A big part of Taylor Swift's enduring appeal is that she seems like a supposedly perfect being, all willowy, blonde, cookie-baking, and stage-dominating, and yet, she knows all about being sad, lonely, jealous, angry, and frustrated.

"If these boring hippies make it past the first week, I'm not watching anymore," I shouted at my husband during the first episode of My Kitchen Rules New Zealand.

Your hands are shaking, your mind is racing and it feels like your body is floating towards the ceiling.

"If these boring hippies make it past the first week, I'm not watching anymore," I wrote.

Whiplash is a riveting, thrilling film that gets away with an ending that's perhaps just a little too clean, writes Russell Baillie.

This romantic comedy, based on Irish author Cecelia Ahern's novel Where Rainbows End, begins promisingly, writes Francesca Rudkin.

When the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra brought its Bold Worlds concert to town last year, the accent was on percussion.

Actor Chadwick Boseman "gets on up", and some, in this slick biography of "the Godfather of Soul", James Brown. Boseman won't be familiar to New Zealand audiences but his electrifying turn will put his name up in lights.

Chris Brown's new album has taught me a valuable life lesson: never listen too closely to the lyrics of an R&B song. You will be grossed out.

With two new Prince albums, the reissue of two Hendrix albums (Cry of Love, Rainbow Bridge) and the next instalment of Hunger Games pending.

There is no complacent sitting back comfortably to watch Alexa Wilson's explosive and challenging choreography The Status of Being, made on the company's very new quintet of five impressive young dancers.

There's a grating irony about a game that's all about getting to the finish line quickly and cleanly having taken so long to actually make it into the shops, all banged-up on arrival.

Will Wood defies any normal categorisation. The Aucklander grew up playing classical violin and piano, and singing in choirs, before he got stuck into the drums and guitar.

New Zealand band [shift]’s debut album The Traveller is one that you’ll want to turn the volume up for.

When British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher set about closing coal mines in 1984, it sparked a year-long strike by members of the National Union of Mineworkers, the memories of which still reverberate in the provinces.

Prime programme of 2014 with a distinct flavour.

Vector Arena was treated to some impressive southern hospitality last night, with Tennessee kid Justin Timberlake playing his first Auckland show of three.

Canadian-born director Mehta shows a keen eye for the mean streets of his ancestral homeland in this small, heartfelt story of a man's search for his missing son.

In the past two decades, Jeff Tweedy has become one of America’s most emotionally intelligent and versatile songwriters.

The NT Live* project reached cinemas here five years ago in July and this newest show is the oldest: it’s the series first Greek tragedy, Euripides’ 2500-year-old story of a woman who exacts the most hideous revenge.

Rivers Cuomo and co have been talking the talk ahead of the release of their ninth studio album, promising a return to the guitar crunch of their first, and best, album, the Blue one.

Radiohead fans might be thinking a new album might be nice about now given the gap since 2011's King of Limbs and the tour which brought them here the following year.

Few artists would dare open an album - let alone a double set - with a spare song based on the words of their accomplished poet father.

Sola Rosa are known for their star collaborations and genre mixing, and their latest album lives up to that reputation.

A story of three Swedish teens turning to punk rock and each other makes for a warm and funny story of 80s adolescence, writes Francesca Rudkin