ON SCREEN
Shit worth WATCHING
FILM OF THE WEEK
WED 16 JAN
THE IMPOSTER
CHRONICLE SKY MOVIES, 8.30PM
directed by BART LAYTON Starring ADAM O’BRIAN, FRÉDÉRIC BOURDIN AND CAREY GIBSON
Think X-Men meets Degrassi (minus the dramabombs) with a touch of Cloverfield. Three teenage lads develop psychokinesis in highschool, and their dark sides crawl out to fling shit at a spinning fan. Starting off by using their powers for trivial tricks and getting laid, all hell breaks loose when the full extent of their abilities see the light.
SAT 19 JAN 21 YEARS OF THE BIG DAY OUT MTV CLASSIC, 12PM
The closure of The Big Day Out’s New Zealand leg was a massive blow to concert culture in Aotearoa. With arguably the largest festival to grace these shores now defunct, now we at least have the chance to reminisce upon and witness the highlights of this iconic part of music history. You don’t want to miss this.
THU 17 JAN PROJECT RUNWAY TV3, 9.30PM
Can you really believe that this show has reached its tenth inning? Reality TV has really made a snug spot for itself, and we dare say it’s here to stay. If gorgeous judges, over-reaching starlets and meltdowns laced with sartorial flair tick any of your boxes- you’re in. Who doesn’t have a soft spot for Tim Gunn?
BOB’S BURGERS
Few films in the past year have matched the narrative cunning of Bart Layton’s captivating true-crime documentary The Imposter. Perhaps only next to Craig Zobel’s Compliance in its ability to generate disbelieving cries of “oh COME on” from viewers (though the latter has a distancing layer of being completely dramatised), The Imposter’s scintillating, chillingly suspenseful account of how Frenchman Frédéric Bourdin passed himself off as the missing child of a Texan family will leave your jaw hanging at every turn. Alternating between slickly cinematic reenactments and standard talking heads, the doco benefits from having Bourdin on camera imparting his own story with fast-talking, cocky charisma that leaves no room for remorse. Like a true con-man, he reels us in immediately: from his sly, quickthinking deception of the police in
Spain all the way to San Antonio, where he bizarrely found himself accepted - despite speaking with a thick French accent and not looking a damn thing like him - as Nicholas Barclay, a boy who had been missing for 3 years. The Imposter is such deftly constructed storytelling that it’s easy to forget that at the very centre of this yarn is a family devastated by a devious crime. But the injection of an ambiguous third-act twist proves the film not only to be a psychologically astute study of identity and deception but also perception. Our doubts as to why Barclay’s family would take in an apparent stranger eventually morph into an acknowledgement that we’re all equally susceptible to believing anything in any given context. WRITTEN BY AARON YAP, FLICKS.CO.NZ
GIRLS - SEASON TWO SOHO, 8.30PM
FOUR, 9PM
It’s Archer from Archer, only if he made some poor life choices and opened a burger joint instead of becoming a spy. Watch as this off-beat meat enthusiast deals with wave upon wave of bad luck both at work and with the family. Don’t feel bad about it, you’re meant to laugh.
auckland
TV SHOW
hamilton
CINEMA RELEASE
wellington
ONLINE
dunedin
DOCUMENTRY
christchurch
TV FILM
Girls is what happens when you take Sex and The City, halve the age of the cast and double the bad decisions and self-loathing. It’s a brand new season, with all new questions: Will these girls grow up? Will anything even resemble a healthy relationship? Will Hannah continue to show her bits in every episode? Tune in to find out.
GANGSTER SQUAD
Key
GENERAL RELEASE, 113MINS
Everyone loves a good ol’ gangster flick. And I mean gangster, not that Get Rich or Die Tryin’ bullshit. Nobody but the mob pulls off both cut-throat violence and pin-stripe suits with such finesse. With a star-studded cast under the directorship of Ruben Fleischer (Zombieland), you know you’re in for a treat.
Grooveguide.co.nz
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