STACK NZ June 2015 Issue 63

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32 JUNE 2015 JB Hi-Fi
visit BEST OF REVIEWS
e witcher III: Wild Hunt
ake up in your keep, walk to the balcony and
out over a mountain range more picturesque than
ing you’ve seen in a video game since Skyrim.
ome to The Witcher III. They told us it would be
but we never expected this. CD Projekt Red’s
est redefines the term “open-world role-playing
me”, where choice plays such a dominant role.
aced with a world where good and evil aren’t
ecessarily obvious, you find yourself fretting
ver the choices you make, and worrying about
heir potential impact on the world around
ou. The Witcher III offers a realm of limitless
xploration. Tasked with searching for protagonist
eralt’s adopted daughter Ciri and partner Yennifer,
ayers must use their monster-slaying skills and
acute Witcher senses to take on the ravages that
the game world throws at you. The combat system
works seamlessly with its newly-implemented dodge
mechanics, and the Witcher signs will prove invaluable
when you need to turn the battle in your favour. Being
a professional never looked or felt so satisfying. When
you’re not following the main quest, there are a plethora
of side-quests – which don’t simply ask you to be
a courier – with the potential to keep you occupied
for hours. The vibrant environment in which you find
yourself begs to be discovered and a compelling
narrative will have you thinking about the game long
after a session has concluded. Why this game is so
appealing is difficult to put into words. If you’re a fan of
RPGs, The Witcher III is simply a must-buy. Paul Jones
OXCATCHER
earing a rubber nose doesn’t necessarily
uarantee you an Oscar. Nicole Kidman got one
or her prominent proboscis as Virginia Woolf, but
an McKellen didn’t as Gandalf. Neither did Steve
arell, whose beak-like hooter in Foxcatcher helped
ransform him from funny to frightening. Nasal
okes aside, it’s Carell’s spellbinding performance
s eccentric millionaire and wrestling coach John
u Pont that makes Bennett Miller’s tragic, true-
life sports story an absolute must-see – we’ll
leave you to discover the grim details of what
transpired on the Foxcatcher ranch, when du
Pont secured the services of Olympic Gold
Medal-winning wrestler Mark Schultz (Channing
Tatum) and his brother Dave (Mark Ruffalo) to
train a team for the 1988 Seoul Olympics. The
theme of a naive youngster being seduced
by wealth, drugs and success recalls both Boogie
Nights and Behind the Candelabra, and a disturbing
and uncomfortable tone saturates this intense
character study; a mood heightened by Carell’s
incredibly creepy portrayal of a man stewing in
his own emotional repression. While Carell’s
transformation is a highlight, Channing Tatum
undergoes an equally impressive metamorphosis
from hunky rom-com regular to brooding and bitter
former champion consumed by a similar sense of
self-loathing. Ruffalo (always good) received the
film’s supporting actor Oscar nom, but it was Tatum
who really deserved it. Foxcatcher offers much
more than just watching two stars playing against
type – it’s the antithesis of all those feel-good,
formula American sports films, and that alone is
worth the price of the disc. Scott Hocking
JAMIE xx IN COLOUR
It’s tempting to lazily tag Jamie Smith (AKA
Jamie xx) as the latest wunderkind. But both his
production track record (Radiohead and Florence
remixes, the honour of re-working Gil Scott-
Heron’s final album) and the thrilling nature of new
solo album In Colour mean the epithet fits. One
third of UK band The xx, Jamie spent three years
completing this love letter, of sorts, to the better
elements of England’s dance scene of the last 25
years. By no means simply a disparate collection
of strong ideas, In Colour is best experienced from
start to finish – because it’s an energised, assured
and compelling rush that should beguile, engage
and exhilarate anybody with a genuinely curious
ear and an eye on new directions in music. It’s also
a quintessentially, and quite deliberately, British
record. Jamie bathes proudly in fragmented strands
of UK dance culture, dipping into everything from
post-jungle dissonance to urban soul, scatt
disembodied samples of English street and
life throughout. But what makes In Colour r
captivating is the ease with which it skates
clichés; it’s a skillfully-danced tightrope bet
the soulful and the melodic that avoids over
the empty spaces, and talks to those who li
experiences of the culture it comes from. It
music lovers record, about being who you
only for a night. It’s Oliver Sim’s beautiful v
on Stranger in a Room that sums up In Col
voice hanging in the song’s delicate space:
want to disappear in a crowd/ just a strange
room/ change your colour/ just for the night
a digital heart and an analogue soul: a danc
record few will move to, but a captivating
journey through pure music to be
enjoyed. Jonathan Alley