Archive

Performance

Posted 5:13pm Sunday 21st April 2013 by Jonny Mahon-Heap

Like Lex’s pseudo-political banter or a Unicol girl’s acquisition of the fresher five, it’s a certainty that Oscar winners will undo much of their good work with subsequent awful films. While Performance (released elsewhere as A Late Quartet) never reaches the murky depths of a Halle Berry/Catwoman Read more...

The Croods 3D

Posted 5:13pm Sunday 21st April 2013 by Sam McChesney

I’m at least 15 years older than this movie’s target audience. That’s fine though, because as innumerable sanctimonious reviewers love to point out, a good kids’ film should also appeal to adults. Maybe it’s because kids are stupid, so their opinions don’t really signify much. Maybe it’s because a Read more...

Barbara

Posted 5:13pm Sunday 21st April 2013 by Kathleen Hanna

Pre-film trailers are typically selected to appeal to the same audience as the film itself. When I arrived at the cinema to see Barbara, knowing nothing about it, the first trailer I was shown was about an old person being chosen to cook for the President of France. The trailer was very long, and Read more...

The Knife - Shaking The Habitual

Posted 5:13pm Sunday 21st April 2013 by Basti Menkes

For the uninitiated, The Knife are a Swedish electronic duo consisting of Karin “Fever Ray” Andersson and her younger brother Olof. The siblings splice together an eclectic array of genres including synthpop, industrial, world music, and ambient to create a technicolour sound that defies mimicry or Read more...

Astro Children

Posted 5:13pm Sunday 21st April 2013 by Basti Menkes

Astro Children are a Dunedin shoeglaze/spacepop band comprised of childhood friends Millie Lovelock and Isaac Hickey. Recently they have been enjoying huge local success, with latest single “Jamie Knows” topping Radio One’s song chart for seven weeks running. Critic caught up with the duo recently Read more...

The Sun Also Rises

Posted 5:13pm Sunday 21st April 2013 by Madeline Sherwood King

Not much happens in The Sun Also Rises. It’s the 1920s. Four men and one woman visit Spain to see the bulls, and then they go home again. During their stay in Spain, it becomes apparent that all four men love the woman, but she falls in love with a guy who loves bulls. One particularly brutish man Read more...

Defiance (PC, PS3, Xbox360)

Posted 5:13pm Sunday 21st April 2013 by Baz Macdonald

Massively Multiplayer Role Playing Games (or MMORPG, games that are played entirely online with people from all over the world) are a tricky business. They require significantly more money to develop than a standard video game instalment due to the large scope of content as well as the ongoing costs Read more...

Crispy Chicken with Salty Satay and Ginger Bok Choy

Posted 5:13pm Sunday 21st April 2013 by Ines Shennan

This dish satiates the tastebuds on every level: it’s sweet, salty, and ginger-laden, with crispy chicken ready to soak up all the fun. Rice bran oil is a great choice to use for high-temperature cooking, and is also neutral in flavour, allowing your other ingredients to shine. Frying chicken over a Read more...

Filthy Fudge Brownies

Posted 5:13pm Sunday 21st April 2013 by Ines Shennan

This brownie is immoral and fiendish. Unlike the consistently firm, cake-like brownies often found sitting pretty in cafe cabinets, this is far more brutish and unforgiving. On the Chocolate Baked Goods Spectrum, it sits far closer to a decadent slice of fudge than a cake. Luckily, it has a more Read more...

Sweet, Salty, Saturday: Indulgent Food

Posted 5:13pm Sunday 21st April 2013 by Ines Shennan

This week Ines Shennan spins a few stories about her Farmers Market exploits, and delivers recipes for decadent, salty, sweet, soft, crunchy, spicy, and generally delicious mouthfuls of bliss. The kind of rich, heartwarming, beaming-smile-across-your-face kind of food that you can’t wait to share Read more...

Lego City Undercover (WiiU)

Posted 5:49pm Sunday 14th April 2013 by Baz Macdonald

The Wii U was launched a year earlier than it should have been. Nintendo denies it, but the truth is that they sold their consoles with promises of games, promises that have now been revealed as lies. When the Wii U was announced at E3 2012 it had a wide variety of launch titles, including Pikmin 3, Read more...

Mefisto by John Banville

Posted 5:49pm Sunday 14th April 2013 by Lucy Hunter

What would you sacrifice to have everything you ever wanted? What happens if you sell your soul, but there is no afterlife to suffer in? John Banville recreates Goethe’s Mephistopheles in twentieth-century Ireland, bringing the old religious parable into a modern, secular setting, where God and the Read more...

Rust and Bone

Posted 5:49pm Sunday 14th April 2013 by Sam McChesney

Ali (Matthias Schoenaerts), an unemployed man in his mid-twenties, hitches into town with his five-year-old son. He crashes at his sister’s squalid abode, and finds work as a nightclub bouncer. One night he breaks up a fight – a girl, Stéphanie (Marion Cotillard), is bleeding, so he gives her a ride Read more...

Trance

Posted 5:49pm Sunday 14th April 2013 by Lyle Skipsey

Danny Boyle’s latest movie is a mind-bender. Starring James McAvoy, Rosario Dawson, and Vincent Cassel, the movie follows an art heist gone wrong. Simon (McAvoy) is an auctioneer of fine art. He is charged with selling the rarest of paintings to the world’s wealthiest people. When an attempt Read more...

The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Posted 5:49pm Sunday 14th April 2013 by Ella Booray

Perks is a coming-of-age story with a surprising absence of acne and angst. Charlie (Logan Lerman) is a misfit lost in the labyrinth of high school. Enter Patrick (Ezra Miller) and Sam (Emma Watson), who envelop him into their warm bosom of friendship. The film follows the group as they grow up, Read more...

Justin Timberlake - The 20/20 Experience

Posted 5:49pm Sunday 14th April 2013 by Basti Menkes

Though never previously a fan of Justin Timberlake and his music, I always considered him to have a lot of potential. Admiring his vocal talent and the reverence with which he channels his influences (namely Michael Jackson and Prince), I hoped that one day the planets would align and he would come Read more...

Badd Energy - Underwater Pyramids

Posted 5:49pm Sunday 14th April 2013 by Charlotte Doyle

When writing a review, it can be extremely difficult to take an objective, non-partisan perspective and put my own personal taste to one side. Especially with the album Underwater Pyramids by Badd Energy, as it is a style of music that sits at the lower end of my music-enjoyment spectrum. Initially Read more...

Autechre - Exai

Posted 5:49pm Sunday 14th April 2013 by Basti Menkes

Anybody familiar with Mancunian duo Autechre will know they make some of the most complex, unconventional, inaccessible electronic music in the world. Their trademark sound is of stranded synth melodies, eerie digital drones, and pieces of electronic shrapnel ricocheting off one another to form Read more...

The Strokes - Comedown Machine

Posted 4:40pm Sunday 7th April 2013 by Basti Menkes

At this point in their career, The Strokes really don’t have much to lose. After releasing two near-perfect, critically-acclaimed albums in quick succession, the New York quintet stumbled on their overlong third LP First Impressions Of Earth, and have since failed to reignite the music world’s faith Read more...

David Bowie - The Next Day

Posted 4:40pm Sunday 7th April 2013 by Basti Menkes

Upon learning that David Bowie was to release his twenty-fourth studio album this year, my expectations weren’t altogether very high. With Bowie recently entering his sixty-sixth year on this planet, my mind instantly feared a lifeless and desperate-sounding record, the sound of an old man trying in Read more...

Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1965)

Posted 4:40pm Sunday 7th April 2013 by Kathleen Hanna

Russ Meyer really liked boobs. His favourite Hollywood actress was Dolly Parton, he described 39DD-toting Anita Ekberg as “the most beautiful woman I ever photographed,” he had a penchant for casting women in their first trimester of pregnancy (gross), and his two favourite expressions were Read more...

The Host

Posted 4:40pm Sunday 7th April 2013 by Fionnuala Bulman

Considering the Twilight saga brought over 10 hours of sparkly humans and pained expressions to our cinema screens, it’s fair to say I didn’t have huge hopes for The Host, the film adaptation of the sci-fi/romance novel written by Stephanie Meyer in 2008. It didn’t help that it was a Sunday morning, Read more...

No

Posted 4:40pm Sunday 7th April 2013 by Gerard Barbalich

Those movies nominated for the illustrious Oscars are a typical bunch of tales (many think there are only seven tales) that take us on similar journeys, all similar but slightly different, and return us safely at the end. And for No, which was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, it Read more...

Jack the Giant Slayer

Posted 4:40pm Sunday 7th April 2013 by Rosie Howells

Don’t we bloody love our expensive fairytale re-boots? Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters, Mirror Mirror, Snow White and the Huntsman – all released within 18 months. And I think it’s fair to say they’ve hardly been instant classics, despite the obnoxious lineup of stars that sign on (I would assume Read more...

Bioshock Infinite

Posted 4:40pm Sunday 7th April 2013 by Baz Macdonald

I could have written this review in five words: fucking awesome, go play it! However, it’s probably my responsibility to explain what exactly about Ken Levine’s new masterpiece Bioshock Infinite elicits this response. Despite the massive steps the video game industry has taken in the past 20 Read more...

If on a Winter’s Night a Traveller

Posted 4:40pm Sunday 7th April 2013 by Thomas Thomson

“You are about to begin reading Italo Calvino’s latest novel. Relax. Concentrate … Let the world around you fade.” So begins Italo Calvino’s masterful, polyphonic novel If on a winter’s night a traveller. Published in 1979, self-referential and perfectly postmodern, this book is an examination Read more...

Cinnamon Buns

Posted 4:40pm Sunday 7th April 2013 by Ines Shennan

I adapted a pizza dough recipe from blog The Londoner to create the buns. The result is a pile of fluffy, sweet cinnamon-laden goodness. Citrus peel adds welcome bitterness, but leave it out if it ain’t your thing. Throw in a handful of slivered almonds for crunch, if you wish. Most importantly, try Read more...

Pulled Pork (Round Two)

Posted 4:40pm Sunday 7th April 2013 by Ines Shennan

This pulled pork with a naughty black pepper crust is so tender it should be illegal. Juniper berries, which are typically used to flavour gin, are lovingly bashed to release their fragrant pepperiness and are combined with tropical, flirty pineapple. Hours upon hours of cooking time gently allow Read more...

Leek, Chicken And Balsamic Pasta

Posted 4:40pm Sunday 7th April 2013 by Ines Shennan

Pasta is easy to prepare and always filling – cheers carbs. Chicken and leek paired together with a splash of cream makes for a comforting and indulgent meal, with balsamic vinegar offsetting the richness with a slight tang. It’s easy to adjust the quantity to feed a large group of people too, and Read more...

Six60 Interview

Posted 6:30pm Sunday 24th March 2013 by Basti Menkes

Six60 is everybody’s favourite New Zealand roots band. Born and bred right here in Dunedin, the whanau-loving, roots-remembering bunch of bros have recently been enjoying some international success, with audiences in the US and UK reportedly finding them “amazing,” “awesome,” and “incredible” Read more...

Broken City

Posted 6:30pm Sunday 24th March 2013 by Tim Lindsay

Having recently seen Russell Crowe’s sensitive side in Les Miserables, my inner Crowe-Bro yearned for the gladiatorial, UFO-spotting, phone-throwing Russell that we have all come to love over the last 10 years. Crowe teams up with Mark Wahlberg in a gritty political thriller that disappointingly Read more...

Liberal Arts

Posted 6:30pm Sunday 24th March 2013 by Jonny Mahon-Heap

Hollywood doesn’t tend to capture the “university experience” (for lack of a less cringeworthy term) with much accuracy or success. Mostly consisting of American Pie-esque comedies or 90s trash like The Skulls, the genre doesn’t quite work. Liberal Arts (the stateside term for a BA) succeeds where Read more...

Wuthering Heights

Posted 6:30pm Sunday 24th March 2013 by Ailis Oliver-Kerby

To physically represent the angst at the heart of the story, the opening of Wuthering Heights shows Heathcliff banging his head against a brick wall. This is precisely what I felt like doing for the first half of the movie. The characters are unlikable, the shaky camera technique made me nauseous, Read more...

God of War vs Gears of War

Posted 6:30pm Sunday 24th March 2013 by Baz Macdonald

Back in the days of Playstation vs. Nintendo N64, when choosing a console most people would pick the opposite console to what their friends had, so that you and your mates had access to all the games being released. Now, in the age of PS3 vs. Xbox 360, factors such as online gameplay have created a Read more...

On the Road

Posted 6:30pm Sunday 24th March 2013 by Josef Alton

In the autumn of 1957, Jack Kerouac picked up an early edition of the New York Times from an all-night newsstand in the Upper West Side, Manhattan and read Gilbert Millstein’s review of On the Road. Millstein declared the novel “the most beautifully executed, the clearest and the most important Read more...

Grilled Pepper, Squid and Sesame Salad

Posted 6:30pm Sunday 24th March 2013 by Ines Shennan

Squid is incredibly easy to incorporate into exciting dishes due to its tender texture and ability to be complemented by a range of flavours. You can pick up 500g of squid from the supermarket for $7 on special and when accompanied by the udon noodles, this meal will stretch out to feed three or Read more...

Slow and Spicy Chicken

Posted 6:30pm Sunday 24th March 2013 by Ines Shennan

A few weeks ago I bought a slow cooker and am now left wondering how I have survived four years of student life without one. The benefits are twofold. Firstly, slow cookers allow you to haphazardly throw a selection of ingredients together and leave them gently simmering for half a day or longer – Read more...

Frontier Ruckus - Eternity Dimming

Posted 5:43pm Sunday 17th March 2013 by Tom McCone

Over this now-fading summer I’ve discovered and fallen for a few bands, but the one that caught my heartstrings and plucked them the strongest was alt-folk-Americana-country-something quartet Frontier Ruckus. After listening to their 2008 effort Orion Town Songbook on repeat for days and sinking Read more...

How To Destroy Angels - Welcome Oblivion

Posted 5:43pm Sunday 17th March 2013 by Basti Menkes

For me, Trent Reznor’s music has never really surpassed guilty pleasure status. As much as I love and get a kick out of Nine Inch Nails classics like The Downward Spiral and The Fragile, the pubescent angst that permeates those records takes away from how thrilling they are musically; I always walk Read more...

Eraserhead

Posted 5:43pm Sunday 17th March 2013 by Callum Fredric

The Worst Film Ever Made I physically attacked my flatmate after he made me watch this film. Eraserhead is a cult film. But not cult in the good sense like Pulp Fiction or The Big Lebowski. Cult in the bad sense, like Destiny Church. As with Bishop Brian Tamaki, director David Lynch has Read more...

Great Expectations

Posted 5:43pm Sunday 17th March 2013 by Christine Edwards

A classic romance has graced the big screen this autumn. I would take caution when watching this film – it is sobby and may cause severe sweet tooth, but you will become emotionally invested in the character Pip. Just a heads up boys, if you take your girlfriend to this she may expect more romantic Read more...

The Master

Posted 5:43pm Sunday 17th March 2013 by Lyle Skipsey

I don’t know what possessed Joaquin Phoenix to take his weird break from acting/artistic endeavour but it’s great to have him back. His tortured performance as Freddie Quell, a sex-obsessed, alcoholic army vet returning to the real world in Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master is the best of an Read more...

Silver Linings Playbook

Posted 5:43pm Sunday 17th March 2013 by Rosie Howells

Silver Linings Playbook is a dark romantic comedy/drama that follows the blossoming relationship between two damaged individuals. Pat (Bradley Cooper) is a bipolar man recently released from a psychiatric hospital who bargains with his neighbour – the depressed and promiscuous widow Tiffany Read more...

Sim City 5 (2013)

Posted 5:43pm Sunday 17th March 2013 by Baz Macdonald

Last year publishing company Electronic Arts (EA) was named the “Worst Company in the World” by Consumer magazine. I am not a huge fan of EA, but I couldn’t help wondering how, in a collapsing global economy, with BP spilling oils into our seas, a video game publisher got voted the worst company? Read more...

Lives We Leave Behind

Posted 5:43pm Sunday 17th March 2013 by Feby Idrus

Lives We Leave Behind, the newest release from Dunedin author Maxine Alterio, begins with a quote from Catherine Black, a nurse who served during World War I. “You could not go through the things we went through,” Black writes, “see the things we saw, and remain the same. You went into it young and Read more...

Kronos Quartet (USA)

Posted 4:23pm Sunday 10th March 2013 by Basti Menkes

Legendary classical ensemble Kronos Quartet have been called many things in their lifetime – passionate, intense, experimental, exhilarating. With 40 years’ touring experience and almost as many albums under their belts, they are among the most prolific and influential classical musicians of the Read more...

Devendra Banhart - Mala

Posted 4:23pm Sunday 10th March 2013 by Basti Menkes

Devendra Banhart was at one time among the strongest, strangest voices in psychedelic folk. He was discovered around the turn of the millennium by Swans frontman and Young God Records owner Michael Gira, who took the then-homeless Banhart under his wing and released a trio of albums that are Read more...

The Guilt Trip

Posted 4:23pm Sunday 10th March 2013 by Josie Cochrane

Seth Rogen and Barbra Streisand are the producers and stars of this heart-warming, yet not-so-funny, comedy. The Guilt Trip follows a mother, Joyce (Streisand) and her son, Andy (Rogen) as they embark on a cross-country road trip, attempting to sell Andy’s cleaning product creation to major buyers. Read more...

Oz the Great and Powerful (3D)

Posted 4:23pm Sunday 10th March 2013 by Jonny Mahon-Heap

To say that the resurgence of fairytales within recent blockbusters has yielded mixed results would be an understatement. From the commercially successful but creatively bankrupt (Alice in Wonderland, Snow White and the Huntsman), to those bankrupt both commercially and creatively (Little Red Riding Read more...

I Give It A Year

Posted 4:23pm Sunday 10th March 2013 by Tim Lindsay

I Give it a Year is a pleasant deviation from your run of the mill rom-com. Dan Mazer, known for his production and writing roles in Ali G Indahouse, Borat, Brüno, and The Dictator superbly balances cringe-worthy humour with more subtle hilarity and raises serious questions about love, married life Read more...

Amour

Posted 4:23pm Sunday 10th March 2013 by Jonny Mahon-Heap

Director Michael Haneke is comfortable with depicting horror. Whether capturing a home invasion in Funny Games, or pre-World War 2 atrocities in The White Ribbon, his slowly built tension and pace creates very creepy, yet successful films – Amour won the Palme d’Or and the New York Times film of Read more...

Tomb Raider (2013)

Posted 4:23pm Sunday 10th March 2013 by Baz Macdonald

It has been a long time since the heyday of the Tomb Raider franchise. The teenagers of the 90s enjoyed nothing more than playing with their heavily-breasted gal pal Lara Croft, but as the generation moved out of their mums’ basements and into the real world Lara was unfortunately left on the shelf Read more...

The Plague

Posted 4:23pm Sunday 10th March 2013 by Lucy Hunter

Rats are dying. Arriving home one night, Dr Bernard Rieux witnesses a sick rat rupturing and spurting blood from its mouth. Soon thousands are dead, burning in piles in the streets. Dr Rieux acknowledges the dead rats with intrigue. Then his door-porter dies of a peculiar fever, with a terrible Read more...

The Sweeney

Posted 5:18pm Sunday 3rd March 2013 by Kathleen Hanna

I had a real problem with this film, more so than any other crime film I’ve seen. The tagline for The Sweeney is “act like a criminal to catch a criminal.” It’s not the moral ambiguity of that I have a problem with. Hell, all movies should be morally ambiguous up to a point, especially those in Read more...

Beautiful Creatures

Posted 5:18pm Sunday 3rd March 2013 by S M Morgan

Beautiful Creatures is a supernatural fantasy, adapted from a book, which jumps right into things six months before the lead’s, Lena’s, birthday. On her birthday her powers will be claimed for either the “light” (good) or “dark” (evil) depending on the judgement of her “true nature,” which will Read more...

Safe Haven

Posted 5:18pm Sunday 3rd March 2013 by Rosie Howells

Straight off the bat, you should know I’m not built for “Soul-Searching-Romance.” I didn’t even enjoy The Holiday, which I understand essentially makes me The Tin Man, or Kim Jong Il, or something. So I was a little worried to hear that Safe Haven’s writer Nicholas Sparks is also responsible for Read more...

Alizarin Lizard

Posted 5:18pm Sunday 3rd March 2013 by Lisa Craw

If you live in Dunedin and you’ve never heard Alizarin Lizard, shame on you. Alizarin are one of the best current New Zealand bands, though are perhaps more occupied with crazed 42-date tours than they are with self-promotion. This, their second full-length album, is classic Lizard, filled with Read more...

Atoms For Peace - AMOK

Posted 5:18pm Sunday 3rd March 2013 by Basti Menkes

For those of you who are not already aware, I am an enormous Radiohead junkie. At any given moment you can probably catch me listening to them, forcing them onto the unfortunate folk around me, or possibly fantasising about one of the members. But as unhealthy as my addiction to Thom Yorke and his Read more...

Crysis 3

Posted 5:18pm Sunday 3rd March 2013 by Baz Macdonald

Last week’s announcement of the PlayStation 4 has the gaming community asking what the future for our medium holds. What stories are to be told? How they will look? How they will play? I ask, why wait for the future when it is happening now? The release of Crysis 3, the third installment in the Read more...

Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity by Katherine Boo

Posted 5:18pm Sunday 3rd March 2013 by Dominic Tay

Every year, more than 30 million passengers fly into Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport. If you landed here at any time between 1991 and 2011, you’ll probably remember your journey out of the international terminal, past rows of luxury hotels, and into the heart of Mumbai. You Read more...

Anna Karenina

Posted 10:25pm Sunday 24th February 2013 by Sam McChesney

Patriarchy sucks mad d. From the creators of Pride and Prejudice (2005) comes one of the best-looking films since, well, Pride and Prejudice. Adapted from Tolstoy’s novel, which was recently named the greatest ever by Time magazine, Anna Karenina stars Keira Knightley and ... that guy from Read more...

A Good Day To Die Hard

Posted 10:23pm Sunday 24th February 2013 by Christine Edwards

So John McClane is back, and this time he’s wreaking havoc in a completely new place: Russia. As always, this Die Hard is about a badass cop who seems to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and, to make things right, goes in guns blazing and kicks the bad guy’s arse. This newest instalment, Read more...

Movie 43

Posted 10:23pm Sunday 24th February 2013 by Josie Cochrane

I had zero hopes for this movie before viewing, based largely on the film editor’s opening email to me: “Review Movie 43 – apparently one of the worst films of all time. Go on, I dare you.” A dare is a dare of course! Even with my low hopes, my first text when I left the movie was “Well mum, Read more...

Hitchcock

Posted 10:23pm Sunday 24th February 2013 by Finn Bulman

A movie about the making of a movie. Sure, it may have been done before, but Hitchcock pulls it off wonderfully. The story follows the life of famous film director Alfred Hitchcock, or “Hitch,” as he goes about creating one of the greatest horror films of all time, Psycho. He is met with Read more...

Aliens: Colonial Marines

Posted 10:23pm Sunday 24th February 2013 by Baz Macdonald

For those of you waiting for an exciting new game to play after the dry months since pre-Christmas releases, Aliens: Colonial Marines is not for you. The gaming industry has once again started the year in controversy. Last year we endured the disaster that was the ending of BioWare’s Read more...

The Daylight Gate by Jeanette Winterson

Posted 10:23pm Sunday 24th February 2013 by Thomas Thomson

Jeanette Winterson’s The Daylight Gate is a fictionalised re-telling of the events leading up to the Pendle Witch Trials of 1612. Set in Lancashire, a county then fabled for its wildness and strangeness, a stronghold of both Catholicism and witchcraft, the book describes an England feverish with Read more...

Trick Mammoth

Posted 10:02pm Sunday 24th February 2013 by Basti Menkes

Trick Mammoth is a Dunedin pop trio consisting of Adrian Ng (songwriting and vocals), Millie Lovelock (guitar and vocals), and Sam Valentine (drums). Enigmatic frontman Adrian describes their sound as “lo-fi music with a 90s guitar-pop edge.” He has been writing solo material under the Trick Read more...

Tomahawk - Oddfellows

Posted 10:02pm Sunday 24th February 2013 by Basti Menkes

Alternative metal supergroup Tomahawk are back with their first album in six years. Instead of picking up where the Native American-inspired Anonymous left off, the Mike Patton-led band of misfits have taken the Tomahawk sound back to its very roots, producing something truly unique. As the Read more...

My Bloody Valentine - m b v

Posted 10:02pm Sunday 24th February 2013 by Basti Menkes

How do you follow up a genre-defining masterpiece? My Bloody Valentine’s Kevin Shields has spent the last two decades pondering that very question. Since its release in 1991, the band’s magnum opus Loveless has established itself as not only the definitive shoegaze album, but as one of the most Read more...

Men Like Us

Posted 5:59pm Sunday 7th October 2012 by Taryn Dryfhout

There is no way I can do this great film justice in a 300-word review. The opening sequence of Men Like Us illustrates the abundance of heterosexual images found in Western culture and sets the scene for nine men’s stories to be told, most of which begin with the way in which they were raised to Read more...

Hotel Transylvania

Posted 5:59pm Sunday 7th October 2012 by Lulu Sandston

Hotel Transylvania is based on the concept that humans are the perpetrators of scariness and monsters are the victims. The Hotel, built by Dracula (Adam Sandler), is a sanctuary for monsters, a place where they don’t have to hide in the shadows and can indulge all their eccentricities. For Read more...

Looper (2012)

Posted 5:59pm Sunday 7th October 2012 by Callum Fredric

In the year 2044, there are no flying cars. Admittedly, there are motorbikes that hover, but they’re totes unreliable. Most people drive the same cars as in 2012. And realistically, that’s what the future is going to be like. How much have cars actually changed since the 1950s? Likewise, antihero Read more...

Where Do We Go Now

Posted 5:59pm Sunday 7th October 2012 by Taryn Dryfhout

With the starring role played by the director herself, this movie was bound to be a little odd. Where Do We Go Now is set in a fictional village in Lebanon, where Christians and Muslims are living in harmony, oblivious to the war-torn nature of their relationship outside of their own community. This Read more...

THEA152 presents Voyager X: Baby Forest Animal Emporium

Posted 5:59pm Sunday 7th October 2012 by Bronwyn Wallace

Get a bunch of 30 overly dramatic, scheming theatre students together and tell them to create a show that uses a stage in new and innovative way. Ready, set, go – you’ve got Voyager. Tell them they can take any idea, any theme, any over-the-top, ridiculously outlandish, and extravagantly impossible Read more...

Sir Frank Brangwyn: Captain Winterbottom and the Billiard Room of Horton House

Posted 5:59pm Sunday 7th October 2012 by Taryn Dryfhout

When you enter the new exhibition at the Dunedin Public Art Gallery, the enormous pool table that monopolises a large floor area in the centre of the room grabs your attention. The exhibition is “Sir Frank Brangwyn: Captain Winterbottom and the Billiard Room of Horton House”, and it is this billiard Read more...

A review, an outro; a comedy: Melville’s Bartleby

Posted 5:59pm Sunday 7th October 2012 by Josef Alton

It was on a fine day in New York City that the tall and lanky young man entered the chambers of an elderly Wall Street lawyer and undertook the job as a legal scrivener (legal copyist). The lawyer’s chambers were on the second story of a building that sat in the shade of its neighboring buildings. Read more...

Tex Mex Beef

Posted 5:59pm Sunday 7th October 2012 by Ines Shennan

Let me tell you about a dessert-related revelation I had some years ago. You take an overflowing handful of fresh strawberries, hull them, halve them, and place them into a bowl. Next, grab your nearby spice grinder, conveniently filled with black peppercorns. Crack the pepper over the strawberries. Read more...

Civilization V: Gods and Kings

Posted 5:59pm Sunday 7th October 2012 by Vimal Patel

2005’s Civilization IV was a wholesome game to give to your offspring. Combat, though it was very possible, was rarely an optimal method to achieve a successful, wide reaching collection of cities. IV was a game that promoted agriculture, enlightenment and diplomacy, a game that, after its patch Read more...

NY Excuse For A Good Time

Posted 5:59pm Sunday 7th October 2012 by Isaac McFarlane

New Year’s Eve is an important time for a lot of us – the final goodbye to a year of triumphs or failures, and the ushering in of new beginnings. Well, either that or a black hole in your memory from Dec 27 till Jan 2. Often the soundtrack to this haze of hedonism is provided by one of many Read more...

Mini Raspberry Citrus Cheesecakes

Posted 5:01pm Sunday 30th September 2012 by Ines Shennan

I’ve got something to share with you. I haven’t been entirely honest this year. From the recipes featured, my tastebuds would appear to lean towards the savoury; clearly I am a carb-consuming, meat-eating, spice-loving, caramelised-onion-obsessed lunatic. What have failed to grace these pages are Read more...

Soulwax

Posted 5:01pm Sunday 30th September 2012 by Isaac McFarlane

My good friend Tom Tremewan may have changed my life. Searching for a sense of sanity on a recent excursion to Captain Crunch’s World of Weird and Wacky, situated just 5 hours north of Dunedin, he turned to me and fumbled for the only topic that could save us from the Netherworld – music. “Have you Read more...

Otago Festival of the Arts

Posted 5:01pm Sunday 30th September 2012 by Bronwyn Wallace

I think we often forget, or rather overlook, the privilege of living in a culturally assimilated city like Dunedin. We always have a production on somewhere, be it professional or student-led, so if we feel like it we can take the evening off to enjoy a show. We are also lucky enough to have a Read more...

The Marriage Plot

Posted 5:01pm Sunday 30th September 2012 by Bradley Watson

After he focussed on mass suicide in The Virgin Suicides and then hermaphrodism in Middlesex, I was curious to see what Jeffrey Eugenides had in store for us with his latest novel, The Marriage Plot. Unlike his other novels, The Marriage Plot does not trade in shock value. Instead, the plot centres Read more...

Savages

Posted 5:01pm Sunday 30th September 2012 by Michaela Hunter

It pretty obvious from the get-go what kind of movie this is, because we’re told in direct narration by the sultry voice of main character O (short for Ophelia), played by Blake Lively. She explains that she’s a hot rich girl whose parents don’t love her, but who happened to win the affections of Read more...

Madagascar 3

Posted 5:01pm Sunday 30th September 2012 by Dan Benson-Guiu

I arrive at the theatre with great anticipation, unopened popcorn on my lap, just waiting for the ready-set-go. I haven’t seen a kids’ movie since way back, and nothing is better than trailers to get you in the mood. But we all remember the sheer awesomeness of Madagascar, right? Let’s move it! Read more...

Ruby Sparks

Posted 5:01pm Sunday 30th September 2012 by Georgia Rose

My expectations for this film were pretty non-existent, although I’d heard it was directed by the same duo that made Little Miss Sunshine, which gave me hope. I was also vaguely aware that it was about an author whose female character comes to life as his girlfriend, and anything he writes about her Read more...

Two Little Boys

Posted 5:01pm Sunday 30th September 2012 by Ashlea Muston

Two Little Boys is the story of Nige and Deano, two best mates from Invercargill. Nige (Bret McKenzie) finds himself in way over his head when he runs over a Norwegian backpacker. He confides in his friend Deano (Hamish Blake), despite their recent disagreement over a toasted sandwich. However, in Read more...

Smoky Repose

Posted 5:01pm Sunday 30th September 2012 by Beaurey Chan

A young woman poses in profile against an indistinct backdrop, a cigarette propped just so in her mouth as she gazes coolly into the unknown distance. Another girl’s hair is drawn tightly back as she clenches her face into an expression of what could be pain or pleasure. The cigarette makes Read more...

Mark of the Ninja - REVIEW

Posted 5:01pm Sunday 30th September 2012 by Toby Hills

"Other” ninja games, and developer Klei Entertainment refuses to name names, are very un-ninja-like. Why spend all that time shrouding yourself in stifling, shadowy rags if you are going to blunder into the middle of a swathe of foes and paint the walls in their bright red blood just to show, Read more...

Chicken Caesar Salad

Posted 4:25pm Sunday 23rd September 2012 by Maeve Jones

Caesar salad often emphasises the heavy, creamy dressing, which is more often than not over-processed and ruins a perfectly good salad. For me it is all about the croutons. Croutons are a delicious and convenient way to use bread that is past its prime. Most cultures in the world have some creative Read more...

Why Dubstep Isn’t Shit

Posted 4:25pm Sunday 23rd September 2012 by Isaac McFarlane

Dubstep gets a bad rap, and to be fair, it does deserve a lot of it. But dubstep is not total shit. There is some wonderfully interesting, energetic, face-meltingly beautiful dubstep created out there in a truly global scene, facilitated by the same thing that made it so hated – the Internet. Yes, I Read more...

American Angels

Posted 4:25pm Sunday 23rd September 2012 by Bronwyn Wallace

What a week! Art exhibitions in the Link and free coffee out on the lawn – aah, what a cultured University we all attend. In sticking with the 24-hour time frame, it’s hardly a panic to find something to write about for this issue, as dear old Allen hall will always have something for us there. Read more...

Monsieur Linh and his Child

Posted 4:25pm Sunday 23rd September 2012 by Lucy Hunter

Monsieur Linh is the only person who knows his name, because everybody who used to know it is dead. He arrives by ship from an unnamed country in Indo-China to France, clutching a small suitcase of meagre possessions, and his new-born granddaughter, Sang diû, who weighs less than the suitcase. His Read more...

Your Sister’s Sister

Posted 4:25pm Sunday 23rd September 2012 by Taryn Dryfhout

I’m not sure if Your Sister’s Sister is a romantic comedy or not, but whatever its classification, it’s a great watch. The film opens with Jack (Mark Duplass) struggling to recover from the loss of his brother, and making an ass of himself at a subsequent memorial party. His best friend Iris Read more...

Hysteria

Posted 4:25pm Sunday 23rd September 2012 by Ashlea Muston

Hysteria, set in London in the 1880s, follows the story of the ever-spirited young Doctor Mortimer Granville prior to his discovery of the vibrator and its medical benefits. Mortimer (Hugh Dancy) continually seeks betterment in the medical profession, and is enamoured with the breakthrough science Read more...

On The Road

Posted 4:25pm Sunday 23rd September 2012 by Dan Benson-Guiu

This adaptation of Jack Kerouac’s novel immerses us in a time period that is short but alive with change. It is the postwar era, and we are introduced to a small group of budding writers who are part of a culture which, as a whole, seems lively and creative. Sal Paradise (Sam Riley) is not feeling Read more...

Just keep swimming, just keep swimming

Posted 4:25pm Sunday 23rd September 2012 by Beaurey Chan

I don’t know about you, but there’s something about tentacles that freak me out. Sea creatures in general are scary: sharks, jellyfish (Finding Nemo has a lot to answer for), flesh-eating piranhas, and so on – the whole lot are evil harbingers of doom as far as I’m concerned. But while Deep Sea Read more...

FTL - Review

Posted 4:25pm Sunday 23rd September 2012 by Toby Hills

In a quantum instant, a single broadside torpedo slips through the rickety space-cruiser’s momentarily downed shields, and ignites the oxygen recirculator. Immediately, the grizzled captain shuts down the blast doors and opens the ship’s port and stern airlocks, evacuating the gaseous contents from Read more...

Moonrise Kingdom

Posted 4:57pm Sunday 16th September 2012 by Taryn Dryfhout

Set in the 1960s, Moonrise Kingdom is about a couple of New England kids who cross paths at a summer camp and fall head-over-heels in love. Suzy comes from an upper-class family of lawyers, while Sam is an orphan who is constantly in and out of foster homes. Before leaving the camp, they make a pact Read more...

The Expendables 2

Posted 4:57pm Sunday 16th September 2012 by Critic

The Expendables 2 revolves around a group of mercenaries, the Expendables, who are enlisted by a Mr Church to retrieve a lost package from a downed plane. What seems like an easy job takes a wrong turn when one of their crew is murdered during the operation. Determined to seek revenge, the Read more...