Archive

Video Game Books

Posted 11:48am Saturday 30th September 2017 by Lisa Blakie

“Lisa, why don’t you review a REAL game for once”. Uh, no! Hey, you know what you should be doing instead of spending so much time playing your silly video games like Zoombinis and Call of Duty and the Mario? Maybe try reading a book? A book about… Video games! Haha! Gotcha! Read more...

Half a Yellow Sun

Posted 11:42am Saturday 30th September 2017 by Jessica Thompson Carr

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is truly a master of words. She combines history with fiction beautifully, and brings us close to the Nigerian Civil War (1967-1970), which I knew nothing about beforehand. The book follows the lives of five characters: Ugwu, a boy from a poor village; Olanna, an Read more...

Quesadillas

Posted 11:38am Saturday 30th September 2017 by Liani Baylis

Quesadillas hold a special place in my heart - a drunk cult-classic as far as I’m concerned. I will forever owe my drunk nights on exchange to my friend Lucy, who somehow composed herself enough to loosely monitor a bit of molten cheese on the stovetop. Get someone like that; absolute Read more...

Logan Lucky

Posted 11:28am Saturday 30th September 2017 by Callum Post

Rating: 3/5 Few things are more entertaining than trying to predict how a well thought out heist flick will play out. Logan Lucky is a revisit of this formula, starring a slew of A-list names such as Daniel Craig, Channing Tatum, Katie Holmes, and the up-in-coming Adam Driver. The movie Read more...

IT

Posted 11:27am Saturday 30th September 2017 by Todd Johnstone

Rating: 4/5 While not as scary as many people were suggesting, I wouldn’t recommend IT to anyone already suffering from Coulrophobia. This is the second adaptation of Stephen King’s 1986 novel to be put to screen, following the 1990 mini-series. Director Andy Muschietti has revamped Read more...

Ai Weiwei: Rarely Apologetic

Posted 11:23am Saturday 30th September 2017 by Waveney Russ

Ai Weiwei has been arrested, surveyed, interrogated, abused and exiled by the Communist Party of China (CPC). His contributions to the political-artistic discussion dominated the 2017 global art scene. The son of a denounced Chinese poet, political retribution has been part of Weiwei’s life Read more...

I Touched Darude

Posted 11:12am Saturday 30th September 2017 by Josephine Devereux

Legends aren’t born, they’re made. The legend is made of memes and called Darude, the man behind the cultural classic that is ‘Sandstorm’. This is the journey I undertook to see Sandstorm live. Darude was playing one New Zealand concert, in Christchurch. Why Christchurch? Read more...

Dumplings

Posted 1:55pm Sunday 24th September 2017 by Liani Baylis

Dumplings are one of those things that test every ounce of my willpower every single time. How the fuck are they so good? Anyone who says they don’t like dumplings should be charged with treason as far as I am concerned. I make mine in a bamboo steamer (which you can pick up from Kmart Read more...

Rough Night

Posted 1:50pm Sunday 24th September 2017 by Gem MacDuff

Rating: 2/5 Amped for a kick-ass, unabashedly feminist film about a bunch of fierce yet comic women fighting the good fight, I have to say I was disappointed. Wonder Woman was sold out. Instead I was ushered into a nearly empty cinema to see Lucia Aniello’s “Rough Night”. In a Read more...

Paris Can Wait

Posted 1:45pm Sunday 24th September 2017 by Gem MacDuff

Rating: 1/5 I really, really wanted this to be the Eat, Pray, Love we all deserve, but all this film made me feel was hungry. Eleanor Coppola’s Paris Can Wait follows Anne (Diane Lane), the wife of a loving but distant movie producer and his business partner Jacques (Arnaud Viard) as Read more...

itch.io and Indie Games

Posted 1:26pm Sunday 24th September 2017 by Lisa Blakie

Itch.io is a website that has 100s of games, both free and premium, to download. You can also donate to creators of games and choose what to pay for purchase! How incredible is that? Game accessibility has been hugely increased through mobile free to play games, however it is extremely rare that iOS Read more...

INK at Railway St Studios, Auckland

Posted 1:19pm Sunday 24th September 2017 by Peter Dornauf

The art world, though it would deny it, has its own set of well-established hierarchies. It needs to look down on something and that something is print works, which is ironic given that Pop Art, one of the major revolutions in the history of art, employed printing techniques. Both Warhol and Read more...

Review: From Chamber Music to Echo Chamber...

Posted 1:13pm Sunday 24th September 2017 by Bianca Prujean

Person L – Stacian from Night School Records On 9 September 2017, Night School Records dropped ‘Person L’, the latest full-length offering from Stacian. The call and response vocals on opening track ‘Volx’ may have you mistaking Stacian for your new favourite Read more...

Review: Michael Houstoun & Bella Hristova

Posted 1:01pm Sunday 24th September 2017 by Isaac Shatford

There’s nothing quite like live chamber music. I’m not just saying that because I don’t have tickets to Ed Sheeran. There’s something magical about seeing two or more instrumentalists in musical conversation. I can’t think of a better example of this than Read more...

A Keeper of Sheep by William Carpenter

Posted 12:54pm Sunday 24th September 2017 by Zoe Taptiklis

The cover of this novel almost tries to warn you off with its bleeding grey pinks. Any millennial trying to express themselves through the last available port, fashion, should chain a copy of A Keeper of Sheep around their neck. Carpenter’s novel is a must read for anyone who wholeheartedly Read more...

Frog Fractions

Posted 1:31pm Sunday 17th September 2017 by Lisa Blakie

Rating: 5/5 Miniclip and Neopets were the only experiences I ever really had with browser based games made in Flash and as it turns out, I’m missing out on a lot.   My mate Jack: “Lisa, have you played Frog Fractions?” Me: “No way, maths is Read more...

The Virgin Suicides

Posted 1:26pm Sunday 17th September 2017 by Jessica Thompson

The Virgin Suicides, written in 1993, is, I suppose, a haunting depiction of the ‘enigma’ that is girl-hood. Set in small town Michigan in the 1970s, the novel is narrated by an anonymous group of boys who obsess over the Lisbon sisters. There are five sisters: 13-year-old Cecilia, Read more...

Generation Housing NZ

Posted 1:22pm Sunday 17th September 2017 by Cora-Allan Wickliffe

In 2016 Daniel and I moved back to New Zealand to have our son. We moved into my childhood home with my parents, who live in a state house in an area which has increasingly become less comfortable. I remember the big move when I was 3 years old. My parents knew the neighbours who bought the house Read more...

6 Days

Posted 1:12pm Sunday 17th September 2017 by Diana Tran

Rating: 3.5/5 6 Days tells the true story of the 1980 siege of the Iranian Embassy in London. The embassy was stormed by six individuals, who held 26 people hostage for six days. The film follows police negotiator Max Vernon (Mark Strong), who aims to resolve the situation diplomatically and Read more...

Ethel & Ernest

Posted 1:09pm Sunday 17th September 2017 by Alex Campbell-Hunt

Rating: 4.5/5 What a nice film. Ethel & Ernest is an animated film based on a book by Raymond Briggs, the author of a number of beloved ‘80s and '90s children’s picture books, about the lives of his parents, milkman dad Ernest and lady’s-maid mum Ethel, voiced superbly Read more...

Marvel’s The Defenders | Netflix TV Series

Posted 1:05pm Sunday 17th September 2017 by Samuel Rillstone

Rating: 4/5 Marvel Entertainment’s latest Netflix release offers a miniaturised street level version of the Avengers in the form of the Defenders. Daredevil (Charlie Cox), Jessica Jones (Krysten Ritter), Luke Cage (Mike Colter) and Iron Fist (Finn Jones) make up the roster, following their Read more...

Dunedin Youth Orchestra |Romantic Underground Concert

Posted 1:07pm Sunday 10th September 2017 by Ihlara McIndoe

Do you find the concept of classical music enticing, but don’t yet feel like you have enough grey hairs, or cough lollies in your pockets, to fit in with the usual classical concert crowd? Are you vaguely interested, but don’t want to give up two hours getting a numb bum sitting in the Read more...

Review: Dunedin Symphony Orchestra - Dvorak and Brahms

Posted 1:02pm Sunday 10th September 2017 by Ihlara McIndoe

Following the last DSO concert, which proved to be a very pleasant evening with my dad (even if he was stingy on the ice cream front), I managed to find a friend to accompany me to the most recent event. I am 85 percent sure she forgot she was supposed to be coming, as when I arrived at her flat to Read more...

Critic Interviews: Rudeism

Posted 12:50pm Sunday 10th September 2017 by Lisa Blakie

Dylan Beck is a good friend of mine and I got to know him before he became Rudeism, a Twitch stream extraordinaire who has over 35,000 followers and can turn anything into a videogame controller. I sat down with him to ask about his newfound popularity and creative genius.   When did you Read more...

Miranda Parkes: The Merrier

Posted 12:43pm Sunday 10th September 2017 by Waveney Russ

Photo credit: Miranda Parkes: the merrier’ installation view featuring antibody banner; push me; (all 2017) courtesy Hocken Collections, Uare Taoka o Hākena. Photo: Iain Frengley. The Frances Hodgkins Fellowship comes around once a year, and when it does, Christmas comes Read more...

Kalinka

Posted 12:37pm Sunday 10th September 2017 by Diana Tran

Rating: 4/5 Kalinka is an honest and thoughtful portrayal of the true experiences of André Bamberski in his quest to find justice for his daughter Kalinka, who was raped and murdered. While spending the summer with her mother and stepfather, Dr Dieter Krombach, Kalinka suddenly dies of an Read more...

Apple Tree Yard

Posted 12:34pm Sunday 10th September 2017 by Shaun Brinsdon

Rating: 3.5/5 Following the likes of successful BBC mini-series like Happy Valley comes Jessica Hobbs’s Apple Tree Yard. Based on the novel of the same name, Apple Tree Yard centres on Dr Yvonne Carmichael (Emily Watson), a scientist who is unhappy in her marriage. She begins an affair with Read more...

The Secret History

Posted 12:29pm Sunday 10th September 2017 by Zoe Taptiklis

The Secret History is difficult to place into a temporal setting. Initially, based on the characters’ diction and the elaborate descriptive passages, I thought it was set in the ‘50s. The excessive use of home phones, the ones wired to the wall, made me think it was the ‘70s. Read more...

Cinnamon Rolls to Warm Your Poor Student Souls

Posted 12:26pm Sunday 10th September 2017 by Liani Baylis

I love bringing you guys my own recipes and shit, but I’ve discovered yet another amazing blog. I’m absolutely frothing over veganricha.com at the moment and these cinnamon rolls make me want to marry the clever little lass. During my non-vegan years, I had a go-to cinnamon roll Read more...

The Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses

Posted 2:15pm Sunday 3rd September 2017 by Lisa Blakie

Rating: 5/5 The Symphony of the Goddesses tour started in 2012 after the 25th anniversary celebration of the Legend of Zelda at E3 2011. Playing for just one night in Auckland (on a SCHOOL night too!), I was determined to go; it had been a dream to see this show live since I heard the orchestral Read more...

The Case of the Missing Body

Posted 2:14pm Sunday 3rd September 2017 by Zoe Taptiklis

It has been a treat reading this book. It took me under an hour to read, but it’s taken days to digest. Imagine not knowing what your body is. I’ve always said that I have parsnip legs; they’re long and effing pale, wide at the top, tapering out into teeny little toes Read more...

The Haunting

Posted 2:09pm Sunday 3rd September 2017 by Alex Campbell-Hunt

Rating: 3/5 This is an… interesting movie. A late ‘90s entry in the Haunted House genre, it is imprinted in my memory because I vividly recall as a kid being torn between wanting to see it and thinking that it was going to be terrifying. More specifically, I remember making it as far Read more...

Okja

Posted 2:06pm Sunday 3rd September 2017 by Samuel Rillstone

Rating: 2.5/5 I found Okja to be less of a revolutionary film exposing the capitalist meat industry and more of a low ruckus. The cast boasts such powerhouses as Jake Gyllenhaal, Tilda Swinton and Lily Collins, all of whom create vibrant and intriguing performances. Even the young talent, the Read more...

A Comprehensive Guide to Games Where You Can Pet Animals

Posted 1:04pm Sunday 20th August 2017 by Lisa Blakie

Recently, my general feeling towards life has been that animals are the only pure things left in this year of general chaos. I don’t know about you, but I’ve personally changed my settings on Facebook to see posts from “Old Friends Senior Dog Sanctuary”, “Cool Cat Read more...

The Big Sick

Posted 12:56pm Sunday 20th August 2017 by Shaun Brinsdon

Rating: 4/5 The Big Sick opened with great acclaim from critics and viewers alike. The film is based on the true story of how Emily V. Gordon and Kumail Nanjiani began their relationship. They wrote the screenplay of the film together and Nanjiani plays himself, while Gordon delegated her role to Read more...

Atomic Blonde

Posted 12:54pm Sunday 20th August 2017 by Todd Johnstone

Rating: 5/5 This movie will leave you feeling like you have just been continually hit in the face for two hours – but in a good way. I didn’t expect much going into it; I knew that it was directed by one of the directors of John Wick, so the action scenes and stunts were likely to be Read more...

The Lost Daughter

Posted 12:50pm Sunday 20th August 2017 by Jessica Thompson

"Books, once they are written, have no need of their authors."   Nobody knows who Elena Ferrante really is. An Italian writer, she (could be a he, but everyone assumes…) is mainly famous for her coming of age Neapolitan novels. Ferrante has been named one of the 100 Read more...

Gratis: A Q + A with Carisma

Posted 12:45pm Sunday 20th August 2017 by Bianca Prujean

This week, Critic takes a journey deep inside the Argentinian discotheque with Buenos Aires-based DJ/producer duo, Carisma. Carisma recently dropped their long-awaited full length album, Gratis. Out on Dengue Dancing Records, Gratis features nine tracks of heavily pulsed crunch beats, arpeggiated Read more...

Vegan Cupcakes that Are to Kill For (Just Not Sentient Beings)

Posted 12:40pm Sunday 20th August 2017 by Liani Baylis

A couple of weeks back, I shared my favourite cupcake recipe with you. I feel very passionate about said recipe, so I never mustered the courage to try “veganise” it. I’ve done it with other recipes, but that one I hold dear to my heart. Then, like a guardian angel, along comes Read more...

Dunedin’s Coffee Cup Art Trail

Posted 12:37pm Sunday 20th August 2017 by Waveney Russ

Latte art is dead. Do you think I ask to be presented with a sweet cat whose face I must suck into inexistence if I want to enjoy the five-dollar stimulant that, at this point, I chug back as if medication? Ephemeral. Transient. In an effort to clog my life with anything mildly resembling artwork Read more...

Shin Hanga (新版画)

Posted 12:12pm Sunday 13th August 2017 by Waveney Russ

Early 20th century Japan is a total cultural divergence from a tiny South Island town like ours, but the McDowell gallery has been authentically transformed into a perfect haven for the impressionistic prints of a pre-war age gone by. Shin-hanga (literally meaning “new woodcut Read more...

Nutshell by Ian McEwan

Posted 12:05pm Sunday 13th August 2017 by Zoe Taptiklis

Ian McEwan claimed fame from the world of non-literary oriented folks when Kiera Knightly had sex in a library, a scene that won the novel, and movie, Atonement, a permanent place in the collective memory of popular culture. I confess, I’ve tried to read Atonement several times, and I never Read more...

Ov Pain

Posted 12:03pm Sunday 13th August 2017 by Reg Norris

I’m not from here. Most of the people from where I’m from migrate north to the oily plains of Melbourne. It’s a rite of passage and sign of artistic commitment, or the need for restaurants open after 10pm, departure lounges teeming with tortured fortune seekers, or the guarantee of Read more...

To the Moon

Posted 11:59am Sunday 13th August 2017 by Lisa Blakie

Rating: 5/5 I’ve been on a bit of a story-rich indie game high recently. Oxenfree, Cibelle and Ladykiller in a Bind to name a few. This is definitely due to their accessibility. The most that these games cost is only around $20, they are available for both Windows and Mac, and can be Read more...

Dunkirk

Posted 11:56am Sunday 13th August 2017 by Callum Post

Rating: 4/5 Having directed some of the biggest movies of the last decade (such as Inception and The Dark Knight Trilogy), the Christopher Nolan brand has become synonymous with imaginative, mind-bending success. But now that he’s decided to make his mark on the war genre, as have so many Read more...

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...

Long Way North

Posted 1:20pm Sunday 6th August 2017 by Diana Tran

Rating: 4/5 Long Way North is about a 15-year-old rebel who runs away from home after getting yelled at by her father. And it is so much more. Sasha’s journey has all the elements that make for a jolly adventure: unresolved family tensions, a potentially dangerous cute boy, a sassy barmaid, Read more...

War for the Planet of the Apes

Posted 1:17pm Sunday 6th August 2017 by Todd Johnstone

Rating 4/5 Seeing an orang-utan and a gorilla riding horseback into battle is a great sight; it’s pure CINEMA. War for the Planet of the Apes embraces these strange sights. After all, the main character in the film is a highly intelligent chimp who talks, surrounded by a troop of slightly Read more...

Critic’s Ultimate Guide to Peanut Butter

Posted 1:14pm Sunday 6th August 2017 by Liani Baylis

My heart genuinely goes out to those unfortunate enough to be cursed with a nut allergy - I’m sorry. That does, however, mean more peanut butter for me. You don’t die and I get more PB all to myself - there can be no loser. I thought this week I’d shake it up a bit as an ode Read more...

Italian Inspirations Review: Taking Dad to the DSO

Posted 1:03pm Sunday 6th August 2017 by Ihlara McIndoe

Sadly, it’s always a struggle to find somebody to claim the second ticket of my double DSO pass. My friend pool of Western Art Music fans (the “WAM-fam”) is on the light side, and is significantly diminished once you remove those who are members of the orchestra, so have no need Read more...

That No I.d. Friend And The Story Of Jay-z

Posted 1:01pm Sunday 6th August 2017 by Grimm Selfie

In July 2017, Jay-Z released his long awaited return with the album 4:44. Like any good story there’s a person behind the elevator miss-haps, sipping lemonade in the shadows, that makes things happen. In this case it’s a person known as No I.D. It’s an odd thing when we listen Read more...

Dream Daddy: A Dad Dating Simulator

Posted 12:55pm Sunday 6th August 2017 by Lisa Blakie

The title says it all. Dream Daddy: A Dad Dating Simulator (DDADDS) is a Dad dating simulator where you are a Dad looking to date other Dads. Yes, it’s as good as it sounds. I’ve been looking forward to this game for quite some time because I love games that focus on building Read more...

Art Week Cover Competition

Posted 2:23pm Sunday 30th July 2017 by Critic

Art Week is approaching and to celebrate, Critic wants artists to send us your artwork. We will choose a piece to go on the cover of Critic for the week, plus you get prizes! The magazine prints at 300ppi so please send high-resolution images. If your work is digital you need to send it at 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...

‘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...

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...