Archive

Mr Holmes

Posted 1:23pm Sunday 9th August 2015 by Maya Dodd

Rating: 4/5 In my mind, Benedict Cumberbatch will always be Sherlock Holmes. My utter love for Benedict Cumberbatch in this role made me a little sceptical of Ian McKellen’s portrayal of Sherlock Holmes in Mr. Holmes, but his performance is worthy of recognition and, perhaps, even an Read more...

Self/less

Posted 1:20pm Sunday 9th August 2015 by Andrew Kwiatkowski

Rating: 1/5 Disappointingly, it turns out that everything good in this movie was packed into the trailer. Diagnosed with terminal cancer, Damian Hayes (Ben Kingsley) is directed to Professor Albright (Matthew Goode) who tells him about “shedding” — a medical procedure where Read more...

The Guest

Posted 1:15pm Sunday 9th August 2015 by Jaxon Langley

Rating: 4/5 In 2011, director Adam Wingard and writer Simon Barrett debuted their slasher film, You’re Next. The pair have now returned with The Guest — a thriller film with gore and pitch-black humour that offers the audience a slightly different take on home invasions. Following Read more...

Pho Ga (Vietnamese Chicken Noodle Soup)

Posted 1:06pm Sunday 9th August 2015 by Sophie Edmonds

Pho, pronounced “fa” is a clear broth soup full of noodles, herbs, chilli and the meat of your choice. It is really healthy and has flavour enough to knock your socks off. The broth is the most important part of this whole dish. Making your own really makes a difference but if you Read more...

LSD Lovin’ with Jim Cooper

Posted 1:00pm Sunday 9th August 2015 by Jess Taylor

On spotting the unassuming Brett McDowell Gallery on Dunedin’s Dowling Street, there is no trace of the trippy wonders bursting behind the gallery’s old wooden doors. The works beyond were crafted by a homegrown artistic hero, Jim Cooper, and come together in an exciting exhibition Read more...

Diaz Grimm

Posted 2:57pm Sunday 2nd August 2015 by Daniel Munro

Diaz Grimm. You may not know the name yet, but you should. Diaz Grimm has just dropped his debut album Osiris and is now headed on his first New Zealand tour. Following a sold-out show in Hamilton, Grimm is heading our way for the second show of the tour this Thursday. Critic: First up, tell us a Read more...

Chelsea Wolfe - Abyss

Posted 2:54pm Sunday 2nd August 2015 by Basti Menkes

Rating: 4/5 Chelsea Wolfe is an experimental singer-songwriter from Sacramento, California. Since her 2010 debut, The Grime and the Glow, she has incorporated sounds from the spheres of folk, electronica and heavy metal into her music. Drenched in gothic imagery and hinged upon her haunting Read more...

Foreign Gods, Inc.

Posted 2:47pm Sunday 2nd August 2015 by Bridget Vosburgh

The protagonist of Foreign Gods, Inc. — a novel of magical realism by Okey Ndibe — is Ike Uzondu, a Nigerian living in New York who is unable to get the high-paying work he is qualified for, due to his accent. Instead, he works as a taxi driver. When his green-card-driven marriage ends Read more...

Sichuan Dan Dan Noodles

Posted 2:40pm Sunday 2nd August 2015 by Sophie Edmonds

O nce you have all the ingredients, assembling this noodle dish couldn’t be simpler. In fact, it is a really cheap and easy mid-week dinner option. Once you have your chilli oil, it lasts for yonks in your cupboard, and the sauce is a couple of ingredients simmered together. I recommend Read more...

Kerbal Space Program

Posted 2:33pm Sunday 2nd August 2015 by Carl Dingwall

Rating: 5/5 In space, no one can hear you scream … Or laugh uncontrollably as your space capsule spins in a similarly uncontrollable fashion towards the planet Kerbin. Welcome to Kerbal Space Program. Half physics sandbox, half management simulator, you play this game as what appears to be Read more...

Zina Swanson - For Luck

Posted 2:24pm Sunday 2nd August 2015 by Ruby Heyward

Inside the Dunedin Public Art Gallery is an aesthetically pleasing corner that contains all the luck you need. Covered in white tiles and created with a heavenly balanced composition, sits Zina Swanson’s exhibition, For Luck. It is meticulous and precise, a goldmine for those with Read more...

Ant-Man

Posted 2:19pm Sunday 2nd August 2015 by Maya Dodd

Rating: 3/5 While I’m a huge fan of the Marvel films, and the concept of a universe teeming with superheroes is my wildest dream come true, my expectations of Ant-Man were incredibly low. Ants, while known for their strength, are not something that I would rave about. They aren’t Read more...

La Chambre bleue/The Blue Room

Posted 2:16pm Sunday 2nd August 2015 by Greta Melvin

Rating: 4/5 Based on George Simenon’s novel of the same name, Mathieu Amalric’s film adaptation of La Chambre bleue is an erotic psychological thriller with an element of crime. However, La Chambre bleue doesn’t position itself as a whodunnit but, instead, invites the audience Read more...

Little Big Planet 3

Posted 2:30pm Sunday 26th July 2015 by Anonymous Bird

Little Big Planet 3 arrived late last year, and is the third instalment in Sumo Digital’s super fun and silly trilogy. The Little Big Planet franchise is known for being fun, cute and particularly creative. The games are all about promoting creativity. The playable characters are Read more...

Interview with Gabriel Griffin

Posted 2:26pm Sunday 26th July 2015 by Basti Menkes

Gabriel Griffin is a local musician and the drummer of the experimental jazz trio, Sewage. His playing style is eclectic, calling to mind percussionists like Zach Hill, Noah Lennox and Brian Chippendale. Critic caught up with Gabriel to discuss drumming, sci-fi and his latest musical Read more...

The Chemical Brothers - Born in the Echoes

Posted 2:23pm Sunday 26th July 2015 by Basti Menkes

Rating: 4/5 Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons occupy a place of honour in the museum of electronic dance music. Alongside acts like Fatboy Slim and The Prodigy, The Chemical Brothers defined the rave scene of Europe in the ’90s. Their kaleidoscopic music saw big beats and druggy, euphoric pop Read more...

A Vision of Fire: Book One of the Earthend Saga

Posted 2:15pm Sunday 26th July 2015 by Bridget Vosburgh

AVision of Fire: Book One of the Earthend Saga is a science-fiction thriller by Gillian Anderson and Jeff Rovin. As a sticker on the front aggressively proclaims, Gillian Anderson is the actor who played Dana Scully in The X-Files. After an attempt is made on India’s ambassador to the United Read more...

Interview with Virginia Heath

Posted 2:12pm Sunday 26th July 2015 by Mandy Te

Critic: When going through all the Scottish film archives, did you have specific things in mind when choosing what you would use, and how did you know which footage to pick? It was a fluid process. I wanted an overall theme of love and loss, which relates to a lot of things such as war, Read more...

Scream Season 1 (Episode 1)

Posted 2:07pm Sunday 26th July 2015 by Mandy Te

TV With slasher films being seen as a fad of the 1980s, the Scream franchise was said to have revitalised the horror genre in a way that was both satirical and enjoyable for teenagers in the 1990s. MTV’s Scream: TV Series is the television adaptation of the popular franchise and, in several Read more...

Paper Towns

Posted 2:03pm Sunday 26th July 2015 by Mandy Te

Rating 3/5 Like all things John Green, Paper Towns is a metaphor. With last year’s release of The Fault in Our Stars, comparisons will inevitably be made between these two films. However, Paper Towns — while similarly containing teenage characters who speak unnaturally — takes Read more...