Archive
Carl Barât & the Jackals: Let It Reign
Posted 2:58pm Sunday 19th April 2015 by Oliver Gaskell
Rating: 4/5 Carl Barât is best known as a member of The Libertines, a gang of British rock ’n’ roll rebels who, alongside bands like The Strokes and The White Stripes, were part of the 2000s garage rock revival. Darlings of the English music press, The Libertines captured the Read more...
Rune Factory 4
Posted 2:53pm Sunday 19th April 2015 by Bridget Vosburgh
Rating: 4/5 Rune Factory 4 is a Nintendo eShop-only release in New Zealand. Up until this instalment, the Rune Factory games were subtitled with “A Fantasy Harvest Moon”, as the series is a Harvest Moon spin-off. In the Harvest Moon games you run a farm while repeatedly giving gifts Read more...
Roast Tomato, Pumpkin and Capsicum Soup
Posted 2:47pm Sunday 19th April 2015 by Sophie Edmonds
It’s that time of year again when the electric blankets come out, the hot water bottles get cradled in lectures and your washing takes a week to dry. Soup starts to become a viable option for most meals as your bank balances become as miserable as the weather. When I was scrounging a free Read more...
iD2k16
Posted 2:38pm Sunday 19th April 2015 by Mya Middleton
iD2k16 is a #lifestyle choice. It is a #fun and #sexy brand expo. iD2k16 equates #health with wealth; be the healthiest you that you can be. iD2k16 explores a complex collection of issues including consumerism, fashion, brand and lifestyle culture, retail and art. It also critiques the authority Read more...
Horoscope | Issue 7
Posted 2:51pm Sunday 12th April 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...
InFamous: First Light
Posted 2:51pm Sunday 12th April 2015 by Brandon Johnstone
Rating: 2/5 InFamous: First Light is presented in an odd format. A tie-in to the larger title, InFamous: Second Son, and available for download and use without the player having to own the primary title, it’s not quite its own game yet it’s more than just a piece of downloadable content Read more...
The Grand Hotel
Posted 2:51pm Sunday 12th April 2015 by Bridget Vosburgh
Scott Kenemore’s novel, The Grand Hotel, is narrated by a desk clerk who makes it clear to the reader that he has a sinister ulterior motive when he volunteers to show a group of tourists around the mysterious hotel he works for. The first guest he takes the tourists to see is a desiccated Read more...
Theatre review: The War Play
Posted 2:51pm Sunday 12th April 2015 by Gini Jory
Rating: 4/5 In 2005, Private Jack Braithwaite and five other soldiers were pardoned and awarded medals for their service by Prime Minister Helen Clark under the Pardon for the Soldiers of the Great War Act 2000. The War Play focuses on the relatives of writer, Philip Braithwaite, and the scandal Read more...
Heathers
Posted 2:51pm Sunday 12th April 2015 by Mandy Te
Cult 80s coming-of-age films often deal with detention, skipping school, finally getting Jake Ryan to notice you and making your own clothes. However, Heathers breaks this mould with a plotline that is darker and deadlier than any John Hughes film. While Mean Girls is often hailed as Read more...
Infinitely Polar Bear
Posted 2:51pm Sunday 12th April 2015 by Ngarangi Haerewa
Rating: 4/5 On the spectrum of action-packed thrillers, Infinitely Polar Bear doesn’t even register, but it is in no way unremarkable. On the contrary, Infinitely Polar Bear fills a certain void that no amount of green-eyed anger ever could. Set in 1978, the film takes place at the Read more...
The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge out of Water
Posted 2:51pm Sunday 12th April 2015 by Maya Dodd
Rating: 1/5 Filled with terrible puns, The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge out of Water is a complete disaster that falls incredibly short of the beloved children’s cartoon that we all cherish and adore. Furthermore, with strange live-action and animation effects, I had to wonder if the director Read more...
Kendrick Lamar: To Pimp a Butterfly
Posted 2:51pm Sunday 12th April 2015 by Basti Menkes
In the last twelve months, African-American identity has been debated particularly fiercely. Coinciding with the horrors of Ferguson, we have seen a distinct whitewashing of what was previously considered “black” music. More so than ever, African-American experience needs to be culturally documented Read more...
Daft Punk: Human After All
Posted 2:51pm Sunday 12th April 2015 by Basti Menkes
Daft Punk’s third studio record, Human After All, recently celebrated its 10th birthday. After being praised as innovators in the dance-music world for the now-legendary albums Homework and Discovery, the French duo were met with mixed reviews for Human After All; the Guardian even went so far as to Read more...
Roasted Tomato and Red Onion Spaghetti
Posted 2:51pm Sunday 12th April 2015 by Sophie Edmonds
Vine-ripened tomatoes are in full swing at the moment. Finding them at my local veggie shop for $1.99/kilo got me inappropriately excited as I thought of making my own pasta sauce. This is for those of you who are finding store-bought pasta sauces or the homemade ones made out of budget tins of Read more...
The Hal Salive Science Fiction and Fantasy Collection Aliens, Androids & Unicorns
Posted 2:51pm Sunday 12th April 2015 by Loulou Callister-Baker
On the first poster that catches my eye as I enter the room, a blonde woman disinterestedly adjusts the strange, alien-gun weapon she is holding. The red swimsuit that adorns her toned body looks like a beast has clawed at it; it doesn’t cover much — in fact, it almost looks like a red tiger stripe Read more...
Horoscope | Issue 6
Posted 3:11pm Sunday 29th March 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...
Lightning Bolt: Fantasy Empire
Posted 3:11pm Sunday 29th March 2015 by Basti Menkes
Lightning Bolt are a noise-rock duo from Providence, Rhode Island. Everything about the band sounds far-fetched: both members are called Brian and one of them plays drums and sings through a gas mask while the other shreds a bass guitar strung with banjo strings. Their music is a technicolour Read more...
The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask 3D
Posted 3:11pm Sunday 29th March 2015 by Basti Menkes
When The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina of Time was released in 1998, it was hailed by many as a masterpiece. Seventeen years later, it still regularly tops Best Video Games Of All Time polls. It has the same cultural legacy and enduring appeal in the world of video games as the original Star Wars movie Read more...
Vivienne’s Blog
Posted 3:11pm Sunday 29th March 2015 by Bridget Vosburgh
Stephen K. Leaton’s novel, Vivienne’s Blog, is described by its blurb as a psychological thriller and, to a certain extent, this is true. The titular Vivienne is seemingly delusional and dangerously obsessed with her ex-boyfriend, Callum. A court order prevents her from having personal contact with Read more...
Insurgent
Posted 3:11pm Sunday 29th March 2015 by Mandy Te
Rating: 3/5 Even though we’re well into 2015, it seems as though the dystopian film fad just can’t be shaken off. Insurgent picks up where Divergent left off, but this time with Robert Schwentke as director and Akiva Goldsman as the script writer. After the attack on Abnegation’s Read more...
X+Y
Posted 3:11pm Sunday 29th March 2015 by Simon Kingsley-Holmes
Rating: 4/5 X+Y is a smart drama that rides the fine line between movie and TV-drama-of-the-week by juxtaposing the life-changing events thrust upon the film’s young autistic protagonist and maths genius, Nathan Ellis (Asa Butterfield), with the everyday hassles of his condition for those Read more...
Cinderella
Posted 3:11pm Sunday 29th March 2015 by Rachael Hodge
Rating: 3/5 With a $95 million dollar budget and an iconic fairytale storyline, you’d assume that the directors would spice up Cinderella just a little bit. However, if you were looking for a dramatic plot twist or anything remotely original, you won’t find it here. Ella (Lily James) Read more...
Home
Posted 3:11pm Sunday 29th March 2015 by Shaun Swain
Rating: 3/5 If there’s one thing that films such as The Incredibles and The Iron Giant have taught me, it’s that animated movies can hold their own as great standalone films. Home does not qualify for this. The film bites its own tail when it forces inconsistent satirical metaphor into its Read more...
Satay Chicken Wraps
Posted 3:11pm Sunday 29th March 2015 by Sophie Edmonds
The struggle to nurture my body with more than just eggs on toast continues. Having eaten spaghetti and meatballs for most of last week, I was keen to mix things up a bit. This satay sauce can be used for chicken, tofu or even without a main protein player; it is delicious smothered by itself on the Read more...
Christchurch’s Creative Revival
Posted 3:11pm Sunday 29th March 2015 by Isabel Lanaux
S ince the 2011 earthquake, Christchurch has been undergoing a creative revival. When I was lucky enough to visit the South Island’s biggest city, what I found there was at once shocking and awe inspiring. Some of what I saw was expected, with rubble, heavy machinery and buildings Read more...
Horoscope | Issue 5
Posted 5:43pm Sunday 22nd March 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...
Dying Light
Posted 5:43pm Sunday 22nd March 2015 by Isaac Yu
Rating: 4/5 Much like fresher flu, zombies are hard to escape at the moment. Books, movies, TV shows, games: Dying Light is the latest triple-A attempt to cash in on the zombie craze following the giant let-down that was Dead Island. Made by the same developer, Techland, Dying Light takes Read more...
Zoe Crook & Aodhan Madden Suspicious Minds
Posted 5:43pm Sunday 22nd March 2015 by Loulou Callister-Baker
The first time I met artists Zoe Crook and Aodhan Madden was at the Blue Oyster Art Project Space while they were partway through initial preparations for their Fringe Festival performance piece, “Suspicious Minds”. They had moved the office to a back room, covered the entire front window and Read more...
The Rise and Fall of National Women’s Hospital: A History
Posted 5:43pm Sunday 22nd March 2015 by Bridget Vosburgh
The Rise and Fall of National Women’s Hospital: A History is exactly that. Author Linda Bryder covers the history of the National Women’s Hospital in Auckland, beginning with the political and social circumstances that led to the hospital’s opening in 1946, and ending with the conditions that led to Read more...
GASP
Posted 5:43pm Sunday 22nd March 2015 by Daniel Munro
GASP is a DJ and producer based out of Dunedin, and is set to support Raiza Biza and Jay Knight at Refuel on the 23rd of April. At just 17 years old, Eden Burns is making waves locally and internationally. With recognition from both Vice and Mix Mag, Critic caught up with him to check out what he’s Read more...
Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds Chasing Yesterday
Posted 5:43pm Sunday 22nd March 2015 by Basti Menkes
Noel Gallagher has to be one of the most tragic figures in rock history. Okay, he’s not quite up there with Daniel Johnston or Syd Barrett, but he is piteous in his own way. Like The Beatles (yes, it’s sentence three and I’ve already made that comparison), Oasis started out as lovable British Read more...
Dunedin Fringe Festival Dance/Theatre Performance: Bbeals
Posted 5:43pm Sunday 22nd March 2015 by Rachael Hodge
Rating: 4/5 A s one dancer rightly pointed out, Bbeals “sure was no swan lake.” To say the least, Bbeals, performed by the New Zealand dance company, Footnote, and a French company, Danses en l’R, was interesting. I wasn’t sure what I was expecting from the show. However, I was Read more...
Kidnapping Mr. Heineken
Posted 5:43pm Sunday 22nd March 2015 by Shaun Swain
Rating: 3/5 Films “based on a true story,” especially ones about kidnap heists, usually fit into one of two categories. Category one: documentary footage that is so intensely dramatised that it becomes almost fictitious. Category two: documentary footage that sticks diligently to historical Read more...
The Salt of the Earth
Posted 5:43pm Sunday 22nd March 2015 by Harlan Jones
Rating: 4/5 “People are the Salt of the Earth” Sebastião Salgado informs us — hardly a surprising conclusion from a successful social photographer. The observation establishes the impetus for the documentary, which quickly moves from being a biopic about Salgado into a wider meditation on Read more...
Chappie
Posted 5:43pm Sunday 22nd March 2015 by Maya Dodd
Rating: 2/5 Have you ever heard people say, “there goes [insert minutes, hours, seconds here] of my life that I’ll never get back”? Deon Wilson (Dev Patel) spent — or wasted, depending on how you want to look at it — the better part of three years creating an artificial intelligence Read more...
Mediterranean Lamb Burgers
Posted 5:43pm Sunday 22nd March 2015 by Sophie Edmonds
I compensate for my lack of a Victoria’s Secret-worthy bod by seducing men with my charm, wit and culinary efforts. My usual go-to involves spaghetti and meatballs made from scratch, as carbs and meat tend to go down a treat in most males. This time I felt the pasta fest that I usually do wouldn’t Read more...
Horoscope | Issue 4
Posted 2:32pm Sunday 15th March 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...
Super Smash Bros for Wii U
Posted 2:32pm Sunday 15th March 2015 by Brandon Johnstone
Nintendo’s Super Smash Bros franchise is probably the most well-known, well-loved fighting video game in existence. Originally, the idea behind the fighter was to use generic brawler characters, but thankfully Sakurai (the bright spark who designed the game) decided to throw Nintendo’s mascots into Read more...
Anthonie Tonnon
Posted 2:32pm Sunday 15th March 2015 by Basti Menkes
You are from Dunedin originally, but migrated to Auckland. Did you feel there wasn’t a place for you in the Dunedin music scene? That wasn’t it. I decided very suddenly that I was going to move to Auckland. It was New Year’s Day, I took two suitcases with me, and that was that. I think Read more...
Recent Releases
Posted 2:32pm Sunday 15th March 2015 by Basti Menkes
Hot Chip “Huarache Lights” London group, Hot Chip, has been carefully honing its brand of electronica for a decade and a half now. On fifth album, In Our Heads, they have seemingly perfected their craft, blending irresistibly catchy electronics with thought-provoking lyricism. New track, Read more...
Patrick Lundberg Draft Copy
Posted 2:32pm Sunday 15th March 2015 by Loulou Callister-Baker
Patrick Lundberg’s Draft Copy is a connect-the-dots of all sorts: literally in its arrangements of round pins intersected by faint pencil lines and intellectually in the discussions it raises between art objects and the gallery space. This show can be enjoyed by taking a step closer to discover the Read more...
Panguru and the City: Kāinga Tahi, Kāinga Rua
Posted 2:32pm Sunday 15th March 2015 by Bridget Vosburgh
Panguru and the City: Kāinga Tahi, Kāinga Rua, by Melissa Matutina Williams, shares the history of the migration of Māori from the community of Panguru in North Hokianga to establish new lives in Auckland. Covering a time period from the 1950s onwards, Williams takes apart the Read more...
Thunderstruck & Other Stories
Posted 2:32pm Sunday 15th March 2015 by Bridget Vosburgh
Whenever I read contemporary literary short stories I tend to feel like I’m missing the point. I must be missing the point, because there must be one. No one would publish entire collections of meaningless stories where nothing happens to boring people. And if they did, scores of critics wouldn’t Read more...
Dunedin Fringe Festival
Posted 2:32pm Sunday 15th March 2015 by Mandy Te
T he night was a successful taste test of what to expect from the Dunedin Fringe Festival, and I’m sure it won’t disappoint. With a song from Beards! Beards! Beards! by two men sporting their very own impressive beards and a hilarious performance from the girls of BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH Read more...
Focus
Posted 2:32pm Sunday 15th March 2015 by Maya Dodd
I must admit, following the utter disappointment of After Earth, my expectations of Will Smith providing quality cinematic entertainment in Focus were pretty low. The fact that it was a “Baby and Me” screening did not help matters — screaming toddlers and dimmed-but-not-entirely-blacked-out lighting Read more...
How to Make a Salad
Posted 2:32pm Sunday 15th March 2015 by Sophie Edmonds
I went to the Farmers’ Market the other day and became instantly inspired to start eating more vegetables. I was prancing around the market in new fluoro Nike gym gear too, so I feel like the health kick had gone well and truly to my head. I became overwhelmed with choice and even found myself Read more...
Gemma Bovery
Posted 2:32pm Sunday 15th March 2015 by Mandy Te
Rating: 3/5 The Francophiles of Dunedin can rejoice in the knowledge that the 2015 Alliance Française French Film Festival is now in full gear. I myself am rejoicing, but that’s because I’m a lover of subtitles. A film with subtitles and also part of the French Film Festival is Gemma Read more...
Life is Strange
Posted 5:30pm Sunday 8th March 2015 by Amber Hilton
Rating: 4/5 Life Is Strange is an episodic, story-driven graphic adventure game that centres around Max Caulfield, a (mostly) ordinary photography student attending high school in Arcadia Bay, Oregon. It’s hard to go into detail without giving away key plot points, but I will say there are a Read more...
Interview: Leon Jory - Charisma Collective
Posted 5:30pm Sunday 8th March 2015 by Basti Menkes
L eon Jory is a Dunedin musician, and one of the minds behind local music label Charisma Collective. Critic caught up with Leon recently to talk about his new solo release, EP 24b.3Q, and what is on the cards for the collective this year. Critic: For the many readers who won’t be Read more...
En Esch - Spänk
Posted 5:30pm Sunday 8th March 2015 by Basti Menkes
Rating: 3/5 Nicklaus Schandelmaier, more commonly known as En Esch, is an industrial rock musician hailing from Germany. For many years he was in the phenomenal band KMFDM (Kein Mehrheit Für Die Mitleid), sharing songwriting duties with Sascha “Käpt’n K” Konietzko. Like many famous musical Read more...
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