Archive

Café review - Green Acorn Cafe

Posted 2:50am Tuesday 8th March 2011 by Pip Schaffler

72 Albany St (opposite the Central Library). (2/5) Prices: Flat white – $4.50, Long black – $3.50, Mocha - $4.80   Atmosphere: dreary and tired   Service: prompt but we were the only people in the place.   Location: very convenient – opposite the Read more...

Winter’s Bone

Posted 2:47am Tuesday 8th March 2011 by Tom Ainge-Roy

Directed by Debra Granik. 4/5 Winter’s Bone isn’t by any stretch of the imagination a feel-good movie. That said, those of you who can stomach the ceaselessly grey skies, endlessly bleak atmosphere and uncomfortable realism of an American South steeped in meth addiction are in for a Read more...

The King’s Speech

Posted 2:45am Tuesday 8th March 2011 by Sarah Baillie

Directed by Tom Hooper. 5/5 So yeah, The King's Speech won Oscars for Best Picture, Director, Actor and Screenplay at the Academy Awards last week; I guess it deserves a mention in the hallowed pages of Critic. Not just another “historical drama” (a genre which can be boring), the film Read more...

In A Better World

Posted 2:44am Tuesday 8th March 2011 by Nicole Muriel

Directed by Susanne Bier. 4.5/5 Danish drama In a Better World won both the Academy Award and Golden Globe this year for Best Foreign Language Film. With the action divided between small-town Denmark and an African refugee camp, it follows the lives of two children, Christian (William Jøhnk Read more...

Love Birds

Posted 2:39am Tuesday 8th March 2011 by Hamish Gavin

Directed by Paul Murphy. 3/5 Love Birds continues the recent New Zealand trend of lighthearted genre films. Since Sione’s Wedding we’ve had No.2, Boy, Paul Murphy’s Second Hand Wedding and now Love Birds, also directed by Murphy. Starring Rhys Darby and Sally Hawkins, Love Birds Read more...

Harold and Maude - (1971)

Posted 2:36am Tuesday 8th March 2011 by Ben Blakely

Directed by Hal Ashby. Starring: Bud Cort, Ruth Gordon, Vivian Pickles. Harold is a young man, perhaps late teens/early twenties. He enjoys staging suicide attempts and going to funerals. Maude is seventy-nine, she enjoys stealing cars, collecting and making art-works and going to funerals. What a Read more...

DUD: The Dunedin Comic Revue

Posted 1:49am Tuesday 8th March 2011 by Sarah Maessen

Author: The Dunedin Comic Collective (3/5) In stark contrast to The Good Book, the Dunedin Comic Collective’s first comic revue is blissfully unpretentious.   A long time coming, this publication is a selection of works by members of the Dunedin Comic Collective and friends. It Read more...

The Good Book

Posted 1:47am Tuesday 8th March 2011 by Sarah Maessen

Author: Lucinda McMeeken and Trudy Cockroft. Self Published (2/5) When you choose such a name as The Good Book, you’re giving yourself awfully big shoes to fill and it doesn’t appear that Dunedin’s ‘fresh young designers’ have particularly large feet. Obvious Read more...

Permanent Vacation

Posted 1:42am Tuesday 8th March 2011 by Sarah Maessen

Author: Kerry Ann Lee. Self Published (4/5) Kerry Ann Lee knows her stuff. She’s been producing zines for at least a decade, with the result that her latest appears effortless and polished. Permanent Vacation is essentially a collection of musings on travel; what it’s like to be an Read more...

Reuben Moss, Don’t look up

Posted 1:38am Tuesday 8th March 2011 by Hana Aoake

Rice and Beans Gallery (February 24 - March 15, 2011). Entering Reuben Moss’s Don’t look up creates a strong sense of having entered a disjointed environment, with many of the exhibition’s core ideas leaving the viewer feeling distant. Don’t look up examines the horrors Read more...

We Will All Burn In Hell

Posted 1:35am Tuesday 8th March 2011 by Lauren Hayes

a gallery (February 10 – March 5) While the a gallery, located two kilometres south of the university, is slightly outside the usual student stomping ground, it's worth the walk to catch the current exhibition. We Will All Burn In Hell is the first show to be held in the new artist-run space, and Read more...

Review: The Wonder of Sex

Posted 4:54am Monday 28th February 2011 by Jen Aitken

Written by Patrick Barlow, Directed by Lisa Warrington. Staring Phil Grieve and Keith Adams. (2/5) The Wonder of Sex spans the ‘sexual’ history of the last 2000 years, coincidently the combined age of the audience at tonight’s performance, few though they were. Thankfully, Read more...

Melvins

Posted 4:34am Monday 28th February 2011 by Sam Valentine

Re:fuel, Dunedin. 20th February 2011 With the audience like black-t-shirt-wearing, leather-clad moths to the proverbial flame, Re:Fuel seemed close to capacity as the Melvins took the stage. The oddly placed Sunday timeslot seemed to have deterred few.  It was as if the crowd were sending Read more...

Radiohead – The King of Limbs

Posted 4:31am Monday 28th February 2011 by Sam Valentine

Nearly three and a half years after their masterpiece In Rainbows, Radiohead return with The King of Limbs, which can only be described as a challenging album. With the first few listens reaping little reward, it would be safe to describe this release as one for the Radiohead devotees. In the Read more...

Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

Posted 4:28am Monday 28th February 2011 by Sam Valentine

Hey Pitchfork, I’mma let you finish but… Probably the most (over) hyped album of 2010, Kanye West’s opus My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (MBDTF) certainly deserves a post-uproar review. Drawing on the narcissism and bragging of his previous album, MBDTF takes Kanye’s musical Read more...

Brains – constant love forever

Posted 4:26am Monday 28th February 2011 by Sam Valentine

“give me highbrow, or give me death” With the long awaited constant love forever, ex-Dunedin trio brains should silence all ‘the haters’. Recorded in surprisingly fitting spacious high fidelity, a masterful ear for melody slowly reveals itself across the ten tracks. Removing the almost Read more...

Magika

Posted 4:21am Monday 28th February 2011 by Toby Hills

In Magicka, Arrowhead Game Studios have constructed a game where magic feels as powerful as it should, where an exploding magma ball behaves exactly as you would expect it to, yet within an incredibly balanced, robust system of game mechanics. Energy beams shift with slow weight, feeling like Read more...

NOT TOAST

Posted 4:15am Monday 28th February 2011 by Niki Lomax

This being my fourth year in this fair southern city, I am well acquainted with the inadequacies of the student diet. It’s fair to say that in the last three years I have consumed my body weight several times over in toast and pasta. Toast for breakfast, toast for lunch, pasta - usually covered in Read more...

The Fighter

Posted 4:13am Monday 28th February 2011 by Mike Jensen

Directed by David O. Russell. Hoyts, Rialto 5/5 I went to see The Fighter knowing only that it was a boxing film, that Mark Wahlberg and Christian Bale were its stars, and that it was a nominee for an Oscar for Best Picture. Other than that, I had no idea what to expect. So as I watched the Read more...

Black Swan

Posted 4:09am Monday 28th February 2011 by Alec Dawson

Directed by Arren Aronofsky. Hoyts, Rialto 4/5 Darren Aronofsky, who set back the drug consumption of a generation by several years with Requiem for a Dream, has now turned his camera on ballet in Black Swan. Aronofsky certainly did enough to convince me, with my limited knowledge of the art form, Read more...

127 Hours

Posted 4:08am Monday 28th February 2011 by Matt Chapman

Directed by Danny Boyle. Hoyts, Rialto 4/5 How far would you go to survive when you have no hope left? Such is the question that director Danny Boyle raises with his latest film, 127 Hours. Boyle, best known for directing Slumdog Millionaire, chronicles the true-life ordeal of climber Aron Read more...

Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1965)

Posted 4:04am Monday 28th February 2011 by Benjamin Blakely

Directed by Russ Meyer. Starring: Tura Satana, Haji, Lori Williams & Susan Bernard. Speed, sex and violence are the cornerstones of any blockbuster today as they’re sweet tools to sell shit. Russ Meyer was well practiced at this combo long before the likes of Tarantino made their careers Read more...

Fashion comes to Dunedin

Posted 3:44am Monday 28th February 2011 by Mahoney Turnbull

Dunedin could be coming dangerously close to breeding an uber-dark design aesthetic, a blueprint for conformist culture and generations of sinister scarfies. Nom*D. Need I say more? This year’s autumn-winter collection? Danse Macabre. How very Antwerpian of you, Margi Robertson. Taking us Read more...

The God Instinct

Posted 3:39am Monday 28th February 2011 by Jonathan Jong

Author: Jesse Bering. Publisher: Nicholas Brealey. (4/5) ‘God (and others like Him) evolved in human minds as an “adaptive illusion”, one that directly helped our ancestors solve the unique problem of human gossip.’   Thus runs the central thesis of Jesse Read more...

The Death of Lanyop

Posted 3:26am Monday 28th February 2011 by Hana Aoake

Hello and welcome back to all to Dunedin students. I implore you to discover and engage with the unique cultural environment that Dunedin has to offer. Earlier this year, the Tenancy Tribunal ruled that artist Larry Matthews could not open his small art gallery {Lagniappe} Lanyop to the Read more...

ONEFEST - part 02

Posted 10:55pm Sunday 26th September 2010 by Simon Wallace

The final night in Radio One’s Onefest series for 2010 draws together soul-inspired low-end theorists from across Aotearoa. Their renown is booming by the day. You will doubtless hear their talents expounded in articles and interviews in the future – but, for now, here are their words on records and Read more...

Mr. Biscuits

Posted 10:54pm Sunday 26th September 2010 by Sam Brookland

If you have a more than passing familiarity with the Dunedin music scene, you're no doubt aware of the way in which bursts of new bands, moments of creativity and excitement, and a thrilling feeling of Dunedin being the centre of the musical world come and go in waves every three or four years; and Read more...

Truth - Puppets

Posted 10:51pm Sunday 26th September 2010 by Simon Wallace

Aquatic Lab (4/5) Truth’s halfstep swagger is no lightweight matter. Disembodied vocals lie in industrial bass-weight as the trio pursues sound as physical presence, with walls of low-end set against pneumatic percussion. Their debut album, Puppets has to be felt to be believed. Read more...

Truth

Posted 10:47pm Sunday 26th September 2010 by Simon Wallace

Essentially New Zealand's most internationally recognisable dubstep export, this Christchurch based producer/DJ trio have, in member Tristan Roake's words, "been on around forty-five plane flights … and played close to forty shows" over the last eight months. Dividing this air-mileage and Read more...

Live review: Mountaineater and Operation Rolling Thunder

Posted 10:34pm Sunday 26th September 2010 by Sam Valentine

Promoted (justifiably) as “the absolute pinnacle of Dunedin’s sonic rock spectrum,” Mountaineater and Operation Rolling Thunder at 12 Below certainly delivered on its promise, proving Dunedin is endowed with two of the greatest sonic rock bands in the world.  Having never witnessed Read more...

Tono & the Finance Company’s ‘Barry Smith of Hamilton’ (Pikachunes remix)

Posted 10:29pm Sunday 26th September 2010 by Staff Reporter

This week Critic had the pleasure of listening to a new Pikachunes track. Pikachunes is Miles McDougall, a Christchurch-born Auckland based electro/Detroit house act. The new Pikachunes track is a remix of Tono & the Finance Company’s ‘Barry Smith of Hamilton’. It’s no surprise Read more...

Glee

Posted 4:56am Monday 23rd August 2010 by

Fridays, 9.30pm TV3 2/5    It's a presumptuous title, really – Glee – but for many of the show’s weekly viewers it amounts to exactly that. Why? The answer is at once both obvious and unfathomable, depending on where you stand. The show is immediately Read more...

LTT Review: A Gaggle of Saints

Posted 4:53am Monday 23rd August 2010 by Jen Aitken

Written by Neil Labute Directed by Katie King Starring William Tait-Jamieson and Emere Leitch-Munro (2.5/5)       A Gaggle of Saints, taken from Neil Labute’s Bash trilogy, is a confronting piece about homophobia. What is so wonderful about this Read more...

Avenged Sevenfold - Nightmare

Posted 4:50am Monday 23rd August 2010 by Caleb Wicks

Warner Brothers 3/5      In 2005, Avenged Sevenfold took the world by storm with their album City of Evil. Critics raved, girls screamed, and emo kids found another band to add to their death list. The band’s self-titled album, released in 2007, did not have the Read more...

Pixies Live

Posted 4:43am Monday 23rd August 2010 by Dave Local

CBS Canterbury Arena, Christchurch 3 August 2010    The Pixies are, unashamedly, my favourite band of all time. My formative musical experiences are intricately tied to their mixture of alternating screams and breathy grunts. But this is some twenty years later, and a band that Read more...

Turok

Posted 4:41am Monday 23rd August 2010 by Ethan Khalsa

Platform: PS3, XBox 360, PC (3/5)    Turok was one of the earlier games released for the PS3 and XBox 360. It was greatly anticipated due to its earlier fame on the Nintendo 64 but after its release was generally viewed as a great disappointment. The graphics weren't great, Read more...

A tribute to the in-between

Posted 4:39am Monday 23rd August 2010 by Tien-Yi Toh

The reality is that fantastic food places are rare and far in between, particularly in a small(ish) city like Dunedin. We are lucky enough to have a few restaurants that serve exceptionally good – sometimes even outstanding – food, but the rest mostly just fall in the ‘not bad’, ‘okay’, or Read more...

Soul Kitchen

Posted 4:36am Monday 23rd August 2010 by Edwin Ouellette

Directed by Fatih Akin Rialto 3.5/5 Okay, I know. The title alone might make Soul Kitchen sound like a cross between a lame Snoop Dogg flick and Hell’s Kitchen, but don’t let that ruin your appetite for Fatih Akin’s latest lighthearted comedy. Besides, where Read more...

Step Up 3D

Posted 4:34am Monday 23rd August 2010 by Nicole Muriel

Directed by John Chu Hoyts 1.5/5 The opening sequence of this third installment of the Step Up series is one of those candid camera interview montages, with the characters talking about what dance means to them. They’re speaking from the heart: there’s no doubt the Read more...

Skin

Posted 4:33am Monday 23rd August 2010 by Sarah Baillie

Directed Anthony Fabian Rialto 4/5 kin is a biographical film about the life of Sandra Laing, a ‘coloured’ child born to white parents during the apartheid era in South Africa. Despite her skin being distinctly darker than her parents, an unusual phenomenon, Sandra Read more...

The Girl Who Played With Fire

Posted 4:31am Monday 23rd August 2010 by Aleksandar Vuckovic

Directed by Daniel Alfredson Rialto (3/5)       The Girl Who Played with Fire is a Swedish crime thriller and sequel to the highly acclaimedThe Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.    The film picks up where the original left off, with Lisbeth Salandar Read more...

Mirror

Posted 4:13am Monday 23rd August 2010 by Jonathan Jong

Author: Jeannie Baker Publisher: Walker Books (4/5)  There is something unspeakably happy-making about illustrated children’s books that are unapologetically forthright in their social messages. Jeannie Baker’s latest – Mirror – tells what is Read more...

How to Teach Quantum Physics to Your Dog

Posted 4:12am Monday 23rd August 2010 by Jonathan Jong

Author: Chad Orzel Publisher: Oneworld (4/5) Particle-wave duality is not the doctrine that photons and elections (etc.) are simultaneously waves and particles. Neither are they really particles with wave-like properties or really waves with particle-like properties. Rather, Read more...

A Life on Gorge River – New Zealand’s Remotest Family

Posted 4:11am Monday 23rd August 2010 by Brittany Travers

Author: Robert Long Publisher: Random House (2/5)      This book tweaked my interest ever since the author, Robert Long, was given a rock star’s welcome at the Dunedin Public Library, where he launched this début book. It’s the sort of story Read more...

Inherent Vice

Posted 4:10am Monday 23rd August 2010 by Henry Feltham

Author: Thomas Pynchon (4/5)    When you are famous for writing difficult books, there will always be a handful of people who are going to be put off when you write a noir detective thriller, set in seventies surf-hippie Los Angeles (where, incidentally, Pynchon – age Read more...

Interview with Larry Matthews - Owner of {lanyop} lagniappe small art gallery

Posted 4:06am Monday 23rd August 2010 by Staff Reporter

Tucked away behind Mou Very bar on George Street is {lanyop} lagniappe small art gallery, an offbeat and unique art space that is only open when the sun goes down. Gallery-goers view works by candlelight while being serenaded by live piano. Critic talks to owner Larry Matthews. What was the Read more...

Something Quartet - preview

Posted 5:01am Tuesday 10th August 2010 by Logan Valentine

This week I had the pleasure of hearing the track ‘Toilet Doorhandles’, an advance release from the Something Quartet’s forthcoming album. Just to fill you in, the Something Quartet are usually a Septet who squash half of Dunedin’s music scene into a band. Bugs is the lead music director of the Read more...

The Twitch - Time For Change

Posted 5:00am Tuesday 10th August 2010 by Raymond Sawkins

Rangi Records / Border Music (4.5/5) Well, if you know anything about The Twitch, you will know they are experts at putting maximum attitude into everything they wave their wand at. This piece of pure Rock ‘n’ Roll magic is no exception. Just looking at the cover will Read more...

Crackdown 2

Posted 4:54am Tuesday 10th August 2010 by Damien Khalsa

Platforms: Xbox 360 ( 3/5)       Crackdown 2 is a sequel to Crackdown, one of the first sandbox games on the Xbox 360. Crackdown was an odd game in that few reviewers gave it better than average reviews, but it nevertheless appeared on their lists of personal Read more...

Chilli, Garlic & Prawn Vermicelli

Posted 4:49am Tuesday 10th August 2010 by Tien-Yi Toh

I think it’s time for another pasta recipe. This is the dish that I am most proud of, even though I am not sure that I have the right to be proud of something that isn’t an original idea. I watched Jamie Oliver make something like it on TV once so I just followed the basic rules and Read more...