6 Years

Posted 1:40pm Sunday 27th September 2015

Rating: 3/5 Hannah Fidell’s 6 Years takes a beautiful and authentic approach to the demise of a young couple’s six-year relationship. However, it falls just short of capturing the same empathy from its audience. Melanie “Mel” Clarke (Taissa Farmiga) and Dan Mercer (Ben Read more...

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl

Posted 1:42pm Sunday 20th September 2015

Rating: 4/5 Based on the young adult novel of the same name, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl offers the audience a refreshing take on the on-screen adolescent journey — one that is amusing, self-aware and skillfully made. Me and Earl and the Dying Girl is shown through the eyes of Greg Read more...

The Phantom Of The Opera

Posted 1:17pm Sunday 20th September 2015

Written during what France hails as its Golden Era, Gaston Leroux’s novel, The Phantom of the Opera stood out for several reasons. While his contemporaries were writing stories that reflected reality and our everyday lives, Leroux had returned to the gothic genre — one of mystery and Read more...

Cash Cropping on Culture

Posted 12:38pm Sunday 13th September 2015

Discrimination tends to be experienced only by certain groups of people. Some people will never endure professional, social or economic discrimination because of what they look like, where they come from or the origins of their ancestors. Those privileges are not necessarily realised, but they are Read more...

Alison Embleton Presents The Merchant of Venice

Posted 1:29pm Sunday 30th August 2015

Mandy Te got the chance to talk to director, Alison Embleton, about her version of The Merchant of Venice and the process of adapting William Shakespeare for a modern audience. The Merchant of Venice will be showing from 2 to 5 September at St. Paul’s Cathedral Crypt. Student tickets are Read more...

The New Zealand International Film Festival

Posted 1:42pm Sunday 2nd August 2015

The cinematic experience is lost when you stream a film online; for director of the New Zealand International Film Festival (NZIFF), Bill Gosden, the mere act of going to the movies plays a social role in our lives that can’t be replaced. Dunedin’s Regent Theatre and Rialto Cinemas Read more...

Interview with Virginia Heath

Posted 2:12pm Sunday 26th July 2015

Critic: When going through all the Scottish film archives, did you have specific things in mind when choosing what you would use, and how did you know which footage to pick? It was a fluid process. I wanted an overall theme of love and loss, which relates to a lot of things such as war, Read more...

Scream Season 1 (Episode 1)

Posted 2:07pm Sunday 26th July 2015

TV With slasher films being seen as a fad of the 1980s, the Scream franchise was said to have revitalised the horror genre in a way that was both satirical and enjoyable for teenagers in the 1990s. MTV’s Scream: TV Series is the television adaptation of the popular franchise and, in several Read more...

Paper Towns

Posted 2:03pm Sunday 26th July 2015

Rating 3/5 Like all things John Green, Paper Towns is a metaphor. With last year’s release of The Fault in Our Stars, comparisons will inevitably be made between these two films. However, Paper Towns — while similarly containing teenage characters who speak unnaturally — takes Read more...

Interview with Bill Gosden

Posted 2:09pm Sunday 19th July 2015

From 30 July to 16 August, the New Zealand International Film Festival (NZIFF) will be screening almost 100 films from 25 countries. Critic interviewed Bill Gosden, the director of NZIFF, to learn more about the event. What does your role as director of NZIFF entail? I’m responsible for Read more...