Due to the ongoing pandemic, this year’s New Zealand International Film Festival (NZIFF) is going predominantly digital for the very first time, replacing nights out at the Civic with nights in-front of the living room TV. Aaron Yap explores both the upsides and downsides to this unprecedented shakeup, and wonders if film festivals in the … Read more
A film that positions France as everything New Zealand vintners should aspire to is looking at the world of wine through a narrow lens, argues wine writer Joelle Thomson. Does the New Zealand wine industry deserve a seat at the international wine table? It’s a big question with lots of different answers depending who you … 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
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
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
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
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
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
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
Our crack team of film critics return with their latest reports from the Film Festival binge-watch. NZIFF: Birds of Passage, First Reformed, Disobedience, 3 Faces The Image Book “This film is quite weird. Sometimes it’s without subtitles, sometimes it’s without sound. That happens.” It’s rare that NZIFF ushers warn an audience before a film, but … Read more
Our elite squad of critics binge set out on a cinematic binge at the NZ International Film Festival 2018 Birds of Passage Opening night at NZIFF should be spectacular, accessible and memorable, and Birds of Passage delivers, with a drug trade parable told within an indigenous setting. Every grasshopper and bird has the weight of … Read more
Film critic David Larsen admits his strategy to urge audiences to see Hunger failed, and pleads you to see another movie called Hunger, without recourse to hammer analogies I once opened a film review by suggesting that instead of investing fifteen dollars in the price of a ticket, readers could spend the same amount on … Read more
Finlay Macdonald talks to Julian Boshier, the director of Swagger of Thieves, a documentary about notorious ’90s rock band Head Like A Hole. At one point in Julian Boshier’s riveting, candid documentary Swagger of Thieves about legendary rock beasts Head Like A Hole, guitarist Nigel Regan asks no one in particular, “Can someone lift the … Read more
Alex Casey is joined by Steve Newall and Liam Maguren of Flicks to discuss their plans for week two of the International Film Festival, review week one and share stories of crying at the flicks. Listen or download this episode using the player below or subscribe to our one-off podcast feed Pop Up Pods using iTunes
Alex Casey is joined by Steve Newall and Liam Maguren of Flicks to discuss their plans for week one, and share hot tips on how to survive the harrowing festival conditions. With sincere apologies for their disastrous and ill-advised first preview pod, the great Spinoff X Flicks merger podcast returns one day out from the … Read more