Archive

Hungover Pancakes (Minus The Guilt)

Posted 1:02pm Sunday 30th July 2017 by Liani Baylis

Eating less or no animal products has become increasingly trendy – very #2017 if you will. Brainstorming content for this week’s article got me thinking. What do you do if Sunday morning you’ve mastered eggs, hauled that hangin’ ass out of bed to impress your lass, only to Read more...

Despite the Falling Snow

Posted 12:54pm Sunday 30th July 2017 by Gem MacDuff

Rating: 2/5 Despite a plot that anyone with half a brain could predict, your heart would have to be made of cement not to fall in love with Sam Reid’s earnest portrayal of the male lead in Shamim Sarif’s Cold War drama, Despite the Falling Snow. Reid plays the warm young Alexander, Read more...

The Journey

Posted 12:50pm Sunday 30th July 2017 by Rossana Boni

Rating: 4/5 Based on true events, The Journey depicts how political rivals Martin McGuiness and Ian Paisley finally hammered out a peace accord after forty years of conflict in Northern Ireland, known as the ‘Troubles’. As the respective leaders of Northern Ireland’s Sinn Fein Read more...

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Posted 12:45pm Sunday 30th July 2017 by Lisa Blakie

Do we really need another Breath of the Wild review circulating out there? Probably not. But I think I had a different experience to everyone else who has played this game, because I hated it when I first started it. The Legend of Zelda is a franchise I will love unconditionally forever. Ocarina Read more...

Critic Reviews: Spring Break

Posted 9:21am Monday 24th July 2017 by Sam Fraser-Baxter

It was a typically arctic night, as just over a thousand scarfies flooded into the Union Hall for OUSA’s Spring Break event on the Thursday of Re-O week. The event was touted by OUSA as an act of solidarity; a collective ‘fuck you’ to winter. They couldn’t have timed it Read more...

Critic Interviews New Zealand’s Funniest Comedian: Rhys Darby

Posted 1:35pm Sunday 23rd July 2017 by Joe Higham

Touching on his time in the NZ Army, his belief in reincarnation, his comedy heroes and more, Rhys Darby had a chat to Critic as he returns to New Zealand and Australia for his new Mystic Time Bird tour.  Joe Higham: How's the tour going so far? Rhys Darby: Great, yeah, fantastic. Only Read more...

Gilead

Posted 1:30pm Sunday 23rd July 2017 by Jessica Thompson

It took longer than I’d expected for me to get into this book. Marilynne Robinson has proven herself a talented, tender and transportive writer in her other novels, and over the years she has received a veritable feast of awards. Published in 2004, Gilead was the winner of the 2005 Read more...

Finger Paintings

Posted 1:27pm Sunday 23rd July 2017 by Waveney Russ

Envision cruising in through the Octagon and walking straight up to ‘La Débâcle’ by Claude Monet (if you know where to find it that is, thanks Dunedin Public Art Gallery), then shoving your hands onto the oil painting’s exterior; your Fatty-Lane-grease-infused digits Read more...

As Good as Real Coconut Yoghurt, But Made a la StudyLink

Posted 1:22pm Sunday 23rd July 2017 by Liani Baylis

The ‘health’ industry appears to be a rich kids’ game. Forgive me that StudyLink is all a girl’s got going right now – amirite? I’m determined to eat well (booze aside), but every time I step into the supermarket I reconsider the nutritional value of the dust Read more...

Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)

Posted 1:16pm Sunday 23rd July 2017 by Todd Johnstone

Rating: 3/5 We witnessed Peter Parker’s long-awaited entrance into the Marvel Cinematic Universe in last year’s Captain America: Civil War. Homecoming sees Tom Holland return as the third leading man to don the Spidey-suit, and lead what is essentially a teen high-school movie set Read more...

My Cousin Rachel (2017)

Posted 1:14pm Sunday 23rd July 2017 by Rossana Boni

Rating: 2/5 Channelling (poorly) his inner Guillermo del Toro with a disproportionate amount of candles, chiaroscuro and murder-mystery piano motifs, South African Director Roger Michell (Notting Hill, The Mother) gives us a new version of Daphne du Maurier’s twisty novel. The story that Read more...

This Boring Man

Posted 1:08pm Sunday 23rd July 2017 by Grimm Selfie

Back in November 2016, Johnny Marr, guitarist and cofounder of The Smiths, released his autobiography ‘Set the Boy Free’. It’s a book that spans his entire life, but of course focuses on how he came to knock on Morrissey’s door, and together change indie Read more...

Little Nightmares: Reviewed By A Pro and a Friend of a Pro

Posted 1:04pm Sunday 23rd July 2017 by Lisa Blakie

I played this game with a group of friends and it was terrifying and fantastic fun! There was a lot of screaming and cooperation from everyone in the room, and I even needed emotional support near the end when I was too afraid to face the final spook creature (I don’t want to be too specific Read more...

Sunroom – Trudy Lane (16 June – 1 July)

Posted 2:00pm Sunday 16th July 2017 by Waveney Russ

Staring at the sun as a child seemed a formidable challenge, akin to holding your breath at the bottom of a pool, only with a greater chance of permanently damaged corneas. Enter digital artist Trudy Lane. Like switching from a BSc to a BA, Lane endeavours to transport us to that sun gazing end goal Read more...

The Panopticon

Posted 1:55pm Sunday 16th July 2017 by Jessica Thompson

I studied this book for an English paper last semester and thought it was worth a review. Set in Scotland and with Edinburgh vernacular to match, the Panopticon is a sharp novel that examines the lives of the down and outs, the uncontrollable criminal youths and the doomed-to-fail losers of the Read more...

Aquawhatta?

Posted 1:51pm Sunday 16th July 2017 by Liani Baylis

If, unlike me, you’re not up with the vegan or frugal kids, you’re in for the biggest PSA of your young life, so stay seated and prepare to be mind-blown. I kept hearing about this thing called “aquafaba” and I was like TF is that? Turns out, it’s a magical liquid Read more...

Wonder Woman (2017)

Posted 1:48pm Sunday 16th July 2017 by Maisie Thursfield

Rating: 4/5 She’s powerful, she’s intelligent, she’s strong, she’s the daughter of Zeus, she’s Wonder Woman. Most importantly, she does not disappoint. We follow Diana’s childhood on the island of the Amazon women, surrounded by her mother Queen Hippolyta, Read more...

Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction (1997-2002)

Posted 1:43pm Sunday 16th July 2017 by Alex Campbell-Hunt

Rating: 3/5 “We live in a world where the real and the unreal live side by side. Break through the web of your experience, and open your mind to things... Beyond Belief.” You may or may not remember this spooky anthology series, which ran for four seasons from 1997 to 2002. A bit Read more...

Cars 3 (2017)

Posted 1:38pm Sunday 16th July 2017 by Callum Post

Rating: 3/5 The most repeated question I’ve heard regarding Pixar’s latest work is “what’s left to tell?” However, following its largely disliked predecessor, this final chapter in the Cars series manages to tell a story I’m convinced is necessary and Read more...

Album Review: Music To Get Puppies To Sleep

Posted 1:31pm Sunday 16th July 2017 by Anonymous

My job is awful, But this album is worse. I pass him on the stairs. Gazing into the bloodshot eyes of a man whose bowel has erupted in brown rage not once but three times in one day. He doesn’t know that I know. It was like picking up mud in the pouring rain. My job is awful, But Read more...

Highlights from E3 2017

Posted 1:22pm Sunday 16th July 2017 by Lisa Blakie

E3 is a giant nerd festival where all the big name game companies like Sony, Ubisoft and Microsoft come together to hang out and try to be all serious and have a competition to see whose press conference will be the best (which doesn’t really even matter because Nintendo always wins). Most of Read more...

Jack and Jill (2011)

Posted 1:35pm Sunday 9th July 2017 by Jack Schitt

Rating: 5 out 5 Al Pacinos What an honour it is to review Jack and Jill, the film that defined 2011 as one of the greatest years of cinema on record. This film defied expectations and revolutionised Adam Sandler’s career, finally showing him as the comic genius we all knew he could Read more...

The Godfather (1972)

Posted 1:32pm Sunday 9th July 2017 by Jac Aske

Rating: 1/5 Al Pacinos I thought people said this was a good film? Clearly people are liars with bad taste because this soggy pile of crap completely ruined my day. First off, I had no idea who anyone was because they cast a bunch of white men with the same haircut and then decided to confuse me Read more...

The Essex Serpent – Sarah Perry

Posted 1:23pm Sunday 9th July 2017 by James Bell

Sarah Perry’s second novel, The Essex Serpent, is an enticing Victorian gothic thriller. It was the winner of the British Book Awards Book of the Year, Waterstones Book of the Year and was shortlisted for the 2016 Costa Novel Award. Perry has created an extraordinarily wide-reaching and Read more...

Call Sick

Posted 1:19pm Sunday 9th July 2017 by Grace Ryder

Showing 17 June – 1 Oct at the Dunedin Public Art Gallery, FREE   Campbell Patterson is really good at climbing out of windows, particularly for someone wearing bizarre and little garb. There are few slips and falls, mostly carefully managed limbs making their way out of windows, Read more...

Big-Ass Pies

Posted 1:12pm Sunday 9th July 2017 by Liani Baylis

Kia ora, kids. I’ve been busy over the break encasing anything and everything in pastry; proof that the fresher five is not exclusive to those in first year. I don’t know about yours, but my break consisted of nothing more than Netflix documentaries. Now I’ve sworn off meat Read more...

Zoombinis

Posted 1:04pm Sunday 9th July 2017 by Lisa Blakie

Nostalgia is a powerful thing. Often when I go back and play games or watch movies that I loved as a kid, they disappoint. Flubber, Croc, Space Jam and Mary-Kate and Ashley Horse Riding for the Playstation One, to name a handful. It is normally the same for games and films I didn’t get to Read more...

Sibelius & Prokofiev

Posted 1:01pm Sunday 9th July 2017 by Ihlara McIndoe

Conductor: Marc Taddei Soloist: Ilya Gringolts For a concert in which nationalism and internationalism featured strongly, John Psathas’s Luminous was a fitting work to begin with. Commissioned as a “Century Fanfare” by the Auckland Philharmonic Orchestra in 1998, Psathas says Read more...

Harry Styles: An Exit Interview with Harry Styles

Posted 12:56pm Sunday 9th July 2017 by Grimm Selfie

As I sit here in my Mongolian yurt surrounded by Moroccan rugs, braiding a small child’s hair, my mind, alone, riffs on the void that is the wafer-thin transubstantiation of new age consumption. My spirit weaver weaves slow, for it grows limp. It has lost its one direction. What to listen to Read more...

A Rundown on Sex and Its Place in The World of Gaming

Posted 1:33pm Sunday 28th May 2017 by Lisa Blakie

Sex in the majority of videogames is the worst. It’s terrible. Why is it so awful? In God of War you button mash the controller and get rewarded with moaning. In the 1987 adventure game Leisure Suit Larry, your main aim is to try and make women have sex with you by being an undesirable sleaze. Read more...

Pulled Pork

Posted 1:19pm Sunday 28th May 2017 by Liani Baylis

As you can probably judge by my previous articles, I eat meat quite rarely. When I do, I don’t want to waste the occasion on something average - I want the full sock-blowing package. There are so many pulled pork recipes out there that, quite frankly, suck. This one will never disappoint Read more...

Freefall

Posted 1:10pm Sunday 28th May 2017 by Monique Hodgkinson

Above image: Freefall, exhibition installation view, featuring Colin McCahon, The Wake, 1958; Ralph Hotere, And ye shall dwell in the land I gave your fathers and ye shall be my people and I will be your God. Ezekiel, 36. 28, 1983, image reproduction by permission of the Hotere Read more...

The Handmaid's Tale

Posted 1:05pm Sunday 28th May 2017 by Anonymous Bird

Rating: 4/5 Based on the Margaret Atwood novel of the same name, The Handmaid’s Tale is a post-apocalyptic story of a patriarchal world. The first three episodes were released together and pack and powerful punch to the gut, with themes from the 1980s novel still resonating and relevant Read more...

A Dog’s Purpose

Posted 1:02pm Sunday 28th May 2017 by Samuel Rillstone

Rating: 5/5 A Dog’s Purpose is one of the most sentimental films I have seen in a while, for the pure and obvious fact that it contains dogs and dogs dying and living and just, doggos. Taking place from the 1950s to the present day, it follows a dog, narrated by the wonderful Josh Gad, who Read more...

Blankets–An Interview with Sasha Ford

Posted 12:54pm Sunday 28th May 2017 by Renee Barrance

  Earlier this year in March, on a rainy Sunday afternoon and post a whirlwind weekend of incredible music happening in Dunedin, I saw Montreal-based composer and sound artist Sasha Ford perform her solo electronic project Blankets at None Gallery. Blankets had also played the night before Read more...

The Vegetarian

Posted 1:40pm Sunday 21st May 2017 by Jessica Thompson Carr

Read this book and you’ll be put off meat for several weeks (not the worst thing in the world). Winner of the Man Booker International Prize and the Yi Sang Literary prize, this is Han Kang’s first book to be published in English and I am oh so grateful for it. Written in three Read more...

Homemade Potato Chips

Posted 1:36pm Sunday 21st May 2017 by Liani Baylis

You know those days when the thought of putting a bra on to go get snacks cripples your very existence? Today is one of those days. Good god Uber eats would go off in this town! Alas, we don’t have it, nor does Countdown deliver one bag of kettle chips. No, we must venture out to get snacks or Read more...

Stardew Valley

Posted 1:25pm Sunday 21st May 2017 by Lisa Blakie

Stardew Valley was released in 2016 and was welcomed by the community with a hugely positive reception from both players and critics. It was another indie hit created by a small team of one dude and I was excited to experience what it had to offer. And it delivered on everything the community had Read more...

The 2017 Capping Show

Posted 1:13pm Sunday 21st May 2017 by Critic

Dunedin transformed into Funedin this week for the opening night of the Capping Show, which Critic believes is the best one we’ve ever seen. If you’ve ever wanted to see a Nazi going through the letters of the alphabet while performing oral sex on a woman, you’re in luck. A Read more...

Chewing Gum (episodes 1-3, 2015)

Posted 1:11pm Sunday 21st May 2017 by Saskia Bunce-Rath

Rating: 3/5 I have… mixed feelings. On paper it all seems great, yet I quit watching after three episodes due to the immense second hand embarrassment I got. Chewing Gum is a British comedy that frankly discusses sexuality, with a diverse cast, set on an estate in England. It’s Read more...

Get Out (2017)

Posted 1:05pm Sunday 21st May 2017 by Anonymous Bird

Rating: 5/5 Get Out is a recent, somewhat controversial, horror film. Chris Washington (Daniel Kaluuya) is a young black photographer accompanying his new white girlfriend, Rose Armitage (Alison Williams), home to visit her parents. Early on Chris asks her if she had told her parents that he is Read more...

A Rainy Day Gallery Guide

Posted 12:59pm Sunday 21st May 2017 by Monique Hodgkinson

Cold weather getting you down? Check out these hidden gems around campus for some art and culture to warm you right up.   De Beer Gallery Special Collections For our first pick you don’t even have to leave the library! Head on over to Special Collections on the first floor, Read more...

Basically Baroque

Posted 12:54pm Sunday 21st May 2017 by Ihlara McIndoe

Kicking off the first of the 2017 Matinee series on the 29 April, Dunedin Symphony Orchestra’s Basically Baroque concert was certainly a hit. So often it takes an orchestra a while to settle into Bach, but the Concerto for Violin and Oboe was precise and enthralling right from the get-go. Read more...

This Is Your Haven

Posted 12:51pm Sunday 21st May 2017 by Bianca Prujean

It is 11 May 2017. Tomorrow, an epic lineup of electronic musicians will deliver their ambient, industrial, and techno beats to a dance-starved audience at Dunedin’s artist run space, None Gallery. The lineup includes UK techno producer, Ansome, and sonic allies, Jaded Nineties Raver (J9R), Read more...

Letter from the Music Editor | Issue 12

Posted 12:31pm Sunday 21st May 2017 by Bianca Prujean

There is something about the creative process that remains amorphous to me. As I write this, Dunedin is in the midst of DWRF 2017 (Dunedin Writers & Readers Festival), a week that is all about creative spirit and the power of the written word. I stand on the awkward eve of explaining to a room Read more...

Five Offbeat Illustrators Doing Interesting Things

Posted 1:01pm Sunday 14th May 2017 by Monique Hodgkinson

With books on the brain following the annual Dunedin Writers & Readers Festival, writing about illustration seemed a logical choice this week. These five contemporary artists each take the concept of illustrating for children in completely different directions, showing that the picture book page Read more...

Guardians of the Galaxy: The Telltale Series - Episode 1

Posted 12:50pm Sunday 14th May 2017 by Anonymous Bird

Rating: 3.5/5 There’s something particularly exciting about a game that is influenced by your decisions. Telltale Games have definitely got this structure down, taking on stories from multiple different franchises such as The Walking Dead, Fables and Game of Thrones. This time around Read more...

Misery

Posted 12:44pm Sunday 14th May 2017 by Jessica Thompson Carr

More often than not I come across a book I wish I had written myself. Stephen King’s Misery is one of those books - not for any clever reason, simply because it is quirky, weirdly relatable (to a writer), and shit scary. Word of advice folks: don't read when living alone in the Read more...

The Travel Salad

Posted 12:35pm Sunday 14th May 2017 by Liani Baylis

I’m first to admit that I am the stingiest bitch out when it comes to parting with money at crappy roadside stops. There is nothing worse than paying six euros for crusty stale bread and guaranteed salmonella - thanks, but no thanks. I’d much rather save my money for the real goods Read more...

Personal Shopper (2016)

Posted 12:32pm Sunday 14th May 2017 by Alex Campbell-Hunt

Rating: 4/5 It’s best to go into this movie knowing little about it, so that you can be taken on a mysterious ride and not know what to expect. So I won’t reveal too much. But you’ll know from the title that it’s about a personal shopper (played by Kristin Stewart); a Read more...