A little bit of Taika, a little bit Jackson, a little bit Footrot Flats. Calum Henderson celebrates the best New Zealand-made films available to watch on Lightbox right now. Growing up, the options sometimes felt a bit limited when it came to New Zealand movies. Want a whimsical romcom? Your best bet was probably the first half of Heavenly Creatures. … Read more
Parks and Rec, The Office, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, The Good Place – creator Mike Schur has become a titan of the television sitcom. Jordan Hamel explains exactly how he did it. Mike Schur is a name you may not know, but you almost certainly know his work. His shows are the family-sized pepperoni pizza of network television, … Read more
We’re halfway through the celebrity stepping competition that is Dancing with the Stars. Sam Brooks power-ranks week five! It was cool to see the judges acknowledge the harshness of their criticisms against the women in this competition, and, quite correctly, give the public a call to action to vote for the women! Does it matter? This is … Read more
It’s one of the most tight-knit, well-established and supportive music environments in New Zealand. Ben Lynch pays tribute to the capital’s hard rock and metal scene. When discussing or researching heavy music in New Zealand, one thing quickly becomes apparent: it’s a fairly fruitless task to try and compare scenes from city to city. While … Read more
Comedian and sometime chat show host Tim Batt runs down his list of the top chat show hosting duos of all time, from Oprah & Gayle to Havoc & Newsboy. Chat shows are a strange mainstay of entertainment. Debuting in caves then later shifting to radio and eventually television, the basics of the format are … Read more
Saraid Cameron interviews poet-musician Jamila Woods upon the release of her sophomore album, the forward-thinking, backward-facing Legacy Legacy! Jamila Woods has had a meteoric rise to success, collaborating with artists like Chance the Rapper and Noname on her debut album Heaven which was named in the top 50 albums of 2016 by Pitchfork. But she’s just as … Read more
After repeated obscenities were scrawled on the face of the beloved New Zealander near Brick Lane, the artist added a note saying, ‘This is a portrait of a kiwi film director Taika Waititi NOT Jose Mourinho YOU MUPPET!!!’ And now he’s thinking he’ll paint over it altogether Taika Waititi might be world-famous in New Zealand, … Read more
The Real Pod assembles to dissect the week in reality television and real life, with special thanks to Nando’s. You asked for it: we’re all back in the same room, at the same time. Kind of. Alex is 20 minutes late and Jane got the time wrong, so Duncan starts an eight minute monopod. There’s much … Read more
Three eliminations down, three women gone. But why is Dancing with the Stars so harsh to its female contestants? Miriam Moore writes. The fourth week and third elimination of Dancing with the Stars has come and gone. Once again, the talent was off the charts, and we got to see what Aotearoa’s group of B-to-H-list celebrities … Read more
Sam Brooks reviews Educators, a beautifully morbid and mean-spirited New Zealand comedy about high school teachers. The daily life of a teacher is a well-trodden one on television. It’s not hard to see why: education and school provides a well-known structure, it’s a pretty universal experience, and the hardships of being a teacher are well-documented … Read more
Ten years ago, Smashproof released ‘Brother’, the song that swiftly became the longest running number one by a New Zealand act. Jogai Bhatt talks to the band about the impact of the song then, and what it means to them today. I remember it like it was only ten years ago. I’d recently made the … Read more
It’s week four of celebrity deadlifting competition, Dancing with the Stars. Sam Brooks power-ranks the contestants. Both episodes opened with two different choreograph dancers to Timmy Trumpets’ ‘Freaks’ featuring Savage. Did they get it for cheap if they played it twice? That’s a very specific choice! I’ll tell you one thing for free! No paywall here, premium content right … Read more
Cheers for a millennial audience? A three-camera sitcom that you can laugh at without feeling guilty? Sounds great! Sam Brooks reviews Abby’s, which you can watch on Lightbox right here. “Abby’s is filmed in front of a live outdoor audience.” Perhaps unintentionally, the disclaimer that begins every episode of Abby reflects the two-pronged strength of the show. On one … Read more
Adnan Syed’s story didn’t end after the blockbuster Serial podcast. Jean Sergent reviews Amy Berg’s The Case Against Adnan Syed, now streaming on TVNZ OnDemand. If you’re not one of the millions of listeners who made Serial a podcasting sensation, let me introduce you to the facts. Sometime on the afternoon of January 13th 1999, teenager Hae … Read more
She’s more than a New Zealand icon – she’s a New Zealand star. Sam Brooks talks to Danielle Cormack about her role as Lulu in Fresh Eggs Danielle Cormack is, straight up, one of our most successful actresses, by whatever yardstick you choose to use to measure it. Gloss, Shortland Street, Topless Women Talk About Their … Read more
How a singer’s revelation about their identity gave Openside their purpose – and New Zealand’s most intense pop fans. Images by Ravi Chand. He looks mid-fifties, skinny jeans, grey hair cropped close. Not exactly out of place but not in his element either. “Have you seen my daughter? She’s about this tall,” he asks no one … Read more
The Real Pod assembles to dissect the week in reality television and real life, with special thanks to Nando’s. With Duncan in Thailand, Alex and Jane (and occasionally Tina) shoulder the burden of recapping the past week in reality TV and extremely real news. There’s a bloody big cat on the loose in the South Island, … Read more
Julia Roberts, Nicole Kidman, Laura Linney, Pierce Brosnan – they’re all coming to Lightbox in May, y’all! The Son (S2, Weekly from May 1) I mean, it’s JAMES BOND AS A COWBOY. What more do you people WANT from your POPULAR CULTURE? A handsome (and I’m not just talking about Pierce) epic set in Texas at … Read more
Moments presents Discwoman is a series of shows, panel discussions and workshops aimed at encouraging more women and gender minorities to get involved with electronic music. Emma Hall-Philips, the founder of local collective Moments, tells Katie Meadows what it’s all about. Since its inception in 2014, New York-based collective Discwoman has become so much more … Read more
A close reading of the brand new, oddly hopeful trailer for season three of The Handmaid’s Tale. The latest trailer for the new season of The Handmaid’s Tale got me so excited that I inhaled half a pack of Chocolate Finger biscuits in approximately ten seconds. Then I felt bad because Serena Joy had a finger … Read more
Many of the great New Zealand songs have one thing in common: a woman’s first name as their title. Alex Casey went on a mission to find the real women who inspired them. She keeps me waiting in the morning by tying ribbons in her hair. She’s just so sweet, so fine, so polite too. … Read more
A little bit of K-Pop, some local artists, and the return of pop music’s best twins: it’s The Spinoff Music’s best songs of April 2019. International ‘Cellophane’ by FKA Twigs Honestly, just click on that video and give it a watch. If it doesn’t win whatever award people give out to music videos, then it’ll … Read more
Only three weeks in and it feels like a thousand! Sam Brooks power-ranks the third week of celebrity sweep-the-floor-with-a-lady competition, Dancing with the Stars NZ. The theme of this week is guilty pleasure! Why is any music considered a guilty pleasure? Give me genuine, disturbing guilty pleasures please. I want to see someone do an interpretative … Read more
Alex Casey woke up at 5.59am this morning to watch John Campbell’s Breakfast debut. Here are some of the highlights. Less than two weeks since the announcement that John Campbell was moving to TVNZ’s Breakfast to take Jack Tame’s place, there he was on the telly. It was 6am in the shiny pink studio and … Read more
Sam Brooks reviews Aldous Harding’s mysterious, enthralling third album, Designer. One of my favourite things of late has been to show unsuspecting people the music video for Aldous Harding’s ‘The Barrel’. As a song, it’s an excellent little thing, the perfect aural venn diagram of Tori Amos and Katie Melua – all the shameless opacity of … Read more
Sam Brooks reviews Anthems, a six-part documentary on New Zealand’s iconic hits, which starts tonight on Prime. New Zealanders are possessive as hell over our culture. Pavlova, Russell Crowe, Lord of the Rings, colonial racism – if it’s ours, we really own it. Where it really sinks into the marrow though, is our music. For better or … Read more
Aldous Harding speaks to Kirsten Johnstone about her new album Designer, first published on RNZ. The first thing that strikes me about Aldous Harding’s third record Designer is its playfulness. There’s an ease, and a hint of a tease in her voice as it swoops and croons. The lyrics are cryptic, like fragments of misheard … Read more
The much anticipated new Taylor Swift song dropped today, along with a confectionary-tinged music video. Here’s a few hastily put together thoughts from The Spinoff staff. “Is this the Frozen sequel?” – Spinoff editor Toby Manhire. “This is the song that Veruca Salt would make if she escaped the Wonka Factory, went to high school, … Read more
The sixth and final season of The Americans drops on Lightbox today. Alex Braae reflects on the unique, tense brilliance of the series. The worst part about being deeply invested in the characters at the centre of The Americans is your fear for them. Not a fear that they’ll be killed off – that would almost be … Read more