakes with a frenzy fitting for the Web 3.0 era and letting ugly allegations linger to the point the whole thing threatened to spill into real-world repercussions. And yet, amid all that, it’s gifted us an all-timer when Kendrick beat Drake at his own game, crafting an infectious chart-topper in Not Like Us that’s had pop fans, festival crowds, even kids and parents on their morning commute, chanting “O-V-Hoe!” like the world’s silliest mantra. RM

FILM: American Fiction (Prime Video)
I’m still shocked this hilarious satire on the literary world didn’t get a cinema release in Australia, going straight to streaming despite five Oscar nominations. Based on Percival Everett’s novel Erasure, Cord Jefferson’s directorial debut follows professor and writer Thelonius “Monk” Ellison (Jeffrey Wright) who, frustrated by the publishing world’s obsession with black literary stereotypes, adopts the persona of a criminal on the run and releases My Pafology, a story of drugs, violence, absent parents and poverty. Of course, the white publishing heads and book clubs lap it up, and what started as a joke becomes a little too real. There’s a great supporting cast including Tracee Ellis Ross, Issa Rae, Sterling K.Brown and John Ortiz. MK

LIVE: Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour
I hope I don’t become the kind of old person who says to my children and colleagues “I was there...” but on the off chance they ask, at least I can say I was. The most interactive show I’ve ever been to - from the costumes and the chants to the TikTok transitions and friendship bracelets. Far more than music, the Eras Tour was about all these moments. Swift has proven that a tour doesn’t start and end in a stadium, and we can already see her influence on up-and-coming pop stars like Olivia Rodrigo (Love is Embarrassing dance) and Sabrina Carpenter (Nonsense outro). Even if you didn’t get to the show, you’ll be able to at least say “I was there when Taylor Swift went to Sydney Zoo twice”. MK

FILM: Challengers
Look, no one’s more shocked than me that a film about a love triangle between tennis brats could be this compellingly enjoyable, but here we are. People might still be arguing about that final shot – I mean, I don’t know why, the whole movie’s essentially a queer-coded callback – but the film is a beautiful hoot, an Adrian Lyne-esque relationship thriller for the Gen Z set. Director Luca Guadagnino brings his auteurist touch to Justin Kuritzkes’ psychologically loaded script, making this the best time at the movies yet this year (although granted, I still haven’t seen The Garfield Movie). RM

MUSIC: Cowboy Carter, Beyoncé
Yeehaw! Country has never been this cool. A few years ago Beyonce’s song Daddy Lessons caused a stir with country radio stations refusing to play the track and the Grammys rejecting it from the country category. If you associate country music with white men, banjos, whiskey, cowboy hats and drawls, Cowboy Carter will show you what Americana can be. The second in a planned trilogy of albums showcasing African American contributions to music, Cowboy Carter melds blues, folk, R&B, pop and more. There are 27 tracks, but if you want a sampler, hit Texas Hold ’Em, Bodyguard, Levii’s Jeans, Ya Ya and Daughter. MK

TV: Jerrod Carmichael Reality Show (Binge)
Egotistical vanity play, or reality television at its most ruthlessly honest? The wider verdict on standup Jerrod Carmichael’s ridiculously revealing series seems to be split down the middle. But to me, it’s radically (and, at times, recklessly) raw in a way that television seldom is. Take, for instance, the series’ fourth episode, where Carmichael suddenly confronts his father over his lifelong infidelity (family dirty laundry Carmichael first aired as the shocking closer of his 2017 special, 8) – it’s uncomfortable to the point of upsetting, with Carmichael brandishing his camera like a weapon. In this day and age, it feels like a privilege to get to watch something so agonisingly real. RM

BOOK: Martyr!, Kaveh Akbar
This is one of the most original and interesting contemporary debut novels I’ve read in some time, and even beyond that tag “debut” it’s one of the best books of the year. Written by Iranian-American poet Kaveh Akbar, the story follows recovering addict and artist Cyrus Shams who has an obsession with martyrs, and with the meaning of death. His mother was killed after the plane she was travelling on was shot down over the Persian Gulf by an American missile; his father works a gruelling job as a chicken family after moving the family to America. I don’t want to give too much away, but there are plenty of surprises in this moving story about creativity, addiction, grief and family.

LOOKING FORWARD

TV: The Bear (Disney, from June 27)
This year really needs a television series that we can all get behind, one that will provide us with a go-to conversation when we bump into colleagues in the kitchen. The second half of season two of the show, about the eponymous Chicago sandwich shop turned restaurant, provided some remarkable moments, such as Cousin Richie singing Taylor Swift, the most awkward Christmas dinner ever and Carmy locked in a freezer. Now the team is back, and early trailers suggest that the heat is building, both in the kitchen and out of it. Get prepared for the love affair with the white tee-shirt to resume, and to add the word “chef” every time a mere “yes” would suffice.

LIVE: Ali Wong (July 11-23)
The second half of 2024 already promises a solid lineup of live standup comedy from international superstars including comedian’s comedian Maria Bamford and rising star Atsuko Okatsuka, but the biggest name heading our way might be Ali Wong, for her first Australian comedy tour. The acclaimed comic’s global breakthrough came with her 2016 Netflix special Baby Cobra, filmed when she was seven months pregnant with her first child, and its follow-up 2018’s Hard Knock Wife, again filmed while pregnant and filled with her sardonic riffs on motherhood and family. She recently won an Emmy and Golden Globe for her lead turn on the Netflix series Beef, but she’s coming to Australia with fresh material, having just filmed a new special at Hollywood’s Netflix is a Joke festival in May. RM

FILM: Megalopolis (expected September)
You know how Michelangelo was so obsessed with completing the Sistine Chapel that he spent years atop a shaky ladder and ruined his eyesight and body? Well, that’s Megalopolis for Francis Ford Coppola. He first came up with the idea in 1977, and the film went in and out of development facing delays and cancellations for the next four decades. Coppola has put $US 120 million of his funds into the film, the first he has directed since 2011’s Twixt. It premiered at Cannes to mixed reviews, and is about the reconstruction of New York City after a disaster where Adam Driver plays a visionary architect trying to rebuild the city into a utopia. From the trailer, this film seems utterly bonkers. MK

BOOK: Intermezzo, Sally Rooney (September 24)
I feel like Sally Rooney gets an unfair rap these days. People seem to roll their eyes at the woman whose novels Conversations with Friends and Normal People made publishers aware that young people read and sometimes enjoy reading about young people’s experiences. The wave of so-called “Millennial fiction” that followed those novels now seems to be taken for granted, and Rooney a little out of fashion. But I’m excited for Intermezzo, her first novel in three years, which continues her fascination with complicated relationships featuring two grieving brothers Peter and Ivan. MK

MOMENT: Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck’s relationship
Can we handle the end of Bennifer? After their romance in the early 2000s, they put to test the aphorism “if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again” when they married in 2023. In what might turn out to be their best performances to date, they convinced us that they were precisely what each other needed. But lately there have been reports they’ve been living apart, they’re not wearing their wedding rings, and their public interactions appear strained. The signs aren’t looking good for Jenny and Benny. Let’s just hope he doesn’t have the tattooist who delivered his full-back Phoenix on speed dial. MK

MUSIC: Only One Mode, Speed (July 12)
The Sydney hardcore band, led by brothers Jem and Aaron Siow, have become international phenomenons following an acclaimed opening slot for US band Turnstile, some fantastically raucous music videos (which have spawned their own viral reaction videos on YouTube), and blistering songs centred on a righteous expression of their Asian-Australian identities. Even superstar Post Malone is an avowed fan. From basement shows in Marrickville to overseas tours, they’ve already taken Australia’s niche hardcore scene global, making their debut LP, out in July, one of the year’s most anticipated. Lead single The First Test even adds new textures to their snarling, confrontational sound. Is that a flute solo leading into a slap-bass breakdown? Speed, we salute you. RM

TV: Time Bandits (Apple TV+, from July 24)
Just look at this pedigree: Taika Waititi, Jemaine Clement and Iain Morris (of In-Betweeners fame), creating and writing a modern-day reboot of Terry Gilliam’s fantastical 1981 cult epic Time Bandits, directed by Waititi himself and starring Lisa Kudrow as a time-travelling space pirate. The series, which follows the exploits of an 11-year-old history nerd outcast by his philistine parents and siblings, promises deadpan humour in spades. RM

BOOK: Theory & Practice, Michelle de Kretser (October 29)
The latest novel from the two-time Miles Franklin Award winner (Questions of Travel, The Life to Come) follows a woman, a first generation immigrant from Sri Lanka who moved to Sydney in childhood, looking back on her young adulthood as she tries to balance her desires, emotions and values. Publishers are billing this novel as having “echoes of Shirley Hazzard and Virigina Woolf”, so sounds like we’re in for a treat. MK

FILM: Trap (August 8)
Chalk up another one for the Hartnett-saince. Or should that be the Hart(nett) transplant? Whatever you want to call it, actor Josh Hartnett, one-time millennial dreamboat-turned-overexposed bust, is having a much deserved career recalibration, and it’s set to continue past mid-2024. First came a solid reintroduction in Black Mirror, then a prominent role in Christopher Nolan’s Oscar-winning Oppenheimer, and now he’s taking what looks like a Norman Bates-ian lead in M. Night Shyamalan’s upcoming thriller Trap, playing a doting dad looking to enjoy a night with his daughter at a show from her favourite pop star (of course, all is not what it seems). If you haven’t seen the trailer, cue it up and watch your anticipation grow like Josh Hartnett’s cultural clout. RM

LIVE: Oscar (Australian Ballet, November 8-23)
His words dance on the page, and now Oscar Wilde’s tumultuous life will be taken to the stage. The Australian Ballet will premiere a new full-length ballet Oscar about the Irish writer’s life. Choreographer Christopher Wheeldon has said the ballet will draw on Wilde’s masterpieces, but mainly focus on the stranger-than-fiction details of his life, “his champagne-like triumphs, descent into depravity and tragic end serving time in prison”. Callum Linnane will take on the titular role. MK

MUSIC: C, XOXO, Camila Cabello (June 28)
It was in late March that Camila Cabello – the former Fifth Harmony singer best known for her 2017 smash Havana – dropped I Luv It, the delirious lead single from her upcoming album, C, XOXO. Cabello had teased a radical departure from her signature sound, and I Luv It delivered in the most bizarre terms, borrowing a classic hook from Gucci Mane’s Lemonade and featuring a comically garbled guest verse from enigmatic rage rap icon Playboi Carti. The internet’s since been clowning Cabello’s sudden grungified makeover from here to Coachella, as though a 27-year-old pop star’s not allowed to evolve their tastes and aesthetic, but I’m here for her freak flag. With the album produced by Spanish indie eccentric El Guincho (Rosalia), here’s hoping it brings more left-field intrigue. RM

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MOMENT: Lana goes country
At a pre-Grammy event in February, beloved “legacy artist” (that’s what Taylor Swift called her) Lana Del Rey announced to a gathered audience that, like the rest of the music business, she was “going country”. “That’s why Jack (Antonoff) has followed me to Muscle Shoals, Nashville, Mississippi, over the last four years,” she added, before announcing her first country album Lasso would be coming in September. It’s intriguing to see so many pop stars dipping their toes into the country phenomenon (an odd reversal of the usual trend), but this makes sense: with its thematic seesaw between wild abandon and yearning domesticity, Del Rey’s writing has always been a little bit country, and she’s recently taken to covering standards like Tammy Wynette’s Stand By Your Man and John Denver’s Take Me Home, Country Roads. Seeing Lana and Beyonce muscle their way into the Grammys’ country establishment next year will be something. RM