Some critics can’t quite agree on what they’ve watched, which tells you everything. The Guardian calls it a “total joy,” charmed by Gunn’s refusal to perform the role of the robotic, ultra-disciplined athlete - she’s messy, human, unfiltered, and apparently that’s the point. 

The Sydney Morning Herald isn’t buying it, describing a woman “caught in a mess of her own making” and calling out the doco for serving up only a version of the truth - a very Netflix version, engineered as the opening act of a comeback tour. 

ABC News sits in the middle, more interested in dissecting just how “brutally unprepared” Gunn really was, and in the gap between her parents laughing the whole thing off and her competitive breakdancing peers seething with something closer to genuine resentment.

Here’s where I land: it’s all three of those things at once, and that’s precisely the problem. The film is kind of charming but it is also, unmistakably, a PR exercise - beautifully shot, generously edited, and structured to end on uplift rather than accountability.

What got glossed over, again and again, in favour of a redemption bow, is the actual substance of the controversy: a competitor arrived at an Olympic Games without the preparation, the pedigree, or frankly the ability to be there. And unfortunately, she had one coach – her husband who thinks everything she does is beautiful and the other coach, some guy who runs breaking in Australia, who hardly ever saw her.

Documentaries like this one are never really about the truth - they’re about narrative control, and Netflix knows exactly what it’s doing by letting Gunn reclaim hers after she stepped down from working at Macquarie University. 

Fair enough, everyone deserves a chance to tell their own story. But viewers should clock the fuzziness: a happy ending doesn’t retroactively make the original decision defensible, it just makes it easier to move past.

Whether you found this a joyous piece of television or a calculated rebrand depends entirely on how you felt walking in.

I enjoyed the doco – particularly the stuff about her allegedly getting into the Olympics in the first place because of her husband - a theory that was well and truly debunked. But I walked in unconvinced by the routine and walked out unconvinced by the redemption. Let’s face it, sugar can only coat so much.

(I’d still watch it again though.)

And it’s not because anyone’s unkind - quite the opposite in fact - but it’s because these particular dogs are sooo good. They sit up on command. They hold a pose for the camera like tiny, furry, modelling professionals. They wait patiently while their humans fuss with outfit preening, styling, treat-bribes and initiate the best lighting.

And then there’s Scout. My little cavoodle named after Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird - a character who was never particularly interested in sitting still, dressing ‘up’ and doing as she was told either - both of whom have never run to script. 

In Scout (the dogs) case, it’s probably the result of some pretty hap-hazard training, courtesy of that renowned and revered dog whisperer. Me.

While the other dogs held their perfect poses, Scout was doing what Scout does: running her own show, on her own terms, pretty much disinterested in anyone’s timeline but her own.

That show played out at the teddy bears’ picnic for a beautiful boy named Ted, turning the grand old age of ten.

At Brew Dog in South Eveleigh - a warm, spacious, genuinely fun space - turns out it’s not just for dogs as the humans were rather taken with the venue and the 1000 beers on tap.

Every last treat on the dessert table - a honey-pot birthday cake with Ted’s name iced on, cupcakes, hand-woven picnic baskets stuffed with goodies  was made by the wildly talented Cheers Big Ears. It was, quite genuinely, an Insta paradise.

I’ll confess something else: I’m not much of a dog-dress-up person. I love scrolling past pups in tiny theatrical outfits as much as anyone, but full-on doggy frockage has never really been Scout’s thing, nor truthfully mine. Still, I let myself go a little way into it yesterday - bought a little jumper with a teddy bear appliqué on it and suddenly, she was a part of the team.

There’s actually something disarming and cute about watching a room full of grown adults gently coax their dogs back into their teddy ears and outfits for a series of snaps. Or ten.

But that’s really what struck me most. Behind every perfectly posed pup was someone - often someone with grown children, or none at all - who adore that dog with the same fierce, soft-eyed love you’d give any family member. 

No irony, no performance for the camera underneath it. Just people who love their dogs enormously, dressed up for a friend’s tenth birthday, on a very ordinary Saturday that felt anything but.

Happy birthday, Ted.

Scout says a huuuuuge thank you for having her, in her own free-spirited way, of course.

We’ve optimised the fun right out of fun by, pretty simply, outsourcing it to a device - in silence - in order to avoid actual silence. Ironic huh?

Whi…

Read more

Scroll X, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Facebook - pick your platform poison - and you’ll see it. A “gorgeous” photo. A “hilarious” clip. A “wholesome” moment that racks up thousands of hearts and “OMG so c…

Read more

Read more

When you start to believe the “investment piece” pitch every single season, you sometimes end up with a few near-misses. Too stiff. Too try-hard. Too “I peaked in 2016”.

Regardless, I have 3 leather…

Read more

Read more

If the original The Devil Wears Prada was about getting in, the sequel is about staying relevant once you’re there. And that’s where it lands its smartest punch.

The Devil Wears Prada 2, starring Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt and Stanley Tucci has landed, nearly 20 years after the release of the first. Directed by the 2006 film…

Read more

Right now, let’s change the current media focus and talk about Pamela Anderson.

The woman who was, for decades, arguably the most photographed, most parodied and most spectacularly underestimated woman on the planet is in Sydney and then Melbourne as part of Wanderlust’s True North series.

And Australians have responded with something close t…

Read more

Who ever thought barrel-leg jeans were a great idea was seriously having a lend. They’re like wearing a couple of bananas, some walking parentheses or a denim egg.

Yup. Barrel-leg jeans are having a moment. A big one with their intentional awkwardness still everywhere - on runways; in store windows; on influencers doing ‘effortlessly leanin…

Read more

Radio is in that rare, combustible position where the Australian numbers will land (Thursday, March 19 to be exact) but the reality behind them has already shifted.

Let’s start with KIIS 1065 and its once defining force - Kyle Sandilands and Jackie ‘O’ Henderson - whose show was on air for part of the book, not for all of it - and with the duo both rece…

Read more

I’m not selling astrology or life discernment. I’ll leave that to the masters of the cosmos and our own algorithms! But boy, there’s been a whole lot of whispering (and let’s be honest, a bit of dramatic Insta carry-on) about this “shedding” moment before this very unusual Lunar New Year.

The Year of the Fire Horse only gallops in once every…

Read more

Once upon a time, flying was an event. Not a ball gown moment but at least it included presentable humans in public moments. These days? Well, somewhere between boarding group chaos and neck pillow couture, we have collectively decided that the plane is now an extension of the couch.

Let’s be clear: nobody is asking for three-piece suits, Di…

Read more

Every couple of years, without fail, the Winter Olympics roll around and quietly hijack our collective attention. Productivity dips. Sleep schedules wobble. Group chats fill with messages like “What on earth is this sport and why can’t I stop watching?” And suddenly, despite living in a country where winter mostly…

Read more

Melissa Hoyer 

I didn’t know Canadian actress and comedian Catherine O’Hara. I never interviewed her, never exchanged pleasantries backstage, never sat across a café table dissecting the business of show. And yet her death is staying with me, heavier than expected, quieter but deeper, lingering longer than logic would suggest.

Because this is the strange …

Read more

Brooklyn Beckham has finally said the quiet part out loud. That growing up inside one of the most famous families on earth isn’t all matching Christmas pyjamas and front-row seats at fashion week. That there are expectations. Pressure. Control. And that sometimes, to become your own person, you have to step away - even when…

Read more

Don’t you feel there’s a hesitation in the air as we move toward 2026? Not fear exactly. Something quieter. More watchful.

It shows up in small ways. The way any invitation is softened. The way captions on posts are edited and re-edited. The way people check themselves before saying, ‘We had the best night’. As though joy now needs a disclai…

Read more

I say this as someone who’s written about Derby Day dress codes for decades, and attended the same, not with nostalgia, but with th…

Read more

If this romance is genuine and really true (and from credible accounts it certainly seems so) there could not be any happier ‘celeb’ news.

The coupling of the pair, who aren’t millennials or Gen Zers (yes, p…

Read more

Subscribe now

Read more