Burning tyres, smouldering wreckage and dust storms blowing across desolate wastelands. Right from the start, Mad Max gets one key thing right: the vibe

Occupying the most improbable of genres, the musical thriller, this feature-film version of a 2011 National Theatre hit takes an unusual angle of view to explore the effect on the small Ipswich street of the title of a wave of murders in 2006.

It's not often that you'll come across an album that grabs you by the arm, reaches down your throat and wrenches your heart like this one.

Locking themselves away to write, record and produce seems to have paid off - Chvrches have come into their own with their second album, Every Open Eye.

Internationally acclaimed South Auckland hip-hop superstar Parris Goebel turns this classic follow-your-dreams dance story into something special, thanks to her electrifying, unique style of choreography and incredible troupe of dancers.

Playwright Aroha Awarau has created a sensitive and engaging drama out of something that is almost unimaginably tragic - the random death of a young man cut down in his prime as an innocent bystander at a police shooting.

NZTrio's latest programme, Surge, made its way to Wellington and Whitianga before receiving a hometown airing last night.

New Zealand Opera's Tosca is more than extraordinarily gripping theatre, marking the huge advances made since the company last presented the opera in 2003.

A movie about a wrestling dog with a monkey for a coach stole Calum Henderson's time - and his heart.

As slight in scope as it is modest in subject matter, the second-to-last film by Albert Maysles, who died in March, is a charming if occasionally too-reverential portrait of New York identity and self-described "geriatric starlet" Iris Apfel.

If you see only one film this year shot on an iPhone 5s and focusing on transgender hookers in LA, make it this one.

The 1980s musical smash Cats returned to Auckland last night. But it hasn't aged gracefully, writes Tess Nichol.

The show covers a pair of crimes, one murder, one hit-and-run, the victims a pair of striking young women. One investigation is federal, the other state, writes Duncan Greive. They're linked by tattoos and old friendships.

The spacious galleries at Northart are filled with paintings by the late Alan Gilderdale which give a telling insight into the stages of expression of his fine talents.

At the heart of Travel Man is a simple question, "we're here, but should we have come?" It's a question that Karl Puschmann believe applies to all travel.

Have you seen all the Star Wars movies? What about all six seasons of The Clone Wars?

What are the Black Keys to do when they're missing a Black Key? For Dan Auerbach, his bandmate Patrick Carney's troublesome shoulder injury caused the cancellation of an entire Keys tour, but freed him up to focus on something new.

Remarkable New Zealand playwright Eli Kent pulls off a difficult conceit: a show within a show, directed by an autocratic talking lightbulb.

In Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials the fight for survival now takes place among demolished cities and desert landscapes.

Even those familiar with the famous July Plot of 1944, in which a group of German officers led by Claus von Stauffenberg tried to kill Hitler, may not be aware that it was the last of more than a dozen planned or attempted assassinations.

The Monster of Mangatiti proves you can still work within the docu-drama genre to give the story the respect it deserves, and create devastatingly stunning imagery.

Imagine Dragons love New Zealand so much, they shot their latest music video here. Rachel Bache checks out the Las Vegas group's Auckland show.

Simone Young and the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra returns with a monumental Bruckner Eighth Symphony.

HBO's Show Me A Hero makes gripping TV of council meetings and housing shortages, writes Karl Puschmann.

Well in the battle of the Rugby World Cup songs, clearly we've already won, writes Russell Baillie about Sol3 Mio's Rugby World Cup song.

If you're looking for blood, you've come to the right place. Until Dawn splashes the thick red stuff across walls and has it clotting on floorboards.

Louder, straighter, more pummelling, more forceful - that's the direction British rockers Foals have taken on their fourth album.

Made it. Not having ever contemplated reviewing a Miley Cyrus album before, I've just survived repeated plays of 23 tracks of her new one since it popped out of nowhere, timed with her hosting of this week's MTV VMAs.

If you are going to do fairies there can be no holding back, so wunderkind English choreographer Liam Scarlett unashamedly mixes.

Because this is a film about the darkest days in New Zealand's long-time connection to the highest peak on the planet, it was always going to resonate here differently than in many parts of the world.