Archive

Broken City

Posted 6:30pm Sunday 24th March 2013 by Tim Lindsay

Having recently seen Russell Crowe’s sensitive side in Les Miserables, my inner Crowe-Bro yearned for the gladiatorial, UFO-spotting, phone-throwing Russell that we have all come to love over the last 10 years. Crowe teams up with Mark Wahlberg in a gritty political thriller that disappointingly Read more...

Liberal Arts

Posted 6:30pm Sunday 24th March 2013 by Jonny Mahon-Heap

Hollywood doesn’t tend to capture the “university experience” (for lack of a less cringeworthy term) with much accuracy or success. Mostly consisting of American Pie-esque comedies or 90s trash like The Skulls, the genre doesn’t quite work. Liberal Arts (the stateside term for a BA) succeeds where Read more...

Wuthering Heights

Posted 6:30pm Sunday 24th March 2013 by Ailis Oliver-Kerby

To physically represent the angst at the heart of the story, the opening of Wuthering Heights shows Heathcliff banging his head against a brick wall. This is precisely what I felt like doing for the first half of the movie. The characters are unlikable, the shaky camera technique made me nauseous, Read more...

God of War vs Gears of War

Posted 6:30pm Sunday 24th March 2013 by Baz Macdonald

Back in the days of Playstation vs. Nintendo N64, when choosing a console most people would pick the opposite console to what their friends had, so that you and your mates had access to all the games being released. Now, in the age of PS3 vs. Xbox 360, factors such as online gameplay have created a Read more...

On the Road

Posted 6:30pm Sunday 24th March 2013 by Josef Alton

In the autumn of 1957, Jack Kerouac picked up an early edition of the New York Times from an all-night newsstand in the Upper West Side, Manhattan and read Gilbert Millstein’s review of On the Road. Millstein declared the novel “the most beautifully executed, the clearest and the most important Read more...

Grilled Pepper, Squid and Sesame Salad

Posted 6:30pm Sunday 24th March 2013 by Ines Shennan

Squid is incredibly easy to incorporate into exciting dishes due to its tender texture and ability to be complemented by a range of flavours. You can pick up 500g of squid from the supermarket for $7 on special and when accompanied by the udon noodles, this meal will stretch out to feed three or Read more...

Slow and Spicy Chicken

Posted 6:30pm Sunday 24th March 2013 by Ines Shennan

A few weeks ago I bought a slow cooker and am now left wondering how I have survived four years of student life without one. The benefits are twofold. Firstly, slow cookers allow you to haphazardly throw a selection of ingredients together and leave them gently simmering for half a day or longer – Read more...

Frontier Ruckus - Eternity Dimming

Posted 5:43pm Sunday 17th March 2013 by Tom McCone

Over this now-fading summer I’ve discovered and fallen for a few bands, but the one that caught my heartstrings and plucked them the strongest was alt-folk-Americana-country-something quartet Frontier Ruckus. After listening to their 2008 effort Orion Town Songbook on repeat for days and sinking Read more...

How To Destroy Angels - Welcome Oblivion

Posted 5:43pm Sunday 17th March 2013 by Basti Menkes

For me, Trent Reznor’s music has never really surpassed guilty pleasure status. As much as I love and get a kick out of Nine Inch Nails classics like The Downward Spiral and The Fragile, the pubescent angst that permeates those records takes away from how thrilling they are musically; I always walk Read more...

Eraserhead

Posted 5:43pm Sunday 17th March 2013 by Callum Fredric

The Worst Film Ever Made I physically attacked my flatmate after he made me watch this film. Eraserhead is a cult film. But not cult in the good sense like Pulp Fiction or The Big Lebowski. Cult in the bad sense, like Destiny Church. As with Bishop Brian Tamaki, director David Lynch has Read more...

Great Expectations

Posted 5:43pm Sunday 17th March 2013 by Christine Edwards

A classic romance has graced the big screen this autumn. I would take caution when watching this film – it is sobby and may cause severe sweet tooth, but you will become emotionally invested in the character Pip. Just a heads up boys, if you take your girlfriend to this she may expect more romantic Read more...

The Master

Posted 5:43pm Sunday 17th March 2013 by Lyle Skipsey

I don’t know what possessed Joaquin Phoenix to take his weird break from acting/artistic endeavour but it’s great to have him back. His tortured performance as Freddie Quell, a sex-obsessed, alcoholic army vet returning to the real world in Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master is the best of an Read more...

Silver Linings Playbook

Posted 5:43pm Sunday 17th March 2013 by Rosie Howells

Silver Linings Playbook is a dark romantic comedy/drama that follows the blossoming relationship between two damaged individuals. Pat (Bradley Cooper) is a bipolar man recently released from a psychiatric hospital who bargains with his neighbour – the depressed and promiscuous widow Tiffany Read more...

Sim City 5 (2013)

Posted 5:43pm Sunday 17th March 2013 by Baz Macdonald

Last year publishing company Electronic Arts (EA) was named the “Worst Company in the World” by Consumer magazine. I am not a huge fan of EA, but I couldn’t help wondering how, in a collapsing global economy, with BP spilling oils into our seas, a video game publisher got voted the worst company? Read more...

Lives We Leave Behind

Posted 5:43pm Sunday 17th March 2013 by Feby Idrus

Lives We Leave Behind, the newest release from Dunedin author Maxine Alterio, begins with a quote from Catherine Black, a nurse who served during World War I. “You could not go through the things we went through,” Black writes, “see the things we saw, and remain the same. You went into it young and Read more...

Kronos Quartet (USA)

Posted 4:23pm Sunday 10th March 2013 by Basti Menkes

Legendary classical ensemble Kronos Quartet have been called many things in their lifetime – passionate, intense, experimental, exhilarating. With 40 years’ touring experience and almost as many albums under their belts, they are among the most prolific and influential classical musicians of the Read more...

Devendra Banhart - Mala

Posted 4:23pm Sunday 10th March 2013 by Basti Menkes

Devendra Banhart was at one time among the strongest, strangest voices in psychedelic folk. He was discovered around the turn of the millennium by Swans frontman and Young God Records owner Michael Gira, who took the then-homeless Banhart under his wing and released a trio of albums that are Read more...

The Guilt Trip

Posted 4:23pm Sunday 10th March 2013 by Josie Cochrane

Seth Rogen and Barbra Streisand are the producers and stars of this heart-warming, yet not-so-funny, comedy. The Guilt Trip follows a mother, Joyce (Streisand) and her son, Andy (Rogen) as they embark on a cross-country road trip, attempting to sell Andy’s cleaning product creation to major buyers. Read more...

Oz the Great and Powerful (3D)

Posted 4:23pm Sunday 10th March 2013 by Jonny Mahon-Heap

To say that the resurgence of fairytales within recent blockbusters has yielded mixed results would be an understatement. From the commercially successful but creatively bankrupt (Alice in Wonderland, Snow White and the Huntsman), to those bankrupt both commercially and creatively (Little Red Riding Read more...

I Give It A Year

Posted 4:23pm Sunday 10th March 2013 by Tim Lindsay

I Give it a Year is a pleasant deviation from your run of the mill rom-com. Dan Mazer, known for his production and writing roles in Ali G Indahouse, Borat, Brüno, and The Dictator superbly balances cringe-worthy humour with more subtle hilarity and raises serious questions about love, married life Read more...