Archive

Romeo and Juliet

Posted 4:31pm Sunday 13th April 2014 by Baz Macdonald

Rating: C It’s clearly not easy to adapt a classic from the stage to the screen. Many have tried and very few have succeeded. When Shakespeare is involved, these adaptations invoke the question: do you try and stay loyal to the context and language of the original text? Or do you modernise it Read more...

Stand By Me (1986)

Posted 4:31pm Sunday 13th April 2014 by Rosie Howells

Classic Film Alongside To Kill A Mockingbird, Stand By Me is by far the best film about children, for adults. Based on the Stephen King Novella The Body, Stand By Me tells the story of a ragtag group of young friends in the All American town of Castle Rock in 1959. After hearing about the Read more...

Noah

Posted 4:31pm Sunday 13th April 2014 by Simon Broadbent

Rating: B+ Rather than a faithful and preachy account of the Bible jazzed up into a feature-length, Aronofsky attempts a blend of biopic, CGI fantasy, gritty reboot, and ecological fairy-tale which moulds the well-known story of Noah into something entirely new. Any moral preaching is Read more...

Mr. Peabody and Sherman

Posted 4:31pm Sunday 13th April 2014 by Baz Macdonald

Rating: A- If you were anything like me, your childhood was full of cartoons. A personal favourite of mine was the 1960’s Rocky and Bullwinkle, a charming Cold War reactionary cartoon about a moose and a flying squirrel on the run from Russian spies. The show was made great by its excellent Read more...

The Ocean at the End of the Lane

Posted 4:31pm Sunday 13th April 2014 by James Tregonning

The Ocean at the End of the Lane is the latest novel from best-selling author Neil Gaiman. If you’ve never read any Gaiman, he’s sort of like the modern day Grimm Brothers, except there’s only one of him and he’s not German. Generally his works are modern day fairy tales with a great deal of dark, Read more...

Zine of the week - Midnight Cowgirl

Posted 4:31pm Sunday 13th April 2014 by Jacobin

22 A5 Pages - Diary format Available at Blackstar Books Now, let me tell you about a friend of mine who knew the value of meeting people without judgment. His name is Jesus. Yes, there is such a thing as Christian Anarchism and some people practice this. Midnight Cowgirl is one account Read more...

Exorcise (E)

Posted 4:31pm Sunday 13th April 2014 by Hannah Collier

Mint Gallery Exhibited until 18 April Mint Gallery is currently exhibiting EXORCISE (E) by award-winning artist James Robinson. Robinson was born in Christchurch in 1972 and currently lives in Dunedin. He completed a Bachelor Of Fine Arts at the Otago School of Fine Arts in 2000, and a Read more...

Mac Demarco - Salad Days

Posted 4:50pm Sunday 6th April 2014 by Peter McCall

Near the end of 2012, i purchased Mac DeMarco’s second LP, 2, on the back of hearing “Ode to Viceroy” – a sweet love song for his favourite brand of low-cost cigarettes. It was refreshing, genuinely funny and somehow beautifully sincere – I hadn’t heard anything quite like it. However, neither me, Read more...

Download of the Week: Race Banyon - Whatever Dreams are Made of (NZ)

Posted 4:50pm Sunday 6th April 2014 by Adrian Ng

Electronic project from Wellington based musician Eddie Johnston, also of Lontalius. Some deeply immersive tracks, soulful, dark, and beautiful. Whatever Dreams Are Made Of is available as a name-your-price download at racebanyon.bandcamp.com. Read more...

Interview: Richard Parker - Organiser of the Fetish Ball

Posted 4:50pm Sunday 6th April 2014 by Nina Harrap

“We trans-morph modern and ritual craft forms, interweaving them into an artistic experience with you as part of the pattern.” – www.skinpuppets.co.nz Although practically no one will admit it, most of us have a fetish of some kind. Maybe you’ve got a normal-ish one, like enjoying having your Read more...

New this Week / Singles in Review

Posted 4:50pm Sunday 6th April 2014 by Adrian Ng

Die! Die! Die! - Crystal New single from Auckland based noise poppers Die! Die! Die!. A more evenly paced, introspective tune compared to their previous output. “Crystal” is melodic, more reserved yet still familiar. An interesting shift in direction from the group. SZA (Ft. Read more...

Yumi Zouma - Yumi Zouma

Posted 4:50pm Sunday 6th April 2014 by Adrian Ng

Rating: A Yumi Zouma is a New Zealand trio now based in New York and Paris. At first a collaborative project between Charlie Ryder and Josh Burgess (both from Bang Bang Eche), the two eventually joint forces with vocalist Kim Pflaum. After having completed a number of tracks the group were Read more...

Perfect Pussy - Say Yes To Love

Posted 4:50pm Sunday 6th April 2014 by Adrian Ng

Rating: A Clocking in at just under 23 minutes, Say Yes To Love is furious and relentless, so much so you almost try to inhale twice as slow to compensate. Buried in a constant layer of noise and feedback, its violence is tremendous. It’s visceral and it’s unmerciful, it’s loud and it’s Read more...

Infamous: Second Son

Posted 4:50pm Sunday 6th April 2014 by Baz Macdonald

Rating: A- Lately there has been great debate about the function of hyper realistic graphics in games. Some gamers think that this move towards hyperrealism isn’t creating better games and that many games that steer away from realism and use a stylised art style are better products. There is Read more...

Lazy People's Focaccia

Posted 4:50pm Sunday 6th April 2014 by Sophie Edmonds

I first made this loaf as a hangover cure for a good friend of mine. After he participated in a terrible game of “take one for the team and finish the bottle of awful Teacher’s Whiskey,” carbohydrate was required to soak up the night before. It was accompanied with a day spent on the couch watching Read more...

Need For Speed

Posted 4:50pm Sunday 6th April 2014 by Rosie Howells

Rating: D- I had low expectations for Need for Speed, but apparently, not low enough. The plot consists of everything you’ve seen before in a car racing movie: redemption, bravery, misogyny and cliché phrases such as “he’s like a brother to me!” But the film’s tired tropes were the least of Read more...

The Wicker Man (1973)

Posted 4:50pm Sunday 6th April 2014 by Tim Lindsay

Cult Film We all know that remakes can be diabolical, and the second The Wicker Man, from 2003, was exactly that. It features the best of the worst Nicolas Cage, including some downright terrible acting and strutting his swag in a bear suit. However, the original film is of a much higher Read more...

Pompeii

Posted 4:50pm Sunday 6th April 2014 by Baz Macdonald

Rating: B- To me, a movie about a devastating volcanic eruption that engulfed an ancient Roman society sounds like a big enough event to encapsulate a 90-minute epic. Unfortunately, director Paul W.S. Anderson disagreed with me, opting instead to jam in the plots of three or four other movies Read more...

Cuban Fury

Posted 4:50pm Sunday 6th April 2014 by Baz Macdonald

Rating: B If I were to make a list of films I thought would never be made, I’m pretty sure a Nick Frost dance flick would make an appearance. But, what do you know, Nick Frost – who you might know as the big guy from Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz – is indeed the star of Cuban Fury. Read more...

The Attack

Posted 4:50pm Sunday 6th April 2014 by Nicole Newton

Like war itself, this novel is a harrowing read. It opens with the description of a sheikh’s car being bombed. We hear of torn bodies lying shattered on the ground from the force of the explosion, which is detailed vividly. The narrator talks of watching the explosion occur; his own body being blown Read more...