Archive

Son Lux - Bones

Posted 1:48pm Sunday 19th July 2015 by Basti Menkes

Son Lux is the stage name of American composer, Ryan Lott. Appearing in 2008 with his spine-tingling debut album At War with Walls & Mazes, Son Lux quickly established himself as a force to be reckoned with.  Son Lux’s songs have the deliberate architecture of a classical composer, Read more...

High On Fire - Luminiferous

Posted 1:44pm Sunday 19th July 2015 by Basti Menkes

Rating: 3/5 High On Fire is a heavy metal trio from Oakland, California. The band was formed in 1998 by Matt Pike, the once and future guitarist of pioneering doom metal group, Sleep. High On Fire has since earned itself a reputation for its genre-straddling style and vehement live shows. On its Read more...

Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward

Posted 1:37pm Sunday 19th July 2015 by Cheyanne Intemann

Rating: 4/5 Heavensward is the recent expansion to the Square Enix massively multiplayer online (MMO) game, Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. Final Fantasy XIV had a particularly bad 1.0 launch, with daily experience gain limits, huge empty maps, shockingly poor optimisation and clunky combat. Read more...

The Goddess of Buttercups and Daisies

Posted 1:31pm Sunday 19th July 2015 by Bridget Vosburgh

Martin Millar’s novel, The Goddess of Buttercups and Daisies, is set in Athens, 421 BC. During this time, the city-state of Athens is at war with Sparta, and has been for ten years. The playwright Aristophanes wants to put on a comedy called Peace for the Dionysia Festival, as his entry in a Read more...

Spicy Roasted Winter Vegetable Lentil Salad

Posted 1:23pm Sunday 19th July 2015 by Sophie Edmonds

You know when you eat one thing so many times until that one day when it makes you feel sick and you can’t face it ever again? That is how I feel about soups in general at the moment. I had been scouting for new ideas for cheap winter vegetables when I came across this recipe for a winter Read more...

Vital Bodies

Posted 1:06pm Sunday 19th July 2015 by Loulou Callister-Baker

Artists: Georgette Brown, Wendelien Bakker, Anna Rankin, Sam Norton, Virginia Overell and Holly Childs. Curated by: Georgina Watson   Seeking out the vital bodies in the current Blue Oyster show curated by Georgina Watson is an experience that crosses the disciplines of writing, Read more...

Selfish, Shallow, and Self-Absorbed: Sixteen Writers on the Decision Not to Have Kids

Posted 2:25pm Sunday 12th July 2015 by Bridget Vosburgh

Selfish, Shallow, and Self-Absorbed: Sixteen Writers on the Decision Not to Have Kids is a collection of sixteen personal essays written by professional writers about one particular decision that perfect strangers often feel they have a say in: choosing not to have children. This choice should not Read more...

Jono Das - Illustrations EP

Posted 2:20pm Sunday 12th July 2015 by Daniel Munro

Jono Das is a man of many talents. Along with producing, he uses his creativity in design, art and videography. The title of Das’s debut EP Illustrations is a reflection of him as an artist with “beats being his new drawing”. The EP has been two years in the making, with the Read more...

Singles in Review | Issue 15

Posted 2:15pm Sunday 12th July 2015 by Basti Menkes

Beach House - “Sparks” Baltimore duo, Beach House, is at the forefront of modern dream pop, a genre built on whispered vocals and shimmering walls of sound. A criticism frequently leveled at the genre is that in striving for its particular kind of gossamer beauty, dream pop Read more...

Mortal Kombat X

Posted 2:02pm Sunday 12th July 2015 by Carl Dingwall

Mortal Kombat is one of those series that everyone knows about, even if they don’t play games. People probably recognise its memorable theme song and two cheesy movies, the classic announcer shouting “FINISH HIM!” and, of course, its gratuitous violence and gore. So now that we are Read more...

Interview with Jacob Rajan

Posted 1:57pm Sunday 12th July 2015 by Mandy Te

Indian Ink’s play, Kiss the Fish, will be coming to Dunedin soon. Mandy Te caught up with Jacob Rajan to understand his background and how the Indian Ink Theatre Company was born. What personally drew you towards acting and pursuing acting professionally? I was never into performance Read more...

Theatre Review: Punk Rock

Posted 1:49pm Sunday 12th July 2015 by Clementine Flatley

Rating: 5/5 Teenagers are fascinating. As a “teacher’s pet” teenager myself, I was always engrossed in the tumultuous adventures of my peers. The lives of the adolescents portrayed in Punk Rock gave me an enjoyable glimpse back at those old adventures. One minute I would find Read more...

Far from the Madding Crowd

Posted 1:43pm Sunday 12th July 2015 by Simon Kingsley-Holmes

Rating: 2/5 The success of Nicolas Winding Refn’s operatic kick in the teeth with Bronson and Tomas Alfredson’s hushed, emotionally muzzled Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy has given audiences high expectations when it comes to Scandinavian directors and the films they are tied Read more...

Terminator Genisys

Posted 1:36pm Sunday 12th July 2015 by Alex Campbell-Hunt

Rating: 3/5 Like many Terminator fans, I believe that the franchise should have ended it all after Terminator 2 but, with a new instalment added to the classic franchise, I couldn’t help but have a mix of high hopes and low expectations for Terminator Genisys. Set in 2029, the film Read more...

Love & Mercy

Posted 1:33pm Sunday 12th July 2015 by Mandy Te

Rating: 4/5 Biographical films require a certain delicacy but, since someone’s life cannot easily and wholly fit into a chunk of two hours, they often fall into the potholes of inaccuracy and over-dramatisation in favour of entertainment value. Bill Pohlad’s artistic approach to Brian Read more...

The Ultimate Cauliflower Cheese

Posted 1:26pm Sunday 12th July 2015 by Sophie Edmonds

There is this restaurant in Auckland that I love called Depot. It is amazing. When I am feeling balla, I often go there. Clearly last week I felt like I was just rolling in it, and I managed to end up there twice. I am completely hooked on their wood-fired cauliflower cheese. Not only is it fired in Read more...

How to Go to an Art Gallery

Posted 1:21pm Sunday 12th July 2015 by Loulou Callister-Baker

Art galleries are my sanctuaries. They are perfect places for quiet reflection and interesting interactions with created pieces or performances. However, I do have my off days. These are the kind of days where the sky seems an extra, disturbing tint of yellow or when it feels like everyone in the Read more...

The Best of E3

Posted 2:04pm Sunday 5th July 2015 by Brandon Johnstone

Acouple of weeks ago, the video game convention juggernaut E3, or “Electronic Entertainment Expo” came and went, leaving gamers all over the globe squealing at their computer screens (or in person if they were lucky/rich enough to be at the convention). Essentially, E3 is a huge Read more...

Sparrow Hill Road

Posted 1:53pm Sunday 5th July 2015 by Bridget Vosburgh

Sparrow Hill Road, by Seanan McGuire, is an urban fantasy story with horror elements. The narrator, Rose, died in the 1950s, murdered when she was just sixteen, and went on to become an urban legend to the living and a guide into the afterlife for the dead and dying. Bobby Cross, the undead man who Read more...

Interview with Lara Macgregor

Posted 1:49pm Sunday 5th July 2015 by Mandy Te

Critic had a chat to artistic director, actor and director Lara Macgregor about directing Punk Rock and what it’s like to work both behind the scenes and on stage.  Punk Rock will be showing from 27 June to 18 July at Fortune Theatre. You’ve acted in several theatre Read more...

Inside Out

Posted 1:40pm Sunday 5th July 2015 by Rachael Hodge

Rating: 5/5 In an interview, Peter Docter once said “when people go to a movie, they want to see some experience of themselves on the screen”, but when I watch a film where the target audience is under the age of twelve, I don’t have high expectations. However, Walt Disney and Read more...

Man Up

Posted 1:37pm Sunday 5th July 2015 by Jaxon Langley

Rating: 3/5 Unfortunately, the title is not ironic. But don’t let this be off-putting: Man Up is an entirely self-aware film and doesn’t set out to subvert genre tropes but, instead, fully embraces them. For the most part, Man Up entertains due to its sharp script delivered by strong Read more...

Jurassic World

Posted 1:32pm Sunday 5th July 2015 by Alex Campbell-Hunt

Rating: 3/5 Like many of us, I was looking forward to a triumphant revival of the franchise that pretty much defined my childhood, but, deep down, I knew I was probably setting myself up for disappointment. My eventual reaction fell somewhere between those poles. Jurassic World Read more...

The Last Five Years

Posted 1:29pm Sunday 5th July 2015 by Mandy Te

Rating: 3/5 Jason Robert Brown’s The Last Five Years is a musical that is literally all singing and no dialogue; it isn’t the first theatre production that comes to my mind when adapting a stage play into a film. However, the storyline of The Last Five Years creates a raw and genuine Read more...

Third3ye

Posted 1:23pm Sunday 5th July 2015 by Daniel Munro

Third3ye are not your average hip hop collective — instead of your typical bars they bring a spiritually-conscious form of hip hop. Third3ye are part of this year’s Re-Ori line up, so Critic music reporter Daniel Munro caught up with Bronson, one half of Third3ye, to talk all things from Read more...

Muse Drones

Posted 1:20pm Sunday 5th July 2015 by Basti Menkes

Rating: 2/5 Regardless of whether we asked for one, Muse are back with a new album. Believe it or not, Drones is the seventh full-length LP from the English trio. When Muse first emerged in the late nineties, they were just another Radiohead clone. Over the next few years they forged an identity Read more...

Broccoli and Blue Cheese Soup

Posted 1:16pm Sunday 5th July 2015 by Sophie Edmonds

Broccoli soup came up on my Instagram feed the other day, and the vibrant bowl of green caught my eye. I just had to have some. Conveniently, the Universe agreed and made all the greens required super cheap at my local vege shop. Junk Free June continues, and while the lack of cake has been soul Read more...

Fresh and Fruity

Posted 1:04pm Sunday 5th July 2015 by Loulou Callister-Baker

Fresh and Fruity is not just a gallery space up the stairs at 140 George Street - it is also a social media endeavour with its own manifesto. Critic interviewed two members of the collective who run Fresh and Fruity, Hana Aoake and Mya Middleton, to hear more about the project.  What is Read more...

Study Tunes

Posted 1:42pm Sunday 24th May 2015 by Basti Menkes

Aphex Twin: Selected Ambient Works 85–92 Richard D. James’ first record as Aphex Twin has been hailed as “the birthplace and the benchmark of modern electronic music” (Warp). An odyssey of dreamy techno, SAW is the perfect soundtrack to a spell of late-night Read more...

Blur - The Magic Whip

Posted 1:29pm Sunday 24th May 2015 by Basti Menkes

Rating: 4/5 Well folks, it actually happened. Six years after reforming, and twelve since their last studio outing, Blur are back. There are several reasons why this is great news. For one, Blur always represented the more irreverent and artful side of the Britpop era. Though Blur penned some of Read more...

Paper Planes

Posted 1:21pm Sunday 24th May 2015 by Andrew Kwiatkowski

Rating 1/5 Why do I care about Dylan’s paper plane quest? After 96 minutes, this question has not been answered. Paper Planes is about an average 12-year-old Australian boy called Dylan (Ed Oxenbould), whose dead mother imparted to him the gift of folding the perfect paper airplane. His Read more...

Run Lola Run

Posted 1:18pm Sunday 24th May 2015 by Alex Campbell-Hunt

Classic Run Lola Run is a unique, adrenaline-fuelled film with an urban angst reminiscent of The Matrix and Fight Club and Guy Ritchie-esque atmosphere. However, the film stands easily on its own. With techno music, parallel universes and the late 90s involved, I can unreservedly say that Run Read more...

The Ground We Won

Posted 1:15pm Sunday 24th May 2015 by Harlan Jones

Rating 5/5 Films that grapple with issues fundamental to our concept of national identity are always going to be controversial. The Ground We Won is a documentary that delves into the New Zealand mythology made strong by the likes of Barry Crump’s A Good Keen Man and Greg McGee’s Read more...

Pitch Perfect 2

Posted 1:12pm Sunday 24th May 2015 by Maya Dodd

Rating 3/5 As a general rule, I don’t laugh in cinemas. I don’t cry, I don’t text and I don’t put my feet on the seats. While I do this out of respect for other cinema-goers, the main reason for my self-control is undeniably fear. It’s also judgment. Therefore, Read more...

Killing Floor 2

Posted 1:05pm Sunday 24th May 2015 by Isaac Yu

Rating: 4/5 Much like the Targaryens, every time a game comes out on Steam’s Early Access, the gods flip a coin to determine whether it will be a success or doomed to fail. For every Minecraft, we have dozens of titles that remain stuck in development hell, and therefore you should be Read more...

Hades

Posted 12:59pm Sunday 24th May 2015 by Bridget Vosburgh

Hades is Candice Fox’s first novel. Fox tells the story of homicide detective Frank Bennett, who has just been professionally partnered with Eden Archer, a woman who has some serious secrets. The novel is set in Australia and alternates between Frank and Eden’s investigation of a killer Read more...

Slow-Cooked Chipotle Beef Tacos

Posted 12:54pm Sunday 24th May 2015 by Sophie Edmonds

I recently bought my new favourite cookbook, My Underground Kitchen by Jess Daniell. In the last 48 hours, I have cooked three meals from it and don’t see myself stopping at that. I already have this week’s feasting planned out, and it’s all out of this book. There was a Read more...

Luke Munn - swfer

Posted 12:42pm Sunday 24th May 2015 by Loulou Callister-Baker

Blue Oyster Art Project Space has been simultaneously stripped back and expanded for Luke Munn’s swfer. One wall in the front room simply has the link “i-chat.mobi/” placed in cursive lettering onto its wall. In the same room, different — seemingly meaningless — letters Read more...

Horoscope | Issue 12

Posted 2:25pm Sunday 17th May 2015 by Madame McMystery

Do you struggle with making basic life decisions? Worried about never bumping into your campus soulmate, or whether to eat two-minute noodles for every dinner this week? Fear not, chums, for I, Madame McMystery, have gazed deep into the cosmos to reveal the secrets the planetary alignments hold in Read more...

Final Fantasy Type-0 HD

Posted 2:10pm Sunday 17th May 2015 by Jaxon Langley

Rating 3/5 Final Fantasy Type-0 was first unveiled at E3 in 2006, then finally released in Japan in 2011. Final Fantasy fans have been begging for a Western release of Type-0 ever since. Now, almost 4 years later — after much demand that director Hajime Tabata Read more...

Faith No More: Sol Invictus

Posted 1:55pm Sunday 17th May 2015 by Basti Menkes

Rating: 5/5 Faith No More are credited with spawning the alternative metal genre. They fused metal with many other styles, including pop, funk and alternative rock, paving the way for artists like Nirvana and the Smashing Pumpkins. Though their 1990 single “Epic” still receives Read more...

The Kraken King

Posted 1:40pm Sunday 17th May 2015 by Bridget Vosburgh

For those hiding under a rock, steampunk is a subgenre of science fiction that incorporates steam-powered devices with Victorian design. The Kraken King, by Meljean Brooks, is a steampunk romance novel, and for once it had all the fun adventure, cool technology and body horror that people always Read more...

Stay Tuned

Posted 1:37pm Sunday 17th May 2015 by Alex Campbell-Hunt

Cult Stay Tuned is an imaginative, entertaining and weirdly under-appreciated family comedy that answers the question we all pondered as kids: “What would happen if I could go inside my TV and participate in all of the shows?” Turns out it wouldn’t be so great, especially if Read more...

The Gunman

Posted 1:33pm Sunday 17th May 2015 by Anonymous Bird

Rating: 1/5 Basing this film on the novel The Prone Gunman by Jean-Patrick Manchette, Morel attempts to execute a gritty, regretful hero story but falls incredibly short. Instead, we are given an unsuccessful, drawn-out action film with an annoying love triangle that permeates the entire Read more...

Hoje Eu Quero Voltar Sozhino/ The Way He Looks

Posted 1:30pm Sunday 17th May 2015 by Mandy Te

Soon to be classic I fondly associate The Way He Looks with a friend who is on the other side of the world. When I told him that I would be reviewing this soon-to-be classic, he described the moment as “serendipitous” — he had watched the film only a few days ago while on a Read more...

Testament of Youth

Posted 1:24pm Sunday 17th May 2015 by Shaun Swain

Rating: 4/5 Often in our attempts to stomach the darker parts of our past, we create sentimentality by zooming in on the massive numbers of those involved and choose to observe the smaller tales of individuals. However, Testament of Youth elegantly zooms out of a personal story of the few and Read more...

Capping Show Review: Campus Watch

Posted 1:21pm Sunday 17th May 2015 by Maya Dodd

Rating: 4/5 As a seasoned attendee of The Capping Show (seasoned may be a little too generous a term — I’ve only been to three), I was expecting big things. If the renowned humour associated with the comic event failed to brighten the gloomy pit in which I am currently residing, I was Read more...

Cuban Sandwiches

Posted 1:10pm Sunday 17th May 2015 by Sophie Edmonds

This is essentially just an epic ham and cheese toastie. They are called Cuban as they are most commonly found in Cuban immigrant communities in the States and are frequently consumed as a workday lunch.   I used a leg joint of pork (shoulder was preferable but not as cheap), rubbed it with Read more...

Private Utopia: Contemporary Art from the British Council Collection

Posted 1:01pm Sunday 17th May 2015 by Loulou Callister-Baker

In symbolic flashes of red, white and blue, Private Utopia spreads across the first floor of the Dunedin Public Art Gallery, providing an extensive, in parts overwhelming, display of British contemporary art. Given its scale and diversity of subjects and form, wandering through the show involves Read more...

Horoscope | Issue 11

Posted 2:17pm Sunday 10th May 2015 by Madame McMystery

Do you struggle with making basic life decisions? Worried about never bumping into your campus soulmate, or whether to eat two-minute noodles for every dinner this week? Fear not, chums, for I, Madame McMystery, have gazed deep into the cosmos to reveal the secrets the planetary alignments hold in Read more...