Archive

Wondering how we ever came to this thank you, for instance. Or possible or just whatever whatever whatever!!!!:

Posted 6:17am Monday 19th September 2011 by Hana Aoake

Matthew George Richard Ward, Elle Loui August. Rice & Beans, 127 Stuart Street Bathed in golden shards of light flowing through from the surreal scene below, Wondering how we ever came to this thank you, for instance. Or possible or just whatever whatever whatever!!!! at Rice and Beans engulfs Read more...

Nelson Mandela by Himself - Nelson Mandela

Posted 6:14am Monday 19th September 2011 by Sarah Maessen

“For to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.”   Under the apartheid government of South Africa, it was illegal to quote Nelson Mandela. He is now among the most quoted people in the world, Read more...

Dues Ex: Human Revolution

Posted 6:11am Monday 19th September 2011 by Critic

Platforms: PC, xbox 360, PS3 (4.5/5) My version of Adam Jensen, protagonist of Deus Ex: Human Revolution, practised Batman's brand of pacifism. Shattered elbow joints, enough brain trauma for hours of unconsciousness, even getting squashed by an industrial freezer; it's all dandy as long as Read more...

The Help

Posted 6:09am Monday 19th September 2011 by Lu Sandston

Director: Tate Taylor (4/5) Based on the best-selling book by Kathryn Stockett, The Help was adapted for the screen and directed by Tate Taylor. It’s the late 1960s in Jackson Mississippi and Skeeter (Emma Stone) returns from university to her hometown, which is populated by a group of Read more...

Hanna

Posted 6:07am Monday 19th September 2011 by Eve Duckworth

Director: Joe Wright (3.5/5) Think The Bourne Identity but in the form of a teenage girl who has been trained by her father from babyhood to be an ice-cold killer, and you have Hanna.   The film begins sixty miles below the Arctic Circle. There, in a snowscape across which a deer Read more...

Incendies

Posted 6:05am Monday 19th September 2011 by Michaela Hunter

Director: Denis Villeneuve (5/5)   Incendies opens with an unsettling scene of child soldiers having their heads shaved, accompanied by the evocative Radiohead’s ‘You and Whose Army?’. The undefined nature of this scene flows throughout the film, which is somewhat Read more...

The Bang Bang Club

Posted 6:01am Monday 19th September 2011 by Jane Ross

Director: Steven Silver (3/5) Based on the real-life experiences of four South African photojournalists who achieved international notoriety and recognition for their documentation of the turbulent lead-up to the Republic’s first free election in 1994, The Bang Bang Club really should Read more...

Chrome yellow

Posted 3:23am Monday 12th September 2011 by Bronwyn Wallace

This week’s lunchtime theatre featured an adaption of Aldous Huxley’s 1921 novel Crome Yellow, a story that mocks the fashions of the time and delves deeply into topics such as art, education, love and life. The director went unaccredited in the programme, so I apologise for not Read more...

Chad VanGaalen – Diaper Island

Posted 2:58am Monday 12th September 2011 by Critic

  With a prolific musical and illustrative output only matched by his passionate cult following, Chad VanGaalen seems on a mission to induct listeners into his own insular, idiosyncratic world. Populated with melancholy, melody and wonderfully off-kilter compositions existing on a musical Read more...

Beastwars with Soulseller and Idiot Prayer

Posted 2:56am Monday 12th September 2011 by Critic

Once again returning to Dunedin after a spectacular May performance, the Beastwars Winter Tour saw some true sonic weight hit Re:Fuel. Friday September 2 Re:Fuel  Opening proceedings, Idiot Prayer played an unfamiliar set comprised of new material. With almost industrial Read more...

Bastion

Posted 2:53am Monday 12th September 2011 by Markus Ho

Platforms: PC, XBLA You can’t help but feel like a child as you play through Bastion, bright-eyed and attentive, completely captivated by the story of the Great Calamity. “Proper story supposed to start from the beginning. Ain't so simple with this one” is how the story of Read more...

Moroccan chickpeas with spicy paella

Posted 2:51am Monday 12th September 2011 by Ruby the nutritionist

Chickpeas are just the best. Every time I go home for a holiday I fill a gym bag with delicious things from my mum’s pantry (Air NZ “sports allowance”, thank you!), including various nuts and seeds and dried fruit and, of course, cans of delicious legumey goodness. Mum just sighs wearily and reminds Read more...

The Guard

Posted 2:46am Monday 12th September 2011 by Daniel F. Benson-Guiu

Director: John Michael McDonagh (4.5/5)  Your average Dubliner would think a small town in rural Ireland wouldn’t need a policeman. Connemara, 200 km west of Dublin, doesn’t have a cop, well, at least not a conventional one. Jerry Boyle (Brendan Gleeson) could not care Read more...

Senna

Posted 2:43am Monday 12th September 2011 by Theo Kay

Director: Asif Kapadia (5/5) Senna is an unforgettable film. The documentary examines the public career of Formula One driver and Brazilian national icon Ayrton Senna. At the same time it presents an extremely personal portrait of a man who revolutionised the racing world. There is no doubt Read more...

The Tree of Life

Posted 2:41am Monday 12th September 2011 by Jane Ross

Director: Terrence Malick (4/5) Audiences fervent for a visual assault on the senses will find Terrence Malick’s brave new epic film, The Tree of Life, remarkably awe-inspiring. Although this year’s darling of the Cannes Film Festival and winner of the coveted Palme d’Or, Read more...

Crazy Stupid Love

Posted 2:38am Monday 12th September 2011 by Tom Ainge-Roy

Director: Glenn Ficarra (4/5) Crazy Stupid Love is quite simply a pleasant romantic comedy. With moments of brilliant humour and a surprise twist, the story goes from convenient to engaging whilst neatly avoiding the pitfalls of most rom-coms. As a caveat I should probably mention that I am a Read more...

Bound, Vanda Symon

Posted 2:12am Monday 12th September 2011 by Feby Idrus

Bound is the fourth book in Vanda Symon’s crime novel series starring Detective Sam Shephard, and it opens with a hell of a bang (kind of literally; there’s a reason why the murder victim’s face is described as “just dripping meat, bone and brain”). In fact, the opening made me think “Wow, she’s Read more...

SARAH LUCAS: NZU SPIRIT OF EWE

Posted 2:01am Monday 12th September 2011 by Critic

Sarah Lucas was a central figure among the wave of young British artists (YBAs), such as Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin, who took the international art world by storm in the Nineties. Lucas is an artist whose practice spans from photography, sculpture and installation. Her works are Read more...

Cult Film of the Week: Taffin (1988)

Posted 4:27am Monday 5th September 2011 by

Director: Francis Megahy Cast: Pierce Brosnan, Ray McAnally, Alison Doody Taffin resided in relative obscurity until early this year when the Adam & Joe Show unearthed what has since become an internet meme – Pierce Brosnan, as the title character Taffin, screaming: “Then Read more...

Dues Ex

Posted 4:25am Monday 5th September 2011 by Critic

  Choice. That, fundamentally, is the purpose of interactivity. 2000’s Deus Ex opens with a simple choice made by the player on an understated wharf on Liberty Island. The rickety wood panels are rendered in graphics that were archaic even when the game was released, but Read more...

Blocks That Matter

Posted 4:22am Monday 5th September 2011 by Critic

Platforms: PC, OS X, (2.5/5 Computers, even laptops, are bulky and cumbersome. You need to wrestle with the lid, then patiently wait as the internal programming of ‘the hive from 2005’ trips over itself, straining to open its own operating system. That’s the problem with Read more...

Woyzeck

Posted 4:19am Monday 5th September 2011 by Ben Blackface

Georg Büchner translated by John Mackendric; directed by Anna Parsons and Aaron Mayes; starring Joel Rees, Dianne Pulham, Sam Irwin, Jacob McDowell, Lockie Scott When I saw that Woyzeck was in the Lunchtime Theatre programme the word that came to mind was “ambitious”, not that I Read more...

Avenue Q

Posted 4:16am Monday 5th September 2011 by

Avenue Q is a simple coming-of-age parable about finding your purpose in life - oh, and it is also a Broadway musical. Marketed as Sesame Street for adults, Avenue Q is pretty much just that: cheerful (and not so cheerful) puppets and people interact, discovering how to deal with life and all Read more...

Nevernudes – Cereal EP

Posted 4:12am Monday 5th September 2011 by Richard Ley-Hamilton

After experiencing the Nevernudes’ First EP back in late 2009, I stared at my iTunes, somewhat unconvinced. Their abrasive and darkened delivery was quite discouraging, especially to my conventional-music-adoring ears, and left the idea of a second listen seem fairly daunting. However, Read more...

Wugazi – 13 Chambers

Posted 4:11am Monday 5th September 2011 by Sam Valentine

    In the post-Dangermouse era, where the Beatles met Jay-Z and created history in the process, the rap/rock mash-up has been a mixture of occasional high peaks, and diminishing returns. For every triumph of introduction and re-imagination (The Grey Album), there have been Read more...

Billy T - Te Movie

Posted 4:06am Monday 5th September 2011 by Maya Turei

Directed by Ian Mune, (5/5). Billy T – Te Movie is awesome. Ian Mune does a wonderful job of exploring Billy T James as an icon and most importantly, as a person. It was really interesting to watch the difference between his on-stage and off-stage personae develop. A New Zealand Read more...

How I Ended This Summer

Posted 4:04am Monday 5th September 2011 by Eve Duckworth

Directed by Shinsuke Sato, (2.5/5).   A prizewinner at both the Berlin and London film festivals, How I Ended This Summer is set and shot amongst the remoteness of the Arctic Circle. Amongst this breath taking landscape, two meteorologists operate a weather station, gathering detailed Read more...

The Trip

Posted 4:00am Monday 5th September 2011 by Jane Ross

Directed by Michael Winterbottom, (4/5). Anyone who sat through the end credits of Michael Winterbottom’s film within a film Tristram Shandy: a Cock and Bull Story was aptly rewarded with the side-splitting comedic brilliance of Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon’s sparred and improvised Read more...

Love Story

Posted 3:53am Monday 5th September 2011 by Henry Feltham

Directed by Florian Habicht, (4.5/5).   There’s a point in Florian Habicht’s Love Story where he faces the camera and confesses ‘I fall in love so often.’ Not quite explaining, not quite apologising. ‘It happens all the time,’ he sighs. The fatalism is Read more...

Love Story

Posted 3:51am Monday 5th September 2011 by Henry Feltham

Directed by Florian Habicht, (4.5/5). There’s a point in Florian Habicht’s Love Story where he faces the camera and confesses ‘I fall in love so often.’ Not quite explaining, not quite apologising. ‘It happens all the time,’ he sighs. The fatalism is no Read more...

SUTURE SELF, DUNEDIN SCHOOL OF ART GALLERY

Posted 3:25am Monday 5th September 2011 by Critic

Curated by Victoria Bell and featuring works by Jenny Bain, Michele Beevers, Victoria Bell, Neil Emmerson, Tenille Lategan, Simone Montgomery & Karen Taiaroa Suture Self is an exhibition featuring the work of staff, recent graduates and a current masters student from the Dunedin School of Art. Read more...

2 be S-Pacific

Posted 1:17am Friday 26th August 2011 by Kathryn Hurst

Directed by Nylla Ah-Kuoi Tamati, (3.5/5). Best. Welcome. EVER! The whole cast cheered each audience member inside as they clapped along to music that I’m pretty sure was part of the soundtrack for Sione’s Wedding. Which, as we all know, is good music; it makes me feel like a cool Read more...

Liam Finn w/ The Drab Doo-Riffs

Posted 11:38pm Monday 22nd August 2011 by Sam Valentine

Thursday August 11 - ReFuel, Dunedin Fresh from releasing the awaited follow up to 2008’s treasured I’ll Be Lightning, it was a typically energised and affable Liam Finn who appeared onstage to celebrate the release of FOMO last Thursday night. With his new material simultaneously Read more...

Cult Classic: Just Cause 2

Posted 11:36pm Monday 22nd August 2011 by Toby Hills

You resent the presence of a story from the opening picosecond of Just Cause 2. It's the bland characters and the plot about some dictator who's all bad and such that are responsible initially for this reaction. But a few seconds later, the screen will literally go completely pitch black to load Read more...

Trauma

Posted 11:34pm Monday 22nd August 2011 by Toby Hills

Platforms: OSX, PC, LINUX There's a looming sense of effort in Trauma. Not the good kind. The strained kind: “Come on guys. We've got to be evocative. We've just got to. Otherwise what will happen? I don't know. Jeez guys. Jeez.” It's not appealing when a game shamelessly begs for Read more...

Chicken Tonight?

Posted 11:31pm Monday 22nd August 2011 by Susie Krieble

You may have noticed that the vast majority of recipes this year in Critic have been vegetarian. This is for two reasons: 1) meat is expensive and we are povo and 2) the food editor and 90% of the contributors live meat-free and vege-plenty. However, we understand that not everyone is this way Read more...

Cafe Review - Everyday Gourmet

Posted 11:28pm Monday 22nd August 2011 by Pippa Schaffler

466 George Street, down the road from Rob Roy. 5 Stars. Prices: Flat White: $4.20, Long Black: $3.20, Mocha: $4.70 Why I came here: A friend and I felt the need for a coffee to get through our Friday morning lectures and decided to venture towards George St Atmosphere: Cute, Read more...

Director Profile: David Cronenberg

Posted 11:17pm Monday 22nd August 2011 by Theo Kay

David Cronenberg is a Canadian-born director who began a career in film in 1969. His early years were marked by a series of low-budget sci-fi horrors which jolted his name into the public mind. Cronenberg's work continues to seamlessly mutate and fill the gaps in our subconscious. His pictures Read more...

Glee: The 3D Concert Movie

Posted 11:16pm Monday 22nd August 2011 by Phoebe Harrop

Directed by Kevin Tancharoen, (5/5). Glee: The 3D Concert Movie was possibly the best 90 minutes of my life. As its somewhat unimaginative title suggests, the movie was not actually a feature-length Glee episode (glepisode?), but was in fact a 3D film version of the Glee stage show which Read more...

Larry Crowne

Posted 11:14pm Monday 22nd August 2011 by Julia Sandston

Directed by Tom Hanks, (3.5/5). Larry Crowne is Tom Hank’s sophomore attempt at writing and directing a film. Sitting a little uncomfortably between drama and comedy, it isn’t entirely sure of itself, but it is otherwise enjoyable and relatively easy viewing.   Larry Read more...

Gantz

Posted 11:12pm Monday 22nd August 2011 by Sam McChesney

Directed by Shinsuke Sato, (1.5/5). Allegedly, you will either love Gantz or hate it. My experience of the film was certainly consistent with this principle. And hint: I didn’t love it.   Let me make one thing clear: I am not opposed to films based on comic books. Scott Read more...

Miss Representation

Posted 11:10pm Monday 22nd August 2011 by Sarah Baillie

Directed by Jennifer Siebel Newsom, (5/5). Before you stop reading because you think this film looks like it’s only for crazy feminists, wait! It’s not. Miss Representation is a film that every person in the world should watch. An exploration of the impact of the negative portrayal Read more...

Lauren Kate

Posted 10:33pm Monday 22nd August 2011 by Sarah Maessen

The New Stephanie Meyer? I met Lauren Kate with low expectations. A quick google and perusal of Wikipedia produced multiple parallels between her work and Twilight, the vampire series that has inexplicably reached demigod status in the world of teenage literature. Kate is from Texas, the Read more...

ART & MUSIC

Posted 10:31pm Monday 22nd August 2011 by Hana Aoake

The Dowling Street Project, a two-day exhibition August 13 & 14 Group show: Anya Sinclair, Craig Freeborn, Dominique Papoutsou, Emma Johansson, Flynn Morris-Clarke, Mishca Rhys-Hill, Sally Hill and Sally Shephard   The recent two-day exhibition at the Dowling Street Project featured Read more...

Hands

Posted 5:00am Monday 15th August 2011 by Jen Aitken

Written by CE Gatchalian, Directed by Alex Wilson, Staring Abby Howells, Trubie-Dylan Smith and Jacob McDowell, (4/5). Hands, by Canadian playwright CE Gatchalian, depicts a couple - Phillip and Mary - who are confronted with the banality of their black-and-white lives. Their conversation Read more...

THE HORRORS: SKYING

Posted 4:04am Monday 15th August 2011 by Basti Menkes

From the gimmicky, narcotic goth implosions of their debut album Strange House, to the stylish post-punk/shoegazing of their sophomore Primary Colours, The Horrors have demonstrated that their metamorphosis is an ongoing affair. Guitars have gone from screeching to fuzzy, drums from driving to Read more...

Call of Juarez: The Cartel

Posted 4:01am Monday 15th August 2011 by Toby Hills

Platforms: Xbox 360, PS3, PC, (1.5/5). Call of Juarez 1 and 2 were interesting for roughly, if not exactly, two reasons. #1: The Wild West, at the time, was a cool and totally underutilized setting for an FPS and #2: you played as two protagonists with polar opposite goals, one grizzled Read more...

Layers of Goodness

Posted 4:00am Monday 15th August 2011 by Niki Lomax

My flatmate is a bit of a genius when it comes to vegetarian lasagne. General flat consensus: mince is good, but pumpkin and feta is great. This may have something to do with the fact the majority of our flat is vegetarian, or at least vege-flexible (i.e. doesn’t eat meat usually, but is partial to Read more...

Biutiful

Posted 3:57am Monday 15th August 2011 by Loulou Callister-Baker

Directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, (3.5/5). In Biutiful, Innarritu presents a dark story set amongst the labyrinth-like streets of Barcelona. The film is cyclic, both beginning and ending with death. We watch Uxbal (Javier Bardem), who is the father of two young children and the husband Read more...

Page One: inside the New York Times (Film Fest)

Posted 3:55am Monday 15th August 2011 by Sam McChesney

Directed by Andrew Rossi, (4/5). Page One is the story of an institution in decline, hurt by plummeting advertising revenue and enforced layoffs. It is also shamelessly biased, towards both the New York Times and traditional print media in general. Its protagonists are portrayed as heroic Read more...