Archive

Just the Tips

Posted 1:07pm Sunday 7th August 2016 by Anonymous Bird

Review: Anonymous Bird Just the Tips is the ideal coffee table book for any visitors to have a flick through. Written by the authors of Sex Criminals, (a graphic novel series about people who have sex and upon orgasm, freeze time, and do crime,) this little pink book contains their best sex tips. Read more...

Elizabeth is Missing

Posted 1:05pm Sunday 7th August 2016 by Hayleigh Clarkson

Review: Hayleigh Clarkson Elizabeth is Missing is a haunting novel of love and mystery. Maud is a forgetful old woman who can’t remember where she is or why she went to the shops. She forgets her own daughter, doesn’t remember moving house and makes endless cups of tea that she Read more...

Why do we need…Computer enthusiasts?

Posted 12:56pm Sunday 7th August 2016 by Anthony Marris

I use the term computer enthusiasts to describe a group of people most refer to as hackers, crackers, black hats, white hats, systems analysts, security testers, etc. This group of people test the limits of technology looking for weakness. Some try to make a living by looking for zero day exploits Read more...

Dark Souls III

Posted 12:54pm Sunday 7th August 2016 by Campbell Calverley

What a pleasant surprise for me that Dark Souls III came out on my birthday! I have been a massive fan of From Software’s esoteric and brutally difficult Souls games for a long time now. I finished the first Dark Souls game for the second time earlier this year. I’ve never gotten tired Read more...

Songs of note

Posted 12:39pm Sunday 7th August 2016 by Millicent Lovelock

'Heretic'—Peach Milk Auckland electronic music producer Peach Milk has just released her EP ‘Finally’. ‘Heretic’, the second track, combines swelling soundscapes with frantic, crisp percussion, and disembodied vocals. The track opens with a slow, rising Read more...

The 5th Eye

Posted 12:33pm Sunday 7th August 2016 by Anonymous Bird

Critic spoke to Errol Wright and Abi King-Jones, directors of The 5th Eye, a film making it’s debut at the New Zealand International Film Festival. Eight years in the making, and finished only three weeks prior to the beginning of the festival, this surprising and informative film tackles the Read more...

Star Trek: Beyond

Posted 12:28pm Sunday 7th August 2016 by Alex Campbell-Hunt

Rating: B In this third instalment of the rebooted Star Trek film series, director Justin Lin of the Fast & Furious franchise takes over the helm from J. J. Abrams. This mercifully means fewer lens flares, but sadly also steers the movie towards being a mindless action flick.  In Star Read more...

Ghostbusters

Posted 12:25pm Sunday 7th August 2016 by Lisa Blakie

Rating: B I only watched Ghostbusters (1984) for the first time last year. I thought the characters were kinda boring and the story was a bit silly and didn’t really understand the hype. Going into Ghostbusters (2016), I had pretty low expectations and zero nostalgia for the original Read more...

Demolition

Posted 12:23pm Sunday 7th August 2016 by Samuel Rillstone

Rating: B Demolition directed by Jean-Marc Vallee tells the story of investment banker Davis Mitchell (Jake Gyllenhaal), who tragically loses his wife in a car accident, and follows the essential grieving process that follows. What starts as a complaint letter to a vending machine company turns Read more...

The China Syndrome

Posted 12:20pm Sunday 7th August 2016 by Alex Campbell-Hunt

Rating: A Going through a phase of watching ‘70s movies, as you do, I tracked The China Syndrome down after reading Roger Ebert’s effusive praise of it. The film was released at a time when nuclear power plants were a relatively new thing, and people were a bit apprehensive about Read more...

Banana Nuggets

Posted 12:09pm Sunday 7th August 2016 by Kirsten Garcia

It's good to practice what you preach. Following from my Food Waste article last week, I make for you: Banana Nuggets.  Our staple bananas are the sixth most common item Kiwi's throw out, which equates to 3,242 TONNES annually, costing us a whopping 8.42 million dollars! Bananas are Read more...

A Waste of Food

Posted 1:44pm Sunday 31st July 2016 by Kirsten Garcia

So instead of a recipe I thought I’d write another important aspect to consider about food. It's an all too familiar scenario at my flat with leftover dinners. It's a particular problem for one of my flatmates, who forgets about food and ends up buying more while the forgotten food Read more...

Ridiculous Sublime

Posted 1:40pm Sunday 31st July 2016 by Monique Hodgkinson

"The sublime and the ridiculous are often so nearly related that it is difficult to class them separately. One step above the sublime makes the ridiculous and one step above the ridiculous makes the sublime again." -Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason:  Part II. c1795   I Read more...

In Order to Live

Posted 1:36pm Sunday 31st July 2016 by Hayleigh Clarkson

In Order to Live is an incredible real-life story of Yeonmi Park, a North Korean girl, who escaped into China and then into South Korea. Her epic fight for freedom is nearly unbelievable: Yeonmi survived starvation, abuse, trafficking, and near death just to have the simple freedoms we all take for Read more...

In Order to Live

Posted 1:35pm Sunday 31st July 2016 by Hayleigh Clarkson

In Order to Live is an incredible real-life story of Yeonmi Park, a North Korean girl, who escaped into China and then into South Korea. Her epic fight for freedom is nearly unbelievable: Yeonmi survived starvation, abuse, trafficking, and near death just to have the simple freedoms we all take for Read more...

Batman: The Killing Joke

Posted 1:31pm Sunday 31st July 2016 by Anonymous Bird

The Joker is the antithesis of Batman. While Batman continues to fight and defeat many, many villains throughout the years of DC comics, the one big villain that jumps to mind is the Joker. Comic genius and veteran Alan Moore (also wrote Watchmen, V for Vendetta) wrote The Killing Joke (1988), a one Read more...

Cyber warfare

Posted 1:28pm Sunday 31st July 2016 by Anthony Marris

Cyber crime is the catchall term used for crime which makes use of the internet. Interpol acknowledges that most law enforcement have two distinct categories: advanced cyber crime, in which sophisticated individuals or groups target computer hardware or software (“cracking” or Read more...

Pokémon Go

Posted 1:23pm Sunday 31st July 2016 by Lisa Blakie

Rating: B- When I was younger, my family used to go to this beach at Kaka Point near the Catlins. My brother convinced me that if I open my eyes underwater in the ocean I would see Pokémon. I never did – because, you know, salt water and stuff – but for whatever reason I one Read more...

The Cure

Posted 1:20pm Sunday 31st July 2016 by Millicent Lovelock

Three months ago I sat at work, squinting at my computer screen and chewing my lip. Ticketmaster reminded me I had two minutes left to buy my ticket before I would lose my place in the queue. I wasn’t sure, did I really need to see The Cure, the band that cushioned my teenage angst and later Read more...

High Fidelity

Posted 1:14pm Sunday 31st July 2016 by Nita Sullivan

Rating: A- The film High Fidelity, based on British author Nick Hornby’s bestselling novel, is perhaps a good example of the way some film adaptations are not always better than their literary beginnings. Despite this, the film does an admirable job of harnessing Hornby’s humour and Read more...

A Month Of Sundays

Posted 1:11pm Sunday 31st July 2016 by Alex Campbell-Hunt

Rating: B+ Australia seems to be quite good at producing heartwarming comedies, and when I went along to this one I was expecting something in the same vein as The Castle or The Dish. In the end, it felt more like a Wes Anderson production, in that it is artfully shot and could be described as Read more...

Sing Street

Posted 1:09pm Sunday 31st July 2016 by Lisa Blakie

Rating: B+ Summing it up in one sentence, Sing Street follows the story of Cosmo, a teenager living in Dublin in the ‘80s, who is motivated to start a band in the hopes of impressing a girl named Raphina. Yes, there are songs in this movie and they’re pretty good, so it’s Read more...

Batman: The Killing Joke

Posted 1:06pm Sunday 31st July 2016 by Anonymous Bird

Rating: B- (bad for Laura) This animated film adaptation of Alan Moore’s Batman: The Killing Joke accurately depicts the story from the original one shot comic. The first half begins with a prequel (not from the comic) about Barbara Gordon, Batgirl and the daughter of commissioner Gordon. Read more...

Split Pea Fritter Stack

Posted 1:13pm Sunday 24th July 2016 by Kirsten Garcia

Split Peas are commonly used in soups and curries. They have a surprisingly high amount of protein which means they are filling, and they’re budget as can be, making them a very economical option for flat cooking. This recipe is basically corn fritters, replacing half of the corn with split Read more...

Doris Lusk

Posted 1:09pm Sunday 24th July 2016 by Monique Hodgkinson

Nude sculpture, a freaky fish plate, gorgeous florals and sweeping watercolours compile one of the Dunedin Public Art Gallery’s latest exhibitions. This marks the one-hundrenth birthday of Doris Lusk, one of the most prominent New Zealand artists of the twentieth century. In memory of her, the Read more...

Central Intelligence

Posted 1:04pm Sunday 24th July 2016 by Shaun Swain

Rating: B- The central aspect of a buddy cop/spy film is the “buddy” part of it. With the tagline “saving the world takes a little Hart and a big Johnson” it becomes apparent that in Central Intelligence, the “buddy” comes from not just the characters, but also Read more...

The BFG

Posted 1:01pm Sunday 24th July 2016 by Alex Campbell-Hunt

Rating: C+ The BFG was my favourite childhood book by Roald Dahl, and as far as my distant memories of the book go, the movie does it justice story-wise. So why is the movie so dull? I’m really not sure, but here are some observations.  I didn’t find myself caring about either Read more...

Labyrinth of Lies

Posted 12:58pm Sunday 24th July 2016 by Shaun Swain

Rating: A- “I want these lies, and this silence to end.” A succinct summary of the driving motivation behind an issue almost too big for this two hour film. I say “almost” with admiration and respect for director Giulio Ricciarelli, who manages to imbue this German Read more...

Money Monster

Posted 12:56pm Sunday 24th July 2016 by Andrew Kwiatkowski

Rating: A A 90-minute thrill-ride through a real-time hostage crisis, Money Monster delivers a vigorous story and dazzling performances. George Clooney is a washed-up financial news TV host, who is taken hostage live on air when an out-of-pocket investor (Jack O’Connell) breaks into his Read more...

Cyber warfare

Posted 12:52pm Sunday 24th July 2016 by Anthony Marris

Global cyber security (aka cyber warfare) is a new battlefield where battles are waged and lives lost. Only in this instance, it is gigabytes of data, not litres of blood, and the greatest casualty of all is privacy. According to the many documentaries about cyberwarfare, all it takes is a lone Read more...

The Watchmaker of Filigree Street

Posted 12:49pm Sunday 24th July 2016 by Jack Blair

I discovered this book in UBS and was instantly intrigued by the Steampunk look and the promise of Japanese characters in Victorian London. This is a story that houses mysteries within mysteries therefore it can’t be labelled any narrower than “Speculative Fiction”. However, the Read more...

Bitch Planet

Posted 12:46pm Sunday 24th July 2016 by Anonymous Bird

This deeply feminist graphic novel is set in an alternate reality and somewhat dystopian future where non-compliant women are sent to an off-planet prison (AKA Bitch Planet). The comic follows a diverse group of women from different backgrounds. All of these women are watched and controlled by Read more...

Abe’s Oddysee

Posted 12:42pm Sunday 24th July 2016 by Ryan Collins

Rating: CLASSIC I first played Abe’s Oddysee on a demo disc that came with the original PlayStation. The demo showcased almost the entire first section of the game, which I played through several times before buying the full game—and its sequel, Abe’s Exoddus—sometime Read more...

We're all in this together!!!

Posted 12:34pm Sunday 24th July 2016 by Millicent Lovelock

I am sitting at my desk at work, and I am thinking about a clip of British “girl band” Little Mix shoving marshmallows in each others' mouths for a fluffy bunny challenge. I am so tired and all I want to do is go home to watch that video and maybe cry a little bit watching women Read more...

Chicken Fajitas

Posted 1:35pm Sunday 17th July 2016 by Kirsten Garcia

Fajitas are a grilled meat usually accompanied with onions and bell peppers and served on a tortilla. At most restaurants they’ll serve the meat and veggies to you on a sizzling plate. You then assemble the ingredients on to the tortilla yourself with as much extra cheese and guac your heart Read more...

Doom

Posted 1:31pm Sunday 17th July 2016 by Carl Dingwall

Rating: A Twenty-three years ago, the landscape of gaming was changed forever. Sure, there had been other first-person shooters before—id Software’s own Wolfenstein 3D among them—but none were as influential or widespread as the original Doom in 1993. It’s fast-paced gory Read more...

Cyber security (part one)

Posted 1:27pm Sunday 17th July 2016 by Anthony Marris

There are three topics that I will be discussing over the coming weeks that are all related to cyber security. They are personal cyber security, cyber warfare, and cyber crime. Cybersecurity is all about protecting yourself from your device being used against you. It is not just updating antivirus Read more...

Michael Parekowhai

Posted 1:23pm Sunday 17th July 2016 by Monique Hodgkinson

Several years ago, whilst working at Te Papa Tongarewa I was lucky enough to view Michael Parekowhai’s On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer, a magnificent sculpture installation coinciding with the 54th Venice Biennale exhibition. The installation included an enormous and intimidating Read more...

Tracks & Winter Reading

Posted 1:21pm Sunday 17th July 2016 by Millicent Lovelock

The semester break is when I like to catch up on my reading and my listening, and usually I combine these activities. So, for this week I’ve put together a summary of my winter reading list and some of the music that has accompanied it. TiO (Zayn) & A selection of poems in The Male Read more...

Me Before You

Posted 1:10pm Sunday 17th July 2016 by Halaevalu Maka

Rating: A Me Before You is a film based on the book written by JoJo Moyes and directed by Thea Sharrock. It follows Louisa Clark (Emilia Clarke) a local English woman who is unemployed and looking for a job to financially secure her family. In order to stabilise her family’s situation she Read more...

Finding Dory

Posted 1:07pm Sunday 17th July 2016 by Lisa Blakie

Rating: A Before I even begin to talk about Finding Dory, I NEED to yell about about adorable and flawlessly animated “Piper”. This was the short before the feature film and sends the very simple message of facing your fears and learning from others. The animation was so gorgeously Read more...

The Legend of Tarzan

Posted 1:05pm Sunday 17th July 2016 by Anonymous Bird

Rating: B- It’s been 10 years since Tarzan (Alexander Skarsgård), also known as John Clayton III, was discovered by Jane (Margot Robbie) and brought to live in England. George Washington Williams (Samuel Jackson) convinces Tarzan to accept an invitation to the Congo from King Leopold Read more...

Independence Day: Resurgence

Posted 1:01pm Sunday 17th July 2016 by Andrew Kwiatkowski

Rating: C With deep sadness I report that the promise of a worthy sequel made to us by the trailer was exploded into a million fragments like a landmark in a Roland Emmerich film. Granted, it was an ambitious and difficult task to ever try and match the supreme awesomeness of Independence Day, Read more...

The Rithmatist

Posted 12:53pm Sunday 17th July 2016 by Jack Blair

Remember the magic pencil and evil doodle from Spongebob Squarepants? If that episode had been set in Hogwarts, and there had been a murderer on the loose, then you’d have The Rithmatist. Even though you may not care about the magical benefits of being able to draw a stick figure, you will Read more...

Bossypants

Posted 12:48pm Sunday 17th July 2016 by Hayleigh Clarkson

Tina Fey’s Bossypants delivers everything you hoped it would. Humour, honesty, punchy one-liners and a whole lot of cleverly disguised feminism in the form of flatulent jokes. There is not one single dull page in this book and the jokes just keep rolling.  It is not so much a memoir as Read more...

Lemon & Yoghurt Cake

Posted 12:53pm Sunday 10th July 2016 by Kirsten Garcia

In high school we had cake Fridays and we would eat cake during the last spell of the week. I think we should make that a thing at Uni. This modest recipe has a beautiful pairing of ingredients with a sweet lemon syrup soaked through the sponge of the cake. It’s the kind of slice that’s Read more...

Discordia, Hair, & Bondage

Posted 12:48pm Sunday 10th July 2016 by Lucy Hunter

Spartan, fit-for-purpose separates, uncanny fetishism, and bondage elements make for a bold first step into the industry for this emerging designer. Julia Palm graduated in the top of her class at Otago Polytechnic School of Fashion. Julia is heading to New Zealand Fashion Week in August to take Read more...

Five time sink mobile game apps

Posted 12:43pm Sunday 10th July 2016 by Anonymous Bird

Neko Atsume Rating: A- Neko Atsume is an adorable cat collection game. You start off with a small yard, and you are given some fish. You use this to buy goodies, to deck out your garden with cat food and toys. Leave the app open in the background and do something else. Slowly but surely, cats Read more...

The Bloody Chamber

Posted 12:37pm Sunday 10th July 2016 by Monique Hodgkinson

Take the classic fairy tales you know and love, add a splash of violence, a sprinkling of sex, a healthy dose of feminism, and you’ve got Angela Carter’s The Bloody Chamber. This collection of stories provides a shadowy and provocative exploration of tales such as Snow White and the Read more...

To Rise Again at a Decent Hour

Posted 12:34pm Sunday 10th July 2016 by Hayleigh Clarkson

To Rise Again at a Decent Hour is the ultimate page turner. Winner of the Dylan Thomas Prize as well as being shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, Joshua Ferris writes with fluidity, clarity and with a unique voice unlike any I’ve read before.  The novel settles around Paul Read more...

Skyfall

Posted 12:30pm Sunday 10th July 2016 by Andrew Kwiatkowski

Rating: A+ Skyfall is like one of those optical illusions - do you see a duck or rabbit? In Skyfall, people see what they want to see. Fans of the old school see only betrayal of the core Bond formula, with no gadgets in this film other than “a gun and a radio.” But many, like me, Read more...

The Birds

Posted 12:25pm Sunday 10th July 2016 by Andrew Kwiatkowski

Rating: B+ Ka-KAW!! Hitchcock created this enduring 1963 classic that is still quite scary by today’s standards. The action centres on the Californian town of Bodega Bay, whose residents find themselves being attacked by (spoiler alert) birds. It starts with people only being pecked by a Read more...

The Conjuring 2

Posted 12:23pm Sunday 10th July 2016 by Alex Campbell-Hunt

Rating: B+ The Conjuring 2 is by the same director who made the Insidious movies, so as you’d expect, it scores very high on the shit-my-pants-o-meter. The trailer alone made me lose some sleep, and apparently someone actually died of a heart attack while watching the movie. If you like Read more...

Bad Neighbors 2 — Sorority Rising

Posted 12:19pm Sunday 10th July 2016 by Jessica Thompson

Rating: B+ Let’s call this a progressive comedy for a modern age. Neighbors 2, In the spirit of the first film, opens with tubby wubby Mac (Seth Rogen) and his wife Kelly (Rose Byrne) attempting sex as exhausted parents.  The film begins gross, gets grosser, and ends kinda Read more...

Why do we need…Robotic pets

Posted 12:14pm Sunday 10th July 2016 by Anthony Marris

Humans have always had a relationship with animals. From practical uses, like seeing-eye “dogs,” to the gimmicky, like courier “pigeons”, this constantly developing sector will alter the course of humanity. Robotic pets are, exactly as the name implies, manmade animals (or Read more...

Lawrence Arabia — Absolute Truth Tour

Posted 12:03pm Sunday 10th July 2016 by Lucy Hunter

One of New Zealand’s finest songwriters is coming to Dunedin to play for us at the Maori Hill Coronation Hall on Friday. Lawrence Arabia has won two of New Zealand’s most prestigious music awards: the Taite Music Prize and an APRA Silver Scroll. His fourth album “Absolute Read more...

Gumbo

Posted 12:56pm Sunday 29th May 2016 by Kirsten Garcia

This lil ol’ recipe originates from Louisiana, USA. You may have noticed it in Disney’s Princess and the Frog. It revolves around Tiana’s Dad’s gumbo and I was always curious keen to try it. My first taste of it was actually from Nova. It was hearty and delicious. This cold Read more...

Nine Photographs - Laurence Aberhart

Posted 12:50pm Sunday 29th May 2016 by Robyn Maree Pickens

New Zealand soils are notoriously low in selenium, a mineral that photographer Laurence Aberhart uses (with gold) as a toner when developing his photographs, to create warmth in the shadows. Viewing his photographs in the flesh, one has a sense that these flickers of captured light have been made by Read more...

Uniform

Posted 12:47pm Sunday 29th May 2016 by Jess Taylor

Rocking up fashionably late, as always, to the Blue Oyster Art Project Space on Dowling Street, I am pleased to see the front door flung open invitingly, with small groups of people milling around in the front room. I enter the space where this month’s exhibition opening is unfolding, eager to Read more...

Calling to the Universe - Hex

Posted 12:42pm Sunday 29th May 2016 by Millicent Lovelock

Wellington based Hex are essentially my dream band. The trio recently released their album Calling to the Universe and from my first listen I found myself completely submerged by quicksand vocals and slippery guitars. Hex are Liz Mathews on drums, Kiki Van Newtown on bass, and GG Van Newtown on Read more...

Cradle

Posted 12:39pm Sunday 29th May 2016 by Campbell Calverley

Rating: A- I have been waiting for Cradle to be released for a long time. It is an interesting narrative game that lived up to some of my expectations and fell short of others. It is proof that good writing, a dedicated art style, and a focus on atmosphere can be enough to make a game great. Less Read more...

Go Set A Watchman

Posted 12:37pm Sunday 29th May 2016 by Jessica Thompson

There are some stories that hurt to read. They really can cut you up for a while. Go Set A Watchman is in my top ten on the heartbreak book list for a number of reasons. Written before the famous To Kill a Mockingbird but published as a sequel, it is accepted as being Mockingbird’s first Read more...

Notes to Eternity

Posted 12:33pm Sunday 29th May 2016 by Andrew Kwiatkowski

Rating: A An intensely moving doco about the Palestinian struggle, but also much more than that. When the film begins by interviewing the most vocal members of a pro-Israel protest, you know it isn’t going to pull any punches. It tackles all the difficult issues head-first, with the Read more...

Dante’s Peak

Posted 12:30pm Sunday 29th May 2016 by Alex Campbell-Hunt

Rating: B+ Was this anyone else’s favourite movie as a kid? For me it even overtook Jurassic Park at one point. (Though it just occurred to me that many of this year’s freshers weren’t born yet when it was released... holy christ). In my flat we bought a projector in lieu of a Read more...

Angry Birds Movie

Posted 12:28pm Sunday 29th May 2016 by Lisa Blakie

Rating: C+ It’s pretty common knowledge that most movies adapted from video games are shit, (Tomb Raider, Mortal Kombat, any Sonic the Hedgehog film). Despite this, they are still being made; a fact that I am biased towards being happy about because I bloody love video games. Something that Read more...

The Great Maiden’s Blush

Posted 12:25pm Sunday 29th May 2016 by Anonymous Bird

Rating: B+ This recent New Zealand film follows two women, Aila (Renee Lyons) and Bunny (Miriama McDowell), as they both embark upon single motherhood. Aila is an isolated older woman, lover of gardens and failed classical pianist. Her desperately wanted newborn daughter needs to have a risky Read more...

Why Do We Need...Transhumanism?

Posted 12:20pm Sunday 29th May 2016 by Anthony Marris

Transhumanism is both a philosophy and a movement which explores how technology can be used to enhance people, essentially to better mankind. These enhancements include surgically inputting processors on the brain to increase cognitive function, or replacing lost limbs with vastly improved bionic Read more...

Daddy Jong’s Jaeyuk bokkum

Posted 1:15pm Sunday 22nd May 2016 by Kirsten Garcia

I was a sous chef in a kitchen where I learned this recipe. This is courtesy of my Korean friend, known as Daddy Jong. I was a bit stuck on what to write for the Critic this week, and he offered to make this dish from his homeland. According to people who have lived with him in the past, Read more...

The Obliteration Room — Yayoi Kusama

Posted 1:10pm Sunday 22nd May 2016 by Monique Hodgkinson

Fresh and sparkling at the DPAG this week is Yayoi Kusama’s The Obliteration Room, or polka dot madness, as I prefer to think of it. This exhibition takes the form of a domestic interior - a house complete with living room, study, kitchen, and Kmart-worthy chic décor. The only Read more...

Mavis!

Posted 1:05pm Sunday 22nd May 2016 by Nita Sullivan

Rating: A A heart-warming documentary that spans the life of Soul, RnB, and Gospel singer Mavis Staples, Mavis! entertains and informs on many levels. You don’t have to be a history or music buff to appreciate and enjoy all that Mavis Staples has accomplished during her lengthy career Read more...

Lemonade — Beyonce

Posted 1:01pm Sunday 22nd May 2016 by Jessica Thompson

Beyoncé dropped Lemonade on the 23rd of April, 2016. It is her sixth album, first released on Tidal with an incredible hour long film. I think it’s safe to say I’m not the only person who signed up for the thirty day free trial just to hear Queen B’s sweet, sweet beats, Read more...

Stephen’s Sausage Roll

Posted 12:59pm Sunday 22nd May 2016 by Campbell Calverley

Rating: B+ Think of the most difficult puzzle game that you have ever played and multiply it by a thousand. Then take away all instructions, add a lot of frustration and headache-induced pain, and you will get a game that is still only half as infuriatingly difficult as Stephen’s Sausage Read more...

Paper Girls

Posted 12:53pm Sunday 22nd May 2016 by Anonymous Bird

Opening this graphic novel is an eerie, creepy dream sequence, depicting some kind of angel of death. The protagonist wakes up and we are introduced to Erin, a 12-year-old girl who has just started a job doing the paper round in her neighbourhood. In the early hours of the morning post-Halloween, Read more...

Why Do We Need...Automated vehicles?

Posted 12:48pm Sunday 22nd May 2016 by Anthony Marris

Automated vehicles, colloquially known as self-driving cars, are arguably the greatest technological innovation to date that will have the largest impact on the broadest range of people. Pop culture icons like KITT (Knightrider) have laid the groundwork for an easy transition, and those with Read more...

Florence Foster Jenkins

Posted 12:39pm Sunday 22nd May 2016 by Nita Sullivan

Rating: A In the middle of a very stressful week, and nearing the end of a pretty hectic semester, seeing a heart-warming film about a rich woman who couldn’t sing turned out to be exactly what I needed.  Florence Foster Jenkins creatively depicts the life of Madam Florence (played Read more...

The Man Who Knew Infinity

Posted 12:35pm Sunday 22nd May 2016 by Tom Lord

Rating: B I can’t remember if I’d ever been the youngest person in the movie theatre until I went along to The Man Who Knew Infinity – and I don’t just mean by a few years, I mean that the next youngest person was probably in their mid-50s. When the lights came on at the Read more...

Repo! The Genetic Opera

Posted 12:32pm Sunday 22nd May 2016 by Anonymous Bird

Rating: A It’s the year 2056, and the future is super goth. An epidemic of organ failure has caused the deaths of many. A new company, GeneCo, offers organ transplants on a payment plan. Those who make their payments live on and live rich. However, those who miss their payments fall victim Read more...

Braided Bread

Posted 1:10pm Sunday 15th May 2016 by Kirsten Garcia

My flat “Star Whores” had a potluck for May the Fourth, Star Wars day. As well as supplying Sangria and Pimms, I thought I would contribute some fresh made bread for starters. I totally froth over bread baskets.  This dough recipe is so easy to make because it has very minimal Read more...

This Cloud Is Queering! Val Smith

Posted 1:06pm Sunday 15th May 2016 by Robyn Maree Pickens

“What if you had the agency to take your attention anywhere?” val smith  asks. We are in the small back-gallery space of Blue Oyster Gallery on Dowling Street. It is Saturday afternoon on the last day of April. By asking about agency, val is subtly directing our attention away from Read more...

Black Sabbath

Posted 12:59pm Sunday 15th May 2016 by Anonymous Bird

I’m staring at myself in the mirror as I layer on black eyeshadow, heavy black eyeliner and black mascara. I choose the darkest red lipstick I own, and apply to my lips generously. Happy with my suitably dark aesthetic, I pull on my ripped jeans, black tee, torn up flannel and my docs. Do I Read more...

By the Book

Posted 12:57pm Sunday 15th May 2016 by Hayleigh Clarkson

Edited & introduction by Pamela Paul, Foreword by Scott Turow Have you ever wondered what authors, actresses, scientists or professors read? If you have, then this book is for you. Pamela Paul, the editor of The New York Times Book Review, has put together a collection of interviews of 65 Read more...

Why Do We Need...Cryptocurrencies?

Posted 12:51pm Sunday 15th May 2016 by Anthony Marris

Cryptocurrencies are a digital money system which promotes transactions between parties bypassing a central fixed point like a bank. Arguably cryptocurrencies are an updated version of the hawala system of money transferring, where money was passed along until it reached the intended recipient. The Read more...

Captain America: Civil War

Posted 12:49pm Sunday 15th May 2016 by Anonymous Bird

Rating: A+ The UN is calling for the registration and employment of super powered people, making them accountable to something more than their own moral compass. Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) believes this is the right course of action, considering the lives lost due to the battles caused, Read more...

Eddie the Eagle

Posted 12:45pm Sunday 15th May 2016 by Taoran Li

Rating: B ‘Eddie the Eagle’ was advertised as the “feel good movie of the year”, and you really have to give it to mainstream filmmakers, that’s exactly what their movies do; make you ‘feel good’. This good feeling then dissipates into thin air, much like Read more...

Mother’s Day

Posted 12:43pm Sunday 15th May 2016 by Lisa Blakie

Rating: D (can I give this an F? is that a thing?) What is it with holiday specific movies always being so terrible? I’m not meaning Christmas movies (although there a lot of disappointments there) I’m meaning films like Valentine’s Day, The Holiday, New Year’s Eve and now Read more...

Niu Sila

Posted 12:40pm Sunday 15th May 2016 by Gini Jory

Rating: A+ Niu Sila tells the story of two boys, Ioane Tafioka and Peter Baker, growing up in the same street in 1970s suburban Auckland. One fresh from the Islands, the other as white as they come, this story spans 40 years of friendship, cultural differences, and takes a closer look at the Read more...

The Witness

Posted 12:38pm Sunday 15th May 2016 by Campbell Calverley

Rating: A It is hard to make a player feel completely alone in a game and still keep them engaged. It is even harder to make a puzzle game that treats the player intelligently while forcing them to learn new problem-solving skills. The Witness is the latest puzzle game from game designer Jonathan Read more...

Chicken Adobo

Posted 1:36pm Sunday 8th May 2016 by Kirsten Garcia

My whole family is actually visiting our homeland Philippines as this issue is being printed. They’re going to island resorts where they’ll be swimming in the reefs and I couldn’t go because of uni (sobs). So when Critic emailed saying they were doing a travel issue, I thought Read more...

Light Switch and Conduit: The Jim Barr & Mary Barr Collection

Posted 1:32pm Sunday 8th May 2016 by Monique Hodgkinson

Some art exhibitions simply make sense. The flow from one artwork to another is smooth, logical, creating a gradual sense of understanding and enlightenment in the viewer. They make you go “Oh cool, yeah, nice, wow, I get that.”  Light Switch and Conduit is not one of those Read more...

Going on tour

Posted 1:25pm Sunday 8th May 2016 by Millicent Lovelock

I had never felt so tired, so totally physically and emotionally spent, and yet I know that I will do it over and over again When I was thirteen and watching the My Chemical Romance documentary for the sixtieth time I thought that touring with your band looked like the nicest possible time. What Read more...

Chess

Posted 1:22pm Sunday 8th May 2016 by Campbell Calverley

Rating: F War is hell. This is a truism that has rung throughout the ages, with generation upon generation learning nothing from their predecessors. It is a morally and pragmatically complex business, with endless arguments about the necessity of some wars versus the abhorrence of others. Even in Read more...

Civil War

Posted 1:17pm Sunday 8th May 2016 by Anonymous Bird

There are hundreds, if not thousands of vigilantes, superheroes, and supervillains in the Marvel universe. They battle regularly. Cities burn, buildings fall, and there are always going to be human, civilian casualties. This is what Mark Millar’s Civil War is focused on. This Marvel event Read more...

Why Do We Need...Mars One

Posted 1:15pm Sunday 8th May 2016 by Anthony Marris

Mars One is a not-for-profit venture led by Bas Lansdorp, with the goal of sending people on a one way mission to Mars to establish a human colony by 2024…or 2027ish. The final dates are yet to be determined.  A competition held in 2013 asked for volunteers to go on the one way Read more...

Noma

Posted 1:09pm Sunday 8th May 2016 by Lisa Blakie

Rating: B Noma: My Perfect Storm follows the rise, fall, and rise again of world class restaurant in Denmark, named Noma. Rene Redzepi, the founder and I guess we can say protagonist of the documentary, is a passionate, driven, creative, innovative, ingenious, charismatic chef who is driven by Read more...

Phoenix

Posted 1:07pm Sunday 8th May 2016 by Shaun Swain

Rating: A Dark, mysterious, and artistically crafted are some of the many ways one could describe Writer-Director Christian Petzold’s intriguing new mystery-historical film. A refreshing and intelligent sense of insight flows from each frame of Phoenix, a story that, in more ways than one, Read more...

The Jungle Book



Posted 1:05pm Sunday 8th May 2016 by Jessica Thompson

Rating: A The Jungle Book, directed by Jon Favreau, is a noble re-invention of the whimsical Disney animated version that stemmed from the classic books by Rudyard Kipling.  Raised by a family of wolves in the Indian jungle, the hero of the story, the human boy Mowgli (played by Neel Read more...

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot

Posted 1:02pm Sunday 8th May 2016 by Halaevalu Maka

Rating: A If your life was made into a movie which actor or actress would you want to play you?  Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, directed by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa, was originally inspired by the true story of Kim Barker and her biography ‘The Taliban shuffle: strange days in Read more...

John Dies at the End

Posted 12:55pm Sunday 1st May 2016 by Lucy Hunter

I quite like insects. I don’t mind them on me unless I can feel the weight of them. If one is stuck somewhere I will administer a gentle transport of cardboard over glass jar and dispatch the creature outside. However, while reading John Dies at the End, I developed a fear of bugs. If you are Read more...

A deep and tumbling kind of laughter - John Ward Knox

Posted 12:52pm Sunday 1st May 2016 by Monique Hodgkinson

It would be easy to mistake the current exhibition at the Hocken Gallery for an empty space, so diminutive is the scale of John Ward Knox’s paintings. Yet what a deep and tumbling kind of laughter lacks in size, it makes up for in the intimacy, skill, and sheer beauty of the Read more...

Murtabak

Posted 12:47pm Sunday 1st May 2016 by Kirsten Garcia

This week I’m going Southeast Asian on you all with one of my favourite street foods. The name comes from the Arabic word for folded. It’s essentially roti with minced meat, and a scrambled egg folded inside. It can be eaten by itself, with curry or even just tomato sauce. You have to Read more...