STACK NZ Jul #64

4 / 57

04 JULY 2015 JB Hi-Fi
visit NEWS EXTRAS
T he 2015 festival
kicks off in
Auckland on July 16
and will run through to
August 2. The Wellington
dates are July 24 to August 9,
followed by Dunedin (July
30-August 16) and
Christchurch (August 7- 23);
and then onto
the regions.
Although this year’s
NZFF will see premieres
for acclaimed Hollywood
flicks such as crime drama
A Most Violent Year and the
sci-fi thriller Ex_Machina, the
hottest tickets look to be an
impressive line-up of films from this year Cannes
Film Festival,
together with some intriguing new homegrown
productions.
In the latter category, we’re particularly looking
forward to Jason Lei Howden’s Kiwi heavy metal
horror flick Deathgasm, in which two teenagers
inadvertently summon up an ancient evil entity.
It’s co-produced by Ant Timpson, who curates
the ‘Incredibly Strange’ part of the NZFF and
also had a hand in another flick screening in
this year’s programme, the affectionate ‘80s
throwback Turbo Kids, a Canadian BMX action
comedy.
Other NZ features to look out for includes
Costa Botes’ and Sven Pannell’s uplifting doco
Act of Kindness, Out of the Mist: An Alternate
History of New Zealand Cinema from critic Tim
Wong, and Belief: The Possession of Janet
Moses, which explores the case of a young
Wainuiomata woman who died during a makutu
lifting in 2007.
From Cannes, NZFF has secured 17 films
from this year’s festival,
including Greek filmmaker
Yorgos Lanthimos’s surreal
jury prize winner The
Lobster, which stars Colin
Farrell and Rachel Weisz,
and the Taiwanese historical
epic The Assassin, which
earned Hou Hsiao-hsien the
best director prize.
Other Cannes favourites
include the French drama
The Measure of a Man,
which earned Vincent
Lindon the best actor prize,
Matteo Garrone’s stylishly
twisted fairytale anthology
Tale of Tales, with Salma
Hayek and John C Reilly, and Yakuza Apocalypse:
The Great War of the Underworld, the latest
from maverick Japanese director Miike Takashi.
Meanwhile, the stories of two very
different soul greats lead the music
line-up for this year’s festival.
Amy is Senna director Asif Kapadia’s
controversial portrait of the late British singer
Amy Winehouse, whose family have already
disowned the movie. The British singer’s
tragically short-lived career is contrasted at the
festival withMavis!, a celebratory tribute to the
legendary gospel and soul singer Mavis Staples.
Other essential documentaries for music fans
will be Lambert & Stamp, which profiles the
managers of The Who, East End wide boy
Chris Stamp – brother of Terence – and Kit
Lambert, and From Scotland with Love, a vibrant
collaboration between ex-pat New Zealand
director Virginia Heath and prolific Scottish indie
folksinger King Creosote.
Visit for full details
This year’s New Zealand Film Festival boasts a typically eclectic line-up.
JB Hi-Fi has lined up a rather spiffing special
Blu-ray edition of the blockbuster comedy spy
thriller Kingsman: The Secret Service, which is out
this month.The limited edition set includes a 24
page comic from Mark Millar and Dave Gibbons’
classic series The
Secret Service,
the inspiration for
director Matthew
Vaughn’s box office
smash. Vaughn and
Millar previously
collaborated on the
cult action flicks
Kickass 1-2. For
more, see p16.
Kingsman: The
Secret Service is
out now
US-conquering Kiwi hard rockers Like A Storm
will release their second full length studio
album Awaken The Fire on July 31. The follow-
up to last year’s Chaos Theory Part One EP,
it’s the Aucklanders first album for new label
Another Century Records and arrives as the
band continues to make in-roads in the US.
The second single from the album, Wish You
Hell, has become the song from a NZ act to
crack the US Hard Rock Radio top 20.
TAILORMADE FOR BLU
This year’s E3 in Los Angeles was one
of the best yet, in terms of both content
and hands-on access.
Our team on the floor for the biggest
videogame event on the calendar report
that there’s plenty for gamers to look
forward to in the next 12 months. Whether
it be blockbusters such as Halo 5 and
Star Wars Battlefront, or new IP such as
Ashen, developed here in NZ by Aurora
44. Although the announcement that took
everybody by surprise was the news that
Xbox One will be backwards compatible
with a huge range of games.
For a full report on E3 2015, see pages 21-28.
HANDS ON AT E3
HOMEMADE SPLATTER
AND ARTHOUSE FAVES
Deathgasm
Tale Of Tales
Ex_Machina