Been working on this one for a minute – ranked and reviewed every cinema in this whole damn city for @thespinofftv . I love our movie palaces, and you should too.
Link in bio.
2026. I’ve been told it’s the year of the Horse. Here’s what we’re hoofing it towards imho:
- Opening our hearts ✅
- Being ambitious ✅
- Bringing back earnestness ✅
- Ushering in the glorious era of Woke 2.0 ✅
- Freeing ourselves from prisons of our own devising ✅
- Burning data centres to the ground, and leaving A.I. to rust ✅
- Embracing the Real – making real art ✅
- No more trying to make our faces and bodies look the same as everyone else’s, fuck that shit ✅
- Liberating the working class ✅
- Honouring Te Tiriti ✅
- Freeing Palestine ✅
Oh, and we’re ALSO going to the beach (let me model that for you right quick) ✅
2026 is the year of being a Softie babyyyyy
As is tradition, dear friends, here’s the cinema, television and music I loved the most this year. As always you can find the full list of my favourite films of 2025 over on @viewmagnz , as well as a playlist of my fave tracks of the year — link in bio!
“Certain things are just so beautiful to me, and I don’t know why. Certain things make so much sense, and it’s hard to explain.” — David Lynch
Merry Christmas!
In the new @metromagnz a bunch so thought it warranted a roundup!
I wrote a crossword inspired by my beloved @nymag crossies – it’s Aotearoa themed and have been told it’s quite difficult so I invite you to take the challenge.
I also went long on the cinema of Aotearoa 2025, a banner year. I laid out my top 5 NZ films of the year as follows:
TOI TŪ: VISUAL SOVEREIGNTY by @chelseawinstanley
WORKMATES by @curtis_vowell and @sophiekatehenderson
THE RULE OF JENNY PEN by @mister_ashcroft
GRACE A PRAYER FOR PEACE by @gaylenepreston
PIKE RIVER by Rob Sarkies
I also listed my favourite Kiwi shorts of the year:
WOMB by @_ir__a_
The AWITO shorts, particularly SOCKS, A VERY GOOD BOY, LION ROCK and IN CONVERSATION WITH JACK MAURER by @toddkarehana@samueltekani Nick Mayow & @pabspile@hashhhhffs
MAYSA by @roxiemohebbi
WHEN THE GEESE FLEW by @arthur.elias.gay
MIRUMIRU by @allanlgeorge
WRECKING CREW by Tanu Gago of @fafswag
I also pop up in @amandajanerobinson_ annual, glorious Gift Guide.
AND I snuck a sneaky rec in for @sundaythebakery the best little cake maker in AK.
Anyway, pick up your copy mate! Let me know if you finish the crossword and I will nod in your general direction with an expression of utmost respect
A year ago I got a gastric bypass. It was not a decision I took lightly – it was one that I struggle with to this day. The surgery was tough. They hit an organ they weren’t meant to which ensured that I was in hospital longer than expected. Afterwards I lived on a liquid diet for a bit. Nowadays I can eat mostly normally, but not in great portions.
There have been many crazy things that have happened this year. Losing 50kg is one of them. Yesterday I ran almost 7km, which was definitely not something I’d have been doing last year.
At the same time it irks me, the people who compliment the weight loss as though I was lacking in a certain validity (read: humanity) when I was bigger. A compliment is nice but I know when it comes from a place that puts fat people down to push those who lose weight onto a higher pedestal. Bitch, I’ve always looked good.
NZ is deeply antagonistic toward fat people, that much I know in my bones. This surgery was done as much to leaven the weight of constant anxiety and judgement as to leaven my physical weight. I also feel a whole lot better in myself - it’s nice to have more energy, it’s nice that more clothes are available in my size. I can sit in a cinema or a bus with less fear. But that’s a problem too, you see. This world isn’t built for bigger people.
My overall advice is that fat people should be allowed to live their lives and you should leave them the fuck alone, your advice is only welcome if we seek it.
Here’s me now looking good, and back then looking good, too. And a video recorded the day before I got surgery when I was scared I was gonna die. How times change, and stay the same, aye
Forever in awe of my Media Scholarship students - this year their @48hoursnz team was called Black Watch Films, and the Friday night of the challenge weekend just happened to coincide with their school ball. Most kids would flake out - these kids planned the entire shoot *in their ball gowns*, went off to the ball, then came back and kept prepping all night.
Their film YULETIDE is cheeky, funny and just a little sacrilegious. I’m an extremely proud movie dad today 😭 director Valentina, producer Rose, DOP Delilah, editor Sophia, writers Evangeline and Eassin, actor Bean and our loyal team of Y12 assistants Yolanda, Celine, Kenisha and Chelsea, you’re the real deal. ❤️ remember when film nerds were just nerds (me)?These kids are just cool as hell!!
When I was a kid, my Aunty Ginny and my Uncle Glenn lived in England, and every time they came home it was like the arrival of a pair of rockstars. We were so excited whenever they were in town. When I was younger, 4 or 5, I was scared of the dark and I used to beg Ginny to stay with me while I went to sleep. One of the last times I spoke to Ginny, she mentioned this. I would say “lie with me Ginny” in a little voice, like the one she had near the end.
I don’t think I have ever known anyone kinder than her, with a more open and gentle heart. She truly made you feel loved. Ginny raised three boys, and married a great man. I’m proud to call them all family. She fought cancer with unbelievable bravery for almost three years. When she left I felt her absence in the world so deeply. At the same time, the things that people say in these times proved true - someone who has lived in your heart will never truly leave you.
In the time since then our family have met and held each other close in alternating clusters. The grief is like a raging ice storm and those moments make me think of little animals huddling together in their dens, keeping the cold out together. I don’t know how to get through this, but I know we must muddle on somehow.
The world is cruel, but the memories of you give off a light that is so warm. It’s not fair that we had to say goodbye to you Ginny but I promise to try and live in the way that would make you proud. And I know that at night if I’m lying to bed and I whisper “lie with me”, I will feel your presence slip in somewhere close.
I read her these lyrics once and she liked them, so here they are:
Change, like the wind
Like the water, like skin
Change, like the sky
Like the leaves, like a butterfly
Would you live forever, never die
While everything around passes?
Would you smile forever, never cry
While everything you know passes?
Death, like a door
To a place we’ve never been before
Death, like space
The deep sea, a suitcase
Would you stare forever at the sun
Never watch the moon rising?
Would you walk forever in the light
To never learn the secret of the quiet night?
I love you and will never forget you Ginny. Rest easy 🕊️❤️🔥
