EntertainmentBook Review: Griffith Review 33: Such Is LifeIn this volume the Griffith writers look inward and backwards to gain some fresh insight into not only their own lives but the lives of us all.05 Sep 05:00 PM
EntertainmentMovie Review: SennaJust as Ayrton Senna rose above being just another fast driver in his decade of Formula 1, this film of his life rises above being just another sports doco.31 Aug 06:30 PM
EntertainmentMovie Review: Steam of LifeThis Finnish documentary, surely the best film ever made about men sitting in saunas, will not be for all tastes.31 Aug 06:30 PM
EntertainmentAlbum Review: Various, After Hours, The Collection: Northern Soul MastersGood time listening, horn-driven party music mostly, and the stepping stone to that remarkable Palmer doco.31 Aug 06:30 PM
EntertainmentAlbum Review: Red Hot Chili Peppers, I'm With YouThe Chilis still manage inspired moments without guitarist John Frusciante.31 Aug 06:30 PM
EntertainmentAlbum Review: The Smithereens, 2011It's business as unusual for a band big on chords and enjoyably familiar progressions, hook-filled pop-rock, sometimes lazily obvious lyrics and the occasional sense of Cheap Trick-like irony.31 Aug 06:30 PM
EntertainmentBook Review: Sarah ThornhillA terrible thing happened, that day, up at Blackwoods' place, in <i>The Secret River</i>, the first of Grenville's historical novels set in the penal colony of New South Wales. 30 Aug 05:00 PM
EntertainmentBook Review: Utopian Man Every city can lay claim to its fair share of eccentrics. This book is about one of Melbourne's: Edward William Cole.30 Aug 05:00 PM
OpinionBook Review: Dante In LoveThis book might more accurately have been titled <i>In Love With Dante</i>. It is a wholehearted piece of advocacy for the 14th century writer, of whom Wilson says it "could be argued that he was the greatest of all European poets, of any time or place". 28 Aug 05:00 PM
EntertainmentAlbum Review: Greg Johnson, Small Towns - LiveThis first live album by the Los Angeles-based Kiwi songwriter has that all-important crackle, freshness, and smouldering purity that transports you back to the venue where the songs were first performed. 27 Aug 06:30 PM
EntertainmentAlbum Review: Chemical Brothers, Hanna SoundtrackAs debut soundtracks go, this one created for action-packed thriller and on-the-run film Hanna is a fittingly peppy, primed piece of sonic adrenaline.26 Aug 06:30 PM
EntertainmentMovie Review: The GuardThis debut effort from the man who wrote the screenplay for Heath Ledger's 'Ned Kelly' is an enjoyable, if derivative, comic romp.26 Aug 06:30 PM
EntertainmentAlbum Review: Mariachi El Bronx, Mariachi El Bronx IICurrently on tour with the Foo Fighters, Mariachi El Bronx is the Latin-cum-mariachi guise of rowdy and reckless Los Angeles punk band the Bronx.26 Aug 06:30 PM
EntertainmentMovie Review: The Tree of LifePeter Calder reviews The Tree of Life, an enthralling but only sporadically engaging, new film by the American maestro Malick, which he says is an ambitious but disappointing work.26 Aug 05:30 PM
EntertainmentMovie Review: Crazy, Stupid LoveThe first comedy-drama to be produced by and starring Steve Carell since his exit from the television show The Office, features a fabulous cast doing their best with a script that's quietly amusing rather than laugh-out-loud funny.24 Aug 06:30 PM
EntertainmentAlbum Review: The War on Drugs, Slave AmbientFrom the amusing band name through their swooning post-REM pop-rock, this fine and play-loud album so adeptly juggles Tom Petty/Byrds, slacker alt rock and post-grunge 90s pop that you can't help but like it. 24 Aug 06:30 PM
EntertainmentAlbum Review: The Bambi Molesters, As the Dark Wave SwellsAlthough "surf rock" sounds a limiting description, echoing guitar twang can equally conjure up wide-open dry spaces or brooding spaghetti westerns. 24 Aug 06:30 PM
EntertainmentAlbum Review: Cut Off Your Hands, HollowTwo years after the release of Cut Off Your Hands' first album, new album <i>Hollow</i> has emerged and it's a more settled and melancholic offering - with smooth and soaring melodicism and often-plaintive tenderness.24 Aug 06:30 PM
EntertainmentMovie Review: Mr Popper's PenguinsA contemporary tale for this century, this is no longer just the fun story of a man randomly sent a penguin by an explorer, it's now the story of a man trying to reconnect with his family, and must learn there's more to life than working. 24 Aug 06:30 PM
EntertainmentBook Review: New Zealand FilmThe thing about the movies that we've never got over is that they move. In doing so, they evoke a facsimile of life better than life itself. Even the "fractured flickers" of the early cinema commanded an instant suspension of disbelief.21 Aug 05:30 PM
