Archive

Dying Light

Posted 5:43pm Sunday 22nd March 2015 by Isaac Yu

Rating: 4/5 Much like fresher flu, zombies are hard to escape at the moment. Books, movies, TV shows, games: Dying Light is the latest triple-A attempt to cash in on the zombie craze following the giant let-down that was Dead Island. Made by the same developer, Techland, Dying Light takes Read more...

Zoe Crook & Aodhan Madden Suspicious Minds

Posted 5:43pm Sunday 22nd March 2015 by Loulou Callister-Baker

The first time I met artists Zoe Crook and Aodhan Madden was at the Blue Oyster Art Project Space while they were partway through initial preparations for their Fringe Festival performance piece, “Suspicious Minds”. They had moved the office to a back room, covered the entire front window and Read more...

The Rise and Fall of National Women’s Hospital: A History

Posted 5:43pm Sunday 22nd March 2015 by Bridget Vosburgh

The Rise and Fall of National Women’s Hospital: A History is exactly that. Author Linda Bryder covers the history of the National Women’s Hospital in Auckland, beginning with the political and social circumstances that led to the hospital’s opening in 1946, and ending with the conditions that led to Read more...

GASP

Posted 5:43pm Sunday 22nd March 2015 by Daniel Munro

GASP is a DJ and producer based out of Dunedin, and is set to support Raiza Biza and Jay Knight at Refuel on the 23rd of April. At just 17 years old, Eden Burns is making waves locally and internationally. With recognition from both Vice and Mix Mag, Critic caught up with him to check out what he’s Read more...

Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds Chasing Yesterday

Posted 5:43pm Sunday 22nd March 2015 by Basti Menkes

Noel Gallagher has to be one of the most tragic figures in rock history. Okay, he’s not quite up there with Daniel Johnston or Syd Barrett, but he is piteous in his own way. Like The Beatles (yes, it’s sentence three and I’ve already made that comparison), Oasis started out as lovable British Read more...

Dunedin Fringe Festival Dance/Theatre Performance: Bbeals

Posted 5:43pm Sunday 22nd March 2015 by Rachael Hodge

Rating: 4/5 A s one dancer rightly pointed out, Bbeals “sure was no swan lake.” To say the least, Bbeals, performed by the New Zealand dance company, Footnote, and a French company, Danses en l’R, was interesting. I wasn’t sure what I was expecting from the show. However, I was Read more...

Kidnapping Mr. Heineken

Posted 5:43pm Sunday 22nd March 2015 by Shaun Swain

Rating: 3/5 Films “based on a true story,” especially ones about kidnap heists, usually fit into one of two categories. Category one: documentary footage that is so intensely dramatised that it becomes almost fictitious. Category two: documentary footage that sticks diligently to historical Read more...

The Salt of the Earth

Posted 5:43pm Sunday 22nd March 2015 by Harlan Jones

Rating: 4/5 “People are the Salt of the Earth” Sebastião Salgado informs us — hardly a surprising conclusion from a successful social photographer. The observation establishes the impetus for the documentary, which quickly moves from being a biopic about Salgado into a wider meditation on Read more...

Chappie

Posted 5:43pm Sunday 22nd March 2015 by Maya Dodd

Rating: 2/5 Have you ever heard people say, “there goes [insert minutes, hours, seconds here] of my life that I’ll never get back”? Deon Wilson (Dev Patel) spent — or wasted, depending on how you want to look at it — the better part of three years creating an artificial intelligence Read more...

Mediterranean Lamb Burgers

Posted 5:43pm Sunday 22nd March 2015 by Sophie Edmonds

I compensate for my lack of a Victoria’s Secret-worthy bod by seducing men with my charm, wit and culinary efforts. My usual go-to involves spaghetti and meatballs made from scratch, as carbs and meat tend to go down a treat in most males. This time I felt the pasta fest that I usually do wouldn’t Read more...

Horoscope | Issue 4

Posted 2:32pm Sunday 15th March 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...

Super Smash Bros for Wii U

Posted 2:32pm Sunday 15th March 2015 by Brandon Johnstone

Nintendo’s Super Smash Bros franchise is probably the most well-known, well-loved fighting video game in existence. Originally, the idea behind the fighter was to use generic brawler characters, but thankfully Sakurai (the bright spark who designed the game) decided to throw Nintendo’s mascots into Read more...

Anthonie Tonnon

Posted 2:32pm Sunday 15th March 2015 by Basti Menkes

You are from Dunedin originally, but migrated to Auckland. Did you feel there wasn’t a place for you in the Dunedin music scene? That wasn’t it. I decided very suddenly that I was going to move to Auckland. It was New Year’s Day, I took two suitcases with me, and that was that. I think Read more...

Recent Releases

Posted 2:32pm Sunday 15th March 2015 by Basti Menkes

Hot Chip “Huarache Lights” London group, Hot Chip, has been carefully honing its brand of electronica for a decade and a half now. On fifth album, In Our Heads, they have seemingly perfected their craft, blending irresistibly catchy electronics with thought-provoking lyricism. New track, Read more...

Patrick Lundberg Draft Copy

Posted 2:32pm Sunday 15th March 2015 by Loulou Callister-Baker

Patrick Lundberg’s Draft Copy is a connect-the-dots of all sorts: literally in its arrangements of round pins intersected by faint pencil lines and intellectually in the discussions it raises between art objects and the gallery space. This show can be enjoyed by taking a step closer to discover the Read more...

Panguru and the City: Kāinga Tahi, Kāinga Rua

Posted 2:32pm Sunday 15th March 2015 by Bridget Vosburgh

Panguru and the City: Kāinga Tahi, Kāinga Rua, by Melissa Matutina Williams, shares the history of the migration of Māori from the community of Panguru in North Hokianga to establish new lives in Auckland. Covering a time period from the 1950s onwards, Williams takes apart the Read more...

Thunderstruck & Other Stories

Posted 2:32pm Sunday 15th March 2015 by Bridget Vosburgh

Whenever I read contemporary literary short stories I tend to feel like I’m missing the point. I must be missing the point, because there must be one. No one would publish entire collections of meaningless stories where nothing happens to boring people. And if they did, scores of critics wouldn’t Read more...

Dunedin Fringe Festival

Posted 2:32pm Sunday 15th March 2015 by Mandy Te

T he night was a successful taste test of what to expect from the Dunedin Fringe Festival, and I’m sure it won’t disappoint. With a song from Beards! Beards! Beards! by two men sporting their very own impressive beards and a hilarious performance from the girls of BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH Read more...

Focus

Posted 2:32pm Sunday 15th March 2015 by Maya Dodd

I must admit, following the utter disappointment of After Earth, my expectations of Will Smith providing quality cinematic entertainment in Focus were pretty low. The fact that it was a “Baby and Me” screening did not help matters — screaming toddlers and dimmed-but-not-entirely-blacked-out lighting Read more...

How to Make a Salad

Posted 2:32pm Sunday 15th March 2015 by Sophie Edmonds

I went to the Farmers’ Market the other day and became instantly inspired to start eating more vegetables. I was prancing around the market in new fluoro Nike gym gear too, so I feel like the health kick had gone well and truly to my head. I became overwhelmed with choice and even found myself Read more...

Gemma Bovery

Posted 2:32pm Sunday 15th March 2015 by Mandy Te

Rating: 3/5 The Francophiles of Dunedin can rejoice in the knowledge that the 2015 Alliance Française French Film Festival is now in full gear. I myself am rejoicing, but that’s because I’m a lover of subtitles. A film with subtitles and also part of the French Film Festival is Gemma Read more...

Life is Strange

Posted 5:30pm Sunday 8th March 2015 by Amber Hilton

Rating: 4/5 Life Is Strange is an episodic, story-driven graphic adventure game that centres around Max Caulfield, a (mostly) ordinary photography student attending high school in Arcadia Bay, Oregon. It’s hard to go into detail without giving away key plot points, but I will say there are a Read more...

Interview: Leon Jory - Charisma Collective

Posted 5:30pm Sunday 8th March 2015 by Basti Menkes

L eon Jory is a Dunedin musician, and one of the minds behind local music label Charisma Collective. Critic caught up with Leon recently to talk about his new solo release, EP 24b.3Q, and what is on the cards for the collective this year. Critic: For the many readers who won’t be Read more...

En Esch - Spänk

Posted 5:30pm Sunday 8th March 2015 by Basti Menkes

Rating: 3/5 Nicklaus Schandelmaier, more commonly known as En Esch, is an industrial rock musician hailing from Germany. For many years he was in the phenomenal band KMFDM (Kein Mehrheit Für Die Mitleid), sharing songwriting duties with Sascha “Käpt’n K” Konietzko. Like many famous musical Read more...

Erica Van Zon - Dogwood Days

Posted 5:30pm Sunday 8th March 2015 by Loulou Callister-Baker

W hen my family was moving house yet again, I remember listening to a conversation between two relocators. They were packing my mother’s various objects, which decorated the numerous shelves in the study. While arranging two strangely bent papier-mâché trout and a found piece of burnt Read more...

Yesterday's Kin

Posted 5:30pm Sunday 8th March 2015 by Bridget Vosburgh

Yesterday’s Kin by Nancy Kress is a science-fiction novel about the experiences of geneticist Marianne Jenner and her adult son, Noah, after the arrival of aliens on Earth. The aliens have already established their presence in New York City when the story starts, probably because this novel is very Read more...

The Dunedin Fringe Festival

Posted 5:30pm Sunday 8th March 2015 by Mandy Te

Among the shattered glass that litters our streets and the misrepresentation of Dunedin as a place that’s full of wasted students, this city has a lot to give — especially when it comes to the arts. From James K. Baxter, Janet Frame and Alan Dale (the guy who plays the evil, rich grandpa with the Read more...

House of Cards, Season 3 (Episode 1)

Posted 5:30pm Sunday 8th March 2015 by Harlan Jones

A s a passionate subscriber to Netflix’s reboot of House of Cards, I found myself eagerly anticipating the first episode of the new season. When the latest chapter was finally released on 27 February, a titanic struggle ensued between my desire to return to the exploits of Machiavellian Read more...

The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

Posted 5:30pm Sunday 8th March 2015 by Shaun Swain

Rating: 4/5 After neglecting the romantic dramedy genre for some time, I am glad to have been reintroduced with the lively, beautiful and surprisingly captivating sequel to The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. While I wasn’t all too familiar with the original instalment, The Second Best Exotic Read more...

Force Majeure

Posted 5:30pm Sunday 8th March 2015 by Anonymous Bird

Rating: 5/5 Force Majeure follows a Swedish family on their five-day skiing holiday. The opening scene shows the family being persuaded by a photographer to have their picture taken. The result is a funny moment where you can see how they have constructed an ideal family: mother, father, Read more...

Pulled Chicken & Peach BBQ Tacos

Posted 5:30pm Sunday 8th March 2015 by Sophie Edmonds

For those who know me or have followed my recipes here since last year, my unwavering love for soft-shell tacos is evident. My favourite being those that include melt-in-your-mouth, slow-cooked meats. For those of you who really value that extra twenty minutes of sleep in the morning and CBF putting Read more...

Stranded Deep

Posted 6:26pm Sunday 1st March 2015 by Angus Wilson

H ave you ever wanted to live out a Tom Hanks, Castaway fantasy on a deserted island with nothing but a netball for company, but couldn’t afford the tickets to nowhere? Then, boy, do I have some good news for you, and you don’t even have to leave your couch to get it. Stranded Deep is Read more...

Demons

Posted 6:26pm Sunday 1st March 2015 by Bridget Vosburgh

Demons, by Wayne Macauley, tells the story of seven Australians who retreat from the world for a weekend to get drunk and tell each other stories but find, as the weekend goes on, that the experience is becoming a disturbing one. The title and this premise make it sound like Demons might be a horror Read more...

From Dusk Till Dawn

Posted 6:26pm Sunday 1st March 2015 by Alex Blackwood

Cult Film F rom Dusk Till Dawn is a two-course action-crime buffet with references as juicy as a Kahuna Burger; the first course comes in the form of a hostage film and the second, a Vampire film that is far gorier than what we were accustomed to in 1996, let alone 2015. The Read more...

Jupiter Ascending

Posted 6:26pm Sunday 1st March 2015 by Anonymous Bird

Rating: 1/5 Jupiter Ascending follows Jupiter Jones, a young girl who hates her life, which is spent cleaning houses and bathrooms with her scary Russian family just to get by. She is convinced by her ridiculous cousin to sell her eggs to a clinic in order to get money so that she can buy a Read more...

Selma

Posted 6:26pm Sunday 1st March 2015 by Letisha Nicholas

Rating: 4/5 Fuck you, America, I have a dream! In 1964, the American Civil Rights bill was passed and African-American citizens had the right to vote. Except that black citizens were systematically and violently denied access to register and vote. Selma shows that 1965 America was filled with Read more...

Foxcatcher

Posted 6:26pm Sunday 1st March 2015 by Nick Ainge-Roy

Rating: 4/5 Foxcatcher tells the true story of Olympic wrestlers, Mark Schulz (Channing Tatum) and David Schulz (Mark Ruffalo), and their unsettling benefactor John DuPont (Steve Carrell) as they attempt to repeat their gold medal win from the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics at the 1988 Seoul Read more...

Oasis - (What's the Story) Morning Glory?

Posted 6:26pm Sunday 1st March 2015 by Basti Menkes

Cult Album It’s been twenty years since Oasis’s blockbuster second album, (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?, was released. A lot has happened in that time. The band themselves lost their critical and commercial success and their place in the zeitgeist, and fell into an oh-are-they-still-going Read more...

Top Tracks | Issue 2

Posted 6:26pm Sunday 1st March 2015 by Daniel Munro

Azizi Gibson - Claustrophobic (Prod. Kamandi) Off Azizi’s latest EP The Last, ‘Claustrophobic’ is another huge one for Gibson. Produced by NZ’s own Kamandi, this bass-heavy track is another great addition to the duo’s catalogue. Be sure to catch them both in Dunedin in early March. Read more...

Björk - Vulnicura

Posted 6:26pm Sunday 1st March 2015 by Basti Menkes

Rating: 4/5 E xperimental pop star Björk has proven more than once that she’s capable of making gorgeous, genre-defying albums. Sadly, the last time she made one of those was in 2001 with Vespertine. Sure, the three albums she has released since then had their merits, but they were Read more...

Gabriella & Silvana Mangano - Visible Structures

Posted 6:26pm Sunday 1st March 2015 by Loulou Callister-Baker

C onfronted by a wall of text that partially blocks Gabriella and Silvana Mangano’s “Visible Structures”, the viewer can experience only a slice of the show from the outside. These glints of colour and light from one of the show’s projected films, mixed with ethereal, overlapping sounds, lure Read more...

Vegan Steamed Buns

Posted 6:26pm Sunday 1st March 2015 by Sophie Edmonds

Needing a post-O-Week detox yet? While I believe in butter, smash back trays of eggs every fortnight and am pretty much the poster child for milk consumption, I am also a massive fan of these vegan steamed buns. I base them on a Jamie Oliver recipe, which I tweaked due to my lack of mushrooms, Read more...

Asleep: The Forgotten Epidemic That Remains One of Medicine's Greatest Mysteries

Posted 4:35pm Sunday 22nd February 2015 by Bridget Vosburgh

D o you like horror stories? Do you ever wish for factual proof that the world is completely terrifying? Asleep: The Forgotten Epidemic That Remains One of Medicine’s Greatest Mysteries is about a disease known as encephalitis lethargica. It’s not surprising if you haven’t heard of it. It was Read more...

Panda Bear - Panda Bear vs. the Grim Reaper

Posted 4:35pm Sunday 22nd February 2015 by Basti Menkes

Rating: 5/5 Experimental pop group Animal Collective requires no introduction. Between their critical acclaim, alluring sense of mystery and smattering of successful singles, they are certainly a band whose reputation precedes them. In the absence of a conventional frontman, it was Read more...

A Constant Companion

Posted 4:35pm Sunday 22nd February 2015 by Loulou Callister-Baker

I n a taxi one night in Beijing the taxi driver told me he dreamt of travelling — out of Beijing, around the world — but never could because of a lack of money. The driver explained, speaking slowly in simple Mandarin, that he travelled instead through his passengers and the stories of their Read more...

Citizenfour

Posted 4:35pm Sunday 22nd February 2015 by Mandy Te

Rating: 4/5 I have a love–hate relationship with documentaries. If they’re centred on animals, murder mysteries or food, then I love them, but if they’re on glaciers or erosion and use scientific vocabulary that isn’t easily defined for BA students like myself, then I’m not interested. Read more...

Outside Mullingar

Posted 4:35pm Sunday 22nd February 2015 by Bridie Boyd

Rating: 3/5 Outside Mullingar has too many faults to be more than average. The plot is classically Irish, with rain, farms, endless tea and family feuds in abundance. The First Act deals with death, family inheritance and lost love in an emotionally battering rollercoaster. Anthony Reilly is Read more...

50 Shades of Grey

Posted 4:35pm Sunday 22nd February 2015 by Simon Kingsley-Holmes

Rating: 0/5 W hen student, Anastasia Steele (Dakota Johnson), improbably interviews icy billionaire Christian Grey (Jamie Dornan), she finds herself trapped in a downward spiral of kinky sex and utter tediousness. We’re unfortunately in for a ride too, one that would send insomniacs to Read more...

Roast vegetable frittata

Posted 4:35pm Sunday 22nd February 2015 by Sophie Edmonds

I read somewhere that root vegetables are the kale of 2015. This news excites me greatly as I am the kumara’s biggest fan. I have been trying to nourish my body with more than just scrambled eggs three times a day. I love eggs — they are so cheap and such a great source of protein. The only problem Read more...

7 Days Live

Posted 3:48pm Saturday 13th December 2014 by Anonymous Bird

Without the restrictions of the TV cameras and the censors, the 7 Days team are presenting the live show at the Regent Theatre tonight. Be there to see what happens when the cameras aren't rolling! Critic asked Josh Thomson and Jeremy Elwood some of life’s big questions to get a feel for Read more...

Wasteland 2

Posted 11:58pm Sunday 12th October 2014 by Baz Macdonald

Rating: A The successful Kickstarter campaign of Wasteland 2 was a momentous occasion for the gaming industry. Though the first Wasteland game may not be familiar to many of you, no doubt its spiritual predecessor, the Fallout franchise, is. With Wasteland 2, developers Inxile got the Read more...

Faeries

Posted 11:58pm Sunday 12th October 2014 by Anonymous Bird

Faeries is my all-time favourite book. it’s not your normal novel in any sense of the word – it’s definitely fiction, but it’s also kind of an art book. Froud is probably most known throughout the world for this book in particular. But many of you may recognise his work from The Labyrinth (yeah, Read more...

Aladdin

Posted 11:58pm Sunday 12th October 2014 by CJ O'Connor

Classic Film Aladdin, as far as i am concerned, is a timeless classic that represents the pinnacle of Disney. It came out the year I was born and I think I watched it for the first time when I was around a year old. I recently bought the DVD to replace the utterly destroyed VHS of my Read more...

Dazed and Confused

Posted 11:58pm Sunday 12th October 2014 by Mandy Te

Classic Film Despite those hours in Central, i still haven’t finished my assignments. I haven’t prepared for my exams and, now that I’m home, my Internet isn’t working. Naturally, I’m devastated. To distract myself from my first world problems, I’m currently reflecting on a more peaceful time Read more...

The Lunchbox

Posted 11:58pm Sunday 12th October 2014 by Baz Macdonald

Rating: A- The Lunchbox is set in india and tells the story of Ila, an Indian woman who is struggling to connect with her distant husband. When the lunch she sends to her husband gets delivered to Saajan, a cynical widow, the two begin delivering messages to one another through the lunch Read more...

The Maze Runner

Posted 11:58pm Sunday 12th October 2014 by CJ O'Connor

Rating: A I can honestly say The Maze Runner surprised me. Having seen the shorts of the movie only last week, I was pretty much expecting an incarnation of The Hunger Games. And I did not like The Hunger Games. At all. So while the two franchises have commonalities, I found the plot of Maze Read more...

Review: Frances Hodgkins in 1913

Posted 11:58pm Sunday 12th October 2014 by Hannah Collier

The Dunedin Public Art Gallery Dunedin-born artist Frances Hodgkins (28 April 1869 – 13 May 1947) was a painter primarily of landscapes and still-lives. She is considered one of New Zealand's most prestigious and influential painters, although it is the work from her life in Europe that is Read more...

Custard and raspberry cream doughnuts

Posted 11:58pm Sunday 12th October 2014 by Sophie Edmonds

I thought I would go out with a bang for the last food column of the year, or at least a sizzle ... the sizzle of fried doughnuts! Doughnuts filled with custard and raspberries, no less. Boom. I regret to say I simultaneously wooed one boy and broke the heart of another with these very doughnuts. I Read more...

The Wolf Among Us

Posted 1:49pm Sunday 5th October 2014 by Baz Macdonald

Since the phenomenal runaway success of Telltale Games’ The Walking Dead from 2012, the gaming world has waited with bated breath to see what Telltale would produce next, and if they could repeat their past successes. The Wolf Among Us was that follow up game, and though it is not quite the Read more...

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Posted 1:49pm Sunday 5th October 2014 by James Beck

Warning: The following critically acclaimed piece contains spoilers of the material in the book. Solace is Caterpillar. Societal image issues. Eating disorder bullshit. Three phrases that come to mind when I think of this book – a book that lures the eyes more than a hair-flicking Robert Read more...

Artist Profile: Luckless

Posted 1:49pm Sunday 5th October 2014 by Adrian Ng

Luckless is a self described “two-piece melodic, neurotic, melancholic indie rock band from Auckland.” Having just released their sophomore album, Critic's Adrian Ng catches up with songwriter Ivy Rossiter to talk about her group's new record. Was there a moment that made you want to do Read more...

Download of the week: Strange Harvest - Astronaut [NZ]

Posted 1:49pm Sunday 5th October 2014 by Adrian Ng

Strange Harvest are a local duo who make haunting, beautifully textured, electronic music. “Astronaut” is a chilling, down-tempo, pop song that features majestic sounding keyboards and wonderfully noisy guitar playing. The soundscape is wondrous and full of static and strange machine-like chugging. Read more...

New this week / Singles in review

Posted 1:49pm Sunday 5th October 2014 by Adrian Ng

Iceage - How Many “How Many” is the third single from Copenhagen-based band Iceage, who are right on the cusp of releasing their third album, Plowing Into The Field of Love. Where first single “The Lord's Favorite” had a twisted, country influence and second offering “Forever” seemed Read more...

Hook

Posted 1:49pm Sunday 5th October 2014 by CJ O'Connor

Classic Film Hook is basically a representation of my childhood; I watched it so many times I destroyed the VHS. Given my attachment to all things Peter Pan and disinclination to actually grow up, it’s probably a fair representation of my current psychological state as well. This was one of Read more...

The Life of David Gale

Posted 1:49pm Sunday 5th October 2014 by Tim Lindsay

Cult Film Given Sir Alan Parker’s high directorial pedigree (Mississippi Burning, Bugsy Malone, Pink Floyd – The Wall, among many others), a collaboration with Kevin Spacey (Gale) and Kate Winslet (Bitsey Bloom) is a mouth-watering proposition. However, this was a film universally panned Read more...

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Posted 1:49pm Sunday 5th October 2014 by CJ O'Connor

Rating: B+ I like movies that don’t require a whole lot of cerebral activity, because all of my available neurons go toward passing my classes. However, TMNT was hilarious, in an “I can’t believe these are 21st century graphics” sort of way. Let’s start with the obvious, shall we? The Read more...

The Giver

Posted 1:49pm Sunday 5th October 2014 by Baz Macdonald

Rating: B+ We are currently in the midst of the latest film fad, with a litany of studios trying to cash in on the success of The Hunger Games by also creating post-apocalyptic young adult movies. Though The Giver fits comfortably into this fad, it has a few advantages over the other members Read more...

Review: This World is your Oyster

Posted 1:49pm Sunday 5th October 2014 by Hannah Collier

Mint Gallery New Zealand-based collage artist Peter Lewis has been forming, re-forming, configuring and reconfiguring popular culture and its images since 1990. Peter‘s work has been featured on CD covers in New Zealand and in the United States, in the San Francisco-based art magazine Churn Read more...

Custard filled chocolate éclairs

Posted 1:49pm Sunday 5th October 2014 by Sophie Edmonds

I made mini chocolate éclairs the other day. Not wanting to brag or anything but they were amazing. Rather than filling them with whipped cream (which you, of course, can do) I filled them with delicious homemade custard. The lesson here is that if you cover your food with enough flowers and Read more...

Destiny

Posted 2:58pm Sunday 28th September 2014 by Baz Macdonald

Rating: B The hype machine was put into high gear before the launch of Destiny. Although Bungie, the celebrated studio behind Halo, met these expectations in many ways, they also fell well short of them in many more. My biggest disappointment with Destiny has to be in its Read more...

High Fidelity

Posted 2:58pm Sunday 28th September 2014 by Eithne Whitteker

Though perhaps better known for being the novelist behind the film About A Boy (starring Hugh Grant and a small, creepy-looking Nicholas Hoult), Nick Hornby had already written a modern classic before that film came out. Written in 1995, High Fidelity is a timeless exploration of the modern, Read more...

Ha the Unclear - Bacterium, look at your motor go

Posted 2:58pm Sunday 28th September 2014 by Adrian Ng

Rating: A- After releasing a handful of lo-fi pop albums, EPs and singles under the moniker Brown, no one suspected that the Dunedin/Auckland quartet was gearing up for a drastic makeover. In December last year the group released “Apostate,” the first single from Bacterium, Look At Your Motor Read more...

Download of the week: Bandicoot - Happy Talking (NZ)

Posted 2:58pm Sunday 28th September 2014 by Adrian Ng

Perhaps one of the most important releases in the history of alternative New Zealand music, this little EP from short-lived Auckland three-piece Bandicoot really put the spotlight on local DIY music and influenced a handful of musicians in the process. A four-track explosion of noisy, lo-fi, Read more...

New this week / Singles in review

Posted 2:58pm Sunday 28th September 2014 by Adrian Ng

Lydia Ainsworth - Hologram Whilst a student of film scoring, Canadian artist Lydia Ainsworth was secretly working on songs for her upcoming debut, Right From Real. “Hologram” is the first single to drop from the intriguing new artist. “Hologram” is an ethereal, piano-based, pop Read more...

Mrs. Doubtfire

Posted 2:58pm Sunday 28th September 2014 by Mandy Te

Classic Film Through the eyes of young me, Mrs Doubtfire was a hilarious film that made me cry with laughter. However, through the eyes of “adult” me, Mrs Doubtfire is actually a pretty heart-breaking film that just made me cry. Blame it on the cold, harsh realities that my sheltered, Read more...

Coco Avant Chanel

Posted 2:58pm Sunday 28th September 2014 by CJ O'Connor

Foreign Film I don't often watch foreign language films. It's not because they're hard to understand, because the ones I watch are usually in French or Spanish, and I speak both. It's because I find foreign films just ... odd. Especially French ones, and especially French ones that aren't Read more...

Night Moves

Posted 2:58pm Sunday 28th September 2014 by CJ O'Connor

Rating: B Night Moves is one of the most psychologically interesting movies I have seen this year. Shunning the paradigmatic fast pace and drama of the usual terrorism plot, Reichardt instead focuses her latest flick on the development of the characters in the undertaking. The three Read more...

Predestination

Posted 2:58pm Sunday 28th September 2014 by Baz Macdonald

Rating: B+ You may not know it, but there is a huge difference between cinematic and literary science fiction. Cinematic Science Fiction is interested in, almost exclusively, the spectacular side of science fiction, as speculative science allows you to explore aesthetically unexplored worlds Read more...

Unpainted

Posted 2:58pm Sunday 28th September 2014 by Hannah Collier

Blue Oyster Art Project Space Exhibited until 18 October 2014 I rarely get down to the Blue Oyster on Dowling Street, but every time I go there, I am always pleasantly surprised. Briar Holt’s Unpainted curation is a series of work by artists Kim Pieters, James Bellaney, Helen Calder Read more...

Croque-Monsieur (A glorified toasted sandwich)

Posted 2:58pm Sunday 28th September 2014 by Sophie Edmonds

Somehow Aucklanders have managed to charge $8.50 for a glorified toasted sandwich by calling them croque-monsieurs. Essentially a ham and cheese toastie covered in a white cheese sauce, these things have suddenly become all the rage, and for good reason too. Think along the lines of the cheese Read more...

Interview: Rima Te Wiata

Posted 3:00pm Sunday 21st September 2014 by Sydney Lehman

Rima: I’m just sitting in a park in Wellington; it’s very nice, it’s very sunny. Critic: Oh wonderful! So, yeah, one of our reviewer’s here at Critic for our film section finished their review saying that Housebound was “International funny,” not just “Kiwi funny.” I guess in terms of the Read more...

Sims 4

Posted 3:00pm Sunday 21st September 2014 by Baz Macdonald

The concept of simulation games, on paper, is truly absurd. Especially when you consider what many of these games simulate are often the most mundane aspects of our lives. Managing and planning city infrastructure, businesses, sport’s teams, the most boring aspects of flying a plane. All of these Read more...

Unaccustomed Earth

Posted 3:00pm Sunday 21st September 2014 by Chelsea Boyle

Jhumpa Lahiri’s second collection of short stories, Unaccustomed Earth, is another stunning contribution from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author. The fictional collection includes eight short stories, divided into two parts. The narrative works as a unified whole yet simultaneously each story Read more...

Zola Jesus - Taiga

Posted 3:00pm Sunday 21st September 2014 by Adrian Ng

Rating: A- For me, it's always an interesting little storyline when a mainstream pop artist decides to make a more adventurous, more authentic, record. When they feel that urge to break out of their contrived pop shell and validate themselves as true artists and not just a product of the Read more...

Download of the week: Fazed on a Pony - Alone / Mary like me (NZ)

Posted 3:00pm Sunday 21st September 2014 by Adrian Ng

Fazed on a Pony is Peter McCall, a talented songwriter who is also part of two great Dunedin bands, Yawny and the Apocalypse, and Dasepo Girls. Over the last month or so he's released two singles, “Alone” and “Mary Like Me.” This is hopefully a precursor for things to come. His laid back, Read more...

New this week / Singles in review

Posted 3:00pm Sunday 21st September 2014 by Adrian Ng

Ariel Pink - Put Your Number In My Phone Ariel Pink is an experimental pop musician based in Los Angeles, known for his prolific nature and his pioneering of lo-fi home recording during the earlier stages of his career. “Put Your Number In My Phone” is the first single to drop from Read more...

Good Morning, Vietnam

Posted 3:00pm Sunday 21st September 2014 by Mandy Te

Classic Film First on my road of escapism (the post-mid-semester-blues haven’t left) was Good Morning, Vietnam. Settling in the lounge, a place incredibly similar to a bus stop, I was instantly met with approval for watching such “a good, classic film.” Good Morning, Vietnam is set Read more...

The Keeper of Lost Causes (Kvinden I Buret)

Posted 3:00pm Sunday 21st September 2014 by Alex Campbell-Hunt

Rating: B Scandinavian cinema has a tendency to be kind of grim and morbid, and the recent wave of crime-dramas is no exception. After watching this movie, or The Bridge or the Millennium trilogy, one might be left with two strong impressions of Scandinavia: that it’s completely grey and Read more...

Into the Storm

Posted 3:00pm Sunday 21st September 2014 by Baz Macdonald

Rating: B- Disaster movies can be approached in one of two ways. It can either be a character film, in which you follow interesting and dynamic characters as they deal with the disaster, or it can be disaster porn in which everything constructed is solely for the purpose of producing Read more...

Before I Go to Sleep

Posted 3:00pm Sunday 21st September 2014 by Andrew Kwiatkowski

Rating: A Okay, so if you are anything like me, and you hear that this movie is about a woman with amnesia waking up every day with no memory of who she (or her husband) is, you immediately think it’s going to be a crappy re-hash of Memento or 50 First Dates, right? Wrong. While Read more...

Barry Brickell - His Own Steam

Posted 3:00pm Sunday 21st September 2014 by Hannah Collier

Dunedin Public Art Gallery (DPAG) Exhibited until 1 March 2015 The DPAG is clearly into ceramics at the moment and I have been enjoying the refreshing change from paintings to pottery. Barry Brickell is one of the pre-eminent contemporary potters working in New Zealand and is a Read more...

Butter chicken, raita and pilaf

Posted 3:00pm Sunday 21st September 2014 by Sophie Edmonds

This butter chicken reminds me of a time I cooked for three excellent gentlemen (you know who you are). Prior to this curry’s consumption, the four of us went on an excursion for garlic naan to serve with it. During the half-hour round trip, two of us attempted to drink a Pump bottle of 50/50 gin Read more...

Ryan Adams - Ryan Adams

Posted 5:04pm Sunday 14th September 2014 by Adrian Ng

Rating: B+ There was a period in the early to mid-2000s when the word that best summed up Ryan Adams was “prolific.” The man released a staggering 12 studio albums during a ten-year span. I'm not even counting the numerous bootleg albums and EPs circulating the web. Of course, the quality of Read more...

Velocity 2X

Posted 4:38pm Sunday 14th September 2014 by Baz Macdonald

Rating:A- It is exciting to consider the developments that are yet to come to existing genres. Looking at the past two decades of game development you can track the innovations and developments that have evolved genres, making them better and better. However this gradual progress makes it Read more...

Wildwood

Posted 4:38pm Sunday 14th September 2014 by Ella Borrie

Wildwood is a children’s novel that follows Prue McKeel’s adventures in the Impassable Wilderness behind her suburb. She and her classmate Curtis discover the hidden province of Wildwood as they track a murder of crows that abducted her baby brother Mac. Wildwood is in political upheaval: there’s a Read more...

Download of the week: The Violet-Ohs - Demos (NZ)

Posted 4:38pm Sunday 14th September 2014 by Adrian Ng

Formed about a month or two ago, from the scattered remains of two Dunedin bands, A Distant City and Ruby Phantoms, The Violet-Ohs are a post-punk, alternative group that have started off quickly. Featuring the talents of vocalist Nick Tipa, guitarist Zac Nicholls, drummer Josh Nicholls and bass Read more...

New this week / Singles in review

Posted 4:38pm Sunday 14th September 2014 by Adrian Ng

Iceage - Forever From their upcoming album Plowing Into The Field of Love, “Forever” is the second single from Copenhagen based band Iceage. With their previous release, You're Nothing, the group boasted a dense, post-punk, sonic splendour. Judging from what we've heard of their new Read more...

Good Will Hunting

Posted 4:38pm Sunday 14th September 2014 by Andrew Kwiatkowski

Classic Film “It’s not your fault.” Four little words that blow Will Hunting’s mind and frees him from past traumas inflicted upon him by cruel external forces. Four little words that delineate the boundary between what you are and are not responsible for; four little words that define the Read more...

The Inbetweeners 2

Posted 4:38pm Sunday 14th September 2014 by Tim Lindsay

Rating: B+ “You better bring your wellies, because you’ll be knee-deep in clunge.” This seminal quote from Jay Cartwright (James Buckley) in the previous film typifies the Inbetweeners: horny, foul-mouthed, and desperately unaware of their social status. Reunited in Australia with the Read more...

Magic in the Moonlight

Posted 4:38pm Sunday 14th September 2014 by Sydney Lehman

Rating: B- The joy of Woody Allen films is that you always know more or less what you’re in for. Magic in the Moonlight is quintessential Allen at its most predictable. Luckily, Colin Firth is much easier to watch than old Woody, so this film has commendable eye candy, as well as Read more...