In his early days, Lupe Fiasco was billed as a mini-Kanye, full to the brim with self-aware raps and smart social commentaries, with an ego to match.

Unassuming and amiable, this road-trip buddy comedy, which played in the festival last year, belongs squarely in the sub-genre of very-low-budget American indies with untrained actors and improvised dialogue that has been dubbed mumblecore.

Fed up with a lack of stimulating female leads in Hollywood, Reese Witherspoon formed a production company and started making her own work. She's created herself a doozy (and a deserved Oscar nomination) playing Cheryl Strayed in Wild.

Foxcatcher's director Bennett Miller tells Tim Robey what drove the unusual choice of actors in his film of wrestling and murder.

Delightful show about marriage that's funny without trying too hard.

The international magician dubbed The Unusualist is returning to New Zealand with his own box of tricks.

The recent movies that have looked at the impact of dementia - Away From Her, The Savages, Aurora Borealis, A Song For Martin, Lovely, Still - have tended to focus on the effect on those left behind as the light dies.

The veteran folk-rock outfit The Waterboys is the latest band to make a jump across the ditch from the Byron Bay Blues Festival.

Lydia Jenkin talks to Josh Lloyd-Watson, founder of one of the hottest bands of 2014.

On the back of debut album Goddess, US singer-songwriter Banks will bring her smokey, gravelly tones to Laneway, writes Lydia Jenkin.

What's a shock rocker to do when he can no longer shock, or rock?

They're the loudest act on Laneway's bill, but rowdy rockers Royal Blood are just two people. The hyped British act talks to Chris Schulz.

Two decades on, high school friends Little Dragon are still living their dreams.

Two movies in and Angelina Jolie the director seems to have already developed a speciality. Her debut In the Land of Blood and Honey was about a Bosnian prisoner of war.

The enigmatic Connan Mockasin's strange but sexy sounds will draw you in to his weird world. He talks to Lydia Jenkin.

The year in local television docos gets off to a grim start with the three-part The Trouble With Murder.

How many Oscar nominations did The Lego Movie get? One, for Best Original Song. That's a joke. Academy Awards voters, sort this mess out, writes Chris Schulz.

A searching examination of middle-class complacency and gender roles in an age of us-or-them individualism, this assured Swedish drama is the kind of film that's hard to watch and harder still to tear your eyes away from.

Mark Ronson is a peculiarly modern musician, whose talents in twiddling knobs and selecting the perfect collaborators are just as important as his magpie-like ability to pick out half-buried musical jewels from the past.

When it comes to career resurrections, Fall Out Boy's recent resurgence is nothing short of miraculous.

Reese Witherspoon is back in awards contention having put the perky romcoms behind her -- and reinvented herself as a Hollywood mogul, writes Kate Bussmann.

As original scores make their mark in TV drama, the composer of the music for Broadchurch tells Adam Sherwin what makes a great soundtrack.

Graham Reid meets a young woman with a flexible attitude to her work.

Eddie Redmayne speaks in commas. The response to a question will start, be amended by a clarification, never an aside, and then another.

Games-wise, 2014 was something of disappointment. Aside from a few successes there wasn't much for gamers to really sink their teeth into.

Given the backstory of the main character in this film, it's hard to avoid thinking of Icarus, who, became the epitome of ambition thwarted by hubris.

If you're into Wu-Tang trivia, here's an interesting fact: Ghostface Killah has released nearly twice as many albums solo as he has as part of the Clan.