Archive
Mull It
Posted 4:47pm Sunday 18th August 2013 by Kirsty Dunn
Even though spring is almost upon us, I figure Dunedin still has a few chilly nights up its sleeve during which a bit of mulled action will go down a treat. If you haven’t had a go at making your own (or worse yet, if you’ve never even sampled the stuff – tsk tsk), now’s the time; have a farewell Read more...
Free Will
Posted 4:47pm Sunday 18th August 2013 by Lucy Hunter
Sam Harris explains, in 83 pages, the illogic of free will. Our society functions on the assumption that we all have it: without free will, any claim to justice, morality, personal accomplishment, intimate relationships (and virtually anything else we care about deeply) seems ridiculous. Free will Read more...
Ukiyo-e, The Floating World
Posted 4:47pm Sunday 18th August 2013 by Charlotte Doyle
The woodblock print The Great Wave off Kanagawa by Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849), which features rolling, white-tipped waves, has become a legendary emblem of Japanese art. Having been heavily appropriated by artists such as Manet, Gaugin and Van Gogh, the influence of the distinctive woodblock Read more...
Now You See Me
Posted 4:47pm Sunday 18th August 2013 by Tamarah Scott
Rating: 2/5 When you watch the trailer for Now You See Me, you get the distinct impression that the film might actually have some merit. The trailer features Morgan Freeman’s melodic voice promising a cryptically intriguing film about illusionists. The film itself, however, could not have Read more...
Only God Forgives
Posted 4:47pm Sunday 18th August 2013 by Baz Macdonald
Rating: 2/5 The crime thriller genre is rarely graced with the artistic flair that Nicholas Winding Refn brings to his films, but his previous works Drive and Bronson are proof that it can be done well. His latest film Only God Forgives, however, is an example of it being done very poorly. Read more...
The House of Radio
Posted 4:47pm Sunday 18th August 2013 by Rosie Howells
The Regent Theatre - Octagon Saturday 24 August 1pm Rating: 3/5 The House of Radio is the newest delight from French documentarian Nicholas Philibert. Philibert spent half a year filming the inhabitants of France’s public radio station, allowing the viewer to gain a better insight Read more...
Which Way is the Front Line From Here?
Posted 4:47pm Sunday 18th August 2013 by Rosie Howells
Rialto Cinema - Moray Place Monday 19 August 4:45pm, 8:30pm Tuesday 20 August 8:30pm Rating: 3.5/5 Which Way is the Front Line From Here? is a documentary that explores the life and work of world renowned war photographer Tim Hetherington. Through Hetherington’s footage, Read more...
The Weight of Elephants
Posted 4:47pm Sunday 18th August 2013 by Rosie Howells
Rialto Cinema - Moray Place Monday 19 August 12pm Rating: 3.5/5 The Weight of Elephants is a dramatic film set in rural Invercargill, directed by New Zealand born and raised but Denmark-based Daniel Joseph Borgman. The story follows 11-year-old Adrian (Demos Murphy), a sensitive and Read more...
The East
Posted 4:47pm Sunday 18th August 2013 by Jonny Mahon-Heap
Rating: 4/5 A rare environmental-political thriller, The East represents one of the bigger-budgeted and more purely enjoyable options from the 2013 film festival. It’s a curious combination of The Departed meets Martha Marcy May Marlene, and combines the best talent from American indie cinema Read more...
Us and the Game Industry
Posted 4:47pm Sunday 18th August 2013 by Baz Macdonald
Rialto Cinema - Moray Place Friday 23 August 6:30pm Rating: 2/5 The video game industry is currently nearing the end of a transitory period. The transition isn’t happening within the industry, but rather in how people outside of the industry perceive it. It is a transition toward an Read more...
Pussy Riot: A Punk Rock Prayer
Posted 4:47pm Sunday 18th August 2013 by Josef Alton
Rating: 3/5 It’s a story that has begged to be told outside of the news media. Maxim Pozdorovkin and Mike Lerner’s Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer is an intriguing documentary that tells the story of how and why three young activists were arrested and prosecuted for publicly opposing the Russian Read more...
Interview: Gabriela Cowperthwaite
Posted 2:29pm Sunday 11th August 2013 by Aaron Hawkins
The film Blackfish: is it about orcas in captivity, or is it about the SeaWorld empire and their treatment of orcas in captivity, or is the overlap of those two so strong that it’s one and the same thing? Yeah, you know, I told a story. I came in as a mother who took her kids to SeaWorld and Read more...
Interview: Anthony Powell
Posted 2:29pm Sunday 11th August 2013 by Baz Macdonald
Through your film you explore many aspects of Antarctica, but did you have one encompassing goal or message you wanted to communicate? Yeah I guess my initial drive was just trying to articulate the experience, and I guess I had the “a picture tells a thousand words” cliché in my head. I just Read more...
App of the Week | Issue 19
Posted 2:29pm Sunday 11th August 2013 by Raquel Moss
Pixlr is a great web app for quick but thorough image editing. It’s better than Microsoft Paint; it’s not as good as Photoshop. This is not one for graphic designers, and if you use it, your graphic designer friends will cringe. But it does the trick. Open up the web app and you can choose Read more...
Freemium and Subscription Models Making Life Harder for Pirates
Posted 2:29pm Sunday 11th August 2013 by Raquel Moss
Just as with music there is a trend in the gaming industry to offer subscription models to gamers, which has had an impact on gaming piracy. Game purveyors are offering perks for players who opt in to paid subscriptions, such as free games and online multiplayer, while punishing pirates by Read more...
Fuck Buttons - Slow Focus
Posted 2:29pm Sunday 11th August 2013 by Basti Menkes
Rating: 3.5/5 English two-piece Fuck Buttons have spent the last decade crafting their own assaultive brand of electronica. Drawing influence from Aphex Twin and Mogwai, they snub gloss and perfectionism in favour of songs that are loud, coarse and engulfing. Though performed on an impressive Read more...
Zahava Seewald & Michaël Grébil - From My Mother’s House
Posted 2:29pm Sunday 11th August 2013 by Basti Menkes
Rating: 4.5/5 I have had a lifelong fascination with echolocation, the act of mapping an area through the use of sound. The most obvious example is sonar – the technique bats and whales use to gauge their surroundings. Echolocation is also popular among musicians, and is used by artists to Read more...
Cheat’s Tiramisu
Posted 2:29pm Sunday 11th August 2013 by Kirsty Dunn
Tiramisu is Italian for “pick me up” – and after one mere spoonful of this delectable dessert it’s no wonder the creators dubbed it so. Tiramisu contains four of the most awesome ingredients known to humankind: coffee, chocolate, cheese, and alcohol. Boom! (Which, coincidentally, is the cry your Read more...
Pikmin 3 - Wii U
Posted 2:29pm Sunday 11th August 2013 by Baz Macdonald
Rating: 7.5/10 Clearly a new definition is needed for the term “launch window.” At the moment it’s like the phrase, “I’ll be back in a moment” – it has lost any real meaning in terms of the timeframe being dealt with. We were told that Pikmin 3 (and several other Wii U games) would be Read more...
The House of the Dead
Posted 2:29pm Sunday 11th August 2013 by Lucy Hunter
Dostoyevsky’s The House of the Dead, published in 1861, explores life and death in the confines of a 19th-century Siberian prison. The book is based on the journal Dostoyevsky wrote while in prison for crimes of political and religious dissent – namely, for his involvement in the Petrashevsky Read more...
Jay Z: The Modern-Day Picasso
Posted 2:29pm Sunday 11th August 2013 by Charlotte Doyle
For six straight hours one Wednesday afternoon, Shaun “Jay Z” Carter performed the track “Picasso Baby” from his latest album Magna Carta Holy Grail in a New York art gallery. Although the ulterior motive was to shoot a music video for the song, the entire project completely transcends this idea. Read more...
Private Peaceful
Posted 2:29pm Sunday 11th August 2013 by Ashley Anderson
Rating: 2.5/5 The tag line of this movie beautifully and succinctly describes the tumultuous relationship between Tommo (George Mackay) and Charlie (Jack O’Connell) Peaceful, two brothers living in a sleepy English town during World War I. Private Peaceful, an adaption of Michael Morpurgo’s Read more...
Farewell, My Queen
Posted 2:29pm Sunday 11th August 2013 by Jonny Mahon-Heap
Rating: 4/5 1789. The people are rebelling. Versailles is about to fall. Marie Antoinette, wilfully blind to the chaos around her, spends her days perusing the 18th-century equivalents of Vogue and chasing her chambermaids. Proving there is life in the period drama still, Farewell, My Queen Read more...
This Ain’t No Mouse Music
Posted 2:29pm Sunday 11th August 2013 by Tim Lindsay
This Ain’t No Mouse Music is a documentary film that chronicles the career of legendary American song producer Chris Strachwitz. It takes the viewer on an auditory journey through the heartland of traditional American music and showcases some mighty fine artists and their songs along the way. Read more...
Blackfish
Posted 2:29pm Sunday 11th August 2013 by Alex Wilson
Rating: 3.5/5 The American summer draws to an end, and no doubt millions of Americans have now attended “Shamu Stadium,” SeaWorld, to see Orca whales wave their dorsal fins limply, jump through hoops and engage in bizarre aquatic acrobats with their perpetually smiling trainers. However, what Read more...
The Rocket
Posted 2:29pm Sunday 11th August 2013 by Tamarah Scott
Rating: 4/5 Viewers often engage with films in an effort to derive pleasure from an existential experience. The Rocket truly gives the viewer a chance to walk in someone else’s shoes by transporting them directly into young Alo’s (Sitthiphon Disamoe) life and culture in rural Laos. The film Read more...
Antarctica: A Year on Ice
Posted 2:29pm Sunday 11th August 2013 by Baz Macdonald
Rating: 4/5 When the Dunedin International Film Festival schedule was released this year I was excited to see what would be kicking off the festival. Every year the opening film is something unique and spectacular, such as last year’s Moonrise Kingdom (directed by Wes Anderson). I was a Read more...
Much Ado About Nothing
Posted 2:29pm Sunday 11th August 2013 by Lyle Skipsey
The Regent Theatre - Octagon Thursday 22 August 8.30pm Friday 23 August 11am The Guardian has called it “the first great contemporary Shakespeare since Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet.” Now Joss Whedon’s take on the Bard’s Much Ado About Nothing is coming to the New Zealand Film Festival. Read more...
The Deadly Ponies Gang
Posted 2:29pm Sunday 11th August 2013 by Amber Pullin
Rialto Cinema - Moray Place Friday 23 August 12.30pm Sunday 25 August 2.15pm This documentary follows very-best mates Clint and Dwayne: the sole two members of the Deadly Ponies Gang. The Deadly Ponies are not exactly a conventional gang. No cars, no motorbikes: these two fellas go Read more...
Interview: E. L. Katz (Director of Cheap Thrills)
Posted 3:50pm Sunday 4th August 2013 by Aaron Hawkins
Rialto Cinema - Moray Place Saturday August 10 8:30pm The Regent Theatre - Octagon Sunday August 11 - 8:45pm Director Evan L. Katz’s latest film, Cheap Thrills, is a devilish morality tale in which a wealthy couple (David Koechner and Sara Paxton) test how far a poor couple (Ethan Read more...
App of the Week | Issue 18
Posted 3:50pm Sunday 4th August 2013 by Raquel Moss
Weebly is a drag-and-drop, no-coding-required platform for creating websites that actually look good. If you need to create a quick website to advertise your tutoring skills, or your Mum’s clothing-swap event, Weebly is the way to go. Think of it as the 2013 equivalent of GeoCities, with nicer Read more...
I Just Want to Watch Game of Thrones, Damnit
Posted 3:50pm Sunday 4th August 2013 by Raquel Moss
Television networks have pulled their socks up over the past few years. The proliferation of piracy online means it is no longer acceptable to air international TV shows in New Zealand months, or even years, after their inception. Not that it was ever acceptable, really – we just didn’t have much Read more...
Bliss N Eso - Circus in the Sky
Posted 3:50pm Sunday 4th August 2013 by Basti Menkes
Rating: 2/5 When their new album Circus in the Sky materialised in the Critic office, I hadn’t the faintest idea who Bliss N Eso were. However, I fell hook, line and sinker for the ludicrously shiny packaging the CD came in, making me just curious enough to find out. For a long time I Read more...
μ-Ziq - Chewed Corners
Posted 3:50pm Sunday 4th August 2013 by Basti Menkes
Rating: 3.5/5 Michael Paradinas, most commonly known as μ-Ziq (pronounced “music”), is an English electronic musician. Though an influential figure in IDM (Intelligent Dance Music) over the last 20 years, he has never received quite the attention or acclaim of his contemporaries, such as Read more...
State of Decay XBLA
Posted 3:50pm Sunday 4th August 2013 by Baz Macdonald
Rating: 9/10 No doubt many of you have noticed that the world seems to have come down with a nasty case of zombie fever. Films, books, video games – name it and there is probably a large number of zombie iterations currently being developed or hitting the crowded market. This is the fifth Read more...
Pumpkin Pesto Risotto
Posted 3:50pm Sunday 4th August 2013 by Kirsty Dunn
Tis the season for pumpkiny goodness. I picked up a fine, fresh looking specimen from the Dunedin Farmer’s Market last weekend for just $2 and managed to make this, a few servings of soup, and even had a little left over to go with the roast last night. Cooking with seasonal produce requires a bit Read more...
Let’s Explore Diabetes With Owls
Posted 3:50pm Sunday 4th August 2013 by Feby Idrus
This entertaining read is the newest collection of short essays from humourist and writer David Sedaris, who burst onto the scene with his second book Me Talk Pretty One Day. As with his previous essay collections, Sedaris’ essays cover his childhood in North Carolina, the state of present-day Read more...
A Micronaut in the Wide World
Posted 3:50pm Sunday 4th August 2013 by Charlotte Doyle
Hocken Library, 15 June – 10 August Exhibitions featuring an illustrator are few and far between. Depending on the number of bedtime stories you demanded as a kid, they can plunge you nostalgically back into childhood. Although he lived most of his adult life in London, Graham Percy Read more...
It’s A Wonderful Life
Posted 3:50pm Sunday 4th August 2013 by Rosie Howells
Frank Capra’s 1946 It’s a Wonderful Life is the best Christmas film ever made. Don’t worry, not in an oh-my-Jesus-I’m-so-hipster-I-can-only-appreciate-films-made-before-the-advent-of-the-toaster-oven kind of way, but in a highly-accessible-heart-warming-life-affirming way. James Stuart, in Read more...
The Wolverine
Posted 3:50pm Sunday 4th August 2013 by Baz Macdonald
Rating: 4/5 It takes a movie like The Wolverine to make you realise why all of the superhero films (particularly Marvel’s) are beginning to feel stale, and it is because they all feel exactly the same. Although they all have different heroes facing different situations, they share virtually Read more...
Ping Pong
Posted 3:50pm Sunday 4th August 2013 by Rosie Howells
Rating: 2.5/5 Ping Pong is a documentary that follows eight competitors at the World Over-80s Table Tennis Championships in China. These elderly sportspeople include such characters as terminally ill Terry from Great Britain, 85-year-old Texan first-timer Lisa and 100-year-old ping pong Read more...
The World’s End
Posted 3:50pm Sunday 4th August 2013 by Lyle Skipsey
Rating: 4/5 I feel there should be a disclaimer up front: when I left the movie last night I fully expected to give it a rather mediocre score. However, having slept on it, maybe I judged too soon. The World’s End is the third instalment in the “not a trilogy” Cornetto trilogy that Read more...
Gardening With Soul
Posted 3:50pm Sunday 4th August 2013 by Rosie Howells
Gardening with Soul is a New Zealand documentary film that tells the story of a year in the life of Sister Loloya Galvin, the 90-year-old head gardener of Wellington’s Home of Compassion. Director Jess Feast follows Sister Loyola through the four seasons, in which their conversations and Loyola’s Read more...
To the Wonder
Posted 3:50pm Sunday 4th August 2013 by Rosie Howells
The Regent Theatre - Octagon Sunday 18 August 8.45pm Rialto Cinema - Moray Place Tuesday 20 August 4pm Terrence Malick is a director lucky enough to have been stamped with auteur status. Nature, love and religion are the core of his past works Badlands, Days of Heaven, The Thin Red Read more...
The Gilded Cage (La Cage dorée)
Posted 3:50pm Sunday 4th August 2013 by Rosie Howells
The Regent Theatre - Octagon Friday 9 August 6.30pm Tuesday 13 August 11am This upstairs-downstairs drama/comedy was a break-out hit in France, closing on 1.2 million admissions and sparking a Latino remake that is currently in the works. Set in present-day Paris, The Gilded Read more...
Utu Redux
Posted 3:50pm Sunday 4th August 2013 by Amber Pullin
The Regent Theatre - Octagon Saturday 10 August 8.15pm Thirty years since its release, Geoff Murphy’s Utu will be hitting the silver screen again this August, digitally restored and remastered for the International Film Festival. Starring Anzac Wallace and Bruno Lawrence, Utu is a story of Read more...
Dial M for Murder
Posted 3:50pm Sunday 4th August 2013 by Rosie Howells
Rialto Cinema - Moray Place Saturday 17 August 8.30pm Sunday 18 August 5.45pm Dial M for Murder has everything you’d expect from a great Alfred Hitchcock movie: Grace Kelly, greed, and scissors as a murder weapon. Driven by betrayal and lust for money, ex-tennis star Tony Wendice (Ray Read more...
App of the Week | Issue 17
Posted 4:45pm Sunday 28th July 2013 by Raquel Moss
Did you know that there are still people who carry their assignments around on a USB drive? It’s a risky game. Half the time you forget to bring it; the other half you leave it in a library computer. Awesome. Save yourself the pain by signing up for Dropbox. It’s a simple but powerful service Read more...
The Many Paths to Yeezus—Piracy or Purchase?
Posted 4:45pm Sunday 28th July 2013 by Raquel Moss
Ten years ago, you may have been regarded with awe when you successfully downloaded the new Green Day album and burned multiple copies so that your friends could listen to “Wake Me Up When September Ends” on their discmans. No? Just me? These days, piracy is a pretty casual pastime in Read more...
David Lynch - The Big Dream
Posted 4:45pm Sunday 28th July 2013 by Basti Menkes
Rating: 4/5 David Lynch began his career as a solo musician with his 2011 album Crazy Clown Time, but his knack for sound design dates back a good thirty years. Lynch helped compose the unsettling ambient score to his 1977 film debut Eraserhead, and has been involved in the music for all of Read more...
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