You’ve seen the terrible ads, now it’s time you see the terrible complaints. With crimes ranging from blasphemy and bad timelines to ‘the homosexual agenda’, we present a small selection of the most entertaining complaints that have been dismissed by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) so far this year. People love to complain, and sometimes … Read more
The conveners and judges of this year’s Best Design Awards nominations are overwhelmingly male. And in the past 20 years, its top award has only been awarded to three women. Designer Catherine Griffiths responds with – what else? – design. Each year the Designers Institute of New Zealand awards two Black Pins, its supreme award. For … Read more
Bringing you the best weekly reading from your friendly local website. Duncan Greive: I send my kid to the cold equivalent of a prison-yard most days and I’m fine with it “Deobrah Hill Cone’s column yesterday was a devastating indictment of an institution that many of us use every day. The whole thing dripped with concern, … Read more
In our reviewers’ final sweep of the NZ Film Festival splendour, titles include a David Attenborough documentary without David Attenborough and a Nick Hornby adaptation Happy As Lazzaro Chalk one up for strategic ignorance. I’ve had mixed results this year with my favourite film selection method, the one where if I loved a director’s previous films … Read more
We’ve largely moved beyond moral panics about teens’ consumption of books, television and movies, but worries about the effects of online pornography remain. But are we concerned about the wrong things? Throughout history, the regulation of children’s access to violent and sexualised media has been a startlingly consistent social concern. Over the course of the … Read more
Keen to cure your addiction to the small screen? Alex Beattie has nine quickfire suggestions. A flash on your screen, a ‘vrrrr’ in your pocket, the universal ‘DING’. The digital world is rife with distractions, some of which are by design. Thanks to smartphones and social media, we live in an attention economy where the … Read more
The good, the bad, and the unexpected in our latest film festival reviews. [CENSORED] Not quite what I was expecting – although, in some ways, more than I expected – [CENSORED] is the fruit of filmmaker-cum-archivist Sari Braithwaite’s time spent holed up alone in an archive screening room with a fascinating and difficult collection of … Read more
Whanganui High School invited only Māori and Pasifika boys to a Joseph Parker speaking event, which some believed to be racism in action. Hint: it wasn’t. Here we go again. On Tuesday, news broke that Whanganui High School had limited a Joseph Parker speaking event to Māori and Pasifika boys and their fathers. Some parents … Read more
Being boring is not just an unfortunate side effect of being Mark Zuckerberg, it’s a strategy, and nowhere is that more apparent than in his choice of clothing. In an essay from the freshly published second volume of the The California Review of Images and Mark Zuckerberg (yes, it’s really a thing) New Zealanders Kelly and Anna … Read more
Toby Morris has illustrated a new publication in the School Journal Story Library that tells the story of the Treaty of Waitangi. Below, a selection of the work, introduced by Ātea editor Leonie Hayden Toby approached me to read a few early drafts of his School Journal, and I was struck by how simple you … Read more
As the Auckland leg draws to its close, our reviewers hail a clutch of restored and modern classics. Leave No Trace I asked Brent after we saw Leave No Trace, “Did I cry so much because it’s such an excellent imagining of a tragic situation, or did I cry so much because it’s such an … Read more
David Farrier delves into the 30-year-old mystery of Richard A Kontos, a man with a dream of a better world. A man obsessed with talking peas and the tiny town of Peasville. It all started with an email. “A man named Richard A Kontos from Daisy Hill, Queensland, has for the past 30 odd years … Read more
Bringing you the best weekly reading from your friendly local website. Toby Morris: The Side Eye: Inequality Tower 2018 Imagine all the wealth in NZ as a ten-storey apartment building. Imagine half of NZ crammed in a tiny corner of the bottom floor. This is the worsening reality in New Zealand, 2018. Steven Adams: Why does … Read more
After years of watching powerlessly as his iPhone took over his brain, Duncan Greive found a way of getting it back. Last Saturday I was sitting with a friend, patting a puppy while she idly thumbed her phone. I was a few feet away, but it sure looked like the screen was black and white. … Read more
The ninth installment from our team film critics swarming the cinemas of Auckland and Wellington for the 2018 NZ International Film Festival. Woman At War If I had one free reviewer’s wish for this festival — “Every person within range of a screening shall attempt to buy tickets to a movie of your choice, and the … Read more
The eighth installment from our team film critics swarming the cinemas of Auckland and Wellington for the 2018 NZ International Film Festival. See also: Birds of Passage, First Reformed, Disobedience, 3 Faces In the Aisles, The Image Book, Apostasy, Brimstone and Glory You Were Never Really Here, Kusama – Infinity, Transit, Yellow is Forbidden, Piercing, Terrified, The … Read more
Steven Price, who argued against Māori Television in their landmark defamation case this week, explains exactly what the new defamation defence actually means, why it’s such a big deal and who really won the case. I had an odd experience the other night. I had just popped the cork on a bottle of bubbly with Felix … Read more
We’ve been waiting for the tipping point, where online really surges against broadcast media. It just arrived, says Duncan Greive, who has read NZ on Air’s epic new audience behaviour survey so you don’t have to. The release of NZ on Air’s audience survey is on its way to becoming the most important event in … Read more
The Spinoff’s not at all embittered or deranged reporter Hayden Donnell talks to David Farrier about his Dark Tourist series for Netflix the time David failed to show up to his wedding. The career of New Zealand journalist David Farrier has skyrocketed since the release of his acclaimed documentary Tickled. Last week his new series for Netflix, Dark … Read more
Veteran news pro Pete Export (Ra Pomare) has some tips for making a classic ‘winter hits New Zealand’ news story. The Spinoff TV, 10.45pm Fridays on THREE
The seventh installment from our team film critics swarming the cinemas of Auckland and Wellington for the 2018 NZ International Film Festival. See also: Birds of Passage, First Reformed, Disobedience, 3 Faces In the Aisles, The Image Book, Apostasy, Brimstone and Glory You Were Never Really Here, Kusama – Infinity, Transit, Yellow is Forbidden, Piercing, Terrified, … Read more
The sixth installment from our team film critics swarming the cinemas of Auckland and Wellington for the 2018 NZ International Film Festival. See also: Birds of Passage, First Reformed, Disobedience, 3 Faces In the Aisles, The Image Book, Apostasy, Brimstone and Glory You Were Never Really Here, Kusama – Infinity, Transit, Yellow is Forbidden, Piercing, Terrified, … Read more
You can download your friendly local website’s mobile application for zero dollars – now with variable text size and search functionality. Update December 2019: The Spinoff app now comes with search functionality and the option to increase text size. Find the text-size option at the top of each post, and the search bar by scrolling … Read more
The fifth installment from our team film critics swarming the cinemas of Auckland and Wellington for the 2018 NZ International Film Festival. See also: Birds of Passage, First Reformed, Disobedience, 3 Faces In the Aisles, The Image Book, Apostasy, Brimstone and Glory You Were Never Really Here, Kusama – Infinity, Transit, Yellow is Forbidden, Piercing, Terrified, … Read more
Bringing you the best weekly reading from your friendly local website. Amy Parsons-King: Silent lambs: Child sexual abuse and the Jehovah’s Witnesses Best known for their door-to-door evangelising, Jehovah’s Witnesses are on a quest to save the ‘wicked’ from damnation. For victims of sexual abuse within the organisation, however, that quest has seen perpetrators shielded from … Read more
The fourth installment from our team film critics swarming the cinemas of Auckland and Wellington for the 2018 NZ International Film Festival. See also: Birds of Passage, First Reformed, Disobedience, 3 Faces In the Aisles, The Image Book, Apostasy, Brimstone and Glory You Were Never Really Here, Kusama – Infinity, Transit, Yellow is Forbidden, Piercing, Terrified, … Read more
Young New Zealand actor Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie is surging to stardom on the back of acclaimed survivalist drama Leave No Trace and Taika Waititi’s upcoming Jojo Rabbit. Gemma Gracewood runs down what you need to know about her. Not to get too excited about it, but Wellington teen Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie is having a bloody … Read more
The Spinoff’s editor reviews the last seven days in New Zealand news, sorting out those riding high from those who wish they could crawl back under the bedcovers. The Spinoff TV, 10.45pm Fridays on THREE
National leader Simon Bridges went on Radio Live this afternoon and came out in favour of the two big NZ media print companies’ bid to merge. Does that mean it will become a partisan issue? Doing a long radio spot as a politician is difficult. An issue can come up basically out of nowhere, the … Read more