The Thirty-Nine Steps

Posted 1:24pm Sunday 6th August 2017 by Nick Ainge-Roy

Written at the start of the First World War while John Buchan was bedridden by illness, The Thirty-Nine Steps is a classic of the crime fiction genre. It stars Richard Hannay as the archetypal action hero. Returning from Africa after several years working as a mining engineer, Hannay intends on 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...

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...

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...

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...

‘Extrait d’Image’ – Lisa Reihana

Posted 1:09pm Sunday 30th July 2017 by Waveney Russ

‘Les Sauvages de la Mer Pacifique’ by Joseph Dufour is wallpaper. Spectacular, exceptionally rare, two-hundred-year-old wallpaper. Flagged as ‘armchair tourism’, the wallpaper depicts the over twenty different indigenous groups that Captain James Cook or Louis Antoine de Read more...

Bleaker House By Nell Stevens

Posted 1:15pm Sunday 30th July 2017 by Jessica Thompson

“I am scared that the life I want to lead, the life of a writer, is inevitably built on loneliness, and I need to know if I can hack it.”   Bleaker House is Nell Steven’s first novel and she hit the nail on the head. The book is messy, unpredictable, and absolutely 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...

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...

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...