Archive

Haunts of Dickens

Posted 5:04pm Sunday 22nd April 2012 by Taryn Dryfhout

Haunts of Dickens is a collection of almost 60 watercolours painted by British artist Paul Braddon (1864-1937). The exhibition is part of Charles Dickens’s 200th birthday celebration and contains scenes from Dickens’s novels, ranging from Great Expectations to The Old Curiosity Shop. The Read more...

Pets! Dead Or Alive!

Posted 5:04pm Sunday 22nd April 2012 by Bradley Watson

Marina Lewycka’s Various Pets Alive and Dead delves into the development of a slightly dysfunctional family who have taken very different lives after growing up in a left-wing liberal commune. Set in 2008, the novel moves between Doncaster and London, exploring both the present lives of the Read more...

The Girl in Stillettos

Posted 5:04pm Sunday 22nd April 2012 by Lauren Wootton

Dunedin’s own Girl in Stilettos is in town next week and playing at Sammy’s on her national tour. Annah Mac will perform on April 28 as part of the tour to promote her single, as well as her album released in September last year. I caught up with her to find out all about her bowls skills, and how Read more...

RED

Posted 5:04pm Sunday 22nd April 2012 by Bronwyn Wallace

Written by John Logan Directed by Lara Macgregor Starring John Bach and Cameron Douglas Performing until May 5 The Fortune Theatre’s latest award-winning production RED is a fierce and intriguing look in to the life of Mark Rothko and his assistant, over the space of two years, as he Read more...

Avernum: Escape From the Pit

Posted 5:04pm Sunday 22nd April 2012 by Toby Hills

Remember when, in well-supervised playground games, you had to take turns? Avernum taps into all that nostalgia, as well as all the comfort that comes from navigating a series of isometric cubes. This RPG is deliberately generic – so it’s equal parts charming and predictable. After Read more...

Must-sees at the World Cinema Showcase

Posted 5:04pm Sunday 22nd April 2012 by Sarah Baillie

The World Cinema Showcase is back in town, and boy are there a lot of good movies to be seen! The baby version of the New Zealand International Film Festival, the WCS is running from April 19-May 2. The great thing about film festivals, apart from being able to go to the movies in the middle of the Read more...

Footnote

Posted 5:04pm Sunday 22nd April 2012 by Sam Allen

Footnote is a comedic satire that explores the awkward rivalry between two Talmudic Scholars, Eliezer Shkolnik and his son Uriel Shkolnik. Director Joseph Cedar pieces this award-winning film together beautifully, rendering it extremely engaging and surprisingly insightful. In the process of Read more...

Titanic (3D)

Posted 5:04pm Sunday 22nd April 2012 by Michaela Hunter

Titanic appreciators should definitely go and experience this classic film in 3D. Seeing Titanic for the first time in years was enjoyably nostalgic, despite the slight cringe factor of the cheesy lines and the accompanying Celine Dion soundtrack. I got far more involved in it than I thought I Read more...

Vietnamese Salad

Posted 3:53pm Sunday 15th April 2012 by Ines Shennan

This colourful, crunchy and tangy salad is of Vietnamese inspiration. A piquant dressing coats finely sliced vegetables, poached chicken (if you so wish), honey-roasted peanuts and fresh mint. You can substitute the lemons for limes for a more authentic flavour, though they will set you back a few Read more...

Get Your Performance On

Posted 3:53pm Sunday 15th April 2012 by Bronwyn Wallace

After a week off I’m sure it’s safe to say that, for most of us, we’re not at all rested. Cramming in working on assignments between crazy nights out? It’s what the break is really for. Now that we’re back in the swing of things, however uninvited it may be, it’s time to get serious. It’s time to Read more...

The Women of the 6th Floor

Posted 3:53pm Sunday 15th April 2012 by Becky Ruthers

A Cinderella story in reverse, Jean-Louis Joubert is a successful stockbroker living a life of upper-middle-class refinement in early 1960s Paris. He works the same job and occupies the same lavish apartment as his father and grandfather did before him, expecting to do so for the rest of his life, Read more...

The Hunter

Posted 3:53pm Sunday 15th April 2012 by Andrew Oliver

Daniel Nettheim’s The Hunter is a beautiful and hypnotic piece of visual art weaving the dreamscape terrain of the Tasmanian bush and the powerful presence of Willem Dafoe into a delectably tense thriller that delivers action, suspense and drama in equal parts. Dafoe plays Martin, a professional Read more...

Mirror Mirror

Posted 3:53pm Sunday 15th April 2012 by Sasha Borissenko

What better way to engage an audience who are afflicted by today’s frightful economic climate than to present a storyline based around a financially burdened kingdom thanks to the follies of a beauty-obsessed queen? In one sense Tarsem Singh’s Mirror Mirror affirms issues of violence, Read more...

The Lorax (3D)

Posted 3:53pm Sunday 15th April 2012 by Jane Ross

If you were raised on the whimsical poetic meters and trippy cartoon drawing style of Theodor Seuss Geisel (Dr. Seuss) you may find the nauseating pace of the new 3D film version a tad too much sensory overload. There is just so much going on, and while you won’t want to miss out on the hectic Read more...

Sweet, sweet burlesque

Posted 3:53pm Sunday 15th April 2012 by Siobhan Milner

Burlesque is an art form that is becoming more and more respected each year in our society. With competitions such as Miss Burlesque New Zealand, and Dunedin’s very own Amateur Burlesque Nights, it is gaining popularity and recognition as a creative and valid dance form. The art of the tease is one Read more...

Path of Exile

Posted 3:53pm Sunday 15th April 2012 by Toby Hills

There’s a really subtle hint of Aotearoa in Path of Exile. Certain characters, such as the playable hulking marauder, are adorned with koru-inspired patterns. Swamps are packed with bipedal bird-like, but monstrous, Rhoa, and donating to the free-to-play (at least when it gets released; it’ll be in Read more...

SSX

Posted 3:53pm Sunday 15th April 2012 by Tom Pullan

After what feels like an age, SSX is back. 2012’s iteration brings the amazing snowboarding franchise into the real world, but retains all the madness that defines SSX. With 9 deadly descents – from the Whitehorn Mountain in the Rockies to New Zealand’s own runs down Tasman and Wakefield – Read more...

Boy bands: the new get-rich-quick scheme

Posted 3:53pm Sunday 15th April 2012 by Lauren Wootton

I’m just looking for a good night/like baby, baby, baby, oh/that’s what makes you beautiful! One Direction, JBiebs, Reece Mastin … just a small sample of our daily bombardment of images of young(ish) boys telling us how amazing we are. Despite encouraging cradle-snatching in anyone over the Read more...

Ignorance

Posted 3:53pm Sunday 15th April 2012 by Josef Alton

Ignorance is not just stupidity. Milan Kundera’s thoughtful examination of repatriation is qualified by his own experience as a Czech émigré living in France. His firsthand experience of what it is like to leave home and start over provides the novel with a problematic yet realistic interpretation Read more...

Franny and Zooey

Posted 7:07pm Sunday 1st April 2012 by Josef Alton

Franny and Zooey is a book about the two youngest siblings of the Glass family. It’s separated into two distinct sections — the first being a short story called Franny, and the second being a novella entitled Zooey. The first part focuses on Franny and her boyfriend Lane when they meet up Read more...

Why We Write

Posted 7:07pm Sunday 1st April 2012 by Lukas Clark-Memler

It’s not easy being a music critic. Score an album too low and you’re labeled a cynic; too high, you’re a naïve optimist. Take the easy road out by giving it a 6 or a 7, and you’re criticized for having no backbone. Then there’s always the case of trivializing artistic intent with pompous Read more...

Caramelised Onion Flatbread

Posted 7:07pm Sunday 1st April 2012 by Ines Shennan

Bouncy flatbread adorned with a blanket of sticky, sweet red onions and rosemary? Yes please. Making bread from scratch is a simple pleasure that contrary to popular opinion is remarkably easy. You don’t need to possess a bread maker, nor do you need to slave away in the kitchen for hours with flour Read more...

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

Posted 7:07pm Sunday 1st April 2012 by Bronwyn Wallace

Directed by: Luke Agnew “Every time you play hangman a stick figure family loses a father.” For the final issue before out beloved mid-semester break I believe a change of pace is in order. This week I interviewed the cast of the latest Lunchtime Theatre at Allen Hall and attempted to Read more...

Binary Domain

Posted 7:07pm Sunday 1st April 2012 by Toby Hills

If you asked someone who had never played a videogame to describe a one you would be provided with a fairly accurate breakdown of Binary Domain: A group of burly humans, who form a gleaming ethnic-rainbow, gun down robots that swarm about the player like schools of herring. It ain’t Read more...

The Hunger Games

Posted 7:07pm Sunday 1st April 2012 by Ella Borrie

Director: Gary Ross The Hunger Games is the most recent piece of Young Adult lit to roll off the Hollywood production line. In a post-apocalyptic America, the indulgent Capitol rules over twelve districts. Tributes are picked from a lottery of citizens for the Capitol’s instrument of Read more...

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

Posted 7:07pm Sunday 1st April 2012 by Emma Scammell

Director: John Madden The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel follows a group of bitter and bored 70-plus retirees who feel the need to fight the injustices of an ageist English society by travelling to India to “find themselves.” Abounding with distinguished actors, each of the seven main Read more...

La Bella Luna

Posted 7:07pm Sunday 1st April 2012 by Beaurey Chan

I’m just going to put it out there: The full moon is kind of, well, freaky. Studies have cropped up throughout history striving to prove a connection between the nights the moon is full and all kinds of crazy human antics on earth, including insomnia, insanity and of course lycanthropy. Make of it Read more...

Scrawls and Swirls

Posted 7:07pm Sunday 1st April 2012 by Beaurey Chan

The lecturer is droning on and on, and you’re bored to death but can’t be bothered taking notes. Inevitable solution? You start doodling. Stars, spirals, stickmen, dragons, Pokémon – whatever takes your fancy. They might one day appear in a gallery as part of your own art exhibition. Read more...

Balsamic and Sun-dried Tomato Roast Chicken

Posted 4:26pm Sunday 25th March 2012 by Maeve Jones

Unfortunately, autumn is technically upon us. However there are still many reasons to celebrate; most important among these is that we still have a few weeks left to revel in the glories of summer produce. Fifty-cent corn can still be skimmed off the cob to transform any salad. Seconds tomatoes can Read more...

Necrotising Fasciitis

Posted 4:26pm Sunday 25th March 2012 by Luke Agnew

Walking into the performance space I immediately felt like more than a spectator; the darkness, the soundscape and the organised chaos of the space drew the audience in before we could fully appreciate that we were immersing ourselves in the installation that is Flesh. Walking around was Read more...

Dragons and Daydreams

Posted 4:26pm Sunday 25th March 2012 by Beaurey Chan

Gallery De Novo, 101 Stuart Street March 16-29 It’s a funny thing about life that we always seem to want the opposite of what we have. Cue hideously overused trope “the grass is greener on the other side”, and all that jazz. Ironically, this cliché seems to apply even more to those things Read more...

Scarfies Come Home

Posted 4:26pm Sunday 25th March 2012 by Lauren Wootton

An interview with Six60 bassist Chris Mac is one of the easiest 20 minutes a music journalist can ask for. Sure I asked him the important stuff, but considering how nervous I was about calling a member of Six60 (I messed up the phone number three times, my hands were shaking so much), the yarn I had Read more...

The Binding of Isaac

Posted 4:26pm Sunday 25th March 2012 by Toby Hills

I didn’t realise that the Isaac (a nude baby, the eponymous protagonist of The Binding of Isaac) was tossing large spheres of his own lukewarm salty tears at his enemies until I’d attempted the game a handful of times. Forgivable, I think, as Binding is filled with dozens of depraved, silly plot Read more...

The 10pm Question

Posted 4:26pm Sunday 25th March 2012 by Natasha Loveday

“Frankie liked very much to remember that February the fourteenth had begun badly and shown every sign of becoming a real horror, but – as the benefit of hindsight proved – it marked, ultimately, a turning point in his mood and fortune, because at 8.36 a.m. the new girl boarded Cassino’s East-West Read more...

Martha Marcy May Marlene

Posted 4:26pm Sunday 25th March 2012 by Sarah Baillie

Martha Marcy May Marlene is not the full name of the young woman in this film – thank goodness. Her real name is Martha. Marcy May is the name given to her by Patrick, the leader of the cult she has been living with for the past two years. Having fled the cult community, disoriented and distressed, Read more...

Project X

Posted 4:26pm Sunday 25th March 2012 by Lukas Clark-Memler

Imagine the best party you never had. Thousands of people and limitless booze; DJs, fireworks and a flamethrower; a smorgasbord of uppers and downers; topless girls and a bouncy castle. So sets the stage for Project X, the latest incarnation of the “found-footage” genre. But instead of monsters Read more...

My Week with Marilyn

Posted 4:26pm Sunday 25th March 2012 by Michaela Hunter

My Week with Marilyn is based on the diaries of Colin Clark (played by Eddie Redmayne), a third assistant to the film director of The Prince and the Showgirl which famously united Marilyn Monroe (Michelle Williams) and Lawrence Olivier (Kenneth Branagh) in 1956. Clark revealed in 2000 that he had Read more...

Brother Number One

Posted 4:26pm Sunday 25th March 2012 by Taryn Dryfhout

Brother Number One is a New Zealand documentary which follows former Olympic athlete Rob Hamill as he journeys to Cambodia to testify against the man responsible for the torture and killing of his brother, over thirty years ago. Rob’s brother Kerry disappeared in 1978 while sailing towards Read more...

The 2012 Dunedin Fringe Festival

Posted 4:27pm Sunday 18th March 2012 by Bronwyn Wallace

Over the next 11 days the Dunedin Fringe Festival will change the way that you think about entertainment. The 2012 programme features over 50 events and more than 370 artists from places as exotic as the UK, and Canada. This week’s theatre page previews some of the best stuff on in the next few Read more...

Sweet Tooth

Posted 4:27pm Sunday 18th March 2012 by Beaurey Chan

“Canker” by Audrey Baldwin 5pm, 22 March 2012 Blue Oyster Gallery That’s your preview so far for Audrey Baldwin’s performance art piece “Canker”, which features as part of the Blue Oyster Gallery’s Performance Series for the Visual Arts section of the Fringe Festival. While perhaps not Read more...

John Cooper Clarke

Posted 4:27pm Sunday 18th March 2012 by Tash Smillie

In a brilliant coup d’état for Critic’s poetry section, Dunedin has snared itself a poet of international infamy as the headline act of this year’s Fringe Festival. John Cooper Clarke, “punk’s poet laureate” will be bringing his iconic performance poetry to Sammy’s this month. Described as Read more...

We Need to Talk About Kevin

Posted 4:27pm Sunday 18th March 2012 by Loulou Callister-Baker

Do you hate your mother for bringing you into this sinister world? Do thoughts about your high school days invoke shivers of disgust throughout you? Have you ever considered putting your baby hamster into the waste disposal? Is your name Kevin Khatchadourian? If yes – we need to talk about you. Read more...

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Posted 4:27pm Sunday 18th March 2012 by Nicole Muriel

If you tend to tear up in films about serious-faced, tormented kids struggling against adversity, you’ll probably be all-out sobbing before the end of this film. Its hero, Oskar (Thomas Horn) is spikily adorable with his Asperger-esque interactions and philosophical musings. Oskar is keeping Read more...

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3

Posted 4:27pm Sunday 18th March 2012 by Vimal Patel

I realise that reviewing the single player portion of a Call of Duty game is like reviewing McDonalds’ salads: It’s there on the menu, but no one expects you to pay good money for it. However, I did enjoy the campaigns from the first two Modern Warfare games, and subsequently thought I might kill a Read more...

1000 Amps

Posted 4:27pm Sunday 18th March 2012 by Toby Hills

It’s always a concern when a download is only 12mb. How much complexity, really, how many flamboyant characters, particle effects, grenade-launcher attachments and pre-baked cutscenes could possibly be packed into such a squashed bundle of kilobytes? 1000 Amps by Brandi Brizzi has layered Read more...

Summery Fettucine

Posted 4:27pm Sunday 18th March 2012 by Ines Shennan

This pasta dish is a simple combination of vivid ingredients that will trick you into thinking summer is still in full swing. As Dunedin’s sunshine-filled days become a rarity, a colourful meal brings joy into the ritual of dinner. Rather than being coated in a heavy sauce, fettucine is nestled Read more...

Music For Whenever

Posted 4:27pm Sunday 18th March 2012 by Lauren Wootton

So it’s autumn guys. And if there’s one thing about people in Dunedin, they love to talk about the weather. Is there so little going on in the world that we have to start every conversation with “it’s a bit nippy out isn’t it”? But with the new season I find myself in front of my iTunes and Read more...

Be | Longing

Posted 6:37pm Sunday 11th March 2012 by Beaurey Chan

Be | Longing was a piece of documentary theatre presented through the Theatre Studies department here at Otago. Documentary theatre involves the actors working without a script. People are interviewed, on whatever subject matter the directors decide, and actors completely replicate the interview Read more...

Be Glad You're Neurotic

Posted 6:37pm Sunday 11th March 2012 by Bronwyn Wallace

Be Glad You’re Neurotic is a one-man show based on Louis Edward Bisch’s self-help book, which Phil Braithwaite chanced upon in an op shop for fifty cents. For the past five years he has been putting together the show, taking Bisch’s very serious statements and turning them into humorous Read more...

From Stubbies & SoGos to Rosé and Berets

Posted 6:37pm Sunday 11th March 2012 by Beaurey Chan

Bet Dunedin’s not the first place you’d think of if someone said “arts and cultural capital of New Zealand”. It’s not particularly surprising, considering our scarfie reputation seems to almost overwhelmingly overshadow any other image linked to the city so well known for its large body of partying Read more...

The Prince of Soul and the Lighthouse

Posted 6:37pm Sunday 11th March 2012 by Sasha Borissenko

If you are not alarmed by the orange colour of the book-face, perhaps it is the Crouching-Tiger-Hidden-Dragon font that ought to be questioned. Superficiality aside, this fantasy-epic essentially involves the following storyline: Boy pines over exotic girl. Boy sings to girl. Boy has trouble Read more...

Shame

Posted 6:37pm Sunday 11th March 2012 by Alec Dawson

This film is a beautiful and explicit depiction of a taboo subject in the same league as Requiem for a Dream. But of all films it most reminded me of American Psycho, except the damage is far more hidden and self-inflicted. Michael Fassbender is brilliant as Brandon, who appears to be a regular (if Read more...

The Ides of March

Posted 6:37pm Sunday 11th March 2012 by Eve Duckworth

George Clooney’s new film The Ides of March tells us something we probably already knew: That the experience of running an American political campaign is damaging for both one’s heart and soul. In an atmosphere heavily dripping with betrayal it is easy from the outset to be drawn in amongst the Read more...

Na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na BATMAN Ryan Adams

Posted 6:37pm Sunday 11th March 2012 by Josh Pemberton

Upon taking the stage at the Regent Theatre, Ryan Adams thanked the audience. “I’m excited to share my feelings with you,” he revealed. And share his feelings he did – starting with a slow, gentle rendition of “Oh My Sweet Carolina” from 2000’s classic Heartbreaker, before taking us on a Read more...

The Creation of Lana Del Ray

Posted 6:37pm Sunday 11th March 2012 by Lukas Clark-Memler

How do we talk about Lana Del Rey? We seem to focus on her Angelina Jolie-like lips, her glamorous ’50s vibe, and authenticity – well, authenticity comes up a lot whenever the sultry sex symbol is deconstructed. At this point it’s pretty much pointless to write about Del Rey’s music. So much has Read more...

Butter Chicken

Posted 6:37pm Sunday 11th March 2012 by Ines Shennan

Ah, the classic Kiwi curry. Carefully-balanced spices, not too much chilli and a devilishly rich sauce. Don’t get me wrong – I’m all for a wickedly hot lamb vindaloo, or an extra-spicy tikka masala, but sometimes a mild curry is all you need to settle yourself into a quite-content food coma. The Read more...

Bioshock Infinite

Posted 6:37pm Sunday 11th March 2012 by Toby Hills

In the aftermath of its first trailer, a friend of mine described Bioshock Infinite’s setting as predictable. “It’s like Pokemon: You’ve got the water ones, and then the fire guy, and then poison and then fucking Gastly and Gengar and shit.” Truthfully, a city in the sky is likely to be the Read more...

Theatre du Grind Guignol

Posted 4:53pm Sunday 4th March 2012 by Bronwyn Wallace

Directed by: Ben Blakely and Alex Wilson Theatre du Grind Guignol was the first evening production at Allen Hall this year, and what a great welcome home it was! Seeing familiar faces and taking a warm break inside from the rain felt great until the programme wished us “a terrifying evening”. Read more...

Sex: An Exercise in Boredom

Posted 4:53pm Sunday 4th March 2012 by Beaurey Chan

Kushana Bush “All Things To All Men” exhibition at Hocken Collection 25 February - 14 April There is a curious gathering occurring in the middle of nowhere. A dark-skinned man in a party hat seems to be the center of attention. Busy figures swarm around him, carrying out various tasks. Read more...

Monsieur Pain

Posted 4:53pm Sunday 4th March 2012 by Josef Alton

Paris, 1938: a Peruvian poet named Vallejo is dying of the hiccups in a hospital bed. Monsieur Pain is a mesmerist, a man living on a meager war pension; his lungs were scorched in Verdun. Two Spaniards are following him; General Franco has sacked España; the middle-aged war veteran is in love with Read more...

Mass Effect 3

Posted 4:53pm Sunday 4th March 2012 by Toby Hills

You know you’re an adult when you realise that Return of the Jedi is the worst of the trilogy. It’s rip-roaring fun, saturated with kooky creatures and clever Force manipulation, but nobody (except poor, innocent old Darth Vader) dies. Mass Effect 2 was strongly influenced by Empire Strikes Back, Read more...

MC Tali to headline Outlook Launch

Posted 4:53pm Sunday 4th March 2012 by Lauren Wootton

She’s the most successful female drum and bass MC of all time and she’s coming to Dunedin next week to MC this year’s annual Outlook Festival Launch Party. MC Tali is hitting Sammy’s on March 7th to MC for the dirrrrrrty drum ’n’ bass/dubstep that is the Outlook Festival Launch Party. It Read more...

I am Giant

Posted 4:53pm Sunday 4th March 2012 by Lauren Wootton

Thursday March 8 just got a little more exciting with the return of I am Giant to Dunedin. Supported by Cairo Knife Fight – the crazy-looking duo from last Friday’s show for Orientadium – the four-piece rock band are sure to put on a show worth seeing. I caught up with I am Giant’s bassist Paul Read more...

Moneyball

Posted 4:53pm Sunday 4th March 2012 by Staff Reporter

Director: Bennett Miller Moneyball is a different type of sports drama. Whether you like sports or not, from Moneyball’s many levels you will gain different insights – a peek into how Major league sports teams function behind closed doors and, at a deeper level, seeing a man’s struggle to fix Read more...

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Posted 4:53pm Sunday 4th March 2012 by Sarah Baillie

Director: Tomas Alfredson Based on the novel by John le Carré, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is an impressive adaptation of this Cold War-era spy drama. The film tracks George Smiley (Gary Oldman), a retired agent of the “circus” (the British intelligence unit) who is called back in to dig out a Read more...

Chorizo and Mushroom Risotto

Posted 4:53pm Sunday 4th March 2012 by Ines Shennan

Risotto is a favourite meal of mine. The simplest ingredients somehow combine to form a delicious, comforting dish that is incredibly easy to prepare. The process involves dry cooking the rice for a few minutes, then adding liquid in parts until the grains are creamy and just soft. Once you’ve Read more...

Lunchtime Theatre Round One!

Posted 5:05pm Saturday 25th February 2012 by Bronwyn Wallace

Allen Hall Lunchtime Theatre is back with a bang! After a soothing summer break we’re straight back in to it with the newly-named CIA Stand Up Comedy (formerly known as AntiSocial Tap) heading the LTT programme. For those of you who have been living under a rock, Lunchtime Theatre is arguably the Read more...

Be | Longing: A Verbatim Play

Posted 5:04pm Saturday 25th February 2012 by Bronwyn Wallace

Written by: Theatre Studies, University of Otago Directed by: Hilary Halba and Stuart Young From the makers of Hush comes a new documentary play focusing on stories from people who have migrated to New Zealand, and asking what it means to belong to a country and culture. This unique kind Read more...

The Motor Camp

Posted 5:03pm Saturday 25th February 2012 by Bronwyn Wallace

Written by: Dave Armstrong, Directed by: Conrad Newport Any comedy with a “Dutch fascist” issuing orders limiting the maximum weight of children allowed on the trampoline is going to be a winner in my book. Add to the mix that this is a quintessentially Kiwi story, put together by a Read more...

Finding the Loophole

Posted 4:59pm Saturday 25th February 2012 by Beaurey Chan

Dunedin Community Gallery, 20 Princes Street 15-29 February Rob Piggott’s “Loop Series” works 1999-2012 You can’t help but be impressed by the bold nature of the “Loop Series”, a collection of paintings by Dunedin-based artist Rob Piggott. Large canvases, cut into interesting but Read more...

Karam Kazam!

Posted 4:57pm Saturday 25th February 2012 by Josef Alton

Before we start, I have a question for you. Do you want a book review, or an opinion? I find it amazing how often people want a book that affirms their beliefs, rather than a book that challenges them. Joe Karam’s fourth book on the David Bain saga, Trial By Ambush, will no doubt challenge some Read more...

Skyrim

Posted 4:53pm Saturday 25th February 2012 by Bryn Jones

Skyrim should come with a warning: do not start playing lest you are willing to sacrifice body, soul, and hundreds of hours to the cause. Skyrim is the fifth installment of a long-standing series in which freedom and scope are as important, if not more so, than gameplay and storytelling. Thus it was Read more...

Second Skin

Posted 4:44pm Saturday 25th February 2012 by Lauren Wootton

Dunedin band Knives at Noon sat down with Critic reporter Lauren Wootton to pop her interviewing cherry, and discuss their new EP. Opening for Shihad at Orientation last Friday, Knives at Noon were amping to share the stage with a band they have looked up to since before they were freshers Read more...

The Descendants

Posted 4:40pm Saturday 25th February 2012 by Lulu Sandston

Director: Alexander Payne The Descendants opens with Matt King (George Clooney) - the wealthy descendant of Hawaiian royalty - sitting with his comatose wife Elizabeth questioning how he is going to raise his two daughters, having been the “understudy” parent for the last decade. A rocky Read more...

The Artist

Posted 4:38pm Saturday 25th February 2012 by Loulou Callister-Baker

Director: Michel Hazanavicius You may think that the silent film genre is basically Fever Club in black and white - the background music increasing in intensity as a stray cougar approaches the object of your desire… It’s not. If you’re interested in film, you should reset those ideas and go Read more...

Hello Saucy

Posted 4:20pm Saturday 25th February 2012 by Ines Shennan

Move beyond frozen meals, mi goreng and toast, into a world of simple, delicious meals which you’ll enjoy cooking. Stock your freezer with meat as it comes on special, use vegetables in season and don’t buy one of those shitty $2 can openers, because tinned food is now your friend. Here are the Read more...

Definitive Cuts: Fabric Sculptures: Sebastian Reynard

Posted 4:01am Monday 17th October 2011 by Hana Aoake

AS IS, 377 Princes St Sebastian Reynard’s Definitive Cuts at AS IS features an assemblage of floating fabric sculptures dangling from the ceiling. It challenges our value system, making us question what art is, what craft is, and subverting the notion of what is Read more...

Blue Velvet (1986)

Posted 3:57am Monday 17th October 2011 by Ben Blakely

Directed/written: David lynch Jeffrey Beaumont (MacLachlan) makes an unexpected return home from university (or “college”, as this is set in the US) after his father suffers a stroke while watering the garden. On the way home from the hospital, Jeffery comes across a human ear Read more...

Norwegian Wood

Posted 3:53am Monday 17th October 2011 by Frances Stannard

Director: Anh Hung Tran (3.5/5) Sometimes books should stay as books. Nothing undermines an original more than a failed attempt at a movie. But Norwegian Wood really does achieve the enthralling and damaging sense of the classic 1987 novel by Haruki Murakami.   It is Tokyo in the Read more...

The Orator

Posted 3:50am Monday 17th October 2011 by Eve Duckworth

Director: Tusi Tamasese I went into the Rialto having read many a good review for The Orator, even rumours of an Oscar nomination. I left not knowing if I had gone to see the same film.   If you want to watch a beautiful portrait of the intricacies of Samoan culture - its faith, its Read more...

Real Steel

Posted 3:41am Monday 17th October 2011 by Lauren Hayes

Director: Shawn Levy (3/5) Robots are always fantastically awesome, especially when blown up to titanic size on the big screen. Fresh from Hollywood, Real Steel is the latest blockbuster to cash in on the robot craze. It's a slick effort. The film is set sometime in the not-so-distant future, Read more...

The Smurfs

Posted 3:36am Monday 17th October 2011 by Daniel F. Benson-Guiu

Director: Raja Gosnell (3.5/5)   It started off as a smurfing good afternoon. With a Smurf combo in hand, we barged small children out of the way to get the best seats. A cool kids movie for the start of the holidays, young and old alike will be entertained by these little blue men (and Read more...

It was the best of times, it was the blurst of times

Posted 3:29am Monday 17th October 2011 by Sam Valentine

In the now established tradition, Critic presents our end of year recap; the best of music in two thousand and eleven. Props if you picked up on The Simpsons reference in the title. The Best Albums of 2011 Zomby – Dedication A dense, dark and well-produced take of some of Read more...

Pick of the Mothras

Posted 5:20am Monday 10th October 2011 by Critic

Every year, a brave few enter their amateur films into the OUSA Mothras, seeking fame, glory, and prestigious Mothra awards. All of the films will be screened between October 11 and 14 at the Church Cinema, Dundas St, but for now, we present our pick of the bunch.   Looking for Love in all Read more...

Director Profile - Quentin Tarantino

Posted 5:17am Monday 10th October 2011 by Tom Ainge-Roy

There are very few directors who can claim the accolades of an Academy Award, Golden Globe, BAFTA and the Palme d’Or as well as multiple Emmy and Grammy nominations. When you add in the extra details that this one particular director is also a high school drop out with an IQ of 160 the Read more...

The Lion King 3D

Posted 5:16am Monday 10th October 2011 by Julia Hollingsworth

Director: Roger Allers, Rob Minkoff (4/5) It’s a movie dear to the hearts of Gen Y-ers everywhere. For a time, if there was an occasion that required a group of children to shut up and be quiet, it was the movie that fit the brief; if there was a need for a new song to update the school Read more...

Shark Night 3D

Posted 5:14am Monday 10th October 2011 by Critic

Director: David R. Ellis (2/5) Shark Night 3D revolves around a group of college kids who decide to spend a weekend at their friend Sara’s lake house. What starts out as a fun trip takes a turn for the worse; when the star football player stumbles from the salt-water lake with his arm torn Read more...

27th Terrain: The Co-Ordinates of Home

Posted 5:10am Monday 10th October 2011 by Maya Turei

Bi-Cultural Theatre Class (3.5/5)    27th Terrain: the Co-ordinates of Home was a devised piece by the Bi-Cultural Theatre class. I enjoyed myself a lot. Sometimes I didn't quite understand it, but I definitely had a good time. Personally I think that devised theatre is best created Read more...

Incredibly Hot Sex with Hideous People - Bryce Galloway

Posted 5:08am Monday 10th October 2011 by Sarah Maessen

(4/5) I think the first port of call for this review is to point out that this book is not about sex (apart from the occasional reference) or hideous people (as far as the sparse photographs show). It is an abridged collection of the first 37 issues of Bryce Galloway’s fanzine. Generally Read more...

Boredom, You Conqueror - Ink Mathematics

Posted 5:06am Monday 10th October 2011 by Sam Valentine

(3/5) Dunedin isn’t exactly short on fine purveyors’ of the sonically heavy. Hell, Made in China, Soulseller and Mountaineater can all be downright punishing, while this year’s battle of the bands winners’ A.F.F.C.O might be the sludgiest and angriest band in the entire Read more...

The Hunter - Mastodon

Posted 5:04am Monday 10th October 2011 by Basti Menkes

(2.5/5) After hitting their commercial and creative stride with 2009's celestial Crack the Skye, American heavy metal outfit Mastodon return with their most vanilla album to date. Felicitously titled The Hunter, this back-to-basics approach to their very own progressive sludge style seems Read more...

Date Cups

Posted 5:02am Monday 10th October 2011 by Niki Lomax

I cannot take credit for these. Much to everyone’s delight, one of my flatmates has recently taken it upon himself to become a baking king. This is a significant turn around from previous years where his aversion to following recipes led to some strange kitchen concoctions. Most Read more...

Samin Son - Hammer Piece

Posted 5:00am Monday 10th October 2011 by Hana Aoake

None Gallery, 24 Stafford Street It is difficult to articulate the sense of anguish and pain reflected in Samin Son’s Hammer piece. I felt as though I were submerged inside Son’s subconscious, as if no words would be adequate to describe how such an intense experience affected Read more...

Worms: Ultimate Mayhem

Posted 4:57am Monday 10th October 2011 by Toby Hills

Platforms: Xbox 360, PS3, PC (3/5) “Ultimate mayhem?”, you say. How can this incarnation of Worms possibly be the apotheosis of anarchy when it has only been rated E10+ by the ESRB? Worms: Ultimate Mayhem might be a misnomer but it's still Worms (albeit 3D Worms) and it is still Read more...

Burnout CRASH!

Posted 4:55am Monday 10th October 2011 by Toby Hills

Platforms: Xbox 360, PS3 (2.5/5) Speed limits mean that cars don't matter. It's harsh, I know, but that's the truth. It doesn't matter if your car is a V13 with big-ol’ fuel injected cutoffs and chrome plated rods (oh yeah), it will stagnate and slowly die, never able to achieve its Read more...

Gary Numan – Dead Son Rising

Posted 4:12am Monday 3rd October 2011 by Basti Menkes

(5/5) Salvaged from the cutting-room floor, this collection of previously unfinished songs continues in a similar vein to Numan’s 2006’s anthemic opus Jagged, and thanks to collaborator/programmer extraordinaire Ade Fenton, Gary’s atheistic industrial sound he established Read more...

Simon Attwool - Not Afraid

Posted 4:11am Monday 3rd October 2011 by Hana Aoake

With cascading light dancing into the space, a series of paintings with slices of glitter and flamboyantly coloured paint radiate across the desolate gallery floor. Simon Attwool is a graduate of the Dunedin School of Art and is currently based in Melbourne. Not Read more...

Win Win

Posted 4:09am Monday 3rd October 2011 by Tom Ainge-Roy

Director: Tom McCarthy (3/5) Strong performances from the entire cast anchor Tom McCarthy’s Win Win and are no doubt what’s responsible for its overall good reviews and 94% ‘fresh’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes. While I can’t really say anything bad about it, Paul Read more...

Little White Lies

Posted 4:07am Monday 3rd October 2011 by Eve Duckworth

Director: Guillaume Canet (2.5/5) Nothing, but nothing, will stand between the French middle classes and their hols, though a bunch of friends do pause for thought when their friend is left in a coma after a motorbike spill in Paris.   Guillaume Canet’s 2010 French film Little Read more...

Friends with Benefits

Posted 4:05am Monday 3rd October 2011 by Nicole Muriel

Director: Will Gluck (3/5) If you’re someone who loves the occasional film that can be ingested passively – a comfortingly familiar storyline, light comedy, attractive people, pretty set-ups and, of course, lots of romance-y stuff, even some sex – then Friends with Read more...