Archive

Hungover Pancakes (Minus The Guilt)

Posted 1:02pm Sunday 30th July 2017 by Liani Baylis

Eating less or no animal products has become increasingly trendy – very #2017 if you will. Brainstorming content for this week’s article got me thinking. What do you do if Sunday morning you’ve mastered eggs, hauled that hangin’ ass out of bed to impress your lass, only to Read more...

Despite the Falling Snow

Posted 12:54pm Sunday 30th July 2017 by Gem MacDuff

Rating: 2/5 Despite a plot that anyone with half a brain could predict, your heart would have to be made of cement not to fall in love with Sam Reid’s earnest portrayal of the male lead in Shamim Sarif’s Cold War drama, Despite the Falling Snow. Reid plays the warm young Alexander, Read more...

The Journey

Posted 12:50pm Sunday 30th July 2017 by Rossana Boni

Rating: 4/5 Based on true events, The Journey depicts how political rivals Martin McGuiness and Ian Paisley finally hammered out a peace accord after forty years of conflict in Northern Ireland, known as the ‘Troubles’. As the respective leaders of Northern Ireland’s Sinn Fein Read more...

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Posted 12:45pm Sunday 30th July 2017 by Lisa Blakie

Do we really need another Breath of the Wild review circulating out there? Probably not. But I think I had a different experience to everyone else who has played this game, because I hated it when I first started it. The Legend of Zelda is a franchise I will love unconditionally forever. Ocarina Read more...

Critic Reviews: Spring Break

Posted 9:21am Monday 24th July 2017 by Sam Fraser-Baxter

It was a typically arctic night, as just over a thousand scarfies flooded into the Union Hall for OUSA’s Spring Break event on the Thursday of Re-O week. The event was touted by OUSA as an act of solidarity; a collective ‘fuck you’ to winter. They couldn’t have timed it Read more...

Critic Interviews New Zealand’s Funniest Comedian: Rhys Darby

Posted 1:35pm Sunday 23rd July 2017 by Joe Higham

Touching on his time in the NZ Army, his belief in reincarnation, his comedy heroes and more, Rhys Darby had a chat to Critic as he returns to New Zealand and Australia for his new Mystic Time Bird tour.  Joe Higham: How's the tour going so far? Rhys Darby: Great, yeah, fantastic. Only Read more...

Gilead

Posted 1:30pm Sunday 23rd July 2017 by Jessica Thompson

It took longer than I’d expected for me to get into this book. Marilynne Robinson has proven herself a talented, tender and transportive writer in her other novels, and over the years she has received a veritable feast of awards. Published in 2004, Gilead was the winner of the 2005 Read more...

Finger Paintings

Posted 1:27pm Sunday 23rd July 2017 by Waveney Russ

Envision cruising in through the Octagon and walking straight up to ‘La Débâcle’ by Claude Monet (if you know where to find it that is, thanks Dunedin Public Art Gallery), then shoving your hands onto the oil painting’s exterior; your Fatty-Lane-grease-infused digits Read more...

As Good as Real Coconut Yoghurt, But Made a la StudyLink

Posted 1:22pm Sunday 23rd July 2017 by Liani Baylis

The ‘health’ industry appears to be a rich kids’ game. Forgive me that StudyLink is all a girl’s got going right now – amirite? I’m determined to eat well (booze aside), but every time I step into the supermarket I reconsider the nutritional value of the dust Read more...

Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)

Posted 1:16pm Sunday 23rd July 2017 by Todd Johnstone

Rating: 3/5 We witnessed Peter Parker’s long-awaited entrance into the Marvel Cinematic Universe in last year’s Captain America: Civil War. Homecoming sees Tom Holland return as the third leading man to don the Spidey-suit, and lead what is essentially a teen high-school movie set Read more...

My Cousin Rachel (2017)

Posted 1:14pm Sunday 23rd July 2017 by Rossana Boni

Rating: 2/5 Channelling (poorly) his inner Guillermo del Toro with a disproportionate amount of candles, chiaroscuro and murder-mystery piano motifs, South African Director Roger Michell (Notting Hill, The Mother) gives us a new version of Daphne du Maurier’s twisty novel. The story that Read more...

This Boring Man

Posted 1:08pm Sunday 23rd July 2017 by Grimm Selfie

Back in November 2016, Johnny Marr, guitarist and cofounder of The Smiths, released his autobiography ‘Set the Boy Free’. It’s a book that spans his entire life, but of course focuses on how he came to knock on Morrissey’s door, and together change indie Read more...

Little Nightmares: Reviewed By A Pro and a Friend of a Pro

Posted 1:04pm Sunday 23rd July 2017 by Lisa Blakie

I played this game with a group of friends and it was terrifying and fantastic fun! There was a lot of screaming and cooperation from everyone in the room, and I even needed emotional support near the end when I was too afraid to face the final spook creature (I don’t want to be too specific Read more...

Sunroom – Trudy Lane (16 June – 1 July)

Posted 2:00pm Sunday 16th July 2017 by Waveney Russ

Staring at the sun as a child seemed a formidable challenge, akin to holding your breath at the bottom of a pool, only with a greater chance of permanently damaged corneas. Enter digital artist Trudy Lane. Like switching from a BSc to a BA, Lane endeavours to transport us to that sun gazing end goal Read more...

The Panopticon

Posted 1:55pm Sunday 16th July 2017 by Jessica Thompson

I studied this book for an English paper last semester and thought it was worth a review. Set in Scotland and with Edinburgh vernacular to match, the Panopticon is a sharp novel that examines the lives of the down and outs, the uncontrollable criminal youths and the doomed-to-fail losers of the Read more...

Aquawhatta?

Posted 1:51pm Sunday 16th July 2017 by Liani Baylis

If, unlike me, you’re not up with the vegan or frugal kids, you’re in for the biggest PSA of your young life, so stay seated and prepare to be mind-blown. I kept hearing about this thing called “aquafaba” and I was like TF is that? Turns out, it’s a magical liquid Read more...

Wonder Woman (2017)

Posted 1:48pm Sunday 16th July 2017 by Maisie Thursfield

Rating: 4/5 She’s powerful, she’s intelligent, she’s strong, she’s the daughter of Zeus, she’s Wonder Woman. Most importantly, she does not disappoint. We follow Diana’s childhood on the island of the Amazon women, surrounded by her mother Queen Hippolyta, Read more...

Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction (1997-2002)

Posted 1:43pm Sunday 16th July 2017 by Alex Campbell-Hunt

Rating: 3/5 “We live in a world where the real and the unreal live side by side. Break through the web of your experience, and open your mind to things... Beyond Belief.” You may or may not remember this spooky anthology series, which ran for four seasons from 1997 to 2002. A bit Read more...

Cars 3 (2017)

Posted 1:38pm Sunday 16th July 2017 by Callum Post

Rating: 3/5 The most repeated question I’ve heard regarding Pixar’s latest work is “what’s left to tell?” However, following its largely disliked predecessor, this final chapter in the Cars series manages to tell a story I’m convinced is necessary and Read more...

Album Review: Music To Get Puppies To Sleep

Posted 1:31pm Sunday 16th July 2017 by Anonymous

My job is awful, But this album is worse. I pass him on the stairs. Gazing into the bloodshot eyes of a man whose bowel has erupted in brown rage not once but three times in one day. He doesn’t know that I know. It was like picking up mud in the pouring rain. My job is awful, But Read more...

Highlights from E3 2017

Posted 1:22pm Sunday 16th July 2017 by Lisa Blakie

E3 is a giant nerd festival where all the big name game companies like Sony, Ubisoft and Microsoft come together to hang out and try to be all serious and have a competition to see whose press conference will be the best (which doesn’t really even matter because Nintendo always wins). Most of Read more...

Jack and Jill (2011)

Posted 1:35pm Sunday 9th July 2017 by Jack Schitt

Rating: 5 out 5 Al Pacinos What an honour it is to review Jack and Jill, the film that defined 2011 as one of the greatest years of cinema on record. This film defied expectations and revolutionised Adam Sandler’s career, finally showing him as the comic genius we all knew he could Read more...

The Godfather (1972)

Posted 1:32pm Sunday 9th July 2017 by Jac Aske

Rating: 1/5 Al Pacinos I thought people said this was a good film? Clearly people are liars with bad taste because this soggy pile of crap completely ruined my day. First off, I had no idea who anyone was because they cast a bunch of white men with the same haircut and then decided to confuse me Read more...

The Essex Serpent – Sarah Perry

Posted 1:23pm Sunday 9th July 2017 by James Bell

Sarah Perry’s second novel, The Essex Serpent, is an enticing Victorian gothic thriller. It was the winner of the British Book Awards Book of the Year, Waterstones Book of the Year and was shortlisted for the 2016 Costa Novel Award. Perry has created an extraordinarily wide-reaching and Read more...

Call Sick

Posted 1:19pm Sunday 9th July 2017 by Grace Ryder

Showing 17 June – 1 Oct at the Dunedin Public Art Gallery, FREE   Campbell Patterson is really good at climbing out of windows, particularly for someone wearing bizarre and little garb. There are few slips and falls, mostly carefully managed limbs making their way out of windows, Read more...

Big-Ass Pies

Posted 1:12pm Sunday 9th July 2017 by Liani Baylis

Kia ora, kids. I’ve been busy over the break encasing anything and everything in pastry; proof that the fresher five is not exclusive to those in first year. I don’t know about yours, but my break consisted of nothing more than Netflix documentaries. Now I’ve sworn off meat Read more...

Zoombinis

Posted 1:04pm Sunday 9th July 2017 by Lisa Blakie

Nostalgia is a powerful thing. Often when I go back and play games or watch movies that I loved as a kid, they disappoint. Flubber, Croc, Space Jam and Mary-Kate and Ashley Horse Riding for the Playstation One, to name a handful. It is normally the same for games and films I didn’t get to Read more...

Sibelius & Prokofiev

Posted 1:01pm Sunday 9th July 2017 by Ihlara McIndoe

Conductor: Marc Taddei Soloist: Ilya Gringolts For a concert in which nationalism and internationalism featured strongly, John Psathas’s Luminous was a fitting work to begin with. Commissioned as a “Century Fanfare” by the Auckland Philharmonic Orchestra in 1998, Psathas says Read more...

Harry Styles: An Exit Interview with Harry Styles

Posted 12:56pm Sunday 9th July 2017 by Grimm Selfie

As I sit here in my Mongolian yurt surrounded by Moroccan rugs, braiding a small child’s hair, my mind, alone, riffs on the void that is the wafer-thin transubstantiation of new age consumption. My spirit weaver weaves slow, for it grows limp. It has lost its one direction. What to listen to Read more...

A Rundown on Sex and Its Place in The World of Gaming

Posted 1:33pm Sunday 28th May 2017 by Lisa Blakie

Sex in the majority of videogames is the worst. It’s terrible. Why is it so awful? In God of War you button mash the controller and get rewarded with moaning. In the 1987 adventure game Leisure Suit Larry, your main aim is to try and make women have sex with you by being an undesirable sleaze. Read more...

Pulled Pork

Posted 1:19pm Sunday 28th May 2017 by Liani Baylis

As you can probably judge by my previous articles, I eat meat quite rarely. When I do, I don’t want to waste the occasion on something average - I want the full sock-blowing package. There are so many pulled pork recipes out there that, quite frankly, suck. This one will never disappoint Read more...

Freefall

Posted 1:10pm Sunday 28th May 2017 by Monique Hodgkinson

Above image: Freefall, exhibition installation view, featuring Colin McCahon, The Wake, 1958; Ralph Hotere, And ye shall dwell in the land I gave your fathers and ye shall be my people and I will be your God. Ezekiel, 36. 28, 1983, image reproduction by permission of the Hotere Read more...

The Handmaid's Tale

Posted 1:05pm Sunday 28th May 2017 by Anonymous Bird

Rating: 4/5 Based on the Margaret Atwood novel of the same name, The Handmaid’s Tale is a post-apocalyptic story of a patriarchal world. The first three episodes were released together and pack and powerful punch to the gut, with themes from the 1980s novel still resonating and relevant Read more...

A Dog’s Purpose

Posted 1:02pm Sunday 28th May 2017 by Samuel Rillstone

Rating: 5/5 A Dog’s Purpose is one of the most sentimental films I have seen in a while, for the pure and obvious fact that it contains dogs and dogs dying and living and just, doggos. Taking place from the 1950s to the present day, it follows a dog, narrated by the wonderful Josh Gad, who Read more...

Blankets–An Interview with Sasha Ford

Posted 12:54pm Sunday 28th May 2017 by Renee Barrance

  Earlier this year in March, on a rainy Sunday afternoon and post a whirlwind weekend of incredible music happening in Dunedin, I saw Montreal-based composer and sound artist Sasha Ford perform her solo electronic project Blankets at None Gallery. Blankets had also played the night before Read more...

The Vegetarian

Posted 1:40pm Sunday 21st May 2017 by Jessica Thompson Carr

Read this book and you’ll be put off meat for several weeks (not the worst thing in the world). Winner of the Man Booker International Prize and the Yi Sang Literary prize, this is Han Kang’s first book to be published in English and I am oh so grateful for it. Written in three Read more...

Homemade Potato Chips

Posted 1:36pm Sunday 21st May 2017 by Liani Baylis

You know those days when the thought of putting a bra on to go get snacks cripples your very existence? Today is one of those days. Good god Uber eats would go off in this town! Alas, we don’t have it, nor does Countdown deliver one bag of kettle chips. No, we must venture out to get snacks or Read more...

Stardew Valley

Posted 1:25pm Sunday 21st May 2017 by Lisa Blakie

Stardew Valley was released in 2016 and was welcomed by the community with a hugely positive reception from both players and critics. It was another indie hit created by a small team of one dude and I was excited to experience what it had to offer. And it delivered on everything the community had Read more...

The 2017 Capping Show

Posted 1:13pm Sunday 21st May 2017 by Critic

Dunedin transformed into Funedin this week for the opening night of the Capping Show, which Critic believes is the best one we’ve ever seen. If you’ve ever wanted to see a Nazi going through the letters of the alphabet while performing oral sex on a woman, you’re in luck. A Read more...

Chewing Gum (episodes 1-3, 2015)

Posted 1:11pm Sunday 21st May 2017 by Saskia Bunce-Rath

Rating: 3/5 I have… mixed feelings. On paper it all seems great, yet I quit watching after three episodes due to the immense second hand embarrassment I got. Chewing Gum is a British comedy that frankly discusses sexuality, with a diverse cast, set on an estate in England. It’s Read more...

Get Out (2017)

Posted 1:05pm Sunday 21st May 2017 by Anonymous Bird

Rating: 5/5 Get Out is a recent, somewhat controversial, horror film. Chris Washington (Daniel Kaluuya) is a young black photographer accompanying his new white girlfriend, Rose Armitage (Alison Williams), home to visit her parents. Early on Chris asks her if she had told her parents that he is Read more...

A Rainy Day Gallery Guide

Posted 12:59pm Sunday 21st May 2017 by Monique Hodgkinson

Cold weather getting you down? Check out these hidden gems around campus for some art and culture to warm you right up.   De Beer Gallery Special Collections For our first pick you don’t even have to leave the library! Head on over to Special Collections on the first floor, Read more...

Basically Baroque

Posted 12:54pm Sunday 21st May 2017 by Ihlara McIndoe

Kicking off the first of the 2017 Matinee series on the 29 April, Dunedin Symphony Orchestra’s Basically Baroque concert was certainly a hit. So often it takes an orchestra a while to settle into Bach, but the Concerto for Violin and Oboe was precise and enthralling right from the get-go. Read more...

This Is Your Haven

Posted 12:51pm Sunday 21st May 2017 by Bianca Prujean

It is 11 May 2017. Tomorrow, an epic lineup of electronic musicians will deliver their ambient, industrial, and techno beats to a dance-starved audience at Dunedin’s artist run space, None Gallery. The lineup includes UK techno producer, Ansome, and sonic allies, Jaded Nineties Raver (J9R), Read more...

Letter from the Music Editor | Issue 12

Posted 12:31pm Sunday 21st May 2017 by Bianca Prujean

There is something about the creative process that remains amorphous to me. As I write this, Dunedin is in the midst of DWRF 2017 (Dunedin Writers & Readers Festival), a week that is all about creative spirit and the power of the written word. I stand on the awkward eve of explaining to a room Read more...

Five Offbeat Illustrators Doing Interesting Things

Posted 1:01pm Sunday 14th May 2017 by Monique Hodgkinson

With books on the brain following the annual Dunedin Writers & Readers Festival, writing about illustration seemed a logical choice this week. These five contemporary artists each take the concept of illustrating for children in completely different directions, showing that the picture book page Read more...

Guardians of the Galaxy: The Telltale Series - Episode 1

Posted 12:50pm Sunday 14th May 2017 by Anonymous Bird

Rating: 3.5/5 There’s something particularly exciting about a game that is influenced by your decisions. Telltale Games have definitely got this structure down, taking on stories from multiple different franchises such as The Walking Dead, Fables and Game of Thrones. This time around Read more...

Misery

Posted 12:44pm Sunday 14th May 2017 by Jessica Thompson Carr

More often than not I come across a book I wish I had written myself. Stephen King’s Misery is one of those books - not for any clever reason, simply because it is quirky, weirdly relatable (to a writer), and shit scary. Word of advice folks: don't read when living alone in the Read more...

The Travel Salad

Posted 12:35pm Sunday 14th May 2017 by Liani Baylis

I’m first to admit that I am the stingiest bitch out when it comes to parting with money at crappy roadside stops. There is nothing worse than paying six euros for crusty stale bread and guaranteed salmonella - thanks, but no thanks. I’d much rather save my money for the real goods Read more...

Personal Shopper (2016)

Posted 12:32pm Sunday 14th May 2017 by Alex Campbell-Hunt

Rating: 4/5 It’s best to go into this movie knowing little about it, so that you can be taken on a mysterious ride and not know what to expect. So I won’t reveal too much. But you’ll know from the title that it’s about a personal shopper (played by Kristin Stewart); a Read more...

Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol 2 (2017)

Posted 12:28pm Sunday 14th May 2017 by Maisie Thursfield

Rating: 5/5 Let’s praise the Lord one more time for Chris Pratt! Although Andy Dwyer will always hold the number one place in my Chris Pratt dedicated heart, Peter Quill has come a mighty close second after the latest instalment of Guardians of the Galaxy. In this film, we learn about Read more...

13 Reasons Why

Posted 12:23pm Sunday 14th May 2017 by Anonymous Bird

13 Reasons Why is a recent addition to Netflix and is a show about suicide. It is centred around a teenage girl who commits suicide and organises for 13 tapes to be sent to the 13 people she blames. The show attempts to address the complications technology has added to bullying and abuse, and Read more...

‘Non Compos Mentis’ the debut album from I.E. Crazy

Posted 12:18pm Sunday 14th May 2017 by Reg Norris

Once upon a time a younger unfamiliar version of myself left an empty buckets worth of die cast miniature cars in the long grass in our backyard. This silent convoy was uncovered by my dad as he was pushing about our two-stroke suburban Sunday soundtrack machine. Without notice, small colourful Read more...

Survivor NZ: Dee shits in the ocean, Tony shits the bed

Posted 1:26pm Tuesday 9th May 2017 by Sam McChesney

  Sam is a Survivor superfan, which means he’d be voted off first if he ever played. This is his weekly blog on Survivor New Zealand strategy.   At some point in Survivor, you need to become a threat if you want to win. If you’re seen as a passenger, then barring an Read more...

The Yield

Posted 2:41pm Sunday 7th May 2017 by Jessica Thompson Carr

Perfect timing. With the Dunedin Readers and Writers Festival upon us I thought it appropriate to give Sue Wootton’s most recent publication The Yield a go. I admit that I haven’t dabbled enough in modern New Zealand literature. In the past I’ve been prejudiced against it, Read more...

Adventures of Mana

Posted 2:35pm Sunday 7th May 2017 by Brandon Johnstone

Rating: 3/5 Adventures of Mana is a remake of the 1991 action RPG Seiken Densetsu: Final Fantasy Gaiden (or Final Fantasy Adventure). The original is seen as something of a classic, though not nearly as much so as its sequel Secret of Mana, and developer Square Enix seems to be giving the series Read more...

Rebecca Baumann: Untitled (Exploded View)

Posted 2:32pm Sunday 7th May 2017 by Monique Hodgkinson

Explosions seem to be a bit of a theme at the Dunedin Public Art Gallery at the moment, with Exploded Worlds dominating the ground floor and Untitled (Exploded View) now showing upstairs. While the word seems to connote some degree of chaos, the latter of these two exhibitions is instead built on Read more...

Songs in the Key of Life

Posted 2:27pm Sunday 7th May 2017 by Ihlara McIndoe

Jonathan Lemalu, “fiercely proud to be born and educated in Dunedin” returned home after a busy international season of performances and recordings which took him across four continents, performing to a jam-packed Dunedin town hall on 12 April. The city certainly turned out to show their Read more...

Letter from the Music Editor

Posted 2:14pm Sunday 7th May 2017 by Bianca Prujean

I went to a festival once. It was a three-day event. The weather was delicious, the backdrop lush and friendly, the tent… sufficient, the music mind-blowing. The following year I missed out on tickets. I cursed my indecision. How many times did my finger hover over the Buy Now icon on the Read more...

I Watched Coachella for Three Days Straight & Now I'm Dead Inside

Posted 2:10pm Sunday 7th May 2017 by Grimm Selfie

Over the Easter weekend I “live-streamed” Weekend One of the Coachella Music and Arts Festival. The stream is not really live - it’s delayed, and is sponsored by a German telco called T-Mobile. T-Mobile have a pink logo in the shape of a capital ‘T’, with two small pink Read more...

Happy Feastock

Posted 2:04pm Sunday 7th May 2017 by Henry Francis

In the depths of Refuel at 1am Zac Nicholls of fuzz-rock group Koizilla gleefully chimed to a loyal and hazy crowd “we have two songs left, and then Feastock is over.” Koizilla brought the curtain down on the ninth installment of what has become a centerpiece of the Dunedin music Read more...

Cauliflower Bites

Posted 1:54pm Sunday 7th May 2017 by Liani Baylis

Over the summer, desperate for yet another hungover feed, beautiful cauliflower nuggets were born. At the time, we had sweet F A in the fridge and I was desperate for something deep-fried without having to wipe last night’s make up off or leave the house. Despite being an utter food snob I Read more...

Moone Boy (seasons 1 & 2)

Posted 1:48pm Sunday 7th May 2017 by Saskia Bunce-Rath

Rating: 4/5   Moone Boy simply warmed the cockles of my heart. This show makes you want to sit in bed with a soft blanket and drink beverages from a thermos, even though you are literally in your house and could make a cup of tea. But what is Moone Boy you ask? Is it about some type of boy Read more...

The Lego Batman Movie (2017)

Posted 1:19pm Sunday 7th May 2017 by Samuel Rillstone

Rating: 4.5/5 As an avid Batman fan, or Bat-fan, viewing the Dark Knight in all his glory as a brooding LEGO figure was quite the treat. It was fraught with references from both on-screen and comic book depictions of the Caped Crusader, with some very sly ones for those who have extensive Read more...

Going in Style (2017)

Posted 1:13pm Sunday 7th May 2017 by Maisie Thursfield

Rating: 2.5/5 For a comedy this film made me really depressed. Even Morgan Freeman’s voice could barely lift my spirits. Three retired gents have their pensions frozen by the company where they worked for 30 years. They can’t even afford to buy a slice of pie and one of them has a Read more...

Their Finest (2016)

Posted 1:09pm Sunday 7th May 2017 by Samuel Rillstone

Rating: 3.5/5 To call Their Finest a British comedy, as many reviews have, is difficult, as it doesn’t provide the classic, almost slapstick, comedy that one associates with British comedy. But there is still that hint of sentimentality whenever the British signature shines through. The Read more...

The Bloggs —Nicola Jackson

Posted 12:56pm Sunday 30th April 2017 by Monique Hodgkinson

Currently tucked away in the Dunedin Public Art Gallery is a small room exploding with rainbow colours and slightly disturbing human bodies in a kaleidoscope of unapologetic vibrancy. This is The Bloggs by Nicola Jackson, simultaneously Frida Kahlo-style living room and anatomical exploration, and Read more...

Ba(e)gels

Posted 12:49pm Sunday 30th April 2017 by Liani Baylis

Bread is life. Bread is Bae (do we still say that?). However, it is also something with which we all have a love-hate relationship. On the one hand, it’s frickin’ delicious and yet on the other, I find myself screaming “my skinny jeans don’t fit anymore, you bastard!” Read more...

Horizon: Zero Dawn

Posted 12:40pm Sunday 30th April 2017 by Anonymous Bird

Rating: 4.5/5 Neil Druckmann of Naughty Dog recently sat down for a conversation with Hermen Hulst of Guerrilla Games, and asked him how scared Hulst was to commit to Horizon: Zero Dawn. Hulst replied, “very scared”. Guerrilla Games is known for its PlayStation exclusive series Read more...

Marvel’s Iron Fist (2017)

Posted 12:36pm Sunday 30th April 2017 by Brandon Johnstone

Rating: 2/5 I really, really wanted to love Iron Fist. I count myself as a huge fan of the comic book character, almost entirely due to the Fraction/Brubaker run on Immortal Iron Fist a decade ago. Frustrated by the tempest of controversy leading up to its release (largely due to fears of Read more...

Power Rangers (2017)

Posted 12:31pm Sunday 30th April 2017 by Alex Campbell-Hunt

Rating: 3.5/5 Man. Where do I begin? Maybe I’ll quickly outline the three reactions I had to this film, in chronological order. The first third I didn’t like because it was so different to the TV show, the second third I liked because it differed so much that it was almost comically Read more...

Beauty and the Beast (2017)

Posted 12:27pm Sunday 30th April 2017 by Florence Dean

Rating: 5/5 I prefer to go into a movie with zero expectations. I avoid reviews like I avoid responsibilities. No hype, no let down, ya feel? This time was different. This time I got in on the hype. This time I was the hype. When I found out there was going to be a Beauty and the Beast live Read more...

Swing Time

Posted 12:24pm Sunday 30th April 2017 by Jessica Thompson Carr

After being touted by several friends as one of the best writers alive today, I finally decided to pick up Zadie Smith’s Swing Time. She’s an incredibly accomplished writer, having won numerous awards for her five published novels, including the Orange Prize for Fiction, the Commonwealth Read more...

Provisionally Listed: ‘Morningside’ (specifically ‘Friends’) by Fazerdaze

Posted 12:17pm Sunday 30th April 2017 by Reg Norris

Never judge an album by your laptop speakers. And NO I’m not talking about digital vs. analogue or the fucking warm sound your petroleum based non-renewable vinyl records make. But let’s have a quick chat about that before we begin. Once upon a time, and by time I mean ten years, not Read more...

Mass Effect: Andromeda

Posted 2:20pm Sunday 23rd April 2017 by Brandon Johnstone

Canada-based developer BioWare has leapt from strength to strength over the last couple of decades, building the beloved franchises Baldur’s Gate, Dragon Age and Mass Effect around teams of likeable, fleshed-out characters. In the process, BioWare has earned an uncommonly dedicated, diverse Read more...

How To Actually Cook an Egg

Posted 2:16pm Sunday 23rd April 2017 by Liani Baylis

Picture this—It’s a bleak Sunday Morning. You wake up in a haze and get a sober look at the absolute babe you’ve pulled at Mac’s the night before. Determined to impress the fine lass, you set on whipping up the breakfast of champions before this one wakes up Read more...

Otago Wildlife Photography Competition

Posted 1:53pm Sunday 23rd April 2017 by Monique Hodgkinson

Here in Dunedin we’re pretty darn lucky. We’ve got an abundance of stunning wildlife perched right on our doorstep - the albatrosses, seals and penguins on the coast, the botanic gardens right by campus, and gorgeous countryside only a short drive away. The native birdlife is something Read more...

The F8 of the Furious (eight)

Posted 1:44pm Sunday 23rd April 2017 by Critic

Rating: 1 crashed car Reviewer: Michelle Rodriguez I left work and went to my car, only to find a man standing by it. He was old, like 70 years old. He had his back to me, and he was wearing a skirt that was so short I could see his entire bum.  “What are you doing?” I Read more...

The Fate of the Furiosa (2077)

Posted 1:42pm Sunday 23rd April 2017 by Critic

Rating: ???/5 Reviewer: Dog I went into this movie as a longstanding fan of the franchise. I knew beforehand it was going to be a departure from the tone and structure of the previous films and was pretty excited to see where this would take the series. Nowhere good, it turns out. This Read more...

The Faith of the Furious (timeless)

Posted 1:38pm Sunday 23rd April 2017 by Critic

Rating: 5/5 Reviewer: Vin Dali The Fate of the Furious is a surrealist masterpiece. Auteur F. Gary Gray subtly plays on the inherent absurdity of reality, presenting us with characters and scenes completely removed from our conception of the ‘real world’. Instead the characters Read more...

The Fate of the Furios Twenty Seventeen (2017)

Posted 1:33pm Sunday 23rd April 2017 by Critic

Rating: 2.5 out of 5 Reviewer: Trash Morash The trailer for another yet another Fast & Furious movie came as a surprise to me. Why another Fast & Furious movie, where the only trademark is an increasingly stupid title? The answer can be found by delving into the numbers behind Read more...

Fast & Furious 8 (2017)

Posted 1:24pm Sunday 23rd April 2017 by Critic

Rating: 1.5/5 Reviewer: Dick Swiveller The eighth installment of the seemingly perpetual Fast and Furious franchise is now in cinemas across the world, smashing global box office records for an opening weekend, raking in an estimated $761 million. I don’t care how many people go to see Read more...

Room

Posted 1:14pm Sunday 23rd April 2017 by Jessica Thompson Carr

Winner of awards like the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, and based on the infamous Josef Fritzl case of 2008, Room, by Emma Donoghue, captures everyone’s worst nightmare from a decidedly fresh perspective.  Told through the eyes of five-year-old Jack, who was born and raised in a Read more...

Music to Get Through It

Posted 1:05pm Sunday 23rd April 2017 by Bianca Prujean

If I Can’t Handle Me At My Best, You Don’t Deserve You At Your Worst —Helena Celle Glasgow-based hardware synth artist Helena Celle, aka Kay Logan, cited music as a “guiding light” when facing challenges related to LGBT homelessness. Regardless of whether or not it Read more...

Totus Tuus —Gorecki, The Armed Man —Karl Jenkins

Posted 12:56pm Sunday 23rd April 2017 by Ihlara McIndoe

The Dunedin City Choir alongside the Dunedin Symphony Orchestra gave a stunning performance of Gorecki’s Totus Tuus and Karl Jenkins’s The Armed Man, on Saturday 1st April, earning themselves a standing ovation.  The opening work of the concert, Totus Tuus, provided challenges Read more...

Bad Vibes

Posted 1:20pm Sunday 9th April 2017 by Reg Norris

It’s 1998. Some of you are being conceived. Possibly to Cher’s ‘Believe’. Like a stylus scribing a sound onto a wax cylinder this song is imprinted in your DNA. Deal with it. Cher, like Madonna that very year, we’re moving into a lyrically modest danceable club anthem Read more...

Bonjour Tristesse

Posted 1:18pm Sunday 9th April 2017 by Zoe Taptiklis

I read Bonjour Tristesse on my way back from France during a six-hour layover in Shanghai airport. I was pretty jetlagged. I won’t lie or mislead you; this is going to be an astral quest of a book review.  The Times cover quote reads “funny, immoral and thoroughly French,” Read more...

Plum Crumble

Posted 1:07pm Sunday 9th April 2017 by Liani Baylis

Serves 4, or more with ice-cream   Fruit is fab until you go OTT at the farmers’ market and you’re practically swimming in a sea of dangerously squishy plums —old lady qualms, I know.  “Treat yo’self” is definitely a mantra that gets me right in Read more...

San Francisco Game Developers’ Conference

Posted 12:56pm Sunday 9th April 2017 by Lisa Blakie

p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: justify; line-height: 12.0px; font: 7.5px DobraSlab} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 8.5px; line-height: 12.0px; font: 7.5px DobraSlab} span.s1 {font-kerning: none} Last year I was fortunate enough Read more...

The Santa Clarita Diet (2017)

Posted 12:48pm Sunday 9th April 2017 by Saskia Bunce-Rath

Rating: 3.5/5 Comedy from Netflix, created by Victor Fresno, who is responsible for the critically acclaimed Better Off Ted. It stars (the criminally underrated) Timothy Olyphant and Drew Barrymore as two Californian real estate agents with a teenage daughter; everything seems normal until Sheila Read more...

Aquarius (2016)

Posted 12:44pm Sunday 9th April 2017 by Liz Ross

Rating: 3.5/5 Dona Clara is a Brazilian Battleaxe. Her strength and stubbornness have even fought off cancer. Aquarius is named after her home: a block of apartments being bought out by a development company. But Clara is a force to be reckoned with, and she has decided she will stay at the Read more...

Life (2017)

Posted 12:39pm Sunday 9th April 2017 by Alex Campbell-Hunt

Rating: 2.5/5 The overall critical response to Life seems to be that it’s an adequate and competently made space-disaster flick, but that it doesn’t give us anything we haven’t seen done better in other films of the genre. Which, yeah, sums it up pretty well I guess. Set aboard Read more...

AXIS: Anatomy of Space —Daniel Belton

Posted 12:33pm Sunday 9th April 2017 by Monique Hodgkinson

Beautiful, elegant, and led by a strong sense of purpose, Daniel Belton’s performance piece AXIS — anatomy of space intrigued and inspired audiences at its Otago Museum premiere. In refusing to align with one medium alone, AXIS combines dance with fashion design, celestial cartography, Read more...

Milk and Honey

Posted 1:45pm Sunday 2nd April 2017 by Jessica Thompson

As nervous as I am to admit it, I disliked milk and honey.  The majority of people to whom I’ve mentioned Rupi Kaur’s first and only book don’t hesitate to immediately vomit their adoration for the poetry and the woman behind it, leaving me feeling awkward and unable to Read more...

Fabricate

Posted 1:41pm Sunday 2nd April 2017 by Kate Avery

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Delusion at the Bodyvolt

Posted 1:34pm Sunday 2nd April 2017 by Bianca Prujean

Four months after the release of Delusion, we catch up with Beta Evers, aka Brigitte Enzler, to find out about the creative process, running a label, and the album that was 10+ years in the making. Thank you, Beta Evers, for taking the time to share your sonic insights with us!   Bavarian Read more...

Shadow Self —Élan Vital

Posted 1:28pm Sunday 2nd April 2017 by Grimm Selfie

How multiple are you? Ever have moments when you act in way that is out of character? Find yourself reading Jungian psychology while watching the Kardashians? Eat a lot of fried chicken? In random hot spots? With multiple lovers? Fear not, it could be your shadow self at play. This compact album Read more...

Kingdom Hearts 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue

Posted 1:17pm Sunday 2nd April 2017 by Brandon Johnstone

Rating: 3.5/5 It has been 15 years since the last numbered entry in the beloved Disney/Final Fantasy mashup franchise Kingdom Hearts, and Square Enix has had no qualms exploiting fans’ quiet desperation while we wait for the fabled Kingdom Hearts III. The horrifically titled Kingdom Hearts Read more...

The Innocents

Posted 1:13pm Sunday 2nd April 2017 by Shaun Brinsdon

Rating: 3.5/5 Anne Fontaine’s The Innocents was not an easy film to watch, but it’s definitely worth watching. Set at the culmination of World War II, the film follows heroine Mathilde Beaulieu: a young woman working for the Polish Red Cross. She is approached by a nun begging her to Read more...

West of Eden

Posted 1:10pm Sunday 2nd April 2017 by Shaun Brinsdon

Rating: 3.5/5 West of Eden is an independent film set in rural New Zealand in the 1960s. A low budget New Zealand film can sometimes spell disaster, but West of Eden engages the audience through its controversial and unique subject matter. West of Eden is the story of Billy, a young Maori man Read more...