Archive

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...

Erica Van Zon - Dogwood Days

Posted 5:30pm Sunday 8th March 2015 by Loulou Callister-Baker

W hen my family was moving house yet again, I remember listening to a conversation between two relocators. They were packing my mother’s various objects, which decorated the numerous shelves in the study. While arranging two strangely bent papier-mâché trout and a found piece of burnt Read more...

Yesterday's Kin

Posted 5:30pm Sunday 8th March 2015 by Bridget Vosburgh

Yesterday’s Kin by Nancy Kress is a science-fiction novel about the experiences of geneticist Marianne Jenner and her adult son, Noah, after the arrival of aliens on Earth. The aliens have already established their presence in New York City when the story starts, probably because this novel is very Read more...

The Dunedin Fringe Festival

Posted 5:30pm Sunday 8th March 2015 by Mandy Te

Among the shattered glass that litters our streets and the misrepresentation of Dunedin as a place that’s full of wasted students, this city has a lot to give — especially when it comes to the arts. From James K. Baxter, Janet Frame and Alan Dale (the guy who plays the evil, rich grandpa with the Read more...

House of Cards, Season 3 (Episode 1)

Posted 5:30pm Sunday 8th March 2015 by Harlan Jones

A s a passionate subscriber to Netflix’s reboot of House of Cards, I found myself eagerly anticipating the first episode of the new season. When the latest chapter was finally released on 27 February, a titanic struggle ensued between my desire to return to the exploits of Machiavellian Read more...

The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

Posted 5:30pm Sunday 8th March 2015 by Shaun Swain

Rating: 4/5 After neglecting the romantic dramedy genre for some time, I am glad to have been reintroduced with the lively, beautiful and surprisingly captivating sequel to The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. While I wasn’t all too familiar with the original instalment, The Second Best Exotic Read more...

Force Majeure

Posted 5:30pm Sunday 8th March 2015 by Anonymous Bird

Rating: 5/5 Force Majeure follows a Swedish family on their five-day skiing holiday. The opening scene shows the family being persuaded by a photographer to have their picture taken. The result is a funny moment where you can see how they have constructed an ideal family: mother, father, Read more...

Pulled Chicken & Peach BBQ Tacos

Posted 5:30pm Sunday 8th March 2015 by Sophie Edmonds

For those who know me or have followed my recipes here since last year, my unwavering love for soft-shell tacos is evident. My favourite being those that include melt-in-your-mouth, slow-cooked meats. For those of you who really value that extra twenty minutes of sleep in the morning and CBF putting Read more...

Stranded Deep

Posted 6:26pm Sunday 1st March 2015 by Angus Wilson

H ave you ever wanted to live out a Tom Hanks, Castaway fantasy on a deserted island with nothing but a netball for company, but couldn’t afford the tickets to nowhere? Then, boy, do I have some good news for you, and you don’t even have to leave your couch to get it. Stranded Deep is Read more...

Demons

Posted 6:26pm Sunday 1st March 2015 by Bridget Vosburgh

Demons, by Wayne Macauley, tells the story of seven Australians who retreat from the world for a weekend to get drunk and tell each other stories but find, as the weekend goes on, that the experience is becoming a disturbing one. The title and this premise make it sound like Demons might be a horror Read more...

From Dusk Till Dawn

Posted 6:26pm Sunday 1st March 2015 by Alex Blackwood

Cult Film F rom Dusk Till Dawn is a two-course action-crime buffet with references as juicy as a Kahuna Burger; the first course comes in the form of a hostage film and the second, a Vampire film that is far gorier than what we were accustomed to in 1996, let alone 2015. The Read more...

Jupiter Ascending

Posted 6:26pm Sunday 1st March 2015 by Anonymous Bird

Rating: 1/5 Jupiter Ascending follows Jupiter Jones, a young girl who hates her life, which is spent cleaning houses and bathrooms with her scary Russian family just to get by. She is convinced by her ridiculous cousin to sell her eggs to a clinic in order to get money so that she can buy a Read more...