Reviews

This story was originally published on The Spinoff. Most probably think of it as a small country town, but when I moved there from an even smaller country town at age 15, Gore was a metropolis. It had a Warehouse.…

In comedy, timing is everything. With the Government’s recent reintroduction of military-style boot camps for young offenders, the timing of TVNZ’s new youth dramedy Camp Be Better couldn’t be better. Although it’s fair to say that the spa pool, horse-riding…

We all make mistakes, but can we accept our errors and take action before things start to unravel beyond our control?  In New Zealand director Christine Jeffs’ powerful new feature film A Mistake, adapted from the novel by Carl Shuker, American…

This story was originally published on The Spinoff. There’s a crumbling empty McMansion somewhere in Coatesville that became the “beating heart” of new local body horror Grafted, director Sasha Rainbow tells me. “When you walked in there, it had this…

As the winter nights get colder, it’s the perfect time of year to stay in, snuggle up, and watch Paul Henry strutting around a gothic mansion with a cane as people fret about getting murdered. Yes, The Traitors NZ is back for…

Loren Taylor’s The Moon Is Upside Down was finished, I think, a couple of years ago. It certainly picked up an award last year at a film festival in Tallin, Estonia of all places. It’s the latest in that Kiwi format that…

In what might be the best New Zealand drama ever produced (sorry, Top of the Lake), Robyn Malcolm (Upper Middle Bogan) plays a character not often seen on screen: a ballsy middle-aged woman who is brilliant and infuriating. Malcolm –…

When she first saw the child actors that would be playing the young versions of Dilworth survivors, Mary Durham nearly burst into tears on set. “Seeing these children and their little bright shiny faces so full of promise really hit…

David Jacobson is standing in the toilet of a queer nightclub, looking very much out of place. He’s been called there by three strangers, who found his name in a phone belonging to a young man named Leon, who is…