Archive
Little Sister
Posted 4:03pm Sunday 9th September 2012 by Feby Idrus

There are two sentences – or beginnings of sentences, anyway – in Julian Novitz’s psychological thriller Little Sister that encapsulate everything this novel is about. The first, “To live is to battle with trollfolk”, from Henrik Ibsen, is quoted by the alarmingly volatile teenager Shane. The second Read more...
White Noise
Posted 4:03pm Sunday 9th September 2012 by Beaurey Chan

Do you guys know about the iTunes visualiser? If you do, nod vigorously – we are on the same page. For those who don’t, I am about to change your life. Press Ctrl+T the next time you’re playing a song in iTunes, and VOILA! Colours, sunbursts, fireworks, rainbows galore! The first time I was Read more...
Heroes
Posted 4:03pm Sunday 9th September 2012 by Bronwyn Wallace

Directed by Lara Macgregor | Written by Gerald Sibleyras | Translated by Tom Stoppard | Featuring Peter Hayden, Geoffrey Heath and Simon O’Connor The Fortune Theatre does a fantastic job of balancing out the programming for its seasons, making sure there’s something for everyone, and Read more...
Resident Evil 6 - PREVIEW
Posted 4:03pm Sunday 9th September 2012 by Toby Hills

Resident Evil 5 was like a rousing game of impromptu beach volleyball: sand underfoot, a baking sun above, and a loyal partner by your side at all times. No matter how many prolapsed eyeballs and massive crocodiles it contained, the game had a hard time invoking fear in the bones of its players. It Read more...
Coconut Chicken
Posted 5:17pm Sunday 2nd September 2012 by Ines Shennan

My mother would often quip that “necessity is the mother of invention”. I vehemently hated this phrase when I was younger, mostly because it meant things weren’t going my way and a novel solution was needed. That old idiom came to mind one evening when my pantry was bereft of spices and I was Read more...
Darksiders II
Posted 5:17pm Sunday 2nd September 2012 by Toby Hills

Darksiders II is the The Amazing Spider-Man of the video game world: endlessly derivative, and pretty unnecessary, but undeniably effective nonetheless. It is an action-adventure, beat-em-up puzzle game with RPG and platform elements – a pick’n’mix of fundamental mechanics that everyone finds Read more...
Tik Tok
Posted 5:17pm Sunday 2nd September 2012 by Beaurey Chan

The first thing I heard upon entering this exhibition was “This is freaky!” (uttered by a young girl of about five or so, who was there with her mother). The second thing, which immediately followed the first, was “What the fuck is this?” (which earned the teenage speaker a dirty glare from the Read more...
Fifty Shades of Grey
Posted 5:17pm Sunday 2nd September 2012 by Harriet Hughes

At first, reviewing Fifty Shades of Grey was a bit exciting. I’ve never read an erotic novel before, so immediately thought OMG where are the dirty bits. However it wasn’t long before an unpleasant relationship started to develop between this book and I. Meet Anastasia Steele. She is 21 and Read more...
What is Music?
Posted 5:17pm Sunday 2nd September 2012 by Isaac McFarlane

Music means so many different things to so many different people. But it can also be produced in so many different forms for so many different reasons. More specifically, it can basically be split up into live music and recorded music. It should be simple, right? Make great sounds with your Read more...
Darling, Let’s go to the ballet!
Posted 5:17pm Sunday 2nd September 2012 by Bronwyn Wallace

Last week the Royal New Zealand Ballet graced our town with their TOWER Season of Cinderella, a classic story brought to life by a talented and delightful company. The creative spin on the timeless rags-to-riches love story brought a breath of fresh air to the Regent stage. Every aspect of the Read more...
Cheerful Weather for a Wedding
Posted 5:17pm Sunday 2nd September 2012 by Emma Scammell

Cheerful Weather for a Wedding is, ironically, not that cheerful at all. The film follows the painstakingly dull Dolly (Felicity Jones), who on her wedding day realises that she is entering a loveless marriage orchestrated by her overly possessive mother. In the lead-up to the wedding Read more...
I Wish
Posted 5:17pm Sunday 2nd September 2012 by Andrew Oliver

I Wish is a joyful and inspiring journey into the wonders, concerns, and childhood imaginations of two young Japanese brothers on a mission to reunite their broken family. Real-life brothers Koki and Ohshiro Maeda effortlessly play onscreen brothers Koichi and Ryunosuke, under the guidance of Read more...
Take this Waltz
Posted 5:17pm Sunday 2nd September 2012 by Taryn Dryfhout

In a world full of tacky rom-coms and second-rate vampire movies, Take This Waltz is a breath of fresh air. The film centres around Margot (Michelle Williams) and her relationships. A travel writer, Margot is growing restless in life and in her marriage of five years to Lou (Seth Rogen), a Read more...
The Bourne Legacy
Posted 5:17pm Sunday 2nd September 2012 by Sam McChesney

Should I even be comparing this to the first three Bourne films? It has no Matt Damon, a completely different supporting cast, and a new director (although Tony Gilroy was screenwriter for the original trilogy). The plot has nothing to do with the search for identity which animated the first three. Read more...
Step Up 4: Miami Heat
Posted 4:26pm Sunday 19th August 2012 by Taryn Dryfhout

In the fourth installment of the Step Up franchise, we find ourselves in Miami (which means lots of bikinis and bleached hair). We meet Emily, the daughter of a wealthy property shark (Hollywood veteran Peter Gallagher), who falls for Ryan, a guy from the wrong side of the tracks. Shockingly, Ryan Read more...
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter
Posted 4:26pm Sunday 19th August 2012 by Critic

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter unsurprisingly revolves around Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States. During his childhood Lincoln witnesses the death of his mother at the hands of a vampire. Nine years later, he makes the acquaintance of a man named Henry Sturgess. Henry makes a Read more...
Le Chef
Posted 4:26pm Sunday 19th August 2012 by Caleb Wicks

French comedy Le Chef follows the struggles of veteran chef Alexandre (Jean Reno) and his second in command Jacky (Michael Youn) as they try to juggle home life with their love of cooking. This tricky situation is further exacerbated by the interfering son of Alexandre’s retired business partner Read more...
The Campaign
Posted 4:26pm Sunday 19th August 2012 by Andrew Oliver

The Campaign pits Will Farrell against Zach Galifianakis in a vulgar, violent, and ferocious political satire that will leave Will Farrell fans laughing out loud for an one-and-a-half hours straight, and everyone else disgusted and disturbed. Will Farrell is Cam Brady, the slimy, Read more...
Braised Leeks with Sweet Lentils and Gravy
Posted 4:26pm Sunday 19th August 2012 by Ines Shennan

Leeks are phenomenally cheap at the moment, and are a great flavour base for meals. Typically I would slice the whites into rounds and add them to risotto or pasta. This recipe, from spectacular food blog Sprouted Kitchen, honours the otherwise humble vegetable and makes them the protagonist of the Read more...
Tone Deaf
Posted 4:26pm Sunday 19th August 2012 by Tom Tremewan

I don’t play any musical instruments. I’m uncoordinated, have short arms, and despise sucking at something I don’t have an inherent knack for. Basically, I can’t get over my fear of failing at something I love so much. This is one aspect of me, and one aspect of my relationship with music. Another Read more...
Baldur’s Gate I and II: Enhanced Editions
Posted 4:26pm Sunday 19th August 2012 by Toby Hills

Developer: Overhaul Games (Bioware) Genre: Role-playing Platforms: PC, iPad, OSX, Android (tablets) Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition is a satisfactorily vague title for a massive overhaul. It’s an obvious attempt to smooth out all the lumpy bumps between the two games and two expansions Read more...
Passages
Posted 4:26pm Sunday 19th August 2012 by Bronwyn Wallace

In the past few years, Allen Hall Theatre has made a name for itself in the verbatim theatre world. Hilary Halba and Stuart Young have championed this contemporary theatre form in Otago, recently showcasing a trilogy of incredibly touching works: Gathered in Confidence, Hush, and Be | Longing. This Read more...
The Art of Fielding
Posted 4:26pm Sunday 19th August 2012 by Josef Alton

The Art of Fielding reads like a wicked change-up. The pages flip fast as the narrative creeps closer to the plate, but as the crux of the novel draws near it’s difficult to judge the arch the themes arrive on. Is Chad Harbach’s debut novel about baseball or a University campus? Has he revamped Read more...
EX, WAI & ZEE
Posted 4:26pm Sunday 19th August 2012 by Beaurey Chan

www.bit.ly/IOJCZj It was pretty much inevitable that this exhibition would interest me, considering that it deals with two of my favourite topics: language (hello, English major) and art (hello, editor of what section again?). On a very basic level, it might appear that words and images are Read more...
Sticky Date Pudding with Caramel Sauce
Posted 5:14pm Sunday 12th August 2012 by Maeve Jones

After hearing earlier this week about one Dunedin flat’s dessert of stingray, maple syrup, and ice cream, I thought it might be time to let up on the culinary innovation and return to the classics. Warm, hearty sticky date pudding just cannot be beaten on a cold, wintry Dunedin night. To find a Read more...
Collaborate bitches!
Posted 5:14pm Sunday 12th August 2012 by Isaac McFarlane

I have become obsessed with the idea of musical collaboration. Possibly because of my incredibly fan-boyish nature that renders me incredibly nervous and awkward whenever I encounter one of my idols, e.g. Grayson Gilmour, I have a massive love for a lot of artists and the music they produce. That’s Read more...
SCP-087
Posted 5:14pm Sunday 12th August 2012 by Toby Hills

SCP-087 is a never-ending, descending collection of thirteen flights of stairs on which a number of scary “things” happen. I say “things” because SCP-087 prides itself on being procedurally generated. A scary “thing” could happen on the second flight down, or nothing could happen for a painfully Read more...
Slender
Posted 5:14pm Sunday 12th August 2012 by Toby Hills

Slender has you hunting down pages scrawled in the dark, some pinned to trees in a forest made of lots of other trees, while being stalked by an unseen threat. Themes are beginning to emerge in these horror games. In this case the monster is the Slenderman, a sort of modern mythical creature forged Read more...
Hide
Posted 5:14pm Sunday 12th August 2012 by Toby Hills

Hide opens with a spacebar-shaped rectangle next to four typical directional buttons. The spacebar is labelled as allowing the player to “hide”, but really it’s an utterly useless crouch button. Squatting slightly closer to the freezing snow that makes up the game’s environment does not fool the Read more...
We the Living
Posted 5:14pm Sunday 12th August 2012 by Staff Reporter

“ …too strong to compromise, but too weak to withstand the pressure… who cannot bend, but only break.” Many Russian authors have a tortured relationship with their motherland, but for Russo-American author Ayn Rand, Soviet Russia was an object of hatred. This, her first novel, was written Read more...
Bits and Bobs
Posted 5:14pm Sunday 12th August 2012 by Beaurey Chan

Tetris is what my mind immediately conjured up when I first saw Suel Novell’s art installation Zoom. Obviously it was a foolish and uniformed first instinct, but it’s not hard to see why I immediately leaped to that conclusion. Novell’s installation consists of a series of small, interlocked Read more...
The Devil in Me
Posted 5:14pm Sunday 12th August 2012 by Beaurey Chan

The irony of walking into Unipol for the first time ever for the sole purpose of reviewing an art installation was not lost on me. Besides being interestingly unusual, however, the setting of Siobhan Wootten’s The Tao of Avery really did make the artwork that much more impressive. Walk into Unipol Read more...
Interview with Alyx Duncan
Posted 5:14pm Sunday 12th August 2012 by Jane Ross

New Zealand-born director Alyx Duncan took time out from the busy international film festival circuit to speak to Jane Ross about her debut feature film, The Red House, which is screening at the NZIFF this Friday at 6pm at Rialto. You describe The Red House as a fictional essay in which you Read more...
Magic Mike
Posted 5:14pm Sunday 12th August 2012 by Taryn Dryfhout

If you like shimmering well-oiled abs and perfectly tanned man-buttocks, then Magic Mike is the film for you. Magic Mike is based loosely on Channing Tatum’s life as a teenage stripper before he made it as an actor in Hollywood. Set in Florida, the movie follows 19-year-old Adam (Alex Read more...
Bel Ami
Posted 5:14pm Sunday 12th August 2012 by Brittany Travers

I am studying French, so was excited to see a modern-day film interpretation of Guy de Maupassant’s Bel Ami. However, from the first close up of Robert Pattinson’s pouty lips I knew sitting through the film would be torture, and it was. This film is firm evidence that casting Pattinson as the lead Read more...
Whole Mushroom and Ham Tart
Posted 4:49pm Sunday 5th August 2012 by Ines Shennan

The inspiration for this savoury tart came from a gorgeous Auckland café called Little and Friday, which sadly is no more than a welcome daydream when I’m in Dunedin. So when I venture to the humid north a trip to Little and Friday is always on the cards. My first true love was the dizzyingly cheesy Read more...
Always Read The Label
Posted 4:49pm Sunday 5th August 2012 by Isaac McFarlane

Yes, New Zealand has some pretty amazing music, but we have some pretty amazing music labels floating around as well — some in plain sight, some a little better hidden. Most geographically relevant to our cold little enclave of Dunedin would be the revered Flying Nun Records, the original home of Read more...
OSCURA
Posted 4:49pm Sunday 5th August 2012 by Toby Hills

In Oscura you play, in established platform-game tradition, as a small mammalian everyman who plies a noble trade. Not a bandicoot plumber, I’m afraid, but a non-specific rodentish creature who attends to the lighthouse on a fantastical island. One day the bulb is shattered, unleashing shadowy Read more...
The Grand Duke
Posted 4:49pm Sunday 5th August 2012 by Bronwyn Wallace

After 11 long years of “The Really Authentic Gilbert and Sullivan Performance Trust” presenting the famous works in Dunedin, they are winding things up with the big finale work The Grand Duke. W S Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan began writing their comedic operas in the late nineteenth century, Read more...
Marina Abramović: The Artist Is Present
Posted 4:49pm Sunday 5th August 2012 by Loulou Callister-Baker

The New York-based, Serbian-born performer Marina Abramović is one of the most important artists of the second half of the twentieth century. Since Abramović’s career began in the 1970s she has continued to use performance art to enthrall, shock, seduce, and explore the possibilities of Read more...
Chasing Ice
Posted 4:49pm Sunday 5th August 2012 by Sarah Baillie

[FILM FESTIVAL PREVIEW] National Geographic photographer James Balog was a climate change skeptic before he saw for himself the immense recession of glaciers he had photographed on separate occasions. This moment of realisation led Balog to set up the extensive “extreme ice survey” (EIS) Read more...
Barbara
Posted 4:49pm Sunday 5th August 2012 by Loulou Callister-Baker

[FILM FEST PREVIEW] Barbara is set in the German Democratic Republic, informally known as East Germany, during the 1980s. Barbara (Nina Hoss), a doctor working in Berlin, has been banished to a countryside hospital after she expressed her wish to leave the GDR. In this hospital she works Read more...
Late Bloomers
Posted 4:49pm Sunday 5th August 2012 by Taryn Dryfhout

Late Bloomers chronicles the lives of Mary (Isabella Rossellini) and Adam (William Hurt), who have been married for 30 years. A series of life events and an episode of memory loss prompt retired teacher Mary to undergo a medical exam, which in turn stimulates a lot of contemplation about her Read more...
ZINEFEST 2012
Posted 4:49pm Sunday 5th August 2012 by Josef Alton

Glue Gallery - 26 Stafford St Friday August 10th 5pm-9pm & Saturday August 11th 10am-6pm THE ZINE MINUS THE MAG: THE UBIQUITOUS, TRASHY, PRETTY, TINY TAILORED TREASURE OF WORDS, SITTING RIGHT UNDERNEATH THE NOSE ON YOU. Zines. They’re in cafes, pubs, boutiques, and dairies. You Read more...
A Study in Vivacity
Posted 4:49pm Sunday 5th August 2012 by Beaurey Chan

Sensory overload is the first thing that comes to mind when you first encounter Micci Cohan’s stunning collage artworks. There’s so much going on in each piece that looking at them can be a jarring and overwhelming experience. Sizzling colours practically pop off the page, energetic squiggles and Read more...
Soy and Ginger Dumplings
Posted 2:15pm Sunday 29th July 2012 by Ines Shennan

When eating at Dunedin’s Japanese restaurants, dumplings are a favourite choice of mine. The art of balancing them between chopsticks while dunking them in the provided dipping sauce is comparable to the art of making them yourself – seemingly daunting, but remarkably easy after you’ve done it once. Read more...
Mixed Messages
Posted 2:15pm Sunday 29th July 2012 by Ally Embleton

Have you ever made a mixtape? Like, a real one? Maybe you sat eagerly by the stereo, waiting for your song to play, winding the take-up reel on the cassette by hand so you could get that perfect transition timing. Or sat in a locked bedroom with your friends playing a “borrowed” tape/CD from a Read more...
Travis Kooky
Posted 2:15pm Sunday 29th July 2012 by Bronwyn Wallace

"The constraints of the theatre are only limited to your creativity… and your lack of budget.” Hitting the stage this week at Allen Hall Theatre is Travis Kooky and the One Problem, an original work by Rosie Howells, a second-year student at Otago who is becoming renowned around campus for Read more...
The Last of Us - PREVIEW
Posted 2:15pm Sunday 29th July 2012 by Toby Hills

With The Last of Us, developer Naughty Dog replaces the lush temple vistas, charmingly witty characters, wholesome fun and will-they-won’t-they dynamics of their previous franchise Uncharted with lush overgrown cities, gloomy-but-still-likable characters, brutal strangulations, and adult Read more...
Watch Dogs - PREVIEW
Posted 2:15pm Sunday 29th July 2012 by Toby Hills

Watch Dogs, another intriguing title from this year’s E3, is about killing people using Facebook. Aiden Pearce, the painfully generic protagonist, wields dystopian “Google-goggles” to identify his target. In an instant, a juicy fact is revealed about every person he scans: “HIV positive”, “charged Read more...