Entertainment picks: This Candy not easy to swallow

Abbie Cornish and Heath Ledger are lovestruck junkies in Candy

Movies
Candy is a great Aussie film but not if you're eating candy at the time. A tale of two lovers almost wiped out by heroin, parts of the film give the crawling baby in Trainspotting a run for its money. The film was adapted from Luke Davies' cult bestseller of the 90s, and although it's nauseating in places, it's also funny, moving and oddly beautiful. And it stars three excellent Aussies: Heath Ledger (really), Abbie Cornish and Geoffrey Rush.

Flag the junk food in Slither, too, unless you want to know what happens to your digestion while watching disgusting worm-like creatures infest people's brains.

Just so we're clear, Tara Road (Rialto) is not about a smutty American Pie actress on the prowl in Ibiza. It's the adaptation of a Maeve Binchey novel about two women, one American (Andie MacDowell), one Irish (Olivia Williams), who don't know each other from a bar of soap but decide it's a good idea to swap homes. Hmm ...

The remake of Poseidon may not be the most cerebral of films but director Wolfgang Petersen makes up for it with serious action. Writes American film reviewer Mick La Salle, "When Petersen flips that ship, he flips it slowly and milks it for every falling elevator passenger, every electrocuted crewman and every screaming lady in a flaming ball gown". Which is just as well. The film cost US$160 million ($253 million).

Music
Enduring Aussie rockers You Am I play Shadows on Thursday to promote their seventh album, Convicts, and be warned, frontman Tim Rogers says he turns into Barbra Streisand after a few drinks.

Cornish beat freak Luke Vibert plays Galatos on Thursday. Expect the unexpected - and possibly a little cheese - as he swings from acid house to country to drum'n'bass and disco. Phelps & Munro, Stinky Jim and Nick D play support.

Vibert isn't the only Ninja Tune rep in town this week. DJ DK, aka Darren Knott, is the man behind the Coldcut Solid Steel radio show. He's at 4:20 on Sunday and you're allowed to stay up late because it's Queen's Birthday weekend. The radio show will now play on 95bFM on Saturdays from 11pm-1am.

The newly decorated lounge bar at Schooner Tavern launches its new club night on the first Saturday of every month. The Quay Street Social Club comes to us from music website Cheese on Toast. DJ Andrew Tidball will play a time-warp of 60s soul, 70s new wave, the 80s new romantics, 90s Britpop, and the latest indie dancefloor hits.

Practise positive karma at Steaming for a Good Cause, featuring Rhombus, Batucada Sound Machine, Module, Rhian Sheehan and more at Galatos on Saturday. Proceeds from the $38 tickets go to the Cancer Society.

TV
TV2 gets a new crime show this week, only this one is real. Born To Kill (tomorrow, 9.25pm) looks at infamous serial killers from the past 30 years and hopefully doesn't encourage copycats in the process. The first episode is about Fred West, who is believed to have murdered at least 12 young women before killing himself.

Prime's flagship nature doco series, Planet Earth, starts on Sunday. The BBC five-part series took four years to make, with a budget of more than $47 million. David Attenborough guides us around the globe's extremes, from the mountains of Nepal to the jungle of the Amazon.

Comedy
Why the long face? The Comedy Festival winds down this week but there's still a lot worth checking out: Addy Van Der Borgh, Jane Godley, Tripod, The 4 Noels, and on the local front: the non-local sounding Cori Gonzalez-Macuer, Dos Gringos and Wilson Dixon. Social Underage R&B star Chris Brown hits town at 4pm today, with an in-store signing at Sounds, 191 Queen St, Stellar perform tracks from their upcoming album at the Bacco Room on Wednesday, and Aussie band Augie March play a showcase at the Tamaki Yacht Club on Thursday. Vodafone are having a soiree at Shanghai Lil's that night, possibly to celebrate the recent misfortunes of their competitor.

Art
Say cheese and check out the Auckland Festival of Photography (various venues around the city, from Friday to June 24).

Worth checking this week: Instamatic (Aotea Gallery from Saturday), a behind-the-scenes squiz at Fashion Week featuring horizontal models and Norm Hewitt in huge lapels; Beauty: Capturing the Ephemeral (Letham Gallery until June 9), a collection that proves even stinky sardines can be exquisite; and The Walrus & the Cameraman, the self-explanatory work of expeditioner Don Robertson, (Waiheke Community Art Gallery, from Friday to June 24).