‘Almost Pumping’: Dunedin Surf on Film

Posted 3:33pm Sunday 25th February 2024 by Hugh Askerud

Surf culture in Ōtepoti has always operated in an uneasy tandem with the student community. When a gaggle of students sputter into view of the beach, most local surfers roll their eyes and call it a day, or else begrudgingly share their waves with often very good (if greedy) student surfers. We Read more...

Predicting Oscar Winners with my Covid Iso

Posted 5:50pm Sunday 27th March 2022 by Elliot Weir

As one of the many annoying film people working at Critic Te Arohi, I found myself obligated to pass judgement on who I think will win the upcoming Oscars. I couldn’t fit all 24 categories here, so I’ve cut out the acting awards, the short films, and a few others. I am also writing this Read more...

Wind River

Posted 12:49pm Sunday 8th October 2017 by Callum Post

Rating: 4/5 Wind River is directed by Taylor Sheridan, who wrote the screenplay for Oscar nominated movies Sicario and Hell or High Water. This is only his second outing as a director, and the first with a budget bigger than my student loan. Wind River is a grim crime-thriller that centres on Read more...

Loveless

Posted 12:52pm Sunday 8th October 2017 by Diana Tran

Rating: 4.5/5 A Russian couple, Zhenya and Boris, are getting a divorce, and unfortunately there are no court battles for custody in Russia. The son hears his parents arguing over who should have to take care of him, and runs away from home. The film follows the parents’ search for their Read more...

Logan Lucky

Posted 11:28am Saturday 30th September 2017 by Callum Post

Rating: 3/5 Few things are more entertaining than trying to predict how a well thought out heist flick will play out. Logan Lucky is a revisit of this formula, starring a slew of A-list names such as Daniel Craig, Channing Tatum, Katie Holmes, and the up-in-coming Adam Driver. The movie Read more...

IT

Posted 11:27am Saturday 30th September 2017 by Todd Johnstone

Rating: 4/5 While not as scary as many people were suggesting, I wouldn’t recommend IT to anyone already suffering from Coulrophobia. This is the second adaptation of Stephen King’s 1986 novel to be put to screen, following the 1990 mini-series. Director Andy Muschietti has revamped Read more...

Paris Can Wait

Posted 1:45pm Sunday 24th September 2017 by Gem MacDuff

Rating: 1/5 I really, really wanted this to be the Eat, Pray, Love we all deserve, but all this film made me feel was hungry. Eleanor Coppola’s Paris Can Wait follows Anne (Diane Lane), the wife of a loving but distant movie producer and his business partner Jacques (Arnaud Viard) as Read more...

Rough Night

Posted 1:50pm Sunday 24th September 2017 by Gem MacDuff

Rating: 2/5 Amped for a kick-ass, unabashedly feminist film about a bunch of fierce yet comic women fighting the good fight, I have to say I was disappointed. Wonder Woman was sold out. Instead I was ushered into a nearly empty cinema to see Lucia Aniello’s “Rough Night”. In a Read more...

Ethel & Ernest

Posted 1:09pm Sunday 17th September 2017 by Alex Campbell-Hunt

Rating: 4.5/5 What a nice film. Ethel & Ernest is an animated film based on a book by Raymond Briggs, the author of a number of beloved ‘80s and '90s children’s picture books, about the lives of his parents, milkman dad Ernest and lady’s-maid mum Ethel, voiced superbly Read more...

6 Days

Posted 1:12pm Sunday 17th September 2017 by Diana Tran

Rating: 3.5/5 6 Days tells the true story of the 1980 siege of the Iranian Embassy in London. The embassy was stormed by six individuals, who held 26 people hostage for six days. The film follows police negotiator Max Vernon (Mark Strong), who aims to resolve the situation diplomatically and Read more...