Archive

The World’s End

Posted 3:50pm Sunday 4th August 2013 by Lyle Skipsey

Rating: 4/5 I feel there should be a disclaimer up front: when I left the movie last night I fully expected to give it a rather mediocre score. However, having slept on it, maybe I judged too soon. The World’s End is the third instalment in the “not a trilogy” Cornetto trilogy that Read more...

Gardening With Soul

Posted 3:50pm Sunday 4th August 2013 by Rosie Howells

Gardening with Soul is a New Zealand documentary film that tells the story of a year in the life of Sister Loloya Galvin, the 90-year-old head gardener of Wellington’s Home of Compassion. Director Jess Feast follows Sister Loyola through the four seasons, in which their conversations and Loyola’s Read more...

To the Wonder

Posted 3:50pm Sunday 4th August 2013 by Rosie Howells

The Regent Theatre - Octagon Sunday 18 August 8.45pm Rialto Cinema - Moray Place Tuesday 20 August 4pm Terrence Malick is a director lucky enough to have been stamped with auteur status. Nature, love and religion are the core of his past works Badlands, Days of Heaven, The Thin Red Read more...

The Gilded Cage (La Cage dorée)

Posted 3:50pm Sunday 4th August 2013 by Rosie Howells

The Regent Theatre - Octagon Friday 9 August 6.30pm Tuesday 13 August 11am This upstairs-downstairs drama/comedy was a break-out hit in France, closing on 1.2 million admissions and sparking a Latino remake that is currently in the works. Set in present-day Paris, The Gilded Read more...

Utu Redux

Posted 3:50pm Sunday 4th August 2013 by Amber Pullin

The Regent Theatre - Octagon Saturday 10 August 8.15pm Thirty years since its release, Geoff Murphy’s Utu will be hitting the silver screen again this August, digitally restored and remastered for the International Film Festival. Starring Anzac Wallace and Bruno Lawrence, Utu is a story of Read more...

Dial M for Murder

Posted 3:50pm Sunday 4th August 2013 by Rosie Howells

Rialto Cinema - Moray Place Saturday 17 August 8.30pm Sunday 18 August 5.45pm Dial M for Murder has everything you’d expect from a great Alfred Hitchcock movie: Grace Kelly, greed, and scissors as a murder weapon. Driven by betrayal and lust for money, ex-tennis star Tony Wendice (Ray Read more...

App of the Week | Issue 17

Posted 4:45pm Sunday 28th July 2013 by Raquel Moss

Did you know that there are still people who carry their assignments around on a USB drive? It’s a risky game. Half the time you forget to bring it; the other half you leave it in a library computer. Awesome. Save yourself the pain by signing up for Dropbox. It’s a simple but powerful service Read more...

The Many Paths to Yeezus—Piracy or Purchase?

Posted 4:45pm Sunday 28th July 2013 by Raquel Moss

Ten years ago, you may have been regarded with awe when you successfully downloaded the new Green Day album and burned multiple copies so that your friends could listen to “Wake Me Up When September Ends” on their discmans. No? Just me? These days, piracy is a pretty casual pastime in Read more...

David Lynch - The Big Dream

Posted 4:45pm Sunday 28th July 2013 by Basti Menkes

Rating: 4/5 David Lynch began his career as a solo musician with his 2011 album Crazy Clown Time, but his knack for sound design dates back a good thirty years. Lynch helped compose the unsettling ambient score to his 1977 film debut Eraserhead, and has been involved in the music for all of Read more...

Jon Hopkins - Immunity

Posted 4:45pm Sunday 28th July 2013 by Basti Menkes

Rating: 5/5 Producing for Coldplay. Collaborating with Brian Eno. Scoring films. Over the course of the last decade, London-based producer Jon Hopkins has built himself an impressive CV. However, almost all of his work has been on the periphery of or in cooperation with other artists. This Read more...

Mario and Luigi: Dream Team (3DS)

Posted 4:45pm Sunday 28th July 2013 by Baz Macdonald

Rating: 8/10 How is it that an Italian plumber has become such an iconic and enduring figure within the gaming industry and pop culture in general? It’s a question that has been posed many times over the years, and though many have proffered possible answers, I don’t think there is a Read more...

MOTHRAs

Posted 4:45pm Sunday 28th July 2013 by Tim Lindsay

The MOTHRAs were a way to celebrate Scarfie filmmaking, and usually featured a wide variety of submissions ranging from wacky and weird to funny but sincere. It was sort of like the Oscars, except it was probably much less grand. The Mothra is a fictional Japanese monster. It sometimes Read more...

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou

Posted 4:45pm Sunday 28th July 2013 by Rosie Howells

“The Belafonte, home to Team Zissou, skilled crew of deep sea divers, adventurers, documentary filmmakers. Led by internationally renowned oceanographer captain Steve Zissou, expert on every aspect of marine life.” The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou was Wes Anderson’s fourth feature film, Read more...

Pacific Rim

Posted 4:45pm Sunday 28th July 2013 by Basti Menkes

Rating: 3.5/5 Guillermo del Toro is one of my favourite modern directors. Regardless of whether he is dabbling in horror (The Orphanage), dark fantasy (Pan’s Labyrinth) or action (Hellboy), he brings to each of his movies a unique sense of wonder and imagination. Pacific Rim sees del Toro Read more...

Twice Born

Posted 4:45pm Sunday 28th July 2013 by Jonny Mahon-Heap

Rating: 2/5 The trope of love blossoming amid war is as old as cinema itself, with many of these films achieving classic status (Casablanca, Atonement, The English Patient – to name a few). Plenty more, however, have struggled to depict romance against the backdrop of conflict without lapsing Read more...

Monsters University

Posted 4:45pm Sunday 28th July 2013 by Amber Pullin

Rating: 4/5 As the “prequel” to Monsters, Inc. (2001), Pixar’s Monsters University revisits monsters Mike Wazowski (Billy Crystal) and James P. Sullivan (John Goodman) in their college freshman days, before they became “scarers.” Now, don’t be put off by this film’s “prequel” status; this Read more...

Self-Crusting Tomato and Brown Lentil Quiche

Posted 4:45pm Sunday 28th July 2013 by Kirsty Dunn

Halt! Before you freak out at the presence of the “L” word and let memories of bland bygone quiches prompt you to move on to the next column, let me assure you that this is, hand on heart, the tastiest, most flavoursome quiche I’ve ever had; maybe even the best of all egg-based savoury dishes ever. Read more...

The Violent Bear it Away

Posted 4:45pm Sunday 28th July 2013 by Lucy Hunter

Francis Marion Tarwater was born in the wreck of the car crash that killed his mother and grandmother and drove his father to suicide. Adopted by Rayber, his school-teacher uncle, baby Francis is oblivious to the devastation he was born into. But crazy great-uncle Tarwater decides he need someone to Read more...

Café Art

Posted 4:45pm Sunday 28th July 2013 by Charlotte Doyle

A friend of mine regularly teases me about being a “snob” when it comes to all things cultural. The best example of this snobbery I can give you is refusing to get coffee from the link – the aesthetics just don’t cut it. The counter-argument, however, is that having standards is not Read more...

Interview: Ruban Nielson (Unknown Mortal Orchestra)

Posted 3:59pm Sunday 21st July 2013 by Loulou Callister-Baker

In between touring the world and playing gigs with international acts like Grizzly Bear and Wavves, Ruban Nielson has returned to New Zealand to tour with Nielson’s current band, Unknown Mortal Orchestra. Loulou Callister-Baker had a brief and appropriately abstract conversation with Nielson to work Read more...

App of the Week | Issue 16

Posted 3:59pm Sunday 21st July 2013 by Raquel Moss

You know those vibration masturbation apps that are widely available in app stores? I have questions: Why would that be a good idea? First of all, your phone is a disgusting piece of equipment. It’s covered in germs and you probably use it while you’re on the toilet. And secondly, the Read more...

Mundane, Fleeting, Fun

Posted 3:59pm Sunday 21st July 2013 by Raquel Moss

Occasionally, I have reason to suspect that at the grand age of 22 I might already be “over the hill.” This realisation came several weeks ago when I found myself asking, irritably, “what is this Snapchat thing and should I be on it?” I had heard that teenagers were using it to sext each other. As Read more...

Shortbus (2006)

Posted 3:59pm Sunday 21st July 2013 by Rosie Howells

Shortbus is the holy grail of sex cult films. It makes The Rocky Horror Picture Show look like My Little Pony: The Movie (this actually happened – Danny Devito voice acted for it). The plot follows love therapist Sofia on her quest for sexual discovery, her blossoming friendship with gay couple Read more...

The Lone Ranger

Posted 3:59pm Sunday 21st July 2013 by Basti Menkes

Rating: 3.5/5 Director Gore Verbinski really rubs film critics up the wrong way. This is likely due to the tendency his films have to be loud, densely-plotted and half an hour too long. His latest, a big-budget adaption of The Lone Ranger, is no exception. Like most of Verbinski’s films (such Read more...

The Look of Love

Posted 3:59pm Sunday 21st July 2013 by Baz Macdonald

Rating: 3/5 This biopic, directed by Michael Winterbottom and starring English comedian Steve Coogan, tells the true story of real estate mogul and smut peddler Paul Raymond. Though Paul Raymond is not well known to our generation, he was once known as the “King of Soho” due to the large Read more...

Despicable Me 2

Posted 3:59pm Sunday 21st July 2013 by AJ Anderson

Rating: 4/5 Heading off to see Despicable Me 2 I was filled with high hopes of fake Russian accents, adorable one-liners and, of course, the darn cutest minions you’ve ever seen. Within the first couple of minutes I already knew that I was not going to be disappointed. The movie takes Read more...

Whip It

Posted 3:59pm Sunday 21st July 2013 by Kirsty Dunn

Now that I have your attention, deviants, listen up: If Barry White’s voice could be distilled into dessert form, it would look, and taste, like this. This sumptuous chocolate mousse takes a mere twenty minutes to prepare, pleasures the palette in ways you never knew existed, and allows you Read more...

The Walking Dead: 400 Days

Posted 3:59pm Sunday 21st July 2013 by Baz Macdonald

Rating: 8.5/10 Telltale Games announced earlier this year that season two of The Walking Dead was indeed in development – an announcement that surprised very few considering the runaway success of the first season of this flawless point-and-click adventure based on Robert Kirkman’s comic Read more...

Let’s Get Physical

Posted 3:59pm Sunday 21st July 2013 by Basti Menkes

The BestMassive Attack - Mezzanine Ignore the album cover. When it comes to “soundtracking” coitus, Massive Attack’s third album Mezzanine is the undisputed champion. Regardless of where you are, what state you’re in, who you’re with and in what position, the album’s brooding textures and Read more...

Sweet Tooth

Posted 3:59pm Sunday 21st July 2013 by Lucy Hunter

This is the sex issue, so I decided to write about a sexy spy book. It is 1972. Serena Frome is the beautiful daughter of an Anglican bishop, groomed by her much older lover to join the British Secret Services in the patriarchal ranks of MI5. Serena is considered something of a freak of Read more...

Among the Machines

Posted 3:59pm Sunday 21st July 2013 by Charlotte Doyle

The use of technology has become a natural part of our lives. However, the idea of technology manipulating nature itself and becoming a controlling, dominating force tends to sit a little uncomfortably. Among the Machines is one of the Dunedin Public Art Gallery’s (DPAG) major exhibitions for 2013 Read more...

App of the Week | Issue 15

Posted 8:23pm Sunday 14th July 2013 by Raquel Moss

Evernote is not just an app – it’s so much more than that. Evernote, once you start to use it, becomes an extension of your brain. If you’ve ever sat in the middle of a pile of paper, wailing because you can’t find the notes you need, you could probably benefit from using it. There’s a reason its Read more...

Making the web your bitch

Posted 8:23pm Sunday 14th July 2013 by Raquel Moss

You’re already one of the thirty-seven per cent of people worldwide using Google Chrome to navigate our beloved web, right? So I don’t have to begin this by nagging you to use it? No? Still using Internet Explorer like a schmuck? Come on, even my Nana uses Chrome, and all she’s doing is playing Read more...

Deadpool (XBOX 360, PS3, PC)

Posted 8:23pm Sunday 14th July 2013 by Baz Macdonald

Rating: 8/10 Just when you thought Marvel had adapted every single one of their heroes, here comes Deadpool, a character I believe has been under-utilised and misrepresented thus far in Marvel’s attempts to take over the world … or at the very least the entertainment industry. For those of Read more...

Austra - Olympia

Posted 8:23pm Sunday 14th July 2013 by Basti Menkes

Rating: 3.5/5 Canadian synthpop outfit Austra emerged in 2011 with a bang, their first album Feel It Break among the finest debuts in recent memory. It wove gothic electronica around Katie Stelmanis’ operatic vocals to stunning effect; picture Kate Bush collaborating with The Knife and you Read more...

Kanye West - Yeezus

Posted 8:23pm Sunday 14th July 2013 by Bella King

Rating: 4.5/5 The moment Yeezus, Kanye West’s sixth solo album, leaked online, it set a million keyboards around the globe on fire. Suddenly everyone was a critic, scrambling to push their opinion of an album worlds away from its predecessor, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. Indeed, in Read more...

Winter Whisk(e)y Cake

Posted 8:23pm Sunday 14th July 2013 by Kirsty Dunn

Gie him strong drink until he wink, // That’s sinking in despair; An’ liquor guid to fire his bluid, // That’s prest wi’ grief and care: There let him bouse, an’ deep carouse, // Wi’ bumpers flowing o’er, Till he forgets his loves or debts, // An’ minds his griefs no more. (Robert Read more...

The Silence of the Lambs

Posted 8:23pm Sunday 14th July 2013 by Tim Lindsay

Read the title to yourself a couple of times. It is freaking creepy. It sends shivers down your spine then back up to your head to remain for days. When you watch this film, you do not see the face of evil. You enter its mind. The Silence of the Lambs won five Oscars in 1991: Best Actor and Read more...

White Lies

Posted 8:23pm Sunday 14th July 2013 by Rosie Howells

Rating: 3/5 White Lies is a film adaptation of Witi Ihimaera’s novel Medicine Woman, which tells the story of Paraiti (Whirimako Black), a Maori healer from the 1920s, and her strange involvement in the lives of the rich Pakeha woman Mrs. Vicars (Antonia Prebble) and her maid Maraea (Rachel Read more...

After Earth

Posted 8:23pm Sunday 14th July 2013 by Baz Macdonald

Rating: 2.5/5 M. Night Shyamalan has had a roller coaster of a career, from the unadulterated success and cultural penetration of The Sixth Sense to his ultimate demise with the painful The Happening and the destruction of the much-loved Avatar with The Last Airbender. Frankly, he has become Read more...

The Internship

Posted 8:23pm Sunday 14th July 2013 by Tim Lindsay

Rating: 2/5 Start of the U.S. summer? Check. An assorted cast of misfits with the odds stacked against them? Check. A worrying lack of originality in the plot? Check. Welcome to The Internship, your regular Hollywood light comedy. The film seems to benefit from director Shawn Levy’s Read more...

The Magic of Reality

Posted 8:23pm Sunday 14th July 2013 by Lucy Hunter

“Reality is everything that exists. That sounds straight forward, doesn’t it? Actually, it isn’t.” Thus begins Dawkins’ introduction to science for young people. I didn’t realise this was a young adults’ book until I started reading it, but, being an eager yet largely ignorant admirer of science, I Read more...

Art From a Laboratory

Posted 8:23pm Sunday 14th July 2013 by Charlotte Doyle

I don’t find a plastic crucifix immersed in a glass of urine offensive. However, the artist responsible for the Piss Christ received death threats for this sacrilegious work, indicating that some feel otherwise. Different individuals find different things “shocking,” but in spite of this it often Read more...

The Great Gatsby

Posted 6:05pm Sunday 7th July 2013 by Ella Borrie

Rating: 3.5/5 Baz Luhrmann is known for making beautiful films, and The Great Gatsby is no exception. The film is a polished homage to the roaring twenties that emphasises aesthetics over source material. The story follows Nick (Tobey Macguire) as he befriends the mysterious Jay Gatsby Read more...

The Hunt

Posted 6:05pm Sunday 7th July 2013 by Rosie Howells

Rating: 4.5/5 Lucas (Mads Mikkelsen) is a gentlemanly father who, due to a lack of teaching work in his small Danish village, takes a job at the local kindergarten. Owing to an imaginative child and a jumpy co-worker, Lucas is wrongly accused of sexually abusing his best friend’s young Read more...

World War Z

Posted 6:05pm Sunday 7th July 2013 by Rosie Howells

Rating: 3.5/5 World War Z is the sophisticated man’s zombie film, the fine malt whiskey to the rest of the genre’s pre-mixed orange and vodkas. Based on the 2006 Max Brooks novel of same name, production companies have been scrambling for the film rights ever since the book was published, Read more...

Man of Steel

Posted 6:05pm Sunday 7th July 2013 by Baz Macdonald

Rating: 3.5/5 In the eight years since Superman was last on the big screen in Superman Returns, the film industry has gotten into superheroes in a big way. Whereas we used to see only one or two of these films a year, it now seems a week doesn’t go by without a new caped crusader hitting Read more...

Southern Comfort

Posted 6:05pm Sunday 7th July 2013 by Kirsty Dunn

Ah, the Great Cheese Roll. The epitome of comfort food in all its toasted, cheesy, buttery, get-it-in-your-mouth-quick-before-it-runs-down-your-chin-y glory, these bad boys are the perfect antidote to a cold Dunedin eve. Not only are they tasty, inexpensive, and easy to make, they take pride of Read more...

App of the Week | Issue 14

Posted 6:05pm Sunday 7th July 2013 by Raquel Moss

Google Reader is dead. Google Reader, that faithful web servant, which, for the past seven years, has fed me my web content. Its demise is a sad loss for we traditionalists who still get our news and read blogs via RSS. But all hope is not lost – hopefully, before its end, you exported your Google Read more...

Putting the Social Back in Social Networking

Posted 6:05pm Sunday 7th July 2013 by Raquel Moss

Remember when social networks were new? And Facebook? Back when you could poke someone and gift them a picture of a flower … just because? It was exciting back then – social networks were revolutionising the way we connected with people. But what has that really amounted to? Facebook has become a Read more...

A Broader Perspective

Posted 6:05pm Sunday 7th July 2013 by Charlotte Doyle

At the beginning of last year I was lucky enough to be taken to the United States by my parents, which involved traipsing around the Midwest and California for five weeks. Being avidly art-oriented, my mother has an incredible knack of finding galleries: take a very recent trip to the depths of the Read more...

E3 2013

Posted 6:05pm Sunday 7th July 2013 by Baz Macdonald

The next generation of gaming is upon us. Despite industry assurance that the next generation of consoles would not hit the market until 2015, it seems that fierce competition between Sony, Microsoft and, to a smaller degree, Nintendo, have pushed that date forward a year. Nintendo launched Read more...

The Last of Us (PS3)

Posted 6:05pm Sunday 7th July 2013 by Baz Macdonald

Rating: 10/10 The gaming industry is abuzz with anticipation surrounding the impending new generation of consoles and games, as am I (turn the page for my coverage of E3 2013). However, while we are all dreaming of what the next generation has to offer, the future of gaming is right before Read more...

Sigur Rós - Kveikur

Posted 6:05pm Sunday 7th July 2013 by Basti Menkes

Rating: 4.5/5 Fairies. Fireflies. Icebergs. Rain. Learning how to fly. Whatever imagery people associate with Icelandic post-rockers Sigur Rós, there is a common sense of wonder to it. I’ve always likened listening to them to diving into an ocean, the way their music engulfs you and makes Read more...

Beady Eye - BE

Posted 6:05pm Sunday 7th July 2013 by Basti Menkes

Rating: 2.5/5 There is no shame in not knowing who Beady Eye are. After a tumultuous relationship with brother Liam for the entirety of Oasis’ 18-year career, chief songwriter Noel Gallagher exited the notorious Britpop group once and for all in 2009. Intent on carrying on making music but Read more...

The National - Trouble Will Find Me

Posted 6:05pm Sunday 7th July 2013 by Richard Ley-Hamilton

Rating: 3/5 With every listen of The National’s latest, I have become more and more conflicted. This time around, should I be expecting something refreshing and innovative from the Brooklyn quintet? Or should I be satisfied with something familiar, a more reassuring release? In brief, Read more...

Boards Of Canada - Tomorrow’s Harvest

Posted 6:05pm Sunday 7th July 2013 by Basti Menkes

Rating: 4.5/5 No electronic composers affect me quite like Boards Of Canada. With but a few notes the Scottish duo can fill me with loneliness, nostalgia, dread, or a mixture of all three. Since their 1998 debut Music Has the Right to Children they have maintained a distinctive sonic Read more...

Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus

Posted 6:05pm Sunday 7th July 2013 by Lucy Hunter

Mary Shelley, at the age of 21, published what is arguably the first science fiction novel; a fantasy story with a scientific rather than supernatural explanation. Shelley had apparently heard of recent experiments to “reanimate” corpses by making them jerk around with electric shocks, and dreamed Read more...

The Editor

Posted 3:03pm Sunday 26th May 2013 by Josef Alton

Tales of obsession never lose their appeal. If there is a character’s flawed logic, actions ignited by the flame of desperation, and the smell of blood disrupting the logical flow of common sense, we the readers love to wait for the eventual calamity. Samuel Dansam’s The Editor reads like an Read more...

Vampire Weekend - Modern Vampires Of The City

Posted 3:03pm Sunday 26th May 2013 by Basti Menkes

Rating: 3/5 A band like Vampire Weekend requires no introduction. Whether you’ve heard their hip blend of afrorock and indie pop intentionally or by accident, whether you’ve loved it or you’ve hated it – you’ve heard it. Their first two albums, 2008’s Vampire Weekend and 2010’s Contra, came Read more...

Daft Punk - Random Access Memories

Posted 3:03pm Sunday 26th May 2013 by Basti Menkes

Rating: 5/5 “Let the music of your life give life back to music.” So go the opening lines of Daft Punk’s eagerly-awaited new album, Random Access Memories. It has been eight years since the French house duo’s last studio album and 12 since they revolutionised electronic dance music (EDM) with Read more...

Con Air (1997)

Posted 3:03pm Sunday 26th May 2013 by Tim Lindsay

By the time Nicolas Cage (Cameron Poe) utters the moving line “I’m going to show you God does exist” and takes a bullet without flinching, Con Air has teleported us right back to the grand (but cheesy) days of the 1990s. Watching the archetypal Hollywood action thriller of its day is quite a Read more...

Invisible Ink? The Bastard Child of the Movie Biz

Posted 3:03pm Sunday 26th May 2013 by Lyle Skipsey

If the modern day film industry mimics Shakespeare’s King Lear then the screenwriter is Edmund, the unloved bastard child, underappreciated but still vital to the plot. As Sunset Boulevard’s Joe Gillis said, “audiences don’t know somebody sits down and writes a picture. They think the actors make it Read more...

Metro: Last Light

Posted 3:03pm Sunday 26th May 2013 by Baz Macdonald

Rating: 9/10 Last year, THQ proved that even giants fall. In December THQ (one of the gaming industry’s biggest publishers with titles such as WWE and Saints Row under their belt) finally succumbed to the pressures of the economic downturn and filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy. I still have no Read more...

The Material World: Sculpture at Dunedin School of Art 2002-2013

Posted 3:03pm Sunday 26th May 2013 by Charlotte Doyle

This week I’ve made a rather awkward mistake. Failing to think about the fact that exhibitions have a finishing point, I arrived at the Dunedin School of Art gallery on the morning of 17 May planning to write a phenomenal review of their contemporary sculpture exhibition. Then I realised it ends on Read more...

Caramel, Apple and Coconut Tart

Posted 3:03pm Sunday 26th May 2013 by Ines Shennan

This sweet thing is easy to whip up and looks more impressive than the effort required. Keep the peel on the apple for an extra pop of colour. I used Braeburn, though if you’re in the mood for something a little more tart, substitute these for Granny Smiths. Either way, there is something quite Read more...

Homestyle Chicken Pie

Posted 3:03pm Sunday 26th May 2013 by Ines Shennan

I have a soft spot for a good pie. Perhaps it all started when my Gran would make her steak and kidney pie, a homemade masterpiece that always had me going back for seconds. Nowadays, she tends to make a deconstructed version, whereby you are presented with a generous mound of the steaming filling Read more...

Gambit

Posted 1:24pm Sunday 19th May 2013 by Sam McChesney

Rating: 1/5 I had low expectations for this film. Just by looking at the poster, I could tell what kind of movie it would be (a bad one). I wasn’t disappointed. Starring Colin Firth, Alan Rickman, Cameron Diaz, and a variety of lazy national stereotypes, and with a screenplay by the Read more...

Edward Scissorhands

Posted 1:24pm Sunday 19th May 2013 by Rosie Howells

Edward (Johnny Depp) is an artificial creation who has croutons for hands. (Just kidding, they’re scissors!) He lives high on a hill with his father/inventor who intends to give Edward real hands in due time. But when his father dies unexpectedly, Edward is left alone and unfinished in the big scary Read more...

Rialto Channel 48HOURS

Posted 1:24pm Sunday 19th May 2013 by Sam McChesney

The 48HOURS film challenge is upon us again. Nominations closed last Friday, and production will begin 7pm this coming Friday. The 48HOURS film challenge has been running since 2003 and is now in its 11th year. Contestants are allocated a genre at random, and must produce a film between one Read more...

Battle of the Dead

Posted 1:24pm Sunday 19th May 2013 by Baz Macdonald

The video game has a long history of franchise adaptations. In fact, some of the most reputable developers in the industry started out this very way. Bethesda Game Studios, makers of the illustrious Elder Scrolls series, got their big break making video game adaptations of the Terminator films. Read more...

Bel Canto

Posted 1:24pm Sunday 19th May 2013 by Tess Ritchie

I missed my bus stop twice reading this book – which really is a fair indication of how hooked you get. Ann Patchett’s Bel Canto draws you in just as its heroine, soprano Roxanne Coss, captures her audience and the entire cast. Reading this novel, I was immediately reminded of E. L. Doctorow’s Read more...

Patrick Hartigan - The People Will Be Healed

Posted 1:24pm Sunday 19th May 2013 by Charlotte Doyle

Standing at one end of the art gallery, we were completely entranced by a large guy in a grey fur coat, with basketball sneakers along the bottom. His mannerisms and laugh, even from a distance, were like those of a stereotypical Jewish banker. Coming close enough to listen to him, he also had some Read more...

Phoenix - Bankrupt!

Posted 1:24pm Sunday 19th May 2013 by Basti Menkes

Rating: 3.5/5 Similar to the Ouroboric case of Gary Numan influencing Nine Inch Nails, who in turn went on to influence Gary Numan (see 2011’s Dead Son Rising), you simply can’t ignore how much The Strokes sound like their old imitators Phoenix these days. This year’s Comedown Machine saw The Read more...

Mali Mali

Posted 1:24pm Sunday 19th May 2013 by Basti Menkes

Mali Mali is a North Shore alternative trio fronted by singer-songwriter Ben Tolich. They have just released their debut album Gather ’round the Gooseclock (reviewed in the last issue of Critic), and are about to embark on a tour of the country. Critic caught up with Ben over the phone recently to Read more...

Nadia Reid and Ivy Rossiter (a.k.a. Luckless) Interview

Posted 1:24pm Sunday 19th May 2013 by Brittany Mann

Nadia Reid and Ivy Rossiter (a.k.a Luckless) recently performed at the iconic and allegedly haunted Chicks Hotel in Port Chalmers as part of their Ballads and Badlands national tour. Brittany Mann went along for the whiskey and good times. The girlsBallads and Badlands is Nadia Reid and Ivy Read more...

Mali Mali

Posted 2:26pm Sunday 12th May 2013 by Basti Menkes

Rating: 3.5/5 Despite a lack of diversity or adventure, Mali Mali has produced an impressive debut. Mali Mali is a North Shore trio fronted by singer-songwriter Ben Tolich. Drawing influence from artists such as The National, Sigur Rós and Bon Iver, Tolich writes acoustic, vaguely folky Read more...

Tahuna Breaks

Posted 2:26pm Sunday 12th May 2013 by Lisa Craw

Rating: 1.5/5 Tahuna Breaks have taken their time with this one. Their newest album, Shadow Light, has been five years in the making, and Tahuna Breaks seem to be mighty proud of it. They themselves describe it as being “bigger, darker and heavier” than their earlier releases – if you define Read more...

Maori Boy Genius

Posted 2:26pm Sunday 12th May 2013 by Jonny Mahon-Heap

Rating: 3/5 Documentaries often struggle to find the delicate balance between good storytelling and mere exploitation – a challenge made all the more difficult when the subject-matter revolves around children. Such is the difficulty faced by Maori Boy Genius, a competent, intelligent Read more...

Pietra Brettkelly

Posted 2:26pm Sunday 12th May 2013 by Jonny Mahon-Heap

Maori Boy Genius examines a year in the life of 16-year-old Maori boy wonder, Ngā Raūira Pumanawawhiti, an adolescent, Yale student and future Prime Minister. The film’s director, Pietra Brettkelly, discusses Ngā Raūira’s life pathway, the gamble of documentary filmmaking, and Read more...

The Company You Keep

Posted 2:26pm Sunday 12th May 2013 by Lyle Skipsey

Rating: 3/5 The Company You Keep, directed by Robert Redford, was based on a novel of the same name, and a novel it should have stayed. The story revolves around Jim Grant (Redford) a former Weather Underground militant, who becomes a wanted fugitive after his identity is exposed by a Read more...

American Psycho (2000)

Posted 2:26pm Sunday 12th May 2013 by Jonny Mahon-Heap

The story behind American Psycho’s adaptation from page to screen is almost as troubled and manic as the titular character. Based on Bret Easton Ellis’ seminal work on the moral and materialist woes of 1980s Wall Street America, the work was initially labelled “misogynistic garbage” and “snuff” by Read more...

Jurassic Park 3D

Posted 2:26pm Sunday 12th May 2013 by Basti Menkes

Rating: 5/5 As you may or may not have heard, Steven Spielberg’s seminal Jurassic Park was recently rereleased in theatres in 3D to celebrate the film’s 20th anniversary. Though many films that were shot in 2D and later converted into 3D look like shit (Clash Of The Titans being the classic Read more...

Star Trek Into Darkness

Posted 2:26pm Sunday 12th May 2013 by Sam McChesney

Rating: 2.5/5 I arrived at the midnight premier for Star Trek Into Darkness, two equally bewildered friends in tow, to encounter a menagerie of costumed oddities standing in the Rialto foyer. Trekkies have always been something of a mystery to me; I watched my first Star Trek film only last Read more...

Flutter: Butterfly Sanctuary (free)

Posted 2:26pm Sunday 12th May 2013 by Baz Macdonald

Rating: 8/10 The gaming industry as a whole has grown incredibly quickly. But no other branch of gaming has seen more exponential growth than mobile gaming. It seems like a blink of an eye ago I was being enthralled by Snake on my dad’s Nokia (which was the size and weight of a brick), and Read more...

Interview with Tim Nixon

Posted 2:26pm Sunday 12th May 2013 by Baz Macdonald

I recently got the opportunity to interview the game director at Runaway Play, Tim Nixon, about Flutter. What is the game Flutter to you? When we initially set out to form a studio which was about making games inspired by nature, we looked at all the species and environments around the Read more...

The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann

Posted 2:26pm Sunday 12th May 2013 by David McKenzie

Thomas Mann’s production of such an intricate, thought-provoking work as The Magic Mountain is a monumental achievement matched only by that of the casual reader actually managing to finish it. You not only need time to get through its 700 pages, but also a large amount of mental energy. Read more...

Saskia Leek’s Desk Collection

Posted 2:26pm Sunday 12th May 2013 by Charlotte Doyle

Saskia Leek’s solo exhibition Desk Collection at the Dunedin Public Art Gallery is a true testament to her evolution as an artist. Seeming to almost celebrate Leek’s personal journey as an artist, the exhibition didn’t just present this to the viewer, but swept them along for the ride through an Read more...

Chorizo Quesadillas

Posted 2:26pm Sunday 12th May 2013 by Ines Shennan

Whether or not you have already picked up on this, I’ll take a moment to remind you of my complete and utter obsession with chorizo. Up until recently, I was a devout ready-to-eat, smoked chorizo kinda gal. Those deep burgundy sticks of chorizo were firm and incredibly salty with glorious marbles of Read more...

Juicy Steak and Lime Salsa Bundles

Posted 2:26pm Sunday 12th May 2013 by Ines Shennan

I was always under the impression that to enjoy a truly succulent, medium-rare, flash-in-the-pan steak, the only route to success was via the pricey eye or scotch fillet. I was wrong. Both supermarket chains carry “tenderised BBQ steak” in their chillers and I was initially sceptical as to whether Read more...

James Blake - Overgrown

Posted 4:00pm Sunday 5th May 2013 by Basti Menkes

Rating: 3/5James Blake is an electronic producer and singer-songwriter from London. In 2011, he released his debut album. It was called James Blake. A number of critics and music listeners collectively lost their shit over it. I did not. Not that I didn’t find James’ mix of post-dubstep and Read more...

Akron/Family - Sub Verses

Posted 4:00pm Sunday 5th May 2013 by Basti Menkes

Rating: 4/5Any fan of contemporary psychedelic rock will surely know the name “Akron/Family.” Michael Gira of Swans once described them in the following manner: “There are no inverted commas in the world of Akron. They’re inside the music, grinding it, fighting it, chewing it, digesting it, then Read more...

West of Memphis

Posted 4:00pm Sunday 5th May 2013 by Rosie Howells

Rating: 5/5West of Memphis is a documentary film following the case of the West Memphis Three, the teenagers accused and jailed for the murder of three eight-year-old boys from their Arkansas neighbourhood in 1993. With personal interviews with the family of the deceased children, the loved ones of Read more...

Five foreign-language films that should have won Best Picture (this century alone)

Posted 4:00pm Sunday 5th May 2013 by Sam McChesney

Everybody knows that the “World Series” of baseball is anything but; in reality, it’s a competition held between the winners of two different American baseball leagues. The competition’s name is often (and rightly) ridiculed, the perfect embodiment of America’s mentality vis-à-vis the world. Read more...

Don’t Starve

Posted 4:00pm Sunday 5th May 2013 by Baz Macdonald

Rating: 8/10So far this year I have only reviewed games developed and distributed by the giants of the gaming industry. However, there is a whole other side to the industry. Thus far I have traversed the mainstream; this week we shall delve into the independent (or indie). The large capital Read more...

Mrs Dalloway

Posted 4:00pm Sunday 5th May 2013 by Feby Idrus

Virginia Woolf’s novel Mrs Dalloway begins like this: “Mrs Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself.” This opening sentence is about as simple as this book gets. From here, we are plunged headfirst into this swirling, teeming-with-life ocean of a book. At its most basic, Mrs Dalloway is a Read more...

Facebook cover photos

Posted 4:00pm Sunday 5th May 2013 by Charlotte Doyle

Coverslike.com provides internet users with endless freedom to “customise your Facebook timeline cover” (just in case no photos of you and your friends seem pretty enough). For serious pug lovers you can have one which states “the day God made Pugs He just sat down and Smiled” next to a pug puppy Read more...

Aerosmith

Posted 3:14pm Sunday 28th April 2013 by Basti Menkes

To call my experience at Aerosmith’s gig last Wednesday night a surreal one would be an understatement. Due to the incompetence of and poor communication between the staff scattered around the Forsyth Barr Stadium, it was not until final support act Wolfmother had wrapped up their set that I Read more...

The Veils - Time Stays, We Go

Posted 3:14pm Sunday 28th April 2013 by Basti Menkes

The Veils are one of those cult bands I always wanted to get into, but never bothered to properly investigate. Though the number of people aware of the London-based indie rock outfit is seemingly small, what I have heard of them has been almost unanimous praise. Not counting a couple of promising Read more...

The Room (2003)

Posted 3:14pm Sunday 28th April 2013 by Rosie Howells

The Room – the “Citizen Kane of bad movies” – brings me unprecedented joy. An American romantic drama concerning the love triangle of Lisa, Jonny and Mark (all wonderfully underdeveloped and wooden characters), it is one of the greatest gifts in my life. The bearer of this gift is Tommy Wiseau. The Read more...