Reviews

Streaming sweetens summer cinema

By Nevil Gibson | January 25, 2021 | 0 Comments

The fallout from Covid-19 has proved disastrous for the local box office at a time when moviegoing should be at its peak, boosted by Hollywood Oscar hopefuls. But with studio production still languishing, and continuing pandemic lockdowns around the world, cinemas are having their worst year in decades. In New … Read More about Streaming sweetens summer cinema

A forgettable year

By Nevil Gibson | December 23, 2020 | 0 Comments

Three months in, 2020 was shaping up as another banner year for movies and the cinema industry. The Oscar season was in full swing, with 1917, Little Women, Emma and Richard Jewell among those from prominent directors and making the running with audiences and critics alike. They were backed up … Read More about A forgettable year

A floral tribute to beauty behind the monastery walls

By NZ Catholic contributor | December 22, 2020 | 0 Comments

REFLECTIONS IN A MONASTERY GARDEN, published for the Carmelite Sisters in Christchurch, with illustrations by Sr Teresa Kelleher OCD. Reviewed by LYNDSAY FREER Every page of this delightful book is beautifully illustrated with flowers and blossoms of many different kinds, from rhododendrons to waterlilies, and on each page is a … Read More about A floral tribute to beauty behind the monastery walls

Horror movie full of meaning

By Nevil Gibson | December 7, 2020 | 1 Comment

A series of real-life terrors has given the year’s output of horror films a fresh sense of relevance. While Covid-19 pandemic is still claiming lives it has yet to make a big screen presence. That is partly due to the sustained damage to the cinema industry, among others, of the … Read More about Horror movie full of meaning

Reddy stays steady

By Nevil Gibson | November 9, 2020 | 0 Comments

Female-centred musical biopics seldom stray from the path of a shining star that fades due to male jealousy, lousy personal decisions, and some form of addiction. The gold standard is A Star is Born, which has been made three times since the original 1937 non-musical version. Its story of an … Read More about Reddy stays steady

Devil makes mayhem

By Rowena Orejana | October 20, 2020 | 0 Comments

The link between endemic poverty and religious practice has dug a deep furrow in modern literature, particularly in the genre known as American Gothic. Though the term is specific to Grant Woods’s 1930 painting of a pioneering farming couple, it is now more descriptive of the rejection of rationality and … Read More about Devil makes mayhem