Film & T.V.

Stories

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  That's poetry, man

  Sam Hunt: Poet, drunk, or genius?  A documentary featured in the New Zealand International Film Festival sheds a light. WHEN filmmakers Jim Scott and Tim Rose applied to the Film Commission for financing their documentary about poet Sam Hunt, they were… Continue

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  The grass is always Grenier

  THE lead actor in the TV series Entourage, Adrian Grenier, says the best way to avoid the paparazzi is to be “boring”. Grenier is relaxing in a hotel somewhere in Auckland, a far cry from his Hollywood haunt where stars are hounded daily by “paps” intent on filming… Continue

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  Spilling the beans

  THIS one is for real, swears Costa Botes, the director of hoax documentary Forgotten Silver, about his latest, Candyman, The Rise and Fall of Mr Jelly Belly. Candyman received a standing ovation at world-renowned documentary festival Hot Docs in Toronto. … Continue

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  Mongrel Mob moves into Newtown

  MONGREL Mob ex-presidents are not used to taking direction from short, blonde, white girls. When filming started for Day Trip in Newtown, former mob boss Tuhoe Isaac didn’t know what to make of 26 year-old director Zoe McIntosh. “Tuhoe grew up in a culture that… Continue

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  Gallant banana’s Antarctic odyssey

  Have you heard about the banana that split to Antarctica? The short film Fruitless Journey is based on Robert Falcon Scott’s fatal expedition to be the first person to reach the South Pole – with one difference – it’s seen through the eyes of a banana. Directing… Continue

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  Furious filmmaking

  THE stress of the V48HOURS film festival can destroy a marriage. The founder and organiser of the weekend-long event, Ant Timpson, says one year a couple who entered the competition together broke up during the course of the weekend, and went on to enter separate… Continue

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  All good in Wellywood

  IT’S official. We must be the Hollywood of the South Pacific because Wellington International Airport will erect a 28m long Wellywood sign to celebrate the capital city’s film industry. At least seven film-related companies are based on the Miramar peninsula.… Continue

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  Balibo banned

  POLITICAL thriller BALIBO is banned in East Timor but doing well on the black market there, says film director Robert Connolly. “Even though I’m making no profit, I’m pretty happy about it,” he says. The controversial film tells the story of five journalists… Continue

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  The perfect catch

  “HE’LL make you wet your pants,” said someone at the Film Archive when Capital Times organised an interview with Kiwi filmmaker Florian Habicht. He didn’t succeed, however snippets from his documentary Land of the Long White Cloud elicited laughter as well as… Continue

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  Fans run off with pieces of Bones

  A band set list is to a music-lover what a street sign is to a movie buff. An Irish architect was spotted walking down Kent Terrace with a large street sign from The Lovely Bones New Zealand premiere this week. Michael Landy, 22, and many other red carpet revellers… Continue

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  Lovely computers

  As Wellington prepares for the New Zealand premier of Peter Jackson’s The Lovely Bones, Capital Times talks to Weta Digital’s James Ogle about geekiness and ghosts. THERE are benefits to being a geek. Just ask James Ogle, who works in the digital models… Continue

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  Twilight fever

  A blood-related disease is spreading through Johnsonville Medical Centre. At least five nurses and two receptionists there have Twilight fever. They’ve read Stephanie Meyer’s vampire series multiple times, watched the first film in the saga, Twilight, and all… Continue

Columns

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  This should not be a movie

  WHERE the Wild Things Are is a children’s picture book by New Yorker Maurice Sendak.   It tells the sobering story of an angry brat called Max who goes on a trip to an island of demented Wild Things, before making his peace with the world again. Although… Continue

Reviews

• Sink your teeth into Piranha 3D

  At the movies with Dan Slevin THE unhappy bard of Hawera, Ronald Hugh Morrieson, died in the sure and certain knowledge of his own failure. Only one of his four novels had been published (and only in Australia) and the others languished in obscurity. He… Continue

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  Jolie Average

  At the movies, with Dan Slevin IF I had to use a four letter word starting in “S” and ending in “T” to describe the new Angelina Jolie thriller, Salt wouldn’t be the first word I would think of. The last time Ms Jolie played an action heroine she was a weaver/assassin… Continue

• Pilgrim's regress

  YOUR correspondent is a big fan of young English director Edgar Wright. His first two features, in collaboration with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, were the entertaining Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. There’s a wonderful percussive energy to Wright’s filmmaking… Continue

• Sidestep

  TURKISH-GERMAN director Fatih Akin has long been an arthouse favourite around these parts. Head-On (2004) and The Edge of Heaven (2007) were Festival successes so it was odd to see his new film Soul Kitchen skip this year’s event and go straight to general release.… Continue

• In your dreams

  At the movies with Dan Slevin I was really enjoying Inception until I woke up. Actually, that’s not true.  Unlike my companion, the Sandman didn’t come to rescue me from Christopher Nolan’s bombastic blockbuster and I had to sit through all two and… Continue

• No karate in the kid

  THE first thing to know about The Karate Kid is that there is no karate in it. This remake of the eighties favourite sends twelve-year-old hero Jaden Smith to China where they hurt people with kung fu instead. It was originally going to be called The Kung Fu… Continue

• More films than you can handle

  At the movies with Dan Slevin IT’S never been a tougher time to be running a film festival. In addition to the usual commercial considerations of just selling enough tickets to stay afloat, each year brings with it fresh wrinkles to be accommodated. The… Continue

• Toy Story 3 is THAT good

  At the movies with Dan Slevin For those readers tuned into these things, clear evidence emerged this week of the “end of days” and our impending annihilation - culturally at least. Simply out, Twilight: Eclipse is playing around three times as many… Continue

• I heart Shrek forever

  LOVABLE ogre Shrek (Mike Myers) is having a bad day. Instead of being a terrifying bringer of fear and bad smells, he is a mild-mannered father of triplets and pillar of the Far, Far Away community and it’s getting him down. After one particularly stressful morning… Continue

• A Greek Brand

  Forgetting Sarah Marshall was one of the surprise pleasures of 2008. An Apatow comedy that was relatively modest about its ambitions it featured a breakout performance from English comedian Russell Brand, playing a version of his own louche stage persona. As… Continue

• The A-Team deliver

  At the movies with Dan Slevin Last week your faithful correspondent reviewed a big budget Hollywood film, based on a beloved television series, featuring four friends who went to a foreign land with no knowledge or empathy for the inhabitants and continued… Continue

• Sex in The City 2: Pure evil

  At the movies with Dan Slevin IT’S been a weekend made for movie watching with cinemas across the city groaning under the weight of patrons escaping the filthy weather. It’s been so busy, in fact, that I failed to get in to either screening of The Last Station… Continue

• Still bad

  At the movies with Dan Slevin THERE’S something quite interesting going on with Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time that isn’t immediately apparent from the publicity. Somehow, screenwriters Boaz Yakin, Doug Miro and Carlo Bernard (there’s also a story… Continue

• Forgettable loser

  At the movies with Dan Slevin This week’s review comes to you from sunny/rainy Auckland where your correspondent is catching up with old friends and enjoying the Auckland cinema scene. The first thing to report is that audience behaviour in the 09 is as… Continue

• Prepare for Antichrist

  At the movies with Dan Slevin GOD is in the house this week. He turns up in the values of a wealthy Tennessee family who adopt a poor black kid and turn him into a champion, He features in a big leather book carried across a post-apocalyptic America by enigmatic… Continue

• Bad Iron Man

  OH dear, what a disappointment 90% of Iron Man 2 is. Rushed into production after the original became the surprise runaway hit of 2008, relying far too heavily on the deadpan charisma of a coasting Robert Downey Jr – the first time I’ve ever seen him this disengaged… Continue

• Go to the Final

  At the movies with Dan Slevin WITH the big budget Hollywood remake already in production (starring Rusty Crowe), Anything for Her looked like it might have had some entertainment potential but I’m sad to report that it never gets up to speed. The blissful… Continue

• Kick-Ass crowd puller

  At the movies with Dan Slevin I watch a lot of movies in this job and this week I’d like to start with a couple of important tips that will help keep your cinema-going experience in top shape. Firstly, ice cream. Avoid tubs of ice cream if possible because… Continue

• Expertly crafted film

  IT took well over 18 months for Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker to get a general release in New Zealand – a year in which it steadily built audiences and critical acclaim at worldwide festivals and public screenings. In fact, until it was nominated for… Continue

• Sad Boy

  TAIKA Waititi’s Boy may well be the saddest comedy I’ve ever seen. Hmn, maybe I should put that another way: For a comedy, Taika Waititi’s Boy might be the saddest film I’ve ever seen. Consistently hilarious throughout, Boy steers a very careful course once… Continue

• On the road

  At the movies with Dan Slevin MOST films go in one eye and out the other but some stick in your brain and won’t leave – for better or worse. John Hillcoat’s adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel The Road is one of those. Set… Continue

• Remembering 9/11

  At the movies with Dan Slevin STARS are important. Despite their supposedly waning influence on box office (Avatar managed perfectly well without a marquee name and Bruce Willis hasn’t carried a film in years) the charisma of a leading man is still a key… Continue

• Just as good in 2D

  At the movies with Robyn Gallagher TIM Burton’s Alice in Wonderland follows on from Lewis Carroll’s original stories. Now Alice (Mia Wasikowska) is 19, trying to get away from a drippy wannabe fiancé, and all the while haunted by a curious recurring… Continue

• Essential viewing

  At the movies with Dan Slevin IN October 1975, the obscure little Portuguese colony of East Timor was given independence after 400 years of European rule. A mixed Melanesian/Polynesian population was sitting on rich mineral and fossil fuel potential and… Continue

• Shutter speed

  At the movies with Dan Slevin THERE’S something very odd about the opening scenes in Shutter Island and it takes the entire film for you to put your finger on it. Shots don’t match between cuts, there’s a stilted quality to the dialogue (too much exposition… Continue

• Movie kissers

  At the movies with Dan Slevin and Robyn Gallagher THE French Film Festival is underway at the Embassy. Despite the organiser’s generous offers of previews, my other commitments (performing The Immortals during the Fringe Festival) have restricted me… Continue

• Precious picture

  At the movies with Dan Slevin AFTER watching so many films so similar in content and construction that they are hard to tell apart, it is a real pleasure to come across something that contains no familiar faces, has a director whose name is unknown (to me… Continue

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  Eastwood victory

  At the movies with Dan Slevin BEFORE Jerry Dammers and The Special AKA wrote that song about him in 1983, I didn’t know who Nelson Mandela was. When I bought the record and read the story on the back I was horrified – 23 years as a political prisoner,… Continue

• Freak show

  THE first thing you need to know about It’s Complicated is that it isn’t very complicated at all. The plot, the characters, the gags (dear God, especially the gags) are all perfectly comprehensible – even to those of us with only modest intellectual faculties.… Continue

• The fantastic and the yuck

  At the movies with Dan Slevin WHAT a lovely summer we’ve been having – for watching movies. While the Avatar juggernaut rolls inexorably on there have been plenty of other options for a dedicated seeker of shelter from the storm. Released at any other… Continue

• The must-see movies of 2010

  At the movies with Dan Slevin WELCOME to the 2010 “cut out and keep” guide to video renting (or downloading or however you consume your home entertainment these days). I suggest you clip this article, fold it up, stick it in your wallet or purse and refer… Continue

• Whoah Avatar

  THE two most common questions I have been asked this week: “Have you seen Avatar?” and “Is it any good?” Thanks to the helpful people at Readings I can say “Yes” to the first one and thanks to James Cameron I can say “Whoah” to the second. Like many Wellingtonians,… Continue

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  Mountain high

  AS the recent fuss over The Vintner’s Luck demonstrated, filmmakers adapting beloved New Zealand books open themselves up to all sorts of potential criticism, so when Jonathan King and Matthew Grainger announced that their next project was going to be a version… Continue

• Solidly funny

  At the movies with Dan Slevin. THIS past week may have been the most consistently satisfying week of cinema-going since I started this journey with you back in 2006: seven very different films, all with something to offer. And no turkeys this week, so I’ll… Continue

• Like a fine novel

  At the movies with Dan Slevin WE’RE born alone and we die alone and in between nothing goes according to plan and the people around us are mostly unreliable and occasionally malevolent. Meanwhile, God either doesn’t exist or is indifferent to our suffering.… Continue