Once Were Warriors, released in 1994, shocked the world with brutal scenes of domestic violence, suicide and rape. As director Lee Tamahori prepares for the release of his first New Zealand film since that break-out hit, Elizabeth Beattie looks back at the New Zealand it depicted and asks, how much has really changed? Trigger Warning: … Read more
Nothing delivers authority or menace like a deep, rumbly voice. Join José Barbosa on a journey of discovery, from Black Sails to CSI: Miami, as he celebrates TV’s deepest, most sonorous voices. Click below to enjoy the brand new, extra gravelly season of Black Sails, coming express to Lightbox every Sunday This content, like all … Read more
Despite huge advances in gender parity, women continue to be paid significantly less than men in the same role. So what’s the fix? Auckland Business School professor Susan St John has a radical plan. The gender pay gap is back in the news. A recent Radio NZ report about the latest public sector employment data … Read more
In 2013 Chris Pryor and Miriam Smith moved to the small Waikato town of Reporoa to shoot a documentary about the local club rugby team. One year later they emerged with a stunning meditation on what it is to be a farmer, a teammate and a man in rural New Zealand. Don Rowe talks to … Read more
Once a thriving center of commerce and industry, tourists have largely avoided Fallout 4‘s Commonwealth since it was decimated by a devastating nuclear holocaust 210 years ago. But with the rebuild effort well underway, there has never been a better time for adventurous travelers to visit this diverse and vibrant region. Eat: Street food aficionados … Read more
From Beverly Hills 90210 and Sex and the City to American Horror Story and Glee, showrunners Darren Star and Ryan Murphy are behind some of the last quarter-century’s most fun television. As Murphy’s The People vs OJ Simpson hits screens and Star’s Younger returns for its second season, Laura Vincent looks back at two of … Read more
With MediaWorks continuing to spiral down a strange rabbit hole full of new shubs, Joanna McLeod calls upon a hero that could help CEO Mark Weldon rediscover his path to greatness: 30 Rock‘s fictional network boss Jack Donaghy. As Mark Weldon continues to make a series of more and more…interesting choices for MediaWorks, it’s become clear … Read more
Aaron Yap digs up gold in Detectorists, the award winning comedy written by The Office’s Mackenzie Crook that went straight-to-DVD in New Zealand. We have several copies to give away, see the end of the piece for more details. The fact that last year Detectorists completely slipped the radars of local TV (broadcast and otherwise) is prime … Read more
Arguing With My Dad is an occasional column which features Greg Bruce in conversation with his father about sports. In this instalment, a disagreement over tennis becomes a discourse on the nature of debate itself. Dad and I have never argued about tennis in our lives, and in fact we’ve hardly ever talked about it, … Read more
Nigella’s here in New Zealand promoting her latest book, simply titled Simply Nigella. She’s too busy to be interviewed by The Spinoff, sadly. Instead, Calum Henderson lined up in Newmarket and bought a $65 book – one our cheapskate organisation definitely could not afford – just to spend five seconds in the presence of the culinary legend. … Read more
Alex Casey breaks down all you need to know about Stan Lee’s Lucky Man, the new television show from none other than (you guessed it) Marvel legend Stan Lee. Stan Lee, Marvel chairman and creator of X Men, Spider Man, Iron Man and many other powerful lycra-wearing men, has released a new breed of everyday … Read more
Tara Ward brings you the first Shortland Street Power Rankings for the year, including Drew’s iron heart, TK’s confused return and Wendy’s tragic passing. 1. Wendy rages against the machine This week’s Shortland Street experience was like riding the Main Trunk Line down the Raurimu Spiral. It was a steep, twisting descent into a dark valley … Read more
From his best-selling book The Scene of the Crime, Steve Braunias imagines the innocent explanation for Mark Lundy on the night his wife and daughter were murdered. Everything in the following version of events of an unsolved family tragedy — well, apart some of the dialogue, travelogue, and various assorted details pertaining to sleep — … Read more
That Dragon, Cancer is less of a game and more a series of interactive abstractions, writes Joseph Harper, but that only makes it all the more effective. I don’t know if morons who hold the view that video games aren’t art still exist. But if so they should play That Dragon, Cancer. An autobiographical game, created … Read more
TVNZ announced they will be launching an all-new “male-skewed” channel. Alex Casey asks CEO Kevin Kenrik why. Hey guys! Big news! Men got something else today! A nice big roomy TVNZ channel especially for them. A lad’s night channel. A Dad bod channel. A man cave channel. A “male skewed” channel that, if it had … Read more
Quentin Tarantino called Geoff Murphy’s 1983 film Utu “hands down the best New Zealand movie of all time” while in Auckland this week to promote The Hateful Eight. In this essay, republished with the kind permission of NZ On Screen, Paul Stanley Ward and Costa Botes look back on the landmark piece of New Zealand cinema. … Read more
Is Jonjo Shelvey the most important signing of the January transfer window? Has anybody seen Peter Crouch this week? And what happened to muscular rapping Dutchman Royston Drenthe? The January transfer window is wide open, and Premier League clubs are rushing in from every corner of England (and Wales) to partake in a bit of … Read more
MediaWorks’ new integrated news platform looks to Duncan Greive like one of the best decisions they’ve made in ages. 2015 was a horror show for Mediaworks, a year which began with it toned, trim and swaggering and ended with it gaunt and dead-eyed, reeling from the trauma of what it had lost. It’s easy to … Read more
Alex Casey chats to Quentin Tarantino about dipping his toes in television, and asks if will ever see him commit to the small screen. He’ll never watch it again, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have to. Click below to watch Quentin Tarantino’s episode of CSI, available on Lightbox (S05E24) This content, like all our television … Read more
Thomas Benny, Joe Nunweek and Richard Bol recount their scurrilous memories of New Zealand live music in the late ’90s and early ’00s. If you’re in the same demographic as many of The Spinoff’s writers, you came of age during a golden era for festivals and touring acts in New Zealand. A flush Australian economy riding … Read more
Alex Casey recounts the harrowing experience of waiting to interview Quentin Tarantino (scroll down for part one of the video interview at the end). “Oh, Aaalex!” he exclaimed. “You’re a girl! What a surprise!” I laughed louder than I’ve ever laughed in my entire life, and bellowed “AND THERE ARE MORE SURPRISES COMING,” at the approximate volume … Read more
Stephanie Johnson reviews Sir Jonathan Bate’s biography of Ted Hughes, a forensic account of his doomed marriage to poet Sylvia Plath. There are people who still blame Ted Hughes for the suicide of his wife Sylvia Plath, who famously gassed herself soon after he left her. Their two small children, Frieda and Nicholas, were in … Read more
This week a “technical glitch” affected the usual smooth running of TVNZ’s One News, delaying the broadcast by several minutes. It might be rare for TV news to go off the rails and head in unexpected directions, but it has happened before. José Barbosa unpacks some of New Zealand’s most notable TV disruptions with help … Read more
Jenga, bumper boats, waka ama, go-karting, archery, ______? It would take some kind of pattern recognition genius to figure out what activity will herald the beginning of the next Super Rugby season in New Zealand. Calum Henderson looks back at the evolution of the season launch in pictures. It started with a game of off-brand … Read more
First there was tennis pro Caroline Wozniacki, then there was PGA staffer Erica Stoll. As Rory McIlroy announces his second engagement, Greg Bruce wonders whether the former world number one’s flair for romance is getting in the way of his golf. Over the course of his relatively brief career, a lot of attention has been … Read more
From How Bizarre to The Lord of the Rings, the New Zealand entertainment industry has performed well internationally across a variety of mediums. But, Path of Exile aside, these small islands are yet to birth any significant gaming classics. Don Rowe speaks with John O’Reilly about the challenges and triumphs of designing games in New Zealand … Read more
Alex Casey talks to Carly Chaikin, star of Golden Globe-winning cyber-drama Mr Robot, about fake hacking, Fight Club and predicting the grim future. Warning: contains spoilers. One of the most exciting new television shows of last year, Mr Robot introduced a world to us full of corporate greed, social media slaves and vigilante hacker groups. … Read more
Ruby Porter reviews Murray Edmond’s first book of prose, four wild visions of a surrealist New Zealand featuring everyone from Winston Peters to Franz Kafka – ‘a kind of punk rock Fred Dagg’. Strait Men and Other Tales is Murray Edmond’s first book of prose – four linked short stories, dark and funny, artificial and … Read more
Alex Casey watches the return episode of Shortland Street for 2016, following the harrowing cliffhanger that left many Ferndale lives hanging in the balance. To ease myself into the return of Shortland Street, I rewatched the last jaw-dropping five minutes of the dramatic Christmas finale. It all came back. Hairs on end, eyes prickling with tears, SOL3 … Read more