Archive

Selma

Posted 6:26pm Sunday 1st March 2015 by Letisha Nicholas

Rating: 4/5 Fuck you, America, I have a dream! In 1964, the American Civil Rights bill was passed and African-American citizens had the right to vote. Except that black citizens were systematically and violently denied access to register and vote. Selma shows that 1965 America was filled with Read more...

Foxcatcher

Posted 6:26pm Sunday 1st March 2015 by Nick Ainge-Roy

Rating: 4/5 Foxcatcher tells the true story of Olympic wrestlers, Mark Schulz (Channing Tatum) and David Schulz (Mark Ruffalo), and their unsettling benefactor John DuPont (Steve Carrell) as they attempt to repeat their gold medal win from the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics at the 1988 Seoul Read more...

Oasis - (What's the Story) Morning Glory?

Posted 6:26pm Sunday 1st March 2015 by Basti Menkes

Cult Album It’s been twenty years since Oasis’s blockbuster second album, (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?, was released. A lot has happened in that time. The band themselves lost their critical and commercial success and their place in the zeitgeist, and fell into an oh-are-they-still-going Read more...

Top Tracks | Issue 2

Posted 6:26pm Sunday 1st March 2015 by Daniel Munro

Azizi Gibson - Claustrophobic (Prod. Kamandi) Off Azizi’s latest EP The Last, ‘Claustrophobic’ is another huge one for Gibson. Produced by NZ’s own Kamandi, this bass-heavy track is another great addition to the duo’s catalogue. Be sure to catch them both in Dunedin in early March. Read more...

Björk - Vulnicura

Posted 6:26pm Sunday 1st March 2015 by Basti Menkes

Rating: 4/5 E xperimental pop star Björk has proven more than once that she’s capable of making gorgeous, genre-defying albums. Sadly, the last time she made one of those was in 2001 with Vespertine. Sure, the three albums she has released since then had their merits, but they were Read more...

Gabriella & Silvana Mangano - Visible Structures

Posted 6:26pm Sunday 1st March 2015 by Loulou Callister-Baker

C onfronted by a wall of text that partially blocks Gabriella and Silvana Mangano’s “Visible Structures”, the viewer can experience only a slice of the show from the outside. These glints of colour and light from one of the show’s projected films, mixed with ethereal, overlapping sounds, lure Read more...

Vegan Steamed Buns

Posted 6:26pm Sunday 1st March 2015 by Sophie Edmonds

Needing a post-O-Week detox yet? While I believe in butter, smash back trays of eggs every fortnight and am pretty much the poster child for milk consumption, I am also a massive fan of these vegan steamed buns. I base them on a Jamie Oliver recipe, which I tweaked due to my lack of mushrooms, Read more...

Asleep: The Forgotten Epidemic That Remains One of Medicine's Greatest Mysteries

Posted 4:35pm Sunday 22nd February 2015 by Bridget Vosburgh

D o you like horror stories? Do you ever wish for factual proof that the world is completely terrifying? Asleep: The Forgotten Epidemic That Remains One of Medicine’s Greatest Mysteries is about a disease known as encephalitis lethargica. It’s not surprising if you haven’t heard of it. It was Read more...

Panda Bear - Panda Bear vs. the Grim Reaper

Posted 4:35pm Sunday 22nd February 2015 by Basti Menkes

Rating: 5/5 Experimental pop group Animal Collective requires no introduction. Between their critical acclaim, alluring sense of mystery and smattering of successful singles, they are certainly a band whose reputation precedes them. In the absence of a conventional frontman, it was Read more...

A Constant Companion

Posted 4:35pm Sunday 22nd February 2015 by Loulou Callister-Baker

I n a taxi one night in Beijing the taxi driver told me he dreamt of travelling — out of Beijing, around the world — but never could because of a lack of money. The driver explained, speaking slowly in simple Mandarin, that he travelled instead through his passengers and the stories of their Read more...

Citizenfour

Posted 4:35pm Sunday 22nd February 2015 by Mandy Te

Rating: 4/5 I have a love–hate relationship with documentaries. If they’re centred on animals, murder mysteries or food, then I love them, but if they’re on glaciers or erosion and use scientific vocabulary that isn’t easily defined for BA students like myself, then I’m not interested. Read more...

Outside Mullingar

Posted 4:35pm Sunday 22nd February 2015 by Bridie Boyd

Rating: 3/5 Outside Mullingar has too many faults to be more than average. The plot is classically Irish, with rain, farms, endless tea and family feuds in abundance. The First Act deals with death, family inheritance and lost love in an emotionally battering rollercoaster. Anthony Reilly is Read more...

50 Shades of Grey

Posted 4:35pm Sunday 22nd February 2015 by Simon Kingsley-Holmes

Rating: 0/5 W hen student, Anastasia Steele (Dakota Johnson), improbably interviews icy billionaire Christian Grey (Jamie Dornan), she finds herself trapped in a downward spiral of kinky sex and utter tediousness. We’re unfortunately in for a ride too, one that would send insomniacs to Read more...

Roast vegetable frittata

Posted 4:35pm Sunday 22nd February 2015 by Sophie Edmonds

I read somewhere that root vegetables are the kale of 2015. This news excites me greatly as I am the kumara’s biggest fan. I have been trying to nourish my body with more than just scrambled eggs three times a day. I love eggs — they are so cheap and such a great source of protein. The only problem Read more...

7 Days Live

Posted 3:48pm Saturday 13th December 2014 by Anonymous Bird

Without the restrictions of the TV cameras and the censors, the 7 Days team are presenting the live show at the Regent Theatre tonight. Be there to see what happens when the cameras aren't rolling! Critic asked Josh Thomson and Jeremy Elwood some of life’s big questions to get a feel for Read more...

Wasteland 2

Posted 11:58pm Sunday 12th October 2014 by Baz Macdonald

Rating: A The successful Kickstarter campaign of Wasteland 2 was a momentous occasion for the gaming industry. Though the first Wasteland game may not be familiar to many of you, no doubt its spiritual predecessor, the Fallout franchise, is. With Wasteland 2, developers Inxile got the Read more...

Faeries

Posted 11:58pm Sunday 12th October 2014 by Anonymous Bird

Faeries is my all-time favourite book. it’s not your normal novel in any sense of the word – it’s definitely fiction, but it’s also kind of an art book. Froud is probably most known throughout the world for this book in particular. But many of you may recognise his work from The Labyrinth (yeah, Read more...

Aladdin

Posted 11:58pm Sunday 12th October 2014 by CJ O'Connor

Classic Film Aladdin, as far as i am concerned, is a timeless classic that represents the pinnacle of Disney. It came out the year I was born and I think I watched it for the first time when I was around a year old. I recently bought the DVD to replace the utterly destroyed VHS of my Read more...

Dazed and Confused

Posted 11:58pm Sunday 12th October 2014 by Mandy Te

Classic Film Despite those hours in Central, i still haven’t finished my assignments. I haven’t prepared for my exams and, now that I’m home, my Internet isn’t working. Naturally, I’m devastated. To distract myself from my first world problems, I’m currently reflecting on a more peaceful time Read more...

The Lunchbox

Posted 11:58pm Sunday 12th October 2014 by Baz Macdonald

Rating: A- The Lunchbox is set in india and tells the story of Ila, an Indian woman who is struggling to connect with her distant husband. When the lunch she sends to her husband gets delivered to Saajan, a cynical widow, the two begin delivering messages to one another through the lunch Read more...

The Maze Runner

Posted 11:58pm Sunday 12th October 2014 by CJ O'Connor

Rating: A I can honestly say The Maze Runner surprised me. Having seen the shorts of the movie only last week, I was pretty much expecting an incarnation of The Hunger Games. And I did not like The Hunger Games. At all. So while the two franchises have commonalities, I found the plot of Maze Read more...

Review: Frances Hodgkins in 1913

Posted 11:58pm Sunday 12th October 2014 by Hannah Collier

The Dunedin Public Art Gallery Dunedin-born artist Frances Hodgkins (28 April 1869 – 13 May 1947) was a painter primarily of landscapes and still-lives. She is considered one of New Zealand's most prestigious and influential painters, although it is the work from her life in Europe that is Read more...

Custard and raspberry cream doughnuts

Posted 11:58pm Sunday 12th October 2014 by Sophie Edmonds

I thought I would go out with a bang for the last food column of the year, or at least a sizzle ... the sizzle of fried doughnuts! Doughnuts filled with custard and raspberries, no less. Boom. I regret to say I simultaneously wooed one boy and broke the heart of another with these very doughnuts. I Read more...

The Wolf Among Us

Posted 1:49pm Sunday 5th October 2014 by Baz Macdonald

Since the phenomenal runaway success of Telltale Games’ The Walking Dead from 2012, the gaming world has waited with bated breath to see what Telltale would produce next, and if they could repeat their past successes. The Wolf Among Us was that follow up game, and though it is not quite the Read more...

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Posted 1:49pm Sunday 5th October 2014 by James Beck

Warning: The following critically acclaimed piece contains spoilers of the material in the book. Solace is Caterpillar. Societal image issues. Eating disorder bullshit. Three phrases that come to mind when I think of this book – a book that lures the eyes more than a hair-flicking Robert Read more...

Artist Profile: Luckless

Posted 1:49pm Sunday 5th October 2014 by Adrian Ng

Luckless is a self described “two-piece melodic, neurotic, melancholic indie rock band from Auckland.” Having just released their sophomore album, Critic's Adrian Ng catches up with songwriter Ivy Rossiter to talk about her group's new record. Was there a moment that made you want to do Read more...

Download of the week: Strange Harvest - Astronaut [NZ]

Posted 1:49pm Sunday 5th October 2014 by Adrian Ng

Strange Harvest are a local duo who make haunting, beautifully textured, electronic music. “Astronaut” is a chilling, down-tempo, pop song that features majestic sounding keyboards and wonderfully noisy guitar playing. The soundscape is wondrous and full of static and strange machine-like chugging. Read more...

New this week / Singles in review

Posted 1:49pm Sunday 5th October 2014 by Adrian Ng

Iceage - How Many “How Many” is the third single from Copenhagen-based band Iceage, who are right on the cusp of releasing their third album, Plowing Into The Field of Love. Where first single “The Lord's Favorite” had a twisted, country influence and second offering “Forever” seemed Read more...

Hook

Posted 1:49pm Sunday 5th October 2014 by CJ O'Connor

Classic Film Hook is basically a representation of my childhood; I watched it so many times I destroyed the VHS. Given my attachment to all things Peter Pan and disinclination to actually grow up, it’s probably a fair representation of my current psychological state as well. This was one of Read more...

The Life of David Gale

Posted 1:49pm Sunday 5th October 2014 by Tim Lindsay

Cult Film Given Sir Alan Parker’s high directorial pedigree (Mississippi Burning, Bugsy Malone, Pink Floyd – The Wall, among many others), a collaboration with Kevin Spacey (Gale) and Kate Winslet (Bitsey Bloom) is a mouth-watering proposition. However, this was a film universally panned Read more...

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Posted 1:49pm Sunday 5th October 2014 by CJ O'Connor

Rating: B+ I like movies that don’t require a whole lot of cerebral activity, because all of my available neurons go toward passing my classes. However, TMNT was hilarious, in an “I can’t believe these are 21st century graphics” sort of way. Let’s start with the obvious, shall we? The Read more...

The Giver

Posted 1:49pm Sunday 5th October 2014 by Baz Macdonald

Rating: B+ We are currently in the midst of the latest film fad, with a litany of studios trying to cash in on the success of The Hunger Games by also creating post-apocalyptic young adult movies. Though The Giver fits comfortably into this fad, it has a few advantages over the other members Read more...

Review: This World is your Oyster

Posted 1:49pm Sunday 5th October 2014 by Hannah Collier

Mint Gallery New Zealand-based collage artist Peter Lewis has been forming, re-forming, configuring and reconfiguring popular culture and its images since 1990. Peter‘s work has been featured on CD covers in New Zealand and in the United States, in the San Francisco-based art magazine Churn Read more...

Custard filled chocolate éclairs

Posted 1:49pm Sunday 5th October 2014 by Sophie Edmonds

I made mini chocolate éclairs the other day. Not wanting to brag or anything but they were amazing. Rather than filling them with whipped cream (which you, of course, can do) I filled them with delicious homemade custard. The lesson here is that if you cover your food with enough flowers and Read more...

Destiny

Posted 2:58pm Sunday 28th September 2014 by Baz Macdonald

Rating: B The hype machine was put into high gear before the launch of Destiny. Although Bungie, the celebrated studio behind Halo, met these expectations in many ways, they also fell well short of them in many more. My biggest disappointment with Destiny has to be in its Read more...

High Fidelity

Posted 2:58pm Sunday 28th September 2014 by Eithne Whitteker

Though perhaps better known for being the novelist behind the film About A Boy (starring Hugh Grant and a small, creepy-looking Nicholas Hoult), Nick Hornby had already written a modern classic before that film came out. Written in 1995, High Fidelity is a timeless exploration of the modern, Read more...

Ha the Unclear - Bacterium, look at your motor go

Posted 2:58pm Sunday 28th September 2014 by Adrian Ng

Rating: A- After releasing a handful of lo-fi pop albums, EPs and singles under the moniker Brown, no one suspected that the Dunedin/Auckland quartet was gearing up for a drastic makeover. In December last year the group released “Apostate,” the first single from Bacterium, Look At Your Motor Read more...

Download of the week: Bandicoot - Happy Talking (NZ)

Posted 2:58pm Sunday 28th September 2014 by Adrian Ng

Perhaps one of the most important releases in the history of alternative New Zealand music, this little EP from short-lived Auckland three-piece Bandicoot really put the spotlight on local DIY music and influenced a handful of musicians in the process. A four-track explosion of noisy, lo-fi, Read more...

New this week / Singles in review

Posted 2:58pm Sunday 28th September 2014 by Adrian Ng

Lydia Ainsworth - Hologram Whilst a student of film scoring, Canadian artist Lydia Ainsworth was secretly working on songs for her upcoming debut, Right From Real. “Hologram” is the first single to drop from the intriguing new artist. “Hologram” is an ethereal, piano-based, pop Read more...

Mrs. Doubtfire

Posted 2:58pm Sunday 28th September 2014 by Mandy Te

Classic Film Through the eyes of young me, Mrs Doubtfire was a hilarious film that made me cry with laughter. However, through the eyes of “adult” me, Mrs Doubtfire is actually a pretty heart-breaking film that just made me cry. Blame it on the cold, harsh realities that my sheltered, Read more...

Coco Avant Chanel

Posted 2:58pm Sunday 28th September 2014 by CJ O'Connor

Foreign Film I don't often watch foreign language films. It's not because they're hard to understand, because the ones I watch are usually in French or Spanish, and I speak both. It's because I find foreign films just ... odd. Especially French ones, and especially French ones that aren't Read more...

Night Moves

Posted 2:58pm Sunday 28th September 2014 by CJ O'Connor

Rating: B Night Moves is one of the most psychologically interesting movies I have seen this year. Shunning the paradigmatic fast pace and drama of the usual terrorism plot, Reichardt instead focuses her latest flick on the development of the characters in the undertaking. The three Read more...

Predestination

Posted 2:58pm Sunday 28th September 2014 by Baz Macdonald

Rating: B+ You may not know it, but there is a huge difference between cinematic and literary science fiction. Cinematic Science Fiction is interested in, almost exclusively, the spectacular side of science fiction, as speculative science allows you to explore aesthetically unexplored worlds Read more...

Unpainted

Posted 2:58pm Sunday 28th September 2014 by Hannah Collier

Blue Oyster Art Project Space Exhibited until 18 October 2014 I rarely get down to the Blue Oyster on Dowling Street, but every time I go there, I am always pleasantly surprised. Briar Holt’s Unpainted curation is a series of work by artists Kim Pieters, James Bellaney, Helen Calder Read more...

Croque-Monsieur (A glorified toasted sandwich)

Posted 2:58pm Sunday 28th September 2014 by Sophie Edmonds

Somehow Aucklanders have managed to charge $8.50 for a glorified toasted sandwich by calling them croque-monsieurs. Essentially a ham and cheese toastie covered in a white cheese sauce, these things have suddenly become all the rage, and for good reason too. Think along the lines of the cheese Read more...

Interview: Rima Te Wiata

Posted 3:00pm Sunday 21st September 2014 by Sydney Lehman

Rima: I’m just sitting in a park in Wellington; it’s very nice, it’s very sunny. Critic: Oh wonderful! So, yeah, one of our reviewer’s here at Critic for our film section finished their review saying that Housebound was “International funny,” not just “Kiwi funny.” I guess in terms of the Read more...

Sims 4

Posted 3:00pm Sunday 21st September 2014 by Baz Macdonald

The concept of simulation games, on paper, is truly absurd. Especially when you consider what many of these games simulate are often the most mundane aspects of our lives. Managing and planning city infrastructure, businesses, sport’s teams, the most boring aspects of flying a plane. All of these Read more...

Unaccustomed Earth

Posted 3:00pm Sunday 21st September 2014 by Chelsea Boyle

Jhumpa Lahiri’s second collection of short stories, Unaccustomed Earth, is another stunning contribution from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author. The fictional collection includes eight short stories, divided into two parts. The narrative works as a unified whole yet simultaneously each story Read more...

Zola Jesus - Taiga

Posted 3:00pm Sunday 21st September 2014 by Adrian Ng

Rating: A- For me, it's always an interesting little storyline when a mainstream pop artist decides to make a more adventurous, more authentic, record. When they feel that urge to break out of their contrived pop shell and validate themselves as true artists and not just a product of the Read more...

Download of the week: Fazed on a Pony - Alone / Mary like me (NZ)

Posted 3:00pm Sunday 21st September 2014 by Adrian Ng

Fazed on a Pony is Peter McCall, a talented songwriter who is also part of two great Dunedin bands, Yawny and the Apocalypse, and Dasepo Girls. Over the last month or so he's released two singles, “Alone” and “Mary Like Me.” This is hopefully a precursor for things to come. His laid back, Read more...