Steve Newall: Flicks.co.nz editor recaps Electric Avenue 2025

Christchurch's Electric Avenue has wrapped up - and it's sparked discussion about what it could mean for the future of the city.

More than 35,000 people attended the music festival at Hagley Park over Friday and Saturday. 

Flicks.co.nz editor Steve Newall wasn't on the ground - but he was suitably impressed by the lineup.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudgin
from News Talks EDB.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
This is a little bit of Empire of the Sun
for all you lucky people that got to go to
Electric Avenue this weekend. Apparently they were incredible on Friday night,
so good to have a good music festival story. I've
only heard fantastic things about Electric Avenue, which has been
taking place in Christiat over the last couple of days.

(00:33):
I know it's probably been really full on if you
live in christ Church and maybe you've been trying to
move around the city or anything. But the reviews have
been coming in have been amazing. My son's been there
and all his mates and they were just going. They
all went to R and V and they're like, man,
this was the festival to be at. This has been incredible.
So good on you. I know that the poor guy's

(00:53):
running the festival almost been having Nerver's breakdowns. I just
say thumbs up, good on you. I'm joined now to
talk about entertainment with by Steve Newill, editor at Flix
dot co dot NZEG.

Speaker 3 (01:04):
Good morning morning.

Speaker 2 (01:05):
I'm actually very that I wasn't in christ Church and
joining that festival. What about you.

Speaker 3 (01:09):
I would have loved to see Prodigy, and I was
had some very serious thoughts about what it would cost
to fly down to do that. I felt the same
way when they had Chemical Brothers at Electric Avenue last time.

Speaker 2 (01:22):
You need to get a bit, we need to get
a little bit better organized, Steve. That's all comes down to,
quite frankly. Anyway, Today we're going to talk about the
pacifica film Tina, which, of course we were just speaking
to Mickey Megasiva. I really love this film. I do
think it's going to become a little bit of a
Kiwi classic. I really hope you feel the same, otherwise
this could be quite an awkward segment.

Speaker 3 (01:42):
Yeah, hey, Mickey, the thing is, I love your film, man.
It was really really great. And you know, I'm not
sure that the subgenre of christ Church set cultural collision,
intergenerational people meet each other, learn things from one another,
and have a redemptive exercise through the power of choir,

(02:04):
if that's a subgenre that I necessarily would have gone
into this film super excited about. But it's such a
good example of this type of structure, this type of
premise for a film, as you heard in the interview
if you've been listening earlier. The humor interwoven into this
film is such a significant part of it. There's a
very authentic sense of grief, very authentic drama to it.

(02:26):
But I think what really got me was the sheer
number of bally laughs that I experienced during this film,
rack up laughs. And I think that that's, you know,
as as a parlang hear, who's you know, been peripheral
to someone culture a tiny bit, like through high school
and through you through friend groups and stuff. There's a

(02:50):
there's a spirit to that type of humor that really
permeates this film. You know, I can't sign off on
its authenticity, but it really rings true as a subset
of the New Zealand pacifica experience from from my perspective anyway,
And I just reflect on how incredibly funny this film is,
while you know, maintaining a strong dramatic course. It's really

(03:13):
really hard line to walk much the films of drama
first and foremost, the characters are fully formed foremost, and
then they get to make you have Okay, Actually, I'm
going to say that the deputy principle of this fictional
christ Church High School, which is very reminiscent of one
of those two schools in christ Church is probably the

(03:35):
biggest comic relief, and probably maybe if there's a character
that departs the most from he's a strictly dramatic character
as a kind of villainous foil that makes the rest
of the film. I almost did make the rest of
the film sing. And let's just go with that.

Speaker 2 (03:50):
Yeah, nice, Now tell me about the monkey. This is
a short story by Stephen King which has been adapted
into a film or a TV show.

Speaker 3 (04:00):
This is a feature film. It's by Osgode Perkins. He
made last year's fantastic Long Legs, so he's kind of
the hot He's got a few horrors under his belt,
but Long Legs was the one that really kind of
broke him out to a bigger audience. Actually, just he's
reached the point where he can do the direct to
promos to camera now, like in a kind of Hitchcock sense.

(04:21):
And I just watched this week he described this film
that this is this is how he sold sells the film.
Down the camera. This his horror film. Let's make this
very clear. Down the camera in a promotional video, there
are decapitations and eviscerations, electrocutions and impalements, a disembelment, an infestation,
an immolation, a conflagration, an exanguination, and a defenestration, still

(04:47):
quoting Osgoode, in other words, there's a little something for everyone.

Speaker 2 (04:51):
So there you go. You know what you're gonna get.

Speaker 3 (04:52):
Yeah, So this is this is a riff on the
earlier short story The Monkey's Poor. It's about the cursed
little Monkey toy and when you wind it up, it
plays the drum and someone will die in unexpected fashion.
And as you just heard in Osgard Perkins word, he
finds lots of credib ways, so that it's a lot
like Final Destination if you're familiar with those films where
there's kind of an elaborate setup and you don't really

(05:15):
know what's going to happen once you know, once once
the forces of evil get set into motion. And it
centers around two twin brothers who they get this toy
brought back to them as kids. Every time they wind
the key in the back, someone dies in a gruesome
and unexpected way, and it haunts them in really weird
ways into adulthood.

Speaker 2 (05:35):
The horror genre was really sort of it's been having
a comeback. It's not really a comeback, but it's been
very strong. It's a very strong genre, and it has
been for a little while now quite popular with the teenager.
So I was just gonna it's worth noting this is
also an arsex thing, because I know a lot of
people went to see Nosferratu and couldn't get in.

Speaker 3 (05:52):
Yeah, and this is a hard hour for a reason.
This is a gruesome a gleefully gruesome film. It's a
very blackly comic horror, like you're not really going to
spend a lot of time fretting for people's well being.
And there appears of this film where we're just like
whipped through like a whole bunch of different gruesome gags,
because they are gags in this film. They're not like,

(06:15):
oh gosh, I hope nothing bad happens to this person
with a bowling ball. Something bad will happen to that
person once you see.

Speaker 2 (06:22):
Okay, I feel like we've provided people with I feel
like we've provided people with good options you can.

Speaker 3 (06:28):
I think we've got the range out today. We've got
two kind of polar opposites to be said about Tina though.
One of the things that surprised me was actually just
how rude the film is, Like I liked this, Like
the style of humor was not like let's just have
a few kind of slapstick lass for kids. But it's
happy to swear here and there. It's happy to to
lean on some good gags, you know. I really liked

(06:50):
how the deputy principal is burnishing his credentials. We're saying
he's the head of this, ahead of the head of that,
and it just gets the stern look that's a lot ahead.

Speaker 2 (07:00):
Yeah, there's a lot of threats for a slap with
a jandle as well. Thank you so much, Steve. So
those two films, Tina and also The Monkey are in well.
Tina is in Cinema's this Thursday.

Speaker 3 (07:11):
In Cinema's this Thursday. There are snakes this weekend. So
if you're interested in what you've heard in Kender, hit
along asap. There are screenings today and into the week
And The Monkey is in general release now and you
had polease not it as are sixteen. So this is
not a kid's film by any stretch of the imagination.

Speaker 1 (07:28):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
live to news talks. It'd be from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio