It may be hard to believe that 22 years have gone by since Steven Spielberg directed Jurassic Park, which gave the T-Rex renewed sex appeal. Two further instalments followed in 1997 and 2001, before the dinosaurs went into hibernation. Now they are well and truly out there again. Two decades ago it was Dr John…
At some point do you ever feel like you are too old for a genre of music? I have had those thoughts over the years about emo but always remind myself how I will still turn up the stereo for Sunny Day Real Estate, American Football and The Promise Ring. Flash forward to present day…
Upon listening to Passion Pit’s new album Kindred, something felt off. As a big fan of the band’s first two albums, I had hefty expectations for this new one. The usual electronic pop was there, a little more slick and clean this time around. I went back and listened to the first two albums (Manners…
The Mafia Only Kills in Summer was one of the big hits of the recent Italian Film Festival, and it now gains a limited cinema release. This is a quirky mix of coming of age tale, political satire and black comedy. The film is set against the backdrop of Palermo in the 70s and 80s,…
Based upon the literary classic by Thomas Hardy, this film tells the story of Bathsheba Everdene (Carey Mulligan – An Education), a fiercely independent and spirited young woman. She starts out as a simple country girl, who inherits her uncle’s farm. Financially autonomous (a rarity in Victorian times), beautiful and headstrong, she attracts three very different…
The cover of Beat The Champ, the latest album by The Mountain Goats, has a picture of two wrestlers going at it in the ring. John Darnielle’s 15th studio album is indeed a theme album about the wonders (and gruesomeness) of professional wrestling. And no, not the WWF or WWE of your youth; this is…
Grounded, by George Brant, performed by Kate Cole at the Reginald Theatre, SHOULD NOT BE MISSED. An exhilarated female Top Gun flies her own plane, her ‘Tiger”, striking down the enemy, begins a relationship with an ordinary but love-smitten man, becomes pregnant, is required to stop flying, has a girl child, Sam, and later returns…
Inspired by true events, this fantasy adventure tells the story of a young woman’s extraordinary journey from Japan to Minnesota, in search of a mythical fortune. The titular Kumiko (Rinko Kikuchi from Babel) lives a shy and solitary life in a cramped Tokyo apartment shared only by her beloved pet rabbit Bunzo. She is 29…
The melodramatic The Best of Me is the latest adaptation of a novel from Nicholas Sparks, a bestselling author best known for The Notebook. Sparks writes overly sentimental romantic novels to a well established and increasingly predictable formula – rain drenched passionate kisses and young lovers from different social classes kept apart by family, prejudice,…
This simple, low budget New Zealand and Australian co-production is a two-handed romantic drama that is reminiscent of the Before trilogy from Richard Linklater. It basically follows a couple as they wander through the streets of Christchurch while they try to work out where their relationship stands. Charlie (Dustin Clare, from TV series Spartacus) left…
