Archive

Why do we need..MOOC?

Posted 1:52pm Sunday 20th March 2016 by Anthony Marris

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are free online university based courses that allow anybody with a decent internet connection and an interest in knowledge to learn about something new. The courses are structured and typically range from 4 weeks to 3 months, some with fixed start dates and others Read more...

Hail Caesar

Posted 1:47pm Sunday 20th March 2016 by Nita Sullivan

Rating: A- The latest goofy flick by the Coen Brothers provides multitudes of spazzy plotlines, weird humour and wtf moments. Following a day in the life of ‘Hollywood fixer’ Eddie Mannix (played superbly by Josh Brolin), Hail Caesar’s ramshackle plot serves up random portions Read more...

Mahana

Posted 1:45pm Sunday 20th March 2016 by Lisa Blakie

Rating: C+ Mahana is the New Zealand film adapted from Witi Ihimaera’s novel Bulibasha: King of the Gypsies. Successful New Zealand actor Temuera Morrison plays Tamihana aka. the World’s Grumpiest Grandpa, who is the patriarch controlling literally every aspect of the Mahana Read more...

Peggy Guggenheim: Art Addict

Posted 1:43pm Sunday 20th March 2016 by Andrew Kwiatkowski

Rating: A I’ll be up front - I loathed the character that is the subject of this documentary. However, it must be said that the film itself is very, very well made. If, like me you had never heard of Peggy Guggenheim, the short version is that she was the real-deal rock’n’roll Read more...

The Lady In The Van

Posted 1:39pm Sunday 20th March 2016 by Lucy Hunter

Rating: A When Lady in the Van opened with Maggie Smith driving a van in the ‘70s in England, I was clawing at my seat with the claggy white smugness of it. It seems like every year Maggie Smith does a twee, baby-boomer-bait comedy piece to drag a group of people to the cinema who will only Read more...

The Chimes


Posted 1:34pm Sunday 20th March 2016 by Hayleigh Clarkson

I had high hopes for this novel. Anna Smaill’s The Chimes was long listed for the Man Booker Prize in 2015 and the New Zealand media went crazy for it, touting Anna as the next Eleanor Catton. Despite everyone else loving this novel, I found it to be dull and tedious with a shallow Read more...

Eggplant Pizza

Posted 3:28pm Sunday 13th March 2016 by Kirsten Garcia

Tis the season for all of my favourite veggies - I was thoroughly impressed by the size of the eggplants I got for this recipe I got two for $6 and I remember in winter last year that one small eggplant would cost the same price. Get in on this, guys.  I’m sure we can all agree that Read more...

Why Do We Need...tinder?

Posted 3:23pm Sunday 13th March 2016 by Anthony Marris

Tinder is a matching (dating) service which utilises geolocating software and your Facebook profile to help make lasting connections. And by lasting connections, I mean as long as they “last”.  Public opinion on Tinder is varied. A straw poll I conducted had mixed results. Some Read more...

Spotlight

Posted 3:15pm Sunday 13th March 2016 by Critic

Rating: A When reviewing a film with an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture there is a certain level of pressure to give it a positive review. After all, you can’t really give an Oscar winning filming a bad review, right? And yet the highest praise that can be given to the Read more...

Brooklyn

Posted 3:10pm Sunday 13th March 2016 by John Crowley

Rating: B+ Walking into this particular cinema screening, I carried with me a genuine lack of preconceptions and expectations around Brooklyn, a period drama centred around the experiences of a twenty-something Irish girl Eilis Lacey. And while the movie was largely enjoyable and engaging Read more...

Happy Gilmore


Posted 3:06pm Sunday 13th March 2016 by Jessica Thompson

Rating: C After reviewing a fantastic film last week, my standards had been set fairly high. So when my boyfriend told me with glee this movie was “crack up” I nestled down with an early Easter egg and considered this “sports comedy” as I consider French snails, cave Read more...

Room

Posted 3:03pm Sunday 13th March 2016 by Lisa Blakie

Rating: A- Adapted from the novel written by Emma Donoghue, Room was in the running for four Oscar categories this year. Brie Larson gives an incredible performance as Joy, a young woman who is kidnapped when she is 17 years old, and taken prisoner by a disturbed predator only known to the Read more...

Jeffrey Harris: Renaissance Days

Posted 2:51pm Sunday 13th March 2016 by Monique Hodgkinson

If you’re into the eerie, the creepy and the vaguely disturbing, the Dunedin Public Art Gallery’s latest exhibition may be right up your artistic alley. Jeffrey Harris: Renaissance Days ticks all of those boxes, while providing a vibrant snapshot into the work of one of New Read more...

Dead of Winter

Posted 2:48pm Sunday 13th March 2016 by Campbell Calverley

The theme is the most overlooked aspect of any board game. When all of the game’s events, actions and individual components come together as parts of a cohesive whole, your response to the game as a player is similar to that of the characters you are playing as. Theming is hard to attain and Read more...

Sleater-Kinney: Live At The Powerstation

Posted 2:43pm Sunday 13th March 2016 by Millicent Lovelock

When Sleater-Kinney made their way onto the stage and launched into the opening riff of “Price Tag” (the opening track off the 2015 album No Cities to Love) my breath was caught, part way between a scream and a strangled sob. I found myself crumpling, my bottom lip trembling and my face Read more...

Hunger Makes Me A Modern Girl

Posted 2:41pm Sunday 13th March 2016 by Lucy Hunter

I only wanted one thing on tour: to slam my hand in a door and break my fingers. Then I would go home.” The opening line of Sleater-Kinney guitarist and singer Carrie Brownstein’s autobiography smashes you into the tedium and discomfort involved in touring in a cramped car with a band, Read more...

Exposed Worlds

Posted 2:31pm Sunday 6th March 2016 by Monique Hodgkinson

To kick start your artistic side for 2016, head to Exploded Worlds at the Dunedin Public Art Gallery. This exhibition is a kaleidoscope of vivid colour, contrasting canvases, and mixed-up mediums. Offering an ‘exploded view’ of art, the gallery combines works of drastically differing Read more...

G.L.O.S.S. Girls Living Outside Society’s Shit

Posted 2:22pm Sunday 6th March 2016 by Millicent Lovelock

I was initially tempted to describe G.L.O.S.S.’s debut EP Girls Living Outside Society’s Shit as feeling like a punch to the gut, but I was wrong, it’s a whole lot more like throwing a punch with all your weight behind it. This EP makes my heart race and my palms itch. It is walls Read more...

Bloodborne: The Old Hunters

Posted 2:17pm Sunday 6th March 2016 by Campbell Calverley

Rating: A+ Bloodbourne was released in March of 2015, and I realised that it was the best game that I would play for a long time. Its bloody Gothic aesthetic and notorious difficulty made it both an excellent action-adventure game and a scary survival horror game. The Kafkaesque plot involves a Read more...

Dad's Army

Posted 2:09pm Sunday 6th March 2016 by Halaevalu Maka

Rating: C+ Dad's Army is the cinematic outcome of Britain’s famous 1970’s sitcom. Directed by Oliver Parker, and set in 1944, in the midst of the Second World War, it follows the Walmington-on-sea platoon in their daily lives as home guards within their town.  The film Read more...

Concussion

Posted 2:03pm Sunday 6th March 2016 by Alex Campbell-Hunt

Rating: B This movie seemed very promising. Just like its contemporary Spotlight, it tells an important, recent true story about a powerful organization covering up wrongdoings, following the individuals who attempt to expose the truth. Concussion isn’t a catastrophic failure, but somehow Read more...

Steve Jobs

Posted 1:59pm Sunday 6th March 2016 by Lucy Hunter

Rating: C+ We didn’t need another film about Steve Jobs. This latest work shows us behind the scenes of the digital revolution, where we see the man at its epicentre, the late Steve Jobs, portrayed by Michael Fassbender. The film’s plot unfolds backstage at three iconic product Read more...

Deadpool

Posted 1:54pm Sunday 6th March 2016 by Lisa Blakie

Rating: A- Wade Wilson (aka Deadpool), is the newest addition to the slew of superheroes in the Marvel cinematic universe. Played exceptionally well by Ryan Reynolds, Deadpool is all about sex, hefty violence, and Wham!  This is not a Disney Marvel film (Avengers, Iron Man, Thor etc), it is Read more...

Why Do We Need…Streaming Sites?

Posted 1:32pm Sunday 6th March 2016 by Anthony Marris

Streaming sites like couchtuner, watchseries, putlocker and xhamster are what the world wide web was built for – the freedom of information and sharing of ideas.  This sharing of information and knowledge helps to inspire the next generations. Star Trek forecast the invention of the Read more...

Bulgur Wheat & Avocado Salad

Posted 1:25pm Sunday 6th March 2016 by Kirsten Garcia

If you’re looking to step up your salad game, but are lazy as f like myself - this week’s star ingredient is for you. Bulgur Wheat is like couscous’ sophisticated older cousin. It’s more wholesome so I find using it in meals makes you feel more healthy and like your life Read more...

The Passage

Posted 1:05pm Sunday 6th March 2016 by Anne Oosthuizen

Hunger Games, Maze Runner, The Martian, Interstellar, World War Z. . . Dystopian and post-apocalyptic chronicles are hot! The Passage by Justin Cronin – book one in a trilogy soon to be transported to the big screen to join its blockbuster predecessors – fits right in with the rest. In Read more...

Mango Sticky Rice (Khao Niao Ma-muang)

Posted 1:38pm Sunday 28th February 2016 by Kirsten Garcia

This week we have a Thailand delicacy. I took a cooking class while I was there this summer so I’ll probably share a few of the curries and noodle dishes I learned (Pad Thai anyone?). Since I am the kind of person that doesn’t mind having dessert first, let’s start off with this Read more...

The Beginners Guide

Posted 1:27pm Sunday 28th February 2016 by Campbell Calverley

Rating: 4/5 Far from being a digital introductory handbook for any new students, The Beginner’s Guide is hard to describe. That is not surprising, given that it is from the creators of the excellent Stanley Parable, a sadomasochistic journey into unreliable narration. The Beginner’s Read more...

Suffragette

Posted 1:22pm Sunday 28th February 2016 by Jessica Thompson

Rating: B I had high hopes for this film after watching the trailer. With a respectable cast, a female director, female writer and killer trailer music, who could blame me? Despite this, I was determined to enter the cinema with a completely blank mind then exit with an unbiased and logical Read more...

The Hateful Eight

Posted 1:19pm Sunday 28th February 2016 by Basti Menkes

Rating: B Over the course of his career, Quentin Tarantino has dabbled in an eclectic mix of styles. He’s done a crime thriller that functions as a stage play (Reservoir Dogs), martial art revenge flicks (Kill Bill 1 & 2), an alternate-history war movie (Inglourious Basterds), and Read more...

Kings Of The Gym

Posted 1:17pm Sunday 28th February 2016 by Nita Sullivan

Rating: B- For a long overdue and largely enjoyable foray back into local theatre, I went along to the opening night of Kings of the Gym, written by Dave Armstrong. A comedy product of the Fortune Theatre, the play is centred on the Phys-Ed department of a low decile South Auckland School. The Read more...

Caro

Posted 1:14pm Sunday 28th February 2016 by Andrew Kwiatkowski

Rating: B- After viewing this film, one is left with bruises from being bashed over the head with the themes. Carol is an adaptation of the novel The Price of Salt, which follows two women falling in love in 1950s USA. The social norms of that time and place, of course, do not permit Read more...

Blue Oyster Gallery

Posted 12:58pm Sunday 28th February 2016 by Chloe Geoghegan

Most of the time, the Blue Oyster Gallery is quiet, almost too quiet. My shoes, my squeaky office chair, the phone, the stapler, and my keyboard form the percussion section of an administrative orchestra that intermittently plays through the quiet gallery spaces, a new verse every minute from 11am Read more...

Objectivity & Positivity

Posted 12:52pm Sunday 28th February 2016 by Millicent Lovelock

Music writing is fraught. For the past four years of my life I have studied English Literature, and I understand all too well that often, to write with clarity and objectivity, there needs to be, in the mind of the critic, a clear distinction between author and text. I also understand that sometimes Read more...

Why Do We Need…Revolution 4.0?

Posted 12:48pm Sunday 28th February 2016 by Anthony Marris

Revolution 4.0 (which I will call Rev4.0) is the ménage a trois that connects robotics, the internet we use for shopping, streaming etc, and cloud computing. The aim of Rev4.0 is to create “smart factories”, a more intelligent (read efficient) means to manufacture Read more...

Down the Rabbit Hole

Posted 12:37pm Sunday 28th February 2016 by Hayleigh Clarkson

For those of you like me who spent their teenage years in the early 2000s, you will already be familiar with the pop-culture take over that was Playboy. Ranging from bedspreads, jewellery and temporary tattoos through to the popular hit TV show The Girls Next Door, Playboy took over every teenaged Read more...

Disclosure - Caracal

Posted 3:20pm Sunday 4th October 2015 by Veronika Bell

Rating: 2/5 After the announcement of Disclosure’s new album, I was beyond excited. I felt like Christmas was just around the corner. I was ready to be blown away. Instead, the experience was much like Santa forgetting about me. Miserable. With the amount of hype that surrounded the album, Read more...

Theatre: Time Stands Still

Posted 3:12pm Sunday 4th October 2015 by Shaun Swain

Rating: 4/5 "When you’re looking down that lens, time comes to a stop.” We all try, in one way or another, to capture some aspect of life and keep it forever; sometimes to preserve it, sometimes to just let it go. Lara Macgregor’s rendition of Time Stands Still, written Read more...

Everest

Posted 3:07pm Sunday 4th October 2015 by Nita Sullivan

Rating: 4/5 This film depicts the real events of a Kiwi company, Adventure Consultants, and its disastrous expedition to Mount Everest. Based on Rob Hall’s 1996 trip, Everest follows Rob (Jason Clarke) as he leads eight climbers through Nepal towards the highest peak on earth. Read more...

Sicario

Posted 3:05pm Sunday 4th October 2015 by Maya Dodd

Rating: 4/5 Sicario follows FBI agent, Kate Macer (Emily Blunt), as she enters into the CIA’s secretive world. The agency has been trying to shut down the Mexican drug cartel that governs the border between the USA and Mexico. As a drug taskforce agent, Kate has dealt with many domestic Read more...

Tangerine

Posted 3:03pm Sunday 4th October 2015 by Greta Melvin

Rating: 3/5 Having seen my fair share of short iPhone-made videos, I was sceptical about how high the cinematic quality of an entire film would be. Baker’s use of an iPhone aptly reflects the fast-paced movements of the characters and the dialogue, making for a dynamic experience. But while Read more...

Big Pharma

Posted 2:58pm Sunday 4th October 2015 by Carl Dingwall

Rating: 4/5 In an industry where saving people can make you a tidy profit, there have been many accusations of putting money before people’s lives. The Big Pharma conspiracy has always been a scary idea, and it isn’t helped by recent examples of corporations hiking up prices of Read more...

Disclaimer

Posted 2:55pm Sunday 4th October 2015 by Bridget Vosburgh

Disclaimer, by Renee Knight, is a thriller. Catherine Ravenscroft, after recently moving house with her husband, Robert, finds a book called The Perfect Stranger among her possessions. She has no recollection of buying the book. While reading it, she realises that the main character is a Read more...

Stranger in Strange Land, Jae Hoon Lee

Posted 2:52pm Sunday 4th October 2015 by Ruby Heyward

Stranger in Stranger Land currently on display at the Dunedin Public Art Gallery, is an atmospheric, moody installation by Korean artist Jae Hoon Lee. Lee (born in 1973) is a self-proclaimed “cultural wanderer”. His work features “observations” of Arab and Thai culture Read more...

Peanut Noodle Salad

Posted 2:47pm Sunday 4th October 2015 by Sophie Edmonds

I thought I had escaped the joy of 21sts but, before I knew it, it was my own brother’s turn. He decided to have it at the local bowls club and invite 100 of his closest friends. Of course it went without saying I was volunteered to the catering post. Mum was a little ambitious on the menu Read more...

Procrastibaking: Vanilla Cupcakes

Posted 2:42pm Sunday 4th October 2015 by Sophie Edmonds

During my day at home being the world’s worst sick person, I not only managed to make a cake and a batch of meringues, clean the kitchen, vacuum the flat and write a blog post, I also whipped up some classic vanilla cupcakes for SPCA cupcake day. While there are oodles of recipes out there Read more...

Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials

Posted 1:52pm Sunday 27th September 2015 by Maya Dodd

Rating: 3/5 Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials is the second instalment of The Maze Runner series, following the survivors from the first film as they discover that the world outside the maze is just as dangerous as the one within it — if not more so. I first stumbled across Dylan O’Brien Read more...

People Places Things

Posted 1:47pm Sunday 27th September 2015 by Nita Sullivan

Rating: 3/5 People Places Things follows Will Henry (Jemaine Clement), a Kiwi man who teaches at a local university in New York. He is also a graphic novelist and spends his evenings writing his own semi-autobiographical novel. During their five-year-old twins’ birthday party, Will walks in Read more...

13 Minutes

Posted 1:45pm Sunday 27th September 2015 by Greta Melvin

Rating: 4/5 Underdogs and people who fight for the greater good are often portrayed as wholesome characters whose only flaw is that they care too much. Based on the true story of Georg Elser, a German man who attempted to assassinate Adolf Hitler, 13 Minutes is a carefully composed film that Read more...

6 Years

Posted 1:40pm Sunday 27th September 2015 by Mandy Te

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...

DeadCore

Posted 1:35pm Sunday 27th September 2015 by Campbell Calverley

Rating: 5/5 The first-person platformer is a very unstable genre. First person makes it disorienting — you can’t see your feet and the camera is often shaking. Games like Portal and Mirror’s Edge are examples of such first-person platforming where experimentation has paid off Read more...

Murder That Wasn’t: The Case of George Gwaze

Posted 1:31pm Sunday 27th September 2015 by Bridget Vosburgh

Unusually for true crime, Goodyear-Smith takes the position that no crime actually happened. Charlene contracted HIV at birth from her mother. Both her birth parents died, and Charlene and her older sister Charmaine were adopted by their mother’s sister Sifso and her husband George. For Read more...

Art in Law XIV, Bare With

Posted 1:28pm Sunday 27th September 2015 by Susan Nunn

The Dunedin School of Art and the University of Otago Law Faculty have collaborated to bring a twice yearly art exhibition to the corridors of the Richardson Building on the Otago campus. Initiated originally by Peter Stupples, the exhibitions are curated by Marion Wassenaar and have been running Read more...

Cinnamon Churros with Salted Caramel

Posted 1:24pm Sunday 27th September 2015 by Sophie Edmonds

In my opinion, churros are some of the best doughnuts ever. Why, you ask? They have the greatest surface area to volume ratio, meaning more crispy, sweet, cinnamon bang for your buck. I recently (aka yesterday morning) came back from a trip to South America. Over there they make these slightly Read more...

Best and Worst Lyrics

Posted 1:09pm Sunday 27th September 2015 by Basti Menkes

The poetic addition of lyrics to our music over time has resulted in some truly stunning lines of verse, as well as a few crimes against the human intellect. Basti Menkes shares some of the greatest and the most cringeworthy moments in our lyrical history. The Good Pink Floyd, Read more...

Etherwood - Blue Leaves

Posted 1:00pm Sunday 27th September 2015 by Veronika Bell

Rating: 4/5 Drum and bass is a genre of electronic music with heavy basslines and fast breakbeats, usually around the 160–180 bpm margin. Over the years, drum and bass has developed an unfair stigma in society that really pisses me off. There’s an unflattering conception of Read more...

Myrkur - M

Posted 2:16pm Sunday 20th September 2015 by Basti Menkes

Rating: 3/5 In a genre of stylistic sameness and poor gender diversity, one-woman black metal outfit Myrkur is a welcome breath of fresh air. Danish muse Amalie Bruun has emerged at long last with M, her debut LP as Myrkur. After a promising EP last year, Myrkur’s first full-length album Read more...

Kadington - Don’t Kick the Cat, EP

Posted 2:09pm Sunday 20th September 2015 by Veronika Bell

Rating: 4/5 The world of visual arts gave us Banksy, a mysterious graffiti artist who uses a distinctive stencilling technique and dark humour to critique modern life. Banksy’s iconic political and social commentary has appeared on walls and buildings around the world.  The music Read more...

Tales from the Borderlands

Posted 2:05pm Sunday 20th September 2015 by Brandon Johnstone

Rating: 5/5 A Telltale Games masterpiece has almost become a cliché. Tackling some of pop culture’s largest franchises, from Back to the Future to The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones, Telltale Games crafts surprisingly captivating stories while avoiding covering old ground or Read more...

The Mountain Story

Posted 2:00pm Sunday 20th September 2015 by Bridget Vosburgh

Thr Mountain Story, by Lori Lansens, is a survival novel. On his 18th birthday, Wolf Truly takes a tram up the mountain he spent much of his adolescence exploring with his best friend Byrd. A year before, Byrd was in an accident on the mountain that Wolf feels responsible for. This, along with the Read more...

Z

Posted 1:53pm Sunday 20th September 2015 by Simon Kingsley-Holmes

Classic "Any similarity to real persons or events is not coincidental. It is INTENTIONAL.” With one of film’s most baldly provocative opening statements, Costa-Gavras offers a thriller that hits the ground running. The audience is thrown full force into a poorly veiled Read more...

Straight Outta Compton

Posted 1:49pm Sunday 20th September 2015 by Siobon Inu

Rating: 4/5 Before the film’s release, Straight Outta Compton was gaining traction and hype — with suggestions of Oscar nominations, and also criticism of the film’s erasure of domestic violence and abuse. Despite the main cast being unknown talents, the hype concerning Straight Read more...

A Walk in the Woods

Posted 1:46pm Sunday 20th September 2015 by Nita Sullivan

Rating: 2/5 On this occasion, audience attendance was sadly indicative of the film’s quality. Based on travel writer Bill Bryson’s 1998 book, A Walk in the Woods recounts some of his 3500-kilometre tramp through the Appalachian Trail. Living a comfortable life in New Hampshire with Read more...

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl

Posted 1:42pm Sunday 20th September 2015 by Mandy Te

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...

Coconut Chole Curry

Posted 1:39pm Sunday 20th September 2015 by Kirsten Garcia

I'm blessed to live with an authentic Indian who teaches the Indian cooking classes at OUSA. I get one-on-one lessons when we flat cook, so I’ve come to master this curry business. As my first appearance in Critic, I’m going to share with you my ultimate crowd-pleaser meal. I Read more...

The (Un)happiest Place on Earth

Posted 1:32pm Sunday 20th September 2015 by Jess Taylor

As negative as it sounds, I’ve never been to the self-proclaimed “happiest place on earth”. But chances are, neither have you. As touristy and overrun as Disneyland sounds (in all of its five locations), the internationally known amusement park is a staple on almost all bucket Read more...

Rocket League

Posted 2:00pm Sunday 13th September 2015 by Carl Dingwall

Rating: 4/5 You may remember a segment from Top Gear involving cars, a large soccer ball and an attempt to play soccer. Entertaining in its own right, it wasn’t enough for the developers over at Psyonix, who figured it would make a more entertaining game if you added rockets. Welcome to Read more...

Paying with their Bodies: American War and the Problem of the Disabled Veteran

Posted 1:55pm Sunday 13th September 2015 by Bridget Vosburgh

Paying with their Bodies: American War and the Problem of the Disabled Veteran, by John M Kinder, takes on the subject of disabilities caused by warfare and the treatment of disabled veterans throughout American history. Kinder begins with the treatment of disabled war veterans and chiefly focuses Read more...

Singles in Review | Issue 23

Posted 1:46pm Sunday 13th September 2015 by Basti Menkes

Battles - “The Yabba” and “FF Bada” “Robot Rock” may be a Daft Punk song, but no band fits that description quite like Battles do. Since their 2007 debut album Mirrored, Battles have been blurring human and machine together in synth-infused blasts of Read more...

Ghosts of Electricity

Posted 1:43pm Sunday 13th September 2015 by Basti Menkes

Ghosts of Electricity are a white-collar punk trio from Auckland. Critic caught up with frontman and principle songwriter Tim Fowler recently to discuss their great new album Trolls, the current New Zealand music climate, and trying to sound like Lana Del Rey. Tell me a little about the Read more...

We Are Your Friends

Posted 1:36pm Sunday 13th September 2015 by Kirsty Gordge

Max Joseph’s music drama, We Are Your Friends, successfully captures the struggles of four young adults who have opted out of student loans and, instead, are attempting the get-rich-quick route. Following their attempts at wealth, aspiring DJ Cole (Zac Efron) and his friends, Ollie (Shiloh Read more...

Ricki and the Flash

Posted 1:34pm Sunday 13th September 2015 by Maya Dodd

Rating: 4/5 Meryl Streep is not only an incredible actor with a great set of pipes, there is also just something unique about her that leaves me in awe. But, for me, nothing will ever top her performance as the stylishly cold Miranda Priestly in The Devil Wears Prada. However, with impressive Read more...

Last Cab to Darwin

Posted 1:31pm Sunday 13th September 2015 by Valu Maka

Rating: 3/5 Last Cab to Darwin is one of those circling-the-drain films that makes you reflect on your life and keeps you up at night with deep questions such as “what makes life worth living?”. Directed by Jeremy Sims, Last Cab to Darwin  follows Rex McRae (Michael Read more...

Ever the Land

Posted 1:27pm Sunday 13th September 2015 by Ngarangi Haerewa

Rating: 2/5 Part of the quintessential cinematic experience is going into the cinema knowing next to nothing about the film. With such logic, I was halfway toward the ultimate cinema experience. While it was initially thrilling, Ever the Land was also disappointing. Directed by Sarah Grohnert, Read more...

Savoury Muffins

Posted 1:16pm Sunday 13th September 2015 by Sophie Edmonds

My best friend Sophie M loves savoury muffins. Like crazy loves. She will buy one almost every day to have for morning tea. In her muffin quests, she has come to be quite the connoisseur. I always get really nervous when I make them for her for fear they will not live up to her high standards. For Read more...

Tully Arnot - Grey Goo

Posted 1:10pm Sunday 13th September 2015 by James Thomson-Bache

"It’s an experimental space,” curator Chloe Geoghegan remarked on my arrival to the Blue Oyster’s most recently installed exhibition, Grey Goo. It certainly did feel that way as I stood there, an ominous hum playing around me and a McDonald’s burger shaking vigorously at Read more...

This War of Mine

Posted 2:53pm Sunday 6th September 2015 by George Elliott

Rating: 4/5 In the past decade, the video game industry has been disrupted by a revolution of sorts: the medium is being reclaimed from the potent forces of commercialisation. The rise of the independent developer, propelled by advances in digital distribution, the democratisation of software and Read more...

Singles in Review | Issue 22

Posted 2:46pm Sunday 6th September 2015 by Basti Menkes

The Dead Weather - “I Feel Love (Every Million Miles)” The most experimental of all of Jack White’s bands is arguably The Dead Weather, in which he shares vocal responsibilities with Alison Mosshart of The Kills. The quartet makes scuzzy, psychedelic blues rock drenched Read more...

Legacy Music Group

Posted 2:41pm Sunday 6th September 2015 by Daniel Munro

Dunedin has birthed some huge names in music, with acts like Six60 and The Chills enjoying not only national but international success. While certain acts have made it big outside our wee student city, hip-hop has not been among them. Lucas “Big Sima” Gunn asked us to “name a Read more...

Southpaw

Posted 2:36pm Sunday 6th September 2015 by Alastair Reith

Rating: 3/5 Do we really need Southpaw? Do we really need a microwave reheat of another boxing film?  Despite the influx of Eastern European titans in recent years on the world stage, boxing in the United States remains a Black- and Latino-dominated sport, as it has been for decades.With Read more...

Women He’s Undressed

Posted 2:30pm Sunday 6th September 2015 by Cameron Evans

Rating: 4/5 In Women He’s Undressed, director Gillian Armstrong goes beyond fashion and offers the audience a comprehensive insight into the life, motivations and tribulations of Australian, Orry Kelly — a costume designer whose success is unknown to most of Australia. Using an Read more...

She’s Funny That Way

Posted 2:25pm Sunday 6th September 2015 by Ngarangi Haerewa

Rating: 0/5 She’s Funny That Way may have a clever turn of phrase (“squirrels to the nuts”), but that is not enough to save it from the depths of its own depravity. Set in the world of Broadway, She’s Funny That Way follows the love triangle between Read more...

Amy

Posted 2:21pm Sunday 6th September 2015 by Nita Sullivan

Rating: 4/5 From the very beginning, Amy Winehouse was a true artist with a palpable talent. During the noughties, however, it was hard to miss Winehouse’s infamous rise and tragic decline. What we didn’t really see though, and what the documentary Amy strongly captures, is the Read more...

Alex Lovell-Smith … Travelling Alone, Sir …

Posted 2:14pm Sunday 6th September 2015 by Loulou Callister-Baker

The theme of travel appropriately moves beyond the Dunedin Public Art Gallery down the road to the Alternative Space Gallery on Lower Stuart Street, where Alex Lovell-Smith’s … Travelling Alone, Sir … is currently on display. Alternative Space Gallery is an initiative where Read more...

Wanderings Works from the Collection

Posted 2:06pm Sunday 6th September 2015 by Loulou Callister-Baker

Collection exhibitions can sometimes feel like a cop out, but if you have a collection why not play with it and put it on show? Following a theme of travel, the works in Wanderings shake off any gathered dust with their depictions of afar, of the other-worldly and of returning home after the Read more...

Banana Pancakes

Posted 2:02pm Sunday 6th September 2015 by Sophie Edmonds

I stumbled across this trend of banana pancakes on the interwebs last week while procrastinating something chronic. I think I ate them for dinner three nights in a row, each one smothered in lush peanut butter, of course. I enjoyed mine this morning with some quick blueberry compote and some Read more...

Rich Man Road

Posted 1:55pm Sunday 6th September 2015 by Bridget Vosburgh

Rich Man Road,by Ann Glamuzina, tells the separate stories of two immigrants to New Zealand. One morning the novice nun, Pualele Sina Auva’a, awakes to find that her friend and fellow nun, the elderly Olga Mastrovic, has died in the night. She has left behind a letter to Pualele, confessing Read more...

Bloodborne

Posted 1:55pm Sunday 30th August 2015 by Campbell Calverley

Rating: 5/5 Anyone familiar with From Software’s action-adventure Souls games will know how much of a commitment they are. Rushing into them unawares will lead to frustration and despair, while patience, exploration and a level head will be well rewarded. Speaking as someone who clawed his Read more...

Singles in Review | Issue 21

Posted 1:48pm Sunday 30th August 2015 by Basti Menkes

Triumphs - “Beekeeper” and “Solid Bones” Triumphs are a heavy instrumental duo from Dunedin, consisting of guitarist John Bollen and drummer Mathew Anderson. The bearded beaus are about to release their debut album, Beekeeper/Bastardknocker, on Monkey Killer Read more...

Ghosts of Electricity - Trolls

Posted 1:44pm Sunday 30th August 2015 by Basti Menkes

Rating: 4/5 A punk band is a curious thing nowadays. Four decades ago, The Clash, The Sex Pistols and The Ramones were raging against the establishment and the decadence of mainstream rock with their lo-fi, hard-hitting, no-nonsense blasts of musical anger. Sure the music was Read more...

The Fish Ladder: A Journey Upstream

Posted 1:31pm Sunday 30th August 2015 by Bridget Vosburgh

The Fish Ladder: A Journey Upstream is a memoir by Katherine Norbury. After miscarrying a much-desired pregnancy, Norbury distracts herself from her grief with the writing of a man named Neil Gunn. One of Gunn’s novels, The Highland River, tells the story of a young man walking a river to its Read more...

Alison Embleton Presents The Merchant of Venice

Posted 1:29pm Sunday 30th August 2015 by Mandy Te

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...

Rebecca

Posted 1:24pm Sunday 30th August 2015 by Rosie Jensen

Classic Hollywood has made every flavour of brooding, handsome bachelor-zillionaire who loses his shit over the shy, boring heroine. So when a film like Gone Girl comes along, it’s refreshing and thrilling. Unbeknown to many people, before Gone Girl, there was Alfred Hitchcock’s Read more...

The Man from U.N.C.L.E

Posted 1:17pm Sunday 30th August 2015 by Siobon Inu

Rating: 3/5 Guy Ritchie’s ability to successfully revive iconic films — ones with sophisticated and mysterious plotlines — through a modern cinematic approach has given audiences high expectations of his directorial skills. However, although full of action and suspense, The Man Read more...

Fantastic Four

Posted 1:13pm Sunday 30th August 2015 by Maya Dodd

Rating: 2/5 A t best, the 2005 version of Fantastic Four was average. The acting was poor, the storyline was mediocre, and the flexible guy really freaked me out. But with Miles Teller now playing Reeds Richards (the flexible one), I had hope for the revival of Fantastic Four. Teller is Read more...

Trainwreck

Posted 1:10pm Sunday 30th August 2015 by Shaun Swain

Rating: 3/5 Judd Apatow’s rom-com, Trainwreck, is anything but a trainwreck — rather, it’s a tightened, secure and mostly enjoyable ride. Trainwreck is about magazine writer Amy (Amy Schumer), who is a heavily career- and goal-oriented woman who barely gives the concept of Read more...

Intersections: Ceramics from Ralph Hotere’s Personal Collection

Posted 1:01pm Sunday 30th August 2015 by Sue Nunn

As one of New Zealand’s most significant twentieth-century artists, the late Dunedin painter, Ralph Hotere (1931–2013), had a life intrinsically shaped by the connections he made with people and through art. These relationships are the focus of Intersections: Ceramics from Ralph Read more...

Massaman Roast Beef

Posted 12:57pm Sunday 30th August 2015 by Sophie Edmonds

I got really excited at Pak’nSave the other day. Every time I see a beef roast on the cheap, I buy it without really thinking.      I always slow cook my beef roasts, so this one has been sitting in my freezer for a few weeks now while I thought of ways to make it slightly Read more...

Singles in Review | Issue 20

Posted 2:13pm Sunday 16th August 2015 by Basti Menkes

Myrkur - “Hævnen” 2015 shall forever be remembered as the year women took over metal. Following fantastic releases from Chelsea Wolfe and Dorthia Cottrell in the last couple of months, we’re about to see Amalie Bruun’s one-woman black metal outfit, Myrkur, Read more...

Mac DeMarco - Another One

Posted 2:06pm Sunday 16th August 2015 by Basti Menkes

Rating: 3/5 Rejoice, everyone! Your favourite John Lennon-impersonating hipster doofus is back. No, I did not mean Kevin Parker. That esteemed title surely belongs to Mac DeMarco, the talented young singer-songwriter from Canada. Over the last three years, DeMarco’s been making waves Read more...