Tomorrow, When the War Began: a film made in a lab for 2010s Australian teens
Tomorrow, When The War Began – both the 2010 film and the John Marsden series it’s based on – is ostensibly an action-adventure story.A group of Australian teens go on a remote camping trip and, upon returning to their fictional town of Wirrawee, they learn the country has been invaded by an unnamed nation.But when I was 13, watching the movie in cinemas for the first time, I was far more transfixed by the adolescent thrill of it all: a child who couldn’t wait to be all grown up, observing the world of teenage debauchery with impatient awe.I was hooked from the first few minutes by the simple fact that this movie feels like it was made in a lab for Australian teenagers existing in the exact microcosm of 2010.The strong-willed and independent main character, Ellie, is played by Caitlin Stasey, an instantly recognisable face for any kid tuned into free-to-air TV in the 2000s; Phoebe Tonkin, one of the mermaids in teen drama H2O: Just Add Water, is prim townie Fiona; and Home and Away heart-throb Lincoln Lewis is masculine country boy Kevin.
The all-Australian soundtrack is peppered with 2000s classics, including from Jet, Sarah Blasko and Missy Higgins, whose track Steer has never sounded as good as it does in the opening title sequence.Beyond the well-known faces, the gang of teens felt true to life, long before diversity became a buzzword.There was Deniz Akdeniz’s mischievous and proud Greek boy Homer, Ashleigh Cummings’ shy church girl Robyn, and Chris Pang’s sweet and introspective first generation Vietnamese and Thai kid Lee.This wasn’t taking place in some faraway land like California or New York; these characters were like the people I actually knew and could place in my ordinary life.Sign up for the fun stuff with our rundown of must-reads, pop culture and tips for the weekend, every Saturday morningThis movie had such an impact on my teenage years that I was astounded to learn recently what a commercial flop it was.
Mention the film to anyone of a certain age and you might activate their sleeper cell adoration.Recently, a couple of my friends recalled blasting Fader by The Temper Trap on their first road trips, mirroring an early scene from the film where the characters are off-roading through the bush towards their campsite.Even now, when we imagine what war would look like in Australia, we picture somehow making it work off-grid in the bush like Ellie and her crew (no matter how city slicker we currently are).Rewatching the film as an adult, I’m able to identify the film’s true thrill: not the explosions or the hormonal relationships, but rather the surprisingly poignant portrayal of coming of age in a world that looks completely different from the one you were raised to expect.The messy moral conundrums are the emotional core of the story: young people forced to make drastic decisions because of circumstances outside their control.
The teenage group doesn’t want to brandish guns and go to war; in the only scene where an adult has more than a sentence of dialogue (a delightfully expositional cameo from Colin Friels), the concept of being a vigilante is actively discouraged: “A couple people tried to be heroes,They paid the price,”Unlike some American blockbusters, the main characters are motivated to defend Wirrawee less by patriotism than an intense loyalty to their local community,There is a moment where Ellie sneaks through the destroyed and looted town, glancing at a mural displaying the first fleet’s arrival in 1788,British colonisers are depicted triumphantly in the foreground but, as if for the first time, Ellie’s eyes drift to the Indigenous Australians illustrated in the back.
The implication is clear: invasion is baked into the bones of this country, and the one that breaks out in the film’s opening is nothing new.Sixteen years after the film’s release, the theme of being unprotected in a harsh world unlike the one that was promised to you is even more resonant for teenagers now.There is such limited media made specifically for Australian adolescents, so please take this as my argument to enshrine Tomorrow, When the War Began’s enduring legacy.It may have missed the Hunger Games-induced teen dystopia craze by two years but that doesn’t mean it can’t have a late-in-life resurgence.It’s time for a sequel!Tomorrow, When the War Began is available to stream on Stan in Australia and available to rent in Australia, the UK and the US.
For more recommendations of what to stream in Australia, go here
Google announces raft of free upgrades for Android phones
Google has announced a range of features coming to Android phones this year, including a new Gemini Intelligence AI system and a tool to help users avoid distracting apps.Revealed in a livestreamed “Android Show” event, the free upgrades are scheduled to arrive in waves over the next year for high-end new and old phones alike, including Samsung and Pixel devices. Google also revealed that a new lineup of laptops will arrive in the autumn.Gemini Intelligence will combine the company’s top AI tools into one system aimed at being more proactively useful.It will be able to automate tasks by directly interacting with the apps already on a phone
Head of Microsoft’s Israel branch to step down after inquiry into dealings with Israeli military
The head of Microsoft’s Israeli subsidiary will step down in the wake of an inquiry that has scrutinised its business dealings with the Israeli military.Microsoft ordered the inquiry last year in response to a Guardian investigation revealing the military had used the company’s technology to operate a powerful surveillance system that collected Palestinian civilian phone calls on a mass scale.The joint investigation with the Israeli-Palestinian publication +972 Magazine and the Hebrew-language outlet Local Call found the military’s elite spy agency, Unit 8200, had used Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform to store a vast trove of intercepted calls from Gaza and the West Bank.The inquiry commissioned by Microsoft is understood to have recently concluded. Its findings are unclear; however, sources familiar with the situation said they prompted an announcement last week that Microsoft Israel’s general manager, Alon Haimovich, would leave the company
GameStop’s $55.5bn bid for eBay rejected as ‘neither credible nor attractive’
The board of eBay has rejected the US video games retailer GameStop’s surprise $55.5bn bid (£41bn) for the online marketplace, describing the proposal as “neither credible nor attractive”.Earlier this month, GameStop made an unsolicited bid for eBay, publishing a letter on its website outlining a half-cash, half-stock proposal.This was despite the US games company – which became a global household name during the meme stock craze of 2021 – being worth far less than its takeover target. GameStop had a market valuation of roughly $12bn before its bid, almost a quarter of eBay’s $46bn valuation
Trump heads to China to spread the gospel of American tech
Hello, and welcome to TechScape. I’m your host, Blake Montgomery, US tech editor at the Guardian.Donald Trump is headed to China this week. If his guest list is any clue, he wants to discuss technology with Xi Jinping, though perhaps after the war in Iran.On Monday, news broke that outgoing Apple CEO, Tim Cook, as well as SpaceX and Tesla’s CEO, Elon Musk, would join Trump
Trump heads to China to spread the gospel of American tech while emulating Xi Jinping on AI
Donald Trump is heading to China this week. If his guest list is any clue, he wants to discuss technology with Xi Jinping, though perhaps after the war in Iran.On Monday, news broke that outgoing Apple CEO, Tim Cook, as well as SpaceX and Tesla CEO, Elon Musk, would join the US president. Other guests from the tech sphere include Meta’s recently appointed president, Dina Powell McCormick; Sanjay Mehrotra, CEO of computer memory maker Micron; Chuck Robbins, CEO of longtime telecom giant Cisco; and Cristiano Amon, CEO of semiconductor maker Qualcomm, according to a White House official.Jensen Huang, Nvidia’s CEO – who is close to Trump but criticized the US’s limitations on chip sales to China in an April interview, saying that he didn’t want a “loser mentality” to cost the US its edge in AI – will not be joining the president
Molière Ex Machina: AI used to create ‘new work’ by beloved French playwright
Molière is to the French what Shakespeare is to the English: the last word in historical literature, drama, wit and satire.Now, more than 350 years after his death, the 17th-century dramatist has been revived after scholars at the Sorbonne University in Paris used artificial intelligence to help write an experimental play in his style.L’Astrologue ou les Faux Présages (The Astrologer, or False Omens), a three-act comedy, made its debut at the Royal Opera at the Château de Versailles last week.The two-hour play tells the story of a wealthy bourgeois Parisian who, under the instruction of a charlatan astrologer called Pseudoramus, insists his daughter Lucile marry a debt-ridden and elderly wigmaker.While the theme could well have been dreamed up by Molière, the dialogue, music, costumes and scenery were all created with the help of a French AI tool called Le Chat (The Cat)
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