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Live review: Sharon Van Etten
Live review of Sharon Van Etten's show at Auckland's King's Arms.
Review: Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, The Civic
The It company from New York City boasts 14 of the best dancers that the money of its founder and funder Wal-Mart heiress, Nancy Laurie, can buy and what those 14 fabulously honed and interestingly diverse beings can do is certainly superb.
Movie review: A Little Chaos
Free of the Harry Potter juggernaut, British actor and director Alan Rickman has finally returned to the director's chair, almost two decades after his directing debut with The Winter Guest.
Movie review: Still Life
Chameleon character actor Marsan has a long list of supporting-role credits in big films (Sherlock Holmes; Mission Impossible III) and small (X+Y), which releases here next week.
McCahon looms large over WWI tribute
Activism through art specialist Lemi Ponifasio and Mau take Colin McCahon's iconic painting as a huge and architectural backdrop to their spellbinding tribute to the fallen of World War I - and take....
Musicianship for this trip back in time
House of Dreams was an ambitious time trip courtesy of Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, transporting us through the homes of 17th and 18th-century music and art-lovers.
Mayhem backed by metal
If you know anyone who thinks the arts festival isn't for blokes take them to see BLAM! - a 75-minute blast of testosterone-driven mayhem with amped-up, gaming style SFX and a heavy-metal soundtrack.
Greg Dixon: Backstrom 'the most aggravating and repellent cop show'
Nobody likes a smart-arse. Nobody likes the smartest guy in the room if he's a smug bugger. Nobody likes a goddamn moaner. And nobody likes seeing a boss abuse his staff.
Review of The Mooncake and the Kumara
Good humour softens collision of settler cultures, writes Paul Simei-Barton
Janet McAllister reviews Skin of Fire
It’s still spectacular stuff but doesn’t quite measure up to the group’s previous show, Janet McAllister writes.
Will Smith's new movie a bit of a swindle
Will Smith and Aussie It Girl Margot Robbie team up in a sleek slice of escapism from directors John Requa and Glenn Ficarra, the co-writers and directors of I Love You Phillip Morris and Crazy, Stupid, Love.
Seventh Son a charmless witch flick
Even best actress Oscar winners can have a bad day at the office, and this is one of those for Julianne Moore.
Madonna's new album all mixed-up
Ah Madonna. Despite that rare moment of vulnerability when she fell down the stairs at the Brit Awards last week, these days she mostly seems like an indestructible creation.
Album review: Steve Earle and the Dukes, Terraplane
The only surprising thing about Earle making a blues album - given he's done rock, country, folk and bluegrass - is that it took him so long.
Album review: Purity Ring, Another Eternity
Passion Pit making out with The xx while Ellie Goulding films things quietly in the corner.
Album review: Public Service Broadcasting, The Race for Space
The 2013 debut album Inform-Educate-Entertain by this British duo married sometimes driving rock or evocative soundscapes with spoken word samples from old British and American docos and films.
Review: Broadchurch's unsatisfying finale
Warning: contains spoilers if you haven't seen last night's Broadchurch season two finale.
Concert review: Finn family, Auckland Zoo
Auckland Zoo a crowded house for family's set of shining songs, writes Lydia Jenkin.
Game review: The Order: 1886
It's good - and it's also bad. For The Order: 1886, a game that promises so much, that's a painful thing to say. But the evidence is irrefutable.
Album review: Songhoy Blues, Music In Exile
It's hard to fully explain this album without setting it in context.