Film

Kidnapping Mr. Heineken

Posted 5:43pm Sunday 22nd March 2015 by Shaun Swain

Rating: 3/5 Films “based on a true story,” especially ones about kidnap heists, usually fit into one of two categories. Category one: documentary footage that is so intensely dramatised that it becomes almost fictitious. Category two: documentary footage that sticks diligently to historical Read more...

The Salt of the Earth

Posted 5:43pm Sunday 22nd March 2015 by Harlan Jones

Rating: 4/5 “People are the Salt of the Earth” Sebastião Salgado informs us — hardly a surprising conclusion from a successful social photographer. The observation establishes the impetus for the documentary, which quickly moves from being a biopic about Salgado into a wider meditation on Read more...

Chappie

Posted 5:43pm Sunday 22nd March 2015 by Maya Dodd

Rating: 2/5 Have you ever heard people say, “there goes [insert minutes, hours, seconds here] of my life that I’ll never get back”? Deon Wilson (Dev Patel) spent — or wasted, depending on how you want to look at it — the better part of three years creating an artificial intelligence Read more...

Dunedin Fringe Festival

Posted 2:32pm Sunday 15th March 2015 by Mandy Te

T he night was a successful taste test of what to expect from the Dunedin Fringe Festival, and I’m sure it won’t disappoint. With a song from Beards! Beards! Beards! by two men sporting their very own impressive beards and a hilarious performance from the girls of BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH Read more...

Focus

Posted 2:32pm Sunday 15th March 2015 by Maya Dodd

I must admit, following the utter disappointment of After Earth, my expectations of Will Smith providing quality cinematic entertainment in Focus were pretty low. The fact that it was a “Baby and Me” screening did not help matters — screaming toddlers and dimmed-but-not-entirely-blacked-out lighting Read more...

Gemma Bovery

Posted 2:32pm Sunday 15th March 2015 by Mandy Te

Rating: 3/5 The Francophiles of Dunedin can rejoice in the knowledge that the 2015 Alliance Française French Film Festival is now in full gear. I myself am rejoicing, but that’s because I’m a lover of subtitles. A film with subtitles and also part of the French Film Festival is Gemma Read more...

House of Cards, Season 3 (Episode 1)

Posted 5:30pm Sunday 8th March 2015 by Harlan Jones

A s a passionate subscriber to Netflix’s reboot of House of Cards, I found myself eagerly anticipating the first episode of the new season. When the latest chapter was finally released on 27 February, a titanic struggle ensued between my desire to return to the exploits of Machiavellian Read more...

The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

Posted 5:30pm Sunday 8th March 2015 by Shaun Swain

Rating: 4/5 After neglecting the romantic dramedy genre for some time, I am glad to have been reintroduced with the lively, beautiful and surprisingly captivating sequel to The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. While I wasn’t all too familiar with the original instalment, The Second Best Exotic Read more...

Force Majeure

Posted 5:30pm Sunday 8th March 2015 by Anonymous Bird

Rating: 5/5 Force Majeure follows a Swedish family on their five-day skiing holiday. The opening scene shows the family being persuaded by a photographer to have their picture taken. The result is a funny moment where you can see how they have constructed an ideal family: mother, father, Read more...

From Dusk Till Dawn

Posted 6:26pm Sunday 1st March 2015 by Alex Blackwood

Cult Film F rom Dusk Till Dawn is a two-course action-crime buffet with references as juicy as a Kahuna Burger; the first course comes in the form of a hostage film and the second, a Vampire film that is far gorier than what we were accustomed to in 1996, let alone 2015. The Read more...