Archive

Son Lux - Bones

Posted 1:48pm Sunday 19th July 2015 by Basti Menkes

Son Lux is the stage name of American composer, Ryan Lott. Appearing in 2008 with his spine-tingling debut album At War with Walls & Mazes, Son Lux quickly established himself as a force to be reckoned with.  Son Lux’s songs have the deliberate architecture of a classical composer, Read more...

High On Fire - Luminiferous

Posted 1:44pm Sunday 19th July 2015 by Basti Menkes

Rating: 3/5 High On Fire is a heavy metal trio from Oakland, California. The band was formed in 1998 by Matt Pike, the once and future guitarist of pioneering doom metal group, Sleep. High On Fire has since earned itself a reputation for its genre-straddling style and vehement live shows. On its Read more...

Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward

Posted 1:37pm Sunday 19th July 2015 by Cheyanne Intemann

Rating: 4/5 Heavensward is the recent expansion to the Square Enix massively multiplayer online (MMO) game, Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. Final Fantasy XIV had a particularly bad 1.0 launch, with daily experience gain limits, huge empty maps, shockingly poor optimisation and clunky combat. Read more...

The Goddess of Buttercups and Daisies

Posted 1:31pm Sunday 19th July 2015 by Bridget Vosburgh

Martin Millar’s novel, The Goddess of Buttercups and Daisies, is set in Athens, 421 BC. During this time, the city-state of Athens is at war with Sparta, and has been for ten years. The playwright Aristophanes wants to put on a comedy called Peace for the Dionysia Festival, as his entry in a Read more...

Spicy Roasted Winter Vegetable Lentil Salad

Posted 1:23pm Sunday 19th July 2015 by Sophie Edmonds

You know when you eat one thing so many times until that one day when it makes you feel sick and you can’t face it ever again? That is how I feel about soups in general at the moment. I had been scouting for new ideas for cheap winter vegetables when I came across this recipe for a winter Read more...

Vital Bodies

Posted 1:06pm Sunday 19th July 2015 by Loulou Callister-Baker

Artists: Georgette Brown, Wendelien Bakker, Anna Rankin, Sam Norton, Virginia Overell and Holly Childs. Curated by: Georgina Watson   Seeking out the vital bodies in the current Blue Oyster show curated by Georgina Watson is an experience that crosses the disciplines of writing, Read more...

Selfish, Shallow, and Self-Absorbed: Sixteen Writers on the Decision Not to Have Kids

Posted 2:25pm Sunday 12th July 2015 by Bridget Vosburgh

Selfish, Shallow, and Self-Absorbed: Sixteen Writers on the Decision Not to Have Kids is a collection of sixteen personal essays written by professional writers about one particular decision that perfect strangers often feel they have a say in: choosing not to have children. This choice should not Read more...

Jono Das - Illustrations EP

Posted 2:20pm Sunday 12th July 2015 by Daniel Munro

Jono Das is a man of many talents. Along with producing, he uses his creativity in design, art and videography. The title of Das’s debut EP Illustrations is a reflection of him as an artist with “beats being his new drawing”. The EP has been two years in the making, with the Read more...

Singles in Review | Issue 15

Posted 2:15pm Sunday 12th July 2015 by Basti Menkes

Beach House - “Sparks” Baltimore duo, Beach House, is at the forefront of modern dream pop, a genre built on whispered vocals and shimmering walls of sound. A criticism frequently leveled at the genre is that in striving for its particular kind of gossamer beauty, dream pop Read more...

Mortal Kombat X

Posted 2:02pm Sunday 12th July 2015 by Carl Dingwall

Mortal Kombat is one of those series that everyone knows about, even if they don’t play games. People probably recognise its memorable theme song and two cheesy movies, the classic announcer shouting “FINISH HIM!” and, of course, its gratuitous violence and gore. So now that we are Read more...

Interview with Jacob Rajan

Posted 1:57pm Sunday 12th July 2015 by Mandy Te

Indian Ink’s play, Kiss the Fish, will be coming to Dunedin soon. Mandy Te caught up with Jacob Rajan to understand his background and how the Indian Ink Theatre Company was born. What personally drew you towards acting and pursuing acting professionally? I was never into performance Read more...

Theatre Review: Punk Rock

Posted 1:49pm Sunday 12th July 2015 by Clementine Flatley

Rating: 5/5 Teenagers are fascinating. As a “teacher’s pet” teenager myself, I was always engrossed in the tumultuous adventures of my peers. The lives of the adolescents portrayed in Punk Rock gave me an enjoyable glimpse back at those old adventures. One minute I would find Read more...

Far from the Madding Crowd

Posted 1:43pm Sunday 12th July 2015 by Simon Kingsley-Holmes

Rating: 2/5 The success of Nicolas Winding Refn’s operatic kick in the teeth with Bronson and Tomas Alfredson’s hushed, emotionally muzzled Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy has given audiences high expectations when it comes to Scandinavian directors and the films they are tied Read more...

Terminator Genisys

Posted 1:36pm Sunday 12th July 2015 by Alex Campbell-Hunt

Rating: 3/5 Like many Terminator fans, I believe that the franchise should have ended it all after Terminator 2 but, with a new instalment added to the classic franchise, I couldn’t help but have a mix of high hopes and low expectations for Terminator Genisys. Set in 2029, the film Read more...

Love & Mercy

Posted 1:33pm Sunday 12th July 2015 by Mandy Te

Rating: 4/5 Biographical films require a certain delicacy but, since someone’s life cannot easily and wholly fit into a chunk of two hours, they often fall into the potholes of inaccuracy and over-dramatisation in favour of entertainment value. Bill Pohlad’s artistic approach to Brian Read more...

The Ultimate Cauliflower Cheese

Posted 1:26pm Sunday 12th July 2015 by Sophie Edmonds

There is this restaurant in Auckland that I love called Depot. It is amazing. When I am feeling balla, I often go there. Clearly last week I felt like I was just rolling in it, and I managed to end up there twice. I am completely hooked on their wood-fired cauliflower cheese. Not only is it fired in Read more...

How to Go to an Art Gallery

Posted 1:21pm Sunday 12th July 2015 by Loulou Callister-Baker

Art galleries are my sanctuaries. They are perfect places for quiet reflection and interesting interactions with created pieces or performances. However, I do have my off days. These are the kind of days where the sky seems an extra, disturbing tint of yellow or when it feels like everyone in the Read more...

The Best of E3

Posted 2:04pm Sunday 5th July 2015 by Brandon Johnstone

Acouple of weeks ago, the video game convention juggernaut E3, or “Electronic Entertainment Expo” came and went, leaving gamers all over the globe squealing at their computer screens (or in person if they were lucky/rich enough to be at the convention). Essentially, E3 is a huge Read more...

Sparrow Hill Road

Posted 1:53pm Sunday 5th July 2015 by Bridget Vosburgh

Sparrow Hill Road, by Seanan McGuire, is an urban fantasy story with horror elements. The narrator, Rose, died in the 1950s, murdered when she was just sixteen, and went on to become an urban legend to the living and a guide into the afterlife for the dead and dying. Bobby Cross, the undead man who Read more...

Interview with Lara Macgregor

Posted 1:49pm Sunday 5th July 2015 by Mandy Te

Critic had a chat to artistic director, actor and director Lara Macgregor about directing Punk Rock and what it’s like to work both behind the scenes and on stage.  Punk Rock will be showing from 27 June to 18 July at Fortune Theatre. You’ve acted in several theatre Read more...

Inside Out

Posted 1:40pm Sunday 5th July 2015 by Rachael Hodge

Rating: 5/5 In an interview, Peter Docter once said “when people go to a movie, they want to see some experience of themselves on the screen”, but when I watch a film where the target audience is under the age of twelve, I don’t have high expectations. However, Walt Disney and Read more...

Man Up

Posted 1:37pm Sunday 5th July 2015 by Jaxon Langley

Rating: 3/5 Unfortunately, the title is not ironic. But don’t let this be off-putting: Man Up is an entirely self-aware film and doesn’t set out to subvert genre tropes but, instead, fully embraces them. For the most part, Man Up entertains due to its sharp script delivered by strong Read more...

Jurassic World

Posted 1:32pm Sunday 5th July 2015 by Alex Campbell-Hunt

Rating: 3/5 Like many of us, I was looking forward to a triumphant revival of the franchise that pretty much defined my childhood, but, deep down, I knew I was probably setting myself up for disappointment. My eventual reaction fell somewhere between those poles. Jurassic World Read more...

The Last Five Years

Posted 1:29pm Sunday 5th July 2015 by Mandy Te

Rating: 3/5 Jason Robert Brown’s The Last Five Years is a musical that is literally all singing and no dialogue; it isn’t the first theatre production that comes to my mind when adapting a stage play into a film. However, the storyline of The Last Five Years creates a raw and genuine Read more...

Third3ye

Posted 1:23pm Sunday 5th July 2015 by Daniel Munro

Third3ye are not your average hip hop collective — instead of your typical bars they bring a spiritually-conscious form of hip hop. Third3ye are part of this year’s Re-Ori line up, so Critic music reporter Daniel Munro caught up with Bronson, one half of Third3ye, to talk all things from Read more...

Muse Drones

Posted 1:20pm Sunday 5th July 2015 by Basti Menkes

Rating: 2/5 Regardless of whether we asked for one, Muse are back with a new album. Believe it or not, Drones is the seventh full-length LP from the English trio. When Muse first emerged in the late nineties, they were just another Radiohead clone. Over the next few years they forged an identity Read more...

Broccoli and Blue Cheese Soup

Posted 1:16pm Sunday 5th July 2015 by Sophie Edmonds

Broccoli soup came up on my Instagram feed the other day, and the vibrant bowl of green caught my eye. I just had to have some. Conveniently, the Universe agreed and made all the greens required super cheap at my local vege shop. Junk Free June continues, and while the lack of cake has been soul Read more...

Fresh and Fruity

Posted 1:04pm Sunday 5th July 2015 by Loulou Callister-Baker

Fresh and Fruity is not just a gallery space up the stairs at 140 George Street - it is also a social media endeavour with its own manifesto. Critic interviewed two members of the collective who run Fresh and Fruity, Hana Aoake and Mya Middleton, to hear more about the project.  What is Read more...

Study Tunes

Posted 1:42pm Sunday 24th May 2015 by Basti Menkes

Aphex Twin: Selected Ambient Works 85–92 Richard D. James’ first record as Aphex Twin has been hailed as “the birthplace and the benchmark of modern electronic music” (Warp). An odyssey of dreamy techno, SAW is the perfect soundtrack to a spell of late-night Read more...

Blur - The Magic Whip

Posted 1:29pm Sunday 24th May 2015 by Basti Menkes

Rating: 4/5 Well folks, it actually happened. Six years after reforming, and twelve since their last studio outing, Blur are back. There are several reasons why this is great news. For one, Blur always represented the more irreverent and artful side of the Britpop era. Though Blur penned some of Read more...

Paper Planes

Posted 1:21pm Sunday 24th May 2015 by Andrew Kwiatkowski

Rating 1/5 Why do I care about Dylan’s paper plane quest? After 96 minutes, this question has not been answered. Paper Planes is about an average 12-year-old Australian boy called Dylan (Ed Oxenbould), whose dead mother imparted to him the gift of folding the perfect paper airplane. His Read more...

Run Lola Run

Posted 1:18pm Sunday 24th May 2015 by Alex Campbell-Hunt

Classic Run Lola Run is a unique, adrenaline-fuelled film with an urban angst reminiscent of The Matrix and Fight Club and Guy Ritchie-esque atmosphere. However, the film stands easily on its own. With techno music, parallel universes and the late 90s involved, I can unreservedly say that Run Read more...

The Ground We Won

Posted 1:15pm Sunday 24th May 2015 by Harlan Jones

Rating 5/5 Films that grapple with issues fundamental to our concept of national identity are always going to be controversial. The Ground We Won is a documentary that delves into the New Zealand mythology made strong by the likes of Barry Crump’s A Good Keen Man and Greg McGee’s Read more...

Pitch Perfect 2

Posted 1:12pm Sunday 24th May 2015 by Maya Dodd

Rating 3/5 As a general rule, I don’t laugh in cinemas. I don’t cry, I don’t text and I don’t put my feet on the seats. While I do this out of respect for other cinema-goers, the main reason for my self-control is undeniably fear. It’s also judgment. Therefore, Read more...

Killing Floor 2

Posted 1:05pm Sunday 24th May 2015 by Isaac Yu

Rating: 4/5 Much like the Targaryens, every time a game comes out on Steam’s Early Access, the gods flip a coin to determine whether it will be a success or doomed to fail. For every Minecraft, we have dozens of titles that remain stuck in development hell, and therefore you should be Read more...

Hades

Posted 12:59pm Sunday 24th May 2015 by Bridget Vosburgh

Hades is Candice Fox’s first novel. Fox tells the story of homicide detective Frank Bennett, who has just been professionally partnered with Eden Archer, a woman who has some serious secrets. The novel is set in Australia and alternates between Frank and Eden’s investigation of a killer Read more...

Slow-Cooked Chipotle Beef Tacos

Posted 12:54pm Sunday 24th May 2015 by Sophie Edmonds

I recently bought my new favourite cookbook, My Underground Kitchen by Jess Daniell. In the last 48 hours, I have cooked three meals from it and don’t see myself stopping at that. I already have this week’s feasting planned out, and it’s all out of this book. There was a Read more...

Luke Munn - swfer

Posted 12:42pm Sunday 24th May 2015 by Loulou Callister-Baker

Blue Oyster Art Project Space has been simultaneously stripped back and expanded for Luke Munn’s swfer. One wall in the front room simply has the link “i-chat.mobi/” placed in cursive lettering onto its wall. In the same room, different — seemingly meaningless — letters Read more...

Horoscope | Issue 12

Posted 2:25pm Sunday 17th May 2015 by Madame McMystery

Do you struggle with making basic life decisions? Worried about never bumping into your campus soulmate, or whether to eat two-minute noodles for every dinner this week? Fear not, chums, for I, Madame McMystery, have gazed deep into the cosmos to reveal the secrets the planetary alignments hold in Read more...

Final Fantasy Type-0 HD

Posted 2:10pm Sunday 17th May 2015 by Jaxon Langley

Rating 3/5 Final Fantasy Type-0 was first unveiled at E3 in 2006, then finally released in Japan in 2011. Final Fantasy fans have been begging for a Western release of Type-0 ever since. Now, almost 4 years later — after much demand that director Hajime Tabata Read more...

Faith No More: Sol Invictus

Posted 1:55pm Sunday 17th May 2015 by Basti Menkes

Rating: 5/5 Faith No More are credited with spawning the alternative metal genre. They fused metal with many other styles, including pop, funk and alternative rock, paving the way for artists like Nirvana and the Smashing Pumpkins. Though their 1990 single “Epic” still receives Read more...

The Kraken King

Posted 1:40pm Sunday 17th May 2015 by Bridget Vosburgh

For those hiding under a rock, steampunk is a subgenre of science fiction that incorporates steam-powered devices with Victorian design. The Kraken King, by Meljean Brooks, is a steampunk romance novel, and for once it had all the fun adventure, cool technology and body horror that people always Read more...

Stay Tuned

Posted 1:37pm Sunday 17th May 2015 by Alex Campbell-Hunt

Cult Stay Tuned is an imaginative, entertaining and weirdly under-appreciated family comedy that answers the question we all pondered as kids: “What would happen if I could go inside my TV and participate in all of the shows?” Turns out it wouldn’t be so great, especially if Read more...

The Gunman

Posted 1:33pm Sunday 17th May 2015 by Anonymous Bird

Rating: 1/5 Basing this film on the novel The Prone Gunman by Jean-Patrick Manchette, Morel attempts to execute a gritty, regretful hero story but falls incredibly short. Instead, we are given an unsuccessful, drawn-out action film with an annoying love triangle that permeates the entire Read more...

Hoje Eu Quero Voltar Sozhino/ The Way He Looks

Posted 1:30pm Sunday 17th May 2015 by Mandy Te

Soon to be classic I fondly associate The Way He Looks with a friend who is on the other side of the world. When I told him that I would be reviewing this soon-to-be classic, he described the moment as “serendipitous” — he had watched the film only a few days ago while on a Read more...

Testament of Youth

Posted 1:24pm Sunday 17th May 2015 by Shaun Swain

Rating: 4/5 Often in our attempts to stomach the darker parts of our past, we create sentimentality by zooming in on the massive numbers of those involved and choose to observe the smaller tales of individuals. However, Testament of Youth elegantly zooms out of a personal story of the few and Read more...

Capping Show Review: Campus Watch

Posted 1:21pm Sunday 17th May 2015 by Maya Dodd

Rating: 4/5 As a seasoned attendee of The Capping Show (seasoned may be a little too generous a term — I’ve only been to three), I was expecting big things. If the renowned humour associated with the comic event failed to brighten the gloomy pit in which I am currently residing, I was Read more...

Cuban Sandwiches

Posted 1:10pm Sunday 17th May 2015 by Sophie Edmonds

This is essentially just an epic ham and cheese toastie. They are called Cuban as they are most commonly found in Cuban immigrant communities in the States and are frequently consumed as a workday lunch.   I used a leg joint of pork (shoulder was preferable but not as cheap), rubbed it with Read more...

Private Utopia: Contemporary Art from the British Council Collection

Posted 1:01pm Sunday 17th May 2015 by Loulou Callister-Baker

In symbolic flashes of red, white and blue, Private Utopia spreads across the first floor of the Dunedin Public Art Gallery, providing an extensive, in parts overwhelming, display of British contemporary art. Given its scale and diversity of subjects and form, wandering through the show involves Read more...

Horoscope | Issue 11

Posted 2:17pm Sunday 10th May 2015 by Madame McMystery

Do you struggle with making basic life decisions? Worried about never bumping into your campus soulmate, or whether to eat two-minute noodles for every dinner this week? Fear not, chums, for I, Madame McMystery, have gazed deep into the cosmos to reveal the secrets the planetary alignments hold in Read more...

Singles in Review

Posted 2:09pm Sunday 10th May 2015 by Basti Menkes

Cheldea Wolfe - "Iron Moon" Californian sorceress, Chelsea Wolfe, has spent the last six years taking sounds from the worlds of doom, drone, black metal, electronica and folk to create a style uniquely her own. Her most recent album, Pain is Beauty, saw her expertly crafting gothic Read more...

Leviathan: Scar Sighted

Posted 1:59pm Sunday 10th May 2015 by Basti Menkes

Rating: 3/5 Black metal has to be among the most preposterous and controversial sub-genres in music. It is difficult to separate the music itself from the satanic imagery in which it is dressed, not to mention the murders and church burnings that have occurred within the black metal community. Read more...

Cities: Skylines

Posted 1:51pm Sunday 10th May 2015 by Carl Dingwall

Rating: 5/5 Do you remember Sim City? What used to be the great in-depth city builder was reduced to a disappointing, digital-rights-management-infested mess last year with the release of the series’ reboot. Long-time fans of the series were left behind as the late Maxis, which was shut Read more...

Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs

Posted 1:47pm Sunday 10th May 2015 by Bridget Vosburgh

In Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs, Johann Hari covers the bizarre origins of the drug war, the horrific state of the drug war today, what is most likely to be the actual cause of drug addiction, and the few places where people are finding better ways to deal with the Read more...

Theatre Review: MAMIL

Posted 1:41pm Sunday 10th May 2015 by George Niven

Rating: 4/5 My father is a MAMIL. I don’t like to talk about it, but it’s true. So while, initially, the main character of MAMIL sparked anxious flashbacks to the time my dad turned up to a parent-teacher conference night with only a thin layer of polyester-polyurethane copolymer Read more...

Ordinary People

Posted 1:36pm Sunday 10th May 2015 by Alex Campbell-Hunt

Classic In a somewhat Kanye West-esque fashion, Ordinary People is also known as the “movie that robbed Raging Bull of its Best Picture Oscar” and it’s a shame that this has become a big part of the film’s reputation. I haven’t seen Raging Bull, so I can’t Read more...

Lucky Them

Posted 1:33pm Sunday 10th May 2015 by Maya Dodd

Rating: 4/5 Have you ever wasted your life reminiscing over the one that got away? Maybe you pined after him as he sat in front of you in class until one day he just stopped showing up. Maybe she dropped you like last year’s Karen Walker sunnies, replacing you with an upgraded, new and Read more...

Boychoir

Posted 1:29pm Sunday 10th May 2015 by Shaun Swain

Rating: 3/5 There’s a fine line between a feel-good film and a predictably cheesy one. No matter how uplifting or audibly and visually stunning Boychoir is, Francois Girard’s drama teeters along this line like it’s a tightrope. Unfortunately, this film leans towards the Read more...

Beetroot, Blue Cheese and Candied Walnut Risotto

Posted 1:23pm Sunday 10th May 2015 by Sophie Edmonds

I’m writing this on a flight back from Wellington where I have just blown my monthly budget and my mind on a weekend’s worth of food. Oh my, was it worth it or what! One of the highlights was this epic beef cheek and red wine risotto that reminded me how much I love risotto. I sometimes Read more...

Picture/Poem: The Imagery of Joanna Margaret Paul & Cilla McQueen

Posted 1:14pm Sunday 10th May 2015 by Loulou Callister-Baker

Picture/Poem: The Imagery of Joanna Margaret Paul & Cilla McQueen is an exhibition centred on friendship. In its intimacy, its cleverness, and its written and visual imagery of Dunedin, the experience of the show is moving. Although both artists traverse disciplines — the exhibition Read more...

Horoscope | Issue 10

Posted 2:14pm Sunday 3rd May 2015 by Madame McMystery

Do you struggle with making basic life decisions? Worried about never bumping into your campus soulmate, or whether to eat two-minute noodles for every dinner this week? Fear not, chums, for I, Madame McMystery, have gazed deep into the cosmos to reveal the secrets the planetary alignments hold in Read more...

Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate

Posted 2:08pm Sunday 3rd May 2015 by Cheyanne Intemann

Rating: 4/5 The Monster Hunter series is unlike any other; the games are pretty much a genre unto themselves. When you pick up Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate, or MH4U, you’re going to be pitted against some of the most interesting, intimidating monsters you’ve ever seen — and Read more...

Avengers: Rage of Ultron

Posted 2:04pm Sunday 3rd May 2015 by Brandon Johnstone

Avengers: Rage of Ultron, written by Rick Remender and with art by Jerome Opeña, is Marvel Comics’ latest original graphic novel, this time about a logical, learning robot/AI (artificial intelligence) that just wants to kill everything alive. Long-time Marvel readers will know this AI, Read more...

Singles in Review

Posted 1:59pm Sunday 3rd May 2015 by Basti Menkes

Jamie xx - "Gosh" British producer Jamie xx is a master at making a handful of ingredients sound like a lot. Despite the understated style of his indie pop band, The xx, Jamie is able to take even their most diminutive compositions and make them sound vast. A good case in point is Read more...

Gorillaz Sound System

Posted 1:52pm Sunday 3rd May 2015 by Basti Menkes

Rating: 1/5 As a big Gorillaz fan, I was intrigued by the curiously-titled Gorillaz Sound System coming to Dunedin. Sure, the name gave away that it wasn’t going to be a bona fide Gorillaz show, and I had no delusions that Damon Albarn might walk out onstage. The show was presented as a Read more...

Art Online

Posted 1:44pm Sunday 3rd May 2015 by Loulou Callister-Baker

Although it didn’t begin with a neigh, a horse certainly drew a global audience’s attention to the use of the internet as a medium for art. The Twitter account, @Horse_ebooks, which published seemingly automatic, computer-generated anecdotes like “Everything happens so much” Read more...

Chicken, Mushroom and Coriander Dumplings

Posted 1:42pm Sunday 3rd May 2015 by Sophie Edmonds

Dumplings are probably my favourite international dough and meat combo. After making three lots of dumplings this weekend, I thought it was time to share another of my favourite varieties. You can put whatever you want in a dumpling; any combination of mince, vegetable and herb will usually work. Read more...

Avengers: Age of Ultron

Posted 1:37pm Sunday 3rd May 2015 by Anonymous Bird

Rating 5/5 The Marvel Cinematic Universe’s latest instalment, Avengers: Age of Ultron, brings us back to the team, but now they’re working together and combining their powers to form a more cohesive and effective team that makes for one hell of an entertaining, fun and clever Read more...

Napoleon Dynamite

Posted 1:33pm Sunday 3rd May 2015 by Ella Borrie

Cult It’s impossible to have a lukewarm reaction to Napoleon Dynamite. The film divides people — you either adore its low-key absurdity or find it totally pointless. In fact, the movie is so polarising, it broke Netflix’s algorithm. The website couldn’t accurately Read more...

The Age of Adaline

Posted 1:28pm Sunday 3rd May 2015 by Shaun Swain

Rating: 2/5 There’s a special kind of disappointment when a film’s premise is extremely promising, presented well and then ruined by acts of “love” that endorse stalking and manipulation as valid responses to superficial admiration. The Age of Adaline is an epic Read more...

Horoscope | Issue 9

Posted 3:29pm Sunday 26th April 2015 by Madame McMystery

Do you struggle with making basic life decisions? Worried about never bumping into your campus soulmate, or whether to eat two-minute noodles for every dinner this week? Fear not, chums, for I, Madame McMystery, have gazed deep into the cosmos to reveal the secrets the planetary alignments hold in Read more...

The Secret Place

Posted 2:16pm Sunday 26th April 2015 by Bridget Vosburgh

The Secret Place, by Tana French, is a mystery thriller with a peculiarly timeless atmosphere considering how strongly based it is in modern times. The titular secret place is a board that a girls’ private school set up for their students to post their secrets on, in order to provide a Read more...

Samba

Posted 2:08pm Sunday 26th April 2015 by Simon Kingsley-Holmes

Rating: 4/5 People often say the best filmmaking is the sort you don’t notice, where you can just get involved with the characters and story; while that’s not necessarily true, in Samba this philosophy works beautifully. The film’s opening sequence shows the buzz of a tacky, Read more...

Game of Thrones, Season 5 (Episode 1)

Posted 2:04pm Sunday 26th April 2015 by Shaun Swain

TV It is hard to come by anyone who has not seen at least one episode of the high-fantasy TV series, Game of Thrones. While it is often assumed that everyone watches Game of Thrones, whether people have read the books is a completely different story. However, with the highly anticipated dawn of Read more...

It Follows

Posted 2:01pm Sunday 26th April 2015 by Jaxon Langley

Rating 5/5 In a genre so dried up and filled with clichés, It Follows is truly a dark horse. The film first premiered at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival with no trailer, no stars and very little information about the plotline. When I first saw the film, I walked in not knowing what I was Read more...

Woman in Gold

Posted 1:58pm Sunday 26th April 2015 by Ngarangi Haerewa

Rating: 3/5 Having arrived at the cinema with no background information on Woman in Gold, it’s safe to say I had minimal expectations for the film, which I eventually understood is based on the interesting battle between Maria Altmann and the Austrian government. Gustav Klimt’s Read more...

Summer Thieves

Posted 1:54pm Sunday 26th April 2015 by Daniel Munro

Born and raised in the D, the Summer Thieves have been making waves playing on some of the biggest line-ups Dunedin has seen in recent years. They are currently recording their debut album with the help of Tiki Taane and are joining him at Sammy’s this Saturday 2 May. The band is made up of Read more...

Tiki Taane

Posted 1:49pm Sunday 26th April 2015 by Daniel Munro

Tiki Taane is a multi-platinum New Zealand musician who has been involved with the likes of Shapeshifter and Salmonella Dub, as well as having a huge solo career. Critic caught up with Taane to discuss music, politics and even drag-racing ahead of his show at Sammy’s this weekend. Critic: Read more...

Ufomammut Ecate

Posted 1:43pm Sunday 26th April 2015 by Basti Menkes

Rating 4/5 Of all the music I have ever listened to, no band’s name and sound match each other better than Ufomammut’s. As good as “Radiohead” is at capturing a sense of millennial paranoia, or “King Crimson” at implying a sense of magic and majesty, the name Read more...

Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number

Posted 1:38pm Sunday 26th April 2015 by Lachlan Scown

Rating: 4/5 Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number is the grittier, more violent successor to the 2013 indie hit, Hotline Miami. Developed by Swedish independent duo, Jonatan Söderström and Dennis Wedin, of Dennaton Games, the game focuses on thirteen different characters over six acts. If you Read more...

Feijoa Cupcakes

Posted 1:30pm Sunday 26th April 2015 by Sophie Edmonds

It’s that time of year when feijoas are in. I don’t know about you, but every time I gain control over my excess feijoa situation, I seem to acquire more as my friends’ mums try to palm them off on me. Want to know a secret? This is just a banana cake with some feijoas thrown Read more...

Laurence Aberhart

Posted 1:23pm Sunday 26th April 2015 by Loulou Callister-Baker

For those familiar with Laurence Aberhart’s work, the current show on at Brett McDowell on Dowling Street doesn’t feel “new” — in multiple senses of the word. And it’s not just because Aberhart refuses the digital through his use of a large-format camera. Planted Read more...

Horoscope | Issue 8

Posted 3:37pm Sunday 19th April 2015 by Madame McMystery

Aries For the entire month of May, drawing hopscotch on the pavement next to Union lawn will have the same effect as drawing a pentagram to summon demons — except instead of Balthazar the Belligerent, you’ll be summoning up new friends! Taurus Ever feel like your friends are Read more...

A Troublesome Inheritance: Genes, Race, and Human History

Posted 3:30pm Sunday 19th April 2015 by Bridget Vosburgh

ATroublesome Inheritance: Genes, Race, and Human History, by Nicholas Wade, attempts to begin a discussion about the genetics of race and the impact of racism on studying them. Wade’s central premise is that the evolution of the human race has been recent, copious and regional, meaning that Read more...

Flight of the Navigator

Posted 3:26pm Sunday 19th April 2015 by Alex Campbell-Hunt

Classic Flight of the Navigator is the best live-action Disney film. It seems routine enough on the surface — a kid has some adventures in a spaceship — but the film is elevated by its dark atmosphere and its slowly unfolding plot. In 1978, 12-year-old protagonist, David Freeman Read more...

Marvel’s Daredevil, Season 1 (Episode 1)

Posted 3:22pm Sunday 19th April 2015 by Mandy Te

TV Following in the footsteps of the CW network, Netflix has recently released 13 episodes of its new superhero show, Marvel’s Daredevil. Created by Drew Goddard, this series takes on Stan Lee’s comic-book character but gives the Daredevil’s story a dark, modern-day twist Read more...

Dior and I

Posted 3:17pm Sunday 19th April 2015 by Maya Dodd

Rating: 4/5 When it comes to documentaries, I’m not a huge fan. It is no surprise then that I went into the cinema with considerably low expectations and the unnerving feeling that I was about to fail miserably at another test for ma classe française. Dior and I follows the Read more...

Furious 7

Posted 3:15pm Sunday 19th April 2015 by Shaun Swain

Rating: 4/5 The make-or-break factor when it comes to high-octane action films is the pacing. Master that, and you can demand all the suspension of disbelief that you want from your audience. The seventh instalment of The Fast and the Furious series proves itself, once again, as a very capable Read more...

Interview: Raiza Biza

Posted 3:06pm Sunday 19th April 2015 by Daniel Munro

Artist Raiza Biza has solidified himself in the New Zealand Hip Hop game with last year’s release of The Imperfectionist album. 2015 is set to be another big year for the talented artist so Critic caught up with him ahead of his show this Thursday night at ReFuel. Critic: To start, Read more...

Carl Barât & the Jackals: Let It Reign

Posted 2:58pm Sunday 19th April 2015 by Oliver Gaskell

Rating: 4/5 Carl Barât is best known as a member of The Libertines, a gang of British rock ’n’ roll rebels who, alongside bands like The Strokes and The White Stripes, were part of the 2000s garage rock revival. Darlings of the English music press, The Libertines captured the Read more...

Rune Factory 4

Posted 2:53pm Sunday 19th April 2015 by Bridget Vosburgh

Rating: 4/5 Rune Factory 4 is a Nintendo eShop-only release in New Zealand. Up until this instalment, the Rune Factory games were subtitled with “A Fantasy Harvest Moon”, as the series is a Harvest Moon spin-off. In the Harvest Moon games you run a farm while repeatedly giving gifts Read more...

Roast Tomato, Pumpkin and Capsicum Soup

Posted 2:47pm Sunday 19th April 2015 by Sophie Edmonds

It’s that time of year again when the electric blankets come out, the hot water bottles get cradled in lectures and your washing takes a week to dry. Soup starts to become a viable option for most meals as your bank balances become as miserable as the weather. When I was scrounging a free Read more...

iD2k16

Posted 2:38pm Sunday 19th April 2015 by Mya Middleton

iD2k16 is a #lifestyle choice. It is a #fun and #sexy brand expo. iD2k16 equates #health with wealth; be the healthiest you that you can be. iD2k16 explores a complex collection of issues including consumerism, fashion, brand and lifestyle culture, retail and art. It also critiques the authority Read more...

Horoscope | Issue 7

Posted 2:51pm Sunday 12th April 2015 by Madame McMystery

Do you struggle with making basic life decisions? Worried about never bumping into your campus soulmate, or whether to eat two-minute noodles for every dinner this week? Fear not, chums, for I, Madame McMystery, have gazed deep into the cosmos to reveal the secrets the planetary alignments hold in Read more...

InFamous: First Light

Posted 2:51pm Sunday 12th April 2015 by Brandon Johnstone

Rating: 2/5 InFamous: First Light is presented in an odd format. A tie-in to the larger title, InFamous: Second Son, and available for download and use without the player having to own the primary title, it’s not quite its own game yet it’s more than just a piece of downloadable content Read more...

The Grand Hotel

Posted 2:51pm Sunday 12th April 2015 by Bridget Vosburgh

Scott Kenemore’s novel, The Grand Hotel, is narrated by a desk clerk who makes it clear to the reader that he has a sinister ulterior motive when he volunteers to show a group of tourists around the mysterious hotel he works for. The first guest he takes the tourists to see is a desiccated Read more...

Theatre review: The War Play

Posted 2:51pm Sunday 12th April 2015 by Gini Jory

Rating: 4/5 In 2005, Private Jack Braithwaite and five other soldiers were pardoned and awarded medals for their service by Prime Minister Helen Clark under the Pardon for the Soldiers of the Great War Act 2000. The War Play focuses on the relatives of writer, Philip Braithwaite, and the scandal Read more...

Heathers

Posted 2:51pm Sunday 12th April 2015 by Mandy Te

Cult 80s coming-of-age films often deal with detention, skipping school, finally getting Jake Ryan to notice you and making your own clothes. However, Heathers breaks this mould with a plotline that is darker and deadlier than any John Hughes film. While Mean Girls is often hailed as Read more...

Infinitely Polar Bear

Posted 2:51pm Sunday 12th April 2015 by Ngarangi Haerewa

Rating: 4/5 On the spectrum of action-packed thrillers, Infinitely Polar Bear doesn’t even register, but it is in no way unremarkable. On the contrary, Infinitely Polar Bear fills a certain void that no amount of green-eyed anger ever could. Set in 1978, the film takes place at the Read more...

The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge out of Water

Posted 2:51pm Sunday 12th April 2015 by Maya Dodd

Rating: 1/5 Filled with terrible puns, The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge out of Water is a complete disaster that falls incredibly short of the beloved children’s cartoon that we all cherish and adore. Furthermore, with strange live-action and animation effects, I had to wonder if the director Read more...