Archive

The Faith of the Furious (timeless)

Posted 1:38pm Sunday 23rd April 2017 by Critic

Rating: 5/5 Reviewer: Vin Dali The Fate of the Furious is a surrealist masterpiece. Auteur F. Gary Gray subtly plays on the inherent absurdity of reality, presenting us with characters and scenes completely removed from our conception of the ‘real world’. Instead the characters Read more...

The Fate of the Furios Twenty Seventeen (2017)

Posted 1:33pm Sunday 23rd April 2017 by Critic

Rating: 2.5 out of 5 Reviewer: Trash Morash The trailer for another yet another Fast & Furious movie came as a surprise to me. Why another Fast & Furious movie, where the only trademark is an increasingly stupid title? The answer can be found by delving into the numbers behind Read more...

Fast & Furious 8 (2017)

Posted 1:24pm Sunday 23rd April 2017 by Critic

Rating: 1.5/5 Reviewer: Dick Swiveller The eighth installment of the seemingly perpetual Fast and Furious franchise is now in cinemas across the world, smashing global box office records for an opening weekend, raking in an estimated $761 million. I don’t care how many people go to see Read more...

Room

Posted 1:14pm Sunday 23rd April 2017 by Jessica Thompson Carr

Winner of awards like the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, and based on the infamous Josef Fritzl case of 2008, Room, by Emma Donoghue, captures everyone’s worst nightmare from a decidedly fresh perspective.  Told through the eyes of five-year-old Jack, who was born and raised in a Read more...

Music to Get Through It

Posted 1:05pm Sunday 23rd April 2017 by Bianca Prujean

If I Can’t Handle Me At My Best, You Don’t Deserve You At Your Worst —Helena Celle Glasgow-based hardware synth artist Helena Celle, aka Kay Logan, cited music as a “guiding light” when facing challenges related to LGBT homelessness. Regardless of whether or not it Read more...

Totus Tuus —Gorecki, The Armed Man —Karl Jenkins

Posted 12:56pm Sunday 23rd April 2017 by Ihlara McIndoe

The Dunedin City Choir alongside the Dunedin Symphony Orchestra gave a stunning performance of Gorecki’s Totus Tuus and Karl Jenkins’s The Armed Man, on Saturday 1st April, earning themselves a standing ovation.  The opening work of the concert, Totus Tuus, provided challenges Read more...

Bad Vibes

Posted 1:20pm Sunday 9th April 2017 by Reg Norris

It’s 1998. Some of you are being conceived. Possibly to Cher’s ‘Believe’. Like a stylus scribing a sound onto a wax cylinder this song is imprinted in your DNA. Deal with it. Cher, like Madonna that very year, we’re moving into a lyrically modest danceable club anthem Read more...

Bonjour Tristesse

Posted 1:18pm Sunday 9th April 2017 by Zoe Taptiklis

I read Bonjour Tristesse on my way back from France during a six-hour layover in Shanghai airport. I was pretty jetlagged. I won’t lie or mislead you; this is going to be an astral quest of a book review.  The Times cover quote reads “funny, immoral and thoroughly French,” Read more...

Plum Crumble

Posted 1:07pm Sunday 9th April 2017 by Liani Baylis

Serves 4, or more with ice-cream   Fruit is fab until you go OTT at the farmers’ market and you’re practically swimming in a sea of dangerously squishy plums —old lady qualms, I know.  “Treat yo’self” is definitely a mantra that gets me right in Read more...

San Francisco Game Developers’ Conference

Posted 12:56pm Sunday 9th April 2017 by Lisa Blakie

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The Santa Clarita Diet (2017)

Posted 12:48pm Sunday 9th April 2017 by Saskia Bunce-Rath

Rating: 3.5/5 Comedy from Netflix, created by Victor Fresno, who is responsible for the critically acclaimed Better Off Ted. It stars (the criminally underrated) Timothy Olyphant and Drew Barrymore as two Californian real estate agents with a teenage daughter; everything seems normal until Sheila Read more...

Aquarius (2016)

Posted 12:44pm Sunday 9th April 2017 by Liz Ross

Rating: 3.5/5 Dona Clara is a Brazilian Battleaxe. Her strength and stubbornness have even fought off cancer. Aquarius is named after her home: a block of apartments being bought out by a development company. But Clara is a force to be reckoned with, and she has decided she will stay at the Read more...

Life (2017)

Posted 12:39pm Sunday 9th April 2017 by Alex Campbell-Hunt

Rating: 2.5/5 The overall critical response to Life seems to be that it’s an adequate and competently made space-disaster flick, but that it doesn’t give us anything we haven’t seen done better in other films of the genre. Which, yeah, sums it up pretty well I guess. Set aboard Read more...

AXIS: Anatomy of Space —Daniel Belton

Posted 12:33pm Sunday 9th April 2017 by Monique Hodgkinson

Beautiful, elegant, and led by a strong sense of purpose, Daniel Belton’s performance piece AXIS — anatomy of space intrigued and inspired audiences at its Otago Museum premiere. In refusing to align with one medium alone, AXIS combines dance with fashion design, celestial cartography, Read more...

Milk and Honey

Posted 1:45pm Sunday 2nd April 2017 by Jessica Thompson

As nervous as I am to admit it, I disliked milk and honey.  The majority of people to whom I’ve mentioned Rupi Kaur’s first and only book don’t hesitate to immediately vomit their adoration for the poetry and the woman behind it, leaving me feeling awkward and unable to Read more...

Fabricate

Posted 1:41pm Sunday 2nd April 2017 by Kate Avery

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Delusion at the Bodyvolt

Posted 1:34pm Sunday 2nd April 2017 by Bianca Prujean

Four months after the release of Delusion, we catch up with Beta Evers, aka Brigitte Enzler, to find out about the creative process, running a label, and the album that was 10+ years in the making. Thank you, Beta Evers, for taking the time to share your sonic insights with us!   Bavarian Read more...

Shadow Self —Élan Vital

Posted 1:28pm Sunday 2nd April 2017 by Grimm Selfie

How multiple are you? Ever have moments when you act in way that is out of character? Find yourself reading Jungian psychology while watching the Kardashians? Eat a lot of fried chicken? In random hot spots? With multiple lovers? Fear not, it could be your shadow self at play. This compact album Read more...

Kingdom Hearts 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue

Posted 1:17pm Sunday 2nd April 2017 by Brandon Johnstone

Rating: 3.5/5 It has been 15 years since the last numbered entry in the beloved Disney/Final Fantasy mashup franchise Kingdom Hearts, and Square Enix has had no qualms exploiting fans’ quiet desperation while we wait for the fabled Kingdom Hearts III. The horrifically titled Kingdom Hearts Read more...

The Innocents

Posted 1:13pm Sunday 2nd April 2017 by Shaun Brinsdon

Rating: 3.5/5 Anne Fontaine’s The Innocents was not an easy film to watch, but it’s definitely worth watching. Set at the culmination of World War II, the film follows heroine Mathilde Beaulieu: a young woman working for the Polish Red Cross. She is approached by a nun begging her to Read more...

West of Eden

Posted 1:10pm Sunday 2nd April 2017 by Shaun Brinsdon

Rating: 3.5/5 West of Eden is an independent film set in rural New Zealand in the 1960s. A low budget New Zealand film can sometimes spell disaster, but West of Eden engages the audience through its controversial and unique subject matter. West of Eden is the story of Billy, a young Maori man Read more...

Loving

Posted 1:07pm Sunday 2nd April 2017 by Maisie Thursfield

Rating: 2/5 Some people are not interesting enough to have a film made about them. Richard and Mildred Loving are perfect examples of those types of people.  Loving follows an interracial couple that marry in 1958 upon discovering that Mildred is pregnant. Wow, the proposal that every Read more...

Kong: Skull Island

Posted 1:02pm Sunday 2nd April 2017 by Marlee Partridge

Rating: 4.5/5 Set just after the Vietnam War, a team of soldiers, led by Samuel L. Jackson, are tasked with escorting a group of geologists to Skull Island. Tom Hiddleston features as an ex-British Intelligence agent who specialises in tracking. Thankfully, the love story within this film is NOT Read more...

Corn Fritters

Posted 12:55pm Sunday 2nd April 2017 by Liani Baylis

As the new kid on the block, I was a bit worried about how I was going to lure you into actually reading this section. Then I remembered what bonds Scarfies only slightly less than diesels and regret—brunch! This recipe is an ode to being perpetually poor, but pay-waving eggs bene anyway and Read more...

Wide Sargasso Sea

Posted 1:44pm Sunday 26th March 2017 by Zoe Taptiklis

Rating: 4/5 This book lives on my bookshelf, in a case, with a plaque underneath: ‘A Modernist Triumph of Femme Freedom’. In 1969, Jean Rhys published Wide Sargasso Sea, a prequel and intervention to Jane Eyre, much like the prequel and intervention of my flatmate telling me I am Read more...

Open Air, Still Life

Posted 1:40pm Sunday 26th March 2017 by Monique Hodgkinson

If you’re new to art history and can’t tell your Rembrandts from your Renoirs or your Monets from your Manets — no stress, it’s all good. But you’d probably benefit from learning the name Frances Hodgkins, who was one of our country’s most famous artists and a Read more...

PlayStation VR

Posted 1:35pm Sunday 26th March 2017 by Brandon Johnstone

Rating: 3.5/5 We are truly in the midst of a Virtual Reality (VR) renaissance. In the grand scheme of things the technology is in its infancy, but the days of Nintendo’s nausea-generator Virtual Boy are firmly behind us and the new generation of VR headsets are finally on the market. Not to Read more...

Madam Woo Dunedin

Posted 1:30pm Sunday 26th March 2017 by Hugh Baird

When looking for an eatery in Dunedin to truly satisfy the taste buds, it’s hard to look past Madam Woo. Founded by Michelin star chef Josh Emett and well renowned and respected restaurateur Fleur Caulton, Madam Woo is one of (if not) the best Asian eateries in town. Madam Woo has a strong Read more...

Strange Dreams

Posted 1:27pm Sunday 26th March 2017 by Reg Norris

Album: Strange Dreams Artists: Motte Some time back there was a memorable performance in my hometown; someone was using loops to construct a soundscape of weird vocals. I can’t remember the name of the group, but I do remember the Hitchcockian scene as the loud repetitive squawking Read more...

A Street Cat Named Bob

Posted 1:20pm Sunday 26th March 2017 by Maisie Thursfield

Rating: 4/5 James Bowen sits playing guitar and singing “Beautiful Monday” in a busy Covent Garden street. People are walking past this homeless man, but no one looks at him, he seems invisible. Then Bob, the cat, enters his life and things start to change. It is actually Read more...

Gold

Posted 1:16pm Sunday 26th March 2017 by Marlee Partridge

Rating: 3.5/5 The latest flick featuring our shirtless cowboy, Matthew McConaughey, has an almost disturbing difference to the toned Texan we grew accustomed to in Magic Mike. Set during the decline of mineral mining, Gold is loosely based on the true story of the 1993 Bre-X mining scandal, where Read more...

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Posted 1:13pm Sunday 26th March 2017 by Anonymous Bird

Rating: Cult Classic In March 1997, the first episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer was released. Little did the cast, crew, and creators know that this supernatural teen TV show would turn out to be incredibly successful, hailed by both critics and fans. In fact, Buffy went on to inspire many Read more...

Riverdale

Posted 1:09pm Sunday 26th March 2017 by Saskia Bunce-Rath

Rating: 3.5/5 Riverdale is a new show from the CW based (loosely) on the Archie comics and is streaming on Netflix. It’s set in a town illuminated by neon lights that has been rocked by the recent death of beloved high school jock Jason Blossom. Archie (played by New Zealand’s own Read more...

Housekeeping

Posted 2:30pm Sunday 19th March 2017 by Jessica Thompson

"Having a sister or a friend is like sitting at night in a lighted house. Those outside can watch you if they want, but you need not see them."   Following the lives of Ruthie, the narrator, and her young sister Lucille in the fictional town of Fingerbone, Idaho, Housekeeping by Read more...

A Nest in Town

Posted 2:23pm Sunday 19th March 2017 by Monique Hodgkinson

Making my way downtown, walking fast, faces pass and I—glimpse what seems to be the nest of a giant bird? Currently on display on Moray Place is A nest in town by Motoko Watanabe; a mass of crumpled folded sheets and dense brown foliage packed behind the rear window of the Dunedin Public Art Read more...

Mozart at the Monkey Bar...?

Posted 2:17pm Sunday 19th March 2017 by Ihlara McIndoe

The freshly re-carpeted floors, brand new acoustic panelling, and music stands neatly aligned across the stage are certainly a dramatic change to the décor of the recently refurbished Monkey Bar, and new home of the Dunedin Symphony Orchestra. No longer will thumping bass and drunken laughter Read more...

The OA

Posted 2:11pm Sunday 19th March 2017 by Saskia Bunce-Rath

Rating: 5/5 The OA. Wow. What a divisive show. If you read the reviews online they oscillate wildly between people who think it’s the worst show since Lost, and people who’ve spent hours drawing diagrams and probably gesticulating wildly about how great it is. I went into this show Read more...

Alone in Berlin

Posted 2:07pm Sunday 19th March 2017 by Shaun Brinsdon

Rating: 2/5 Alone in Berlin is based the true story of Otto and Elise Hampel (named Otto and Elise Quangel in the film) who, after their son dies in 1940 while fighting in WW2, silently protest by writing postcards criticizing Hitler and the Nazi regime and urging others to protest against it. Read more...

Big Little Lies

Posted 2:02pm Sunday 19th March 2017 by George Hellriegel

Rating: 4.5/5 Based on the bestselling novel by Lianne Moriarty, Big Little Lies showcases a star-studded cast, including Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman, Shailene Woodley, Alexander Skarsgard and Laura Dern. The characters are placed in a perfect world of seaside mansions and upper-middle-class Read more...

Dramaworld

Posted 1:55pm Sunday 19th March 2017 by Anonymous Bird

Rating: 4/5 Claire Duncan (Liv Hewson) is a fangirl. The 20-year-old college student is obsessed with K-drama (Korean drama TV shows). She knows all the ins and outs of the genre, and hangs excitedly on every line, cliffhanger and dramatic turn the shows throw her way. Stuck between work and Read more...

Review: Chandeliers

Posted 3:35pm Monday 13th March 2017 by Marlee Partridge

Dunedin has long been renowned for its glass speckled sidewalks, Speight’s branded jumpsuits, and echoing chants of “fuck Arana”, but it could soon be known for an entirely, less alcohol-fuelled reason: Chandeliers. No, not the ceiling sort, or the drinking game; the Dunedin-based, Read more...

10 Quick Questions with Flavia Rose

Posted 2:19pm Sunday 12th March 2017 by Monique Hodgkinson

Flavia Rose is an emerging artist and creative raised in Dunedin and based in Wellington. She sat down with Critic’s Art Editor, Monique Hodgkinson, for ten quick questions about all things whimsical and lovely. Describe your artistic style in three words. Delicate, whimsical, Read more...

Sweet & Sour Pork

Posted 2:06pm Sunday 12th March 2017 by Kirsten Garcia

My SO repeatedly went out for takeaway over the summer break when he was too tired to cook from work. The ridiculous thing is that every time he would get exactly the same thing, from the same place: Sweet and Sour Pork. Seriously, the restaurant probably knows it’s him by his voice when he Read more...

Final Fantasy XV

Posted 1:57pm Sunday 12th March 2017 by Chris Lam

Rating: 2.5/5 For thirteen hours, I have watched four cosmopolitan titans of men slide through the air like greasy hamburgers. Ignis clicks his gloved fingers and a meal of bacon and eggs materialises. He sits silently as Noctis picks at it with a fork. Prompto proceeds to writhe on the ground. Read more...

‘Beautiful Mire’ -The River Jesters

Posted 1:51pm Sunday 12th March 2017 by Reg Norris

I had to throw away the bean metaphor. It wasn’t working. I was trying to say something about the bleak future of modern rock. Can anything really exciting and new come out of this genre? And by saying new I don’t mean NEW NEW because rock ‘n’ roll is locked down to Read more...

Manchester by the Sea

Posted 1:47pm Sunday 12th March 2017 by Jaxon Langley

Rating: 3.5/5 Kenneth Lonergan is famed for exploring grief in his films. His previous film, Margaret, was a character study of a high school girl who is traumatised after witnessing a woman hit by a bus. She begins to over-involve herself in the case as she can’t comprehend why no one is Read more...

Logan

Posted 1:43pm Sunday 12th March 2017 by Brandon Johnstone

Rating: 5/5 Set in the year 2029, years after the events of 2014’s X-Men: Days of Future Past, Logan brings the story of Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine (AKA Logan AKA James Howlett) to its logical conclusion. Fully embracing the ever-deepening growling bitterness in Jackman’s Read more...

iBoy

Posted 1:36pm Sunday 12th March 2017 by Anonymous Bird

Rating: 1/5 I don’t know about you, but when a Netflix original rolls my way, I tend to get pretty excited. Netflix has a habit of picking up cool, interesting shows and movies that wouldn’t necessarily get funding from conventional studios. I trust Netflix with my viewing pleasure. Read more...

T2: Trainspotting

Posted 1:31pm Sunday 12th March 2017 by Siany O’Brien

Rating: 4.5/5 T2: Trainspotting is everything a sequel should be. It has the original cast and director (Danny Boyle), and is a continuation of the original story set 20 years later, but it still has the same charm as its predecessor. For all you who were scarred by the first film, fear not! T2 Read more...

1Q84

Posted 1:21pm Sunday 12th March 2017 by Anna Linton

Murakami is known for writing more similar to a corporealized acid trip than contemporary fiction. In 1Q84 (one-q-eighty-four) surrealism and dystopia combine to fuel a fustercluck equal parts modern love and old-fashioned vengeance set against the backdrop of Tokyo. In maintaining the thematic Read more...