Your Spring Calendar Of Things to See & Do
A Big Bold Beautiful Journey
If you aren’t familiar with Director Kogonada now is the time. He’s consistently brought a new flair and flavour to cinema rarely seen. His films, despite having a focus on architecture and making the environment a character is primarily about what it is to be human. The quiet moments that bring us closer together. Check out Columbus and After Yang if you’re ever in the mood to be inspired by our humanity. He takes that another step, reuniting with Colin Farrell for A Big Bold Beautiful Journey where he and Margot Robbie go for a literal walk through memory lane. The pair are single strangers who meet at a mutual friend’s wedding and soon, through a surprising twist of fate, find themselves on an surreal journey through their own pasts. Together they witness key moments of their lives, their first breakup, kissing mum goodbye for the last time. This illuminates how they got to where they are in the present…and possibly getting a chance to alter their futures. Beautiful.
In cinemas 18 September
Eddie Izzard –The Remix Tour Live
The legend Eddie Izzard has been doing comedy for 35 years now, unlike musicians you can’t just release a greatest hits album, but you can collate 35 years worth of the funniest things you’ve ever experienced and tour the world with them. That’s exactly what Izzard is doing. “In the first 35 years of my stand-up career I came up with many weird and crazy comedy stories. The ones I like the best will be in my 2025 live Remix Tour.”
No two nights will be the same but make sure you see at least one of them.
Wellington 24 Nov, Auckland 26 Nov 2025
Paris butter
Last year Paris Butter won the World Culinary Award for New Zealand followed by the likes of Ahi, Kazuya and INCA Ponsonby. Based in Hernes Bay Paris Butter offers a refined modern dining experience hosted by Chefs Nick Honeyman and the 2023/2024 Cuisine Chef of the Year Zennon Wijlens. Sourcing the best produce in New Zealand to give you the most delicious balanced evolution menu over six or eight courses with a strong emphasis on seasons, textures and flavours. Top that off with a seasonal house cocktail and you’ve got the makings of a fine night with fine food.
Hallow Road
Directed by Babak Anvari with acting by Rosamund Pike (Gone Girl) and Emmy winner Matthew Rhys (The Americans) this film is taking you on a wild unique horror filled ride. However it presents itself as a slow thriller as they drive through the night to help their daughter who’s just been involved in a car accident. They coach her over the phone as she attempts to keep the other driver alive, but things go sideways as someone else gets involved. Revelation after revelation take you on a journey you were not expecting. Unless you watched the trailer in which case the entire movie is spoiled and you shouldn’t even bother. For a film that mostly takes place in a car in the dead of night, it knows how to keep you on the hook.
In Cinemas Now
Life On A Loop
Ellie Smith returns home this November with her uplifting and poignant new one-woman show, Life on a Loop, a heartfelt exploration of dementia, love and care. With cracking humour, this show is a deeply moving and refreshingly honest look at the toll of caregiving, and the unexpected beauty found in life on repeat.
Smith brings this world to life with seven central characters and a chorus of vivid personalities, each painted with detail and care.
11 Nov – 16 Nov 2025
Q Theatre, Rangatira
qtheatre.co.nz/shows/life-on-a-loop
The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox: Miniseries
Based on the true story of Amanda Knox this mini series, sorry they call them limited series now, follows her life prior to and after the events that would shape the next 15 years of her life. While travelling abroad in Italy her roommate was savagely murdered. Knox (played by Anna Van Patten) and her boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito were then charged by Italian authorities and spent four years in an Italian prison. She was eventually acquitted and she has now spent the rest of her time trying to reconcile with the system that put her away as well as clearing her name. The real Knox serves as an executive producer on the show alongside Monika Lewinsky.
Streaming on Disney+
H.R. THE MUSICAL #2
When deciding whether you should laugh or cry at the job you have, maybe a better option is laughing until you cry. In 2024 we were treated to the musical sketch Comedy H.R. The Musical. Now it’s time for part two covering a range of genres but hung on the anecdotes of real events, because in the office the truth is somehow always stranger than fiction.
25 Nov – 6 Dec 2025
Q Theatre, Rangatira
qtheatre.co.nz/shows/hr-musical
The Conjuring: Last Rites
The fourth and questionably final film in the hit horror series. I feel like every single one of these films has been teased as the last one but I’ll believe it when I never see it again. Even if it does end the shared universe of The Nun, Annabelle and even a Conjuring TV show will keep our favourite Ghost busting duo around for a long time to come. Michael Chaves returns as director while Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga return as our series stalwarts who have come to a suburban home in 1986 to flush out a demon. This one is the first they ever encountered as a young couple, and the first time they ran away. This time they have no such intentions. While I tend to laugh more than I scream these movies are always a really good time.
In Cinemas Sep 4
