Archive

Selfish, Shallow, and Self-Absorbed: Sixteen Writers on the Decision Not to Have Kids

Posted 2:25pm Sunday 12th July 2015 by Bridget Vosburgh

Selfish, Shallow, and Self-Absorbed: Sixteen Writers on the Decision Not to Have Kids is a collection of sixteen personal essays written by professional writers about one particular decision that perfect strangers often feel they have a say in: choosing not to have children. This choice should not Read more...

Jono Das - Illustrations EP

Posted 2:20pm Sunday 12th July 2015 by Daniel Munro

Jono Das is a man of many talents. Along with producing, he uses his creativity in design, art and videography. The title of Das’s debut EP Illustrations is a reflection of him as an artist with “beats being his new drawing”. The EP has been two years in the making, with the Read more...

Singles in Review | Issue 15

Posted 2:15pm Sunday 12th July 2015 by Basti Menkes

Beach House - “Sparks” Baltimore duo, Beach House, is at the forefront of modern dream pop, a genre built on whispered vocals and shimmering walls of sound. A criticism frequently leveled at the genre is that in striving for its particular kind of gossamer beauty, dream pop Read more...

Mortal Kombat X

Posted 2:02pm Sunday 12th July 2015 by Carl Dingwall

Mortal Kombat is one of those series that everyone knows about, even if they don’t play games. People probably recognise its memorable theme song and two cheesy movies, the classic announcer shouting “FINISH HIM!” and, of course, its gratuitous violence and gore. So now that we are Read more...

Interview with Jacob Rajan

Posted 1:57pm Sunday 12th July 2015 by Mandy Te

Indian Ink’s play, Kiss the Fish, will be coming to Dunedin soon. Mandy Te caught up with Jacob Rajan to understand his background and how the Indian Ink Theatre Company was born. What personally drew you towards acting and pursuing acting professionally? I was never into performance Read more...

Theatre Review: Punk Rock

Posted 1:49pm Sunday 12th July 2015 by Clementine Flatley

Rating: 5/5 Teenagers are fascinating. As a “teacher’s pet” teenager myself, I was always engrossed in the tumultuous adventures of my peers. The lives of the adolescents portrayed in Punk Rock gave me an enjoyable glimpse back at those old adventures. One minute I would find Read more...

Far from the Madding Crowd

Posted 1:43pm Sunday 12th July 2015 by Simon Kingsley-Holmes

Rating: 2/5 The success of Nicolas Winding Refn’s operatic kick in the teeth with Bronson and Tomas Alfredson’s hushed, emotionally muzzled Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy has given audiences high expectations when it comes to Scandinavian directors and the films they are tied Read more...

Terminator Genisys

Posted 1:36pm Sunday 12th July 2015 by Alex Campbell-Hunt

Rating: 3/5 Like many Terminator fans, I believe that the franchise should have ended it all after Terminator 2 but, with a new instalment added to the classic franchise, I couldn’t help but have a mix of high hopes and low expectations for Terminator Genisys. Set in 2029, the film Read more...

Love & Mercy

Posted 1:33pm Sunday 12th July 2015 by Mandy Te

Rating: 4/5 Biographical films require a certain delicacy but, since someone’s life cannot easily and wholly fit into a chunk of two hours, they often fall into the potholes of inaccuracy and over-dramatisation in favour of entertainment value. Bill Pohlad’s artistic approach to Brian Read more...

The Ultimate Cauliflower Cheese

Posted 1:26pm Sunday 12th July 2015 by Sophie Edmonds

There is this restaurant in Auckland that I love called Depot. It is amazing. When I am feeling balla, I often go there. Clearly last week I felt like I was just rolling in it, and I managed to end up there twice. I am completely hooked on their wood-fired cauliflower cheese. Not only is it fired in Read more...

How to Go to an Art Gallery

Posted 1:21pm Sunday 12th July 2015 by Loulou Callister-Baker

Art galleries are my sanctuaries. They are perfect places for quiet reflection and interesting interactions with created pieces or performances. However, I do have my off days. These are the kind of days where the sky seems an extra, disturbing tint of yellow or when it feels like everyone in the Read more...

The Best of E3

Posted 2:04pm Sunday 5th July 2015 by Brandon Johnstone

Acouple of weeks ago, the video game convention juggernaut E3, or “Electronic Entertainment Expo” came and went, leaving gamers all over the globe squealing at their computer screens (or in person if they were lucky/rich enough to be at the convention). Essentially, E3 is a huge Read more...

Sparrow Hill Road

Posted 1:53pm Sunday 5th July 2015 by Bridget Vosburgh

Sparrow Hill Road, by Seanan McGuire, is an urban fantasy story with horror elements. The narrator, Rose, died in the 1950s, murdered when she was just sixteen, and went on to become an urban legend to the living and a guide into the afterlife for the dead and dying. Bobby Cross, the undead man who Read more...

Interview with Lara Macgregor

Posted 1:49pm Sunday 5th July 2015 by Mandy Te

Critic had a chat to artistic director, actor and director Lara Macgregor about directing Punk Rock and what it’s like to work both behind the scenes and on stage.  Punk Rock will be showing from 27 June to 18 July at Fortune Theatre. You’ve acted in several theatre Read more...

Inside Out

Posted 1:40pm Sunday 5th July 2015 by Rachael Hodge

Rating: 5/5 In an interview, Peter Docter once said “when people go to a movie, they want to see some experience of themselves on the screen”, but when I watch a film where the target audience is under the age of twelve, I don’t have high expectations. However, Walt Disney and Read more...

Man Up

Posted 1:37pm Sunday 5th July 2015 by Jaxon Langley

Rating: 3/5 Unfortunately, the title is not ironic. But don’t let this be off-putting: Man Up is an entirely self-aware film and doesn’t set out to subvert genre tropes but, instead, fully embraces them. For the most part, Man Up entertains due to its sharp script delivered by strong Read more...

Jurassic World

Posted 1:32pm Sunday 5th July 2015 by Alex Campbell-Hunt

Rating: 3/5 Like many of us, I was looking forward to a triumphant revival of the franchise that pretty much defined my childhood, but, deep down, I knew I was probably setting myself up for disappointment. My eventual reaction fell somewhere between those poles. Jurassic World Read more...

The Last Five Years

Posted 1:29pm Sunday 5th July 2015 by Mandy Te

Rating: 3/5 Jason Robert Brown’s The Last Five Years is a musical that is literally all singing and no dialogue; it isn’t the first theatre production that comes to my mind when adapting a stage play into a film. However, the storyline of The Last Five Years creates a raw and genuine Read more...

Third3ye

Posted 1:23pm Sunday 5th July 2015 by Daniel Munro

Third3ye are not your average hip hop collective — instead of your typical bars they bring a spiritually-conscious form of hip hop. Third3ye are part of this year’s Re-Ori line up, so Critic music reporter Daniel Munro caught up with Bronson, one half of Third3ye, to talk all things from Read more...

Muse Drones

Posted 1:20pm Sunday 5th July 2015 by Basti Menkes

Rating: 2/5 Regardless of whether we asked for one, Muse are back with a new album. Believe it or not, Drones is the seventh full-length LP from the English trio. When Muse first emerged in the late nineties, they were just another Radiohead clone. Over the next few years they forged an identity Read more...