Simon’s followed Bruce Springsteen’s music for more than 40 years, and wanted to take his time absorbing the artist’s latest album, Western Stars. He’s glad he was patient. He finds it a richly rewarding work. Three questions lie in wait…
The Emergency was an extraordinary time in India’s history; A Fine Balance is an extraordinary book, Rohinton Mistry’s story of four people who cling to each other while their worlds fall apart a richly detailed, painful, but beautiful description of…
Don’t listen to Golden Boy Vol. I and Vol. II if you’re looking for something cheerful and uplifting. Stan Woodhouse, better known to the Auckland and Melbourne music worlds as Skyscraper Stan, has released an album — a proper, old-fashioned,…
Men In Black: International tries ever so hard to be an awful lot of different films. It’ll make you think of a Harry Potter/Fantastic Beasts outtake, it echoes mid-run James Bond films, it channels mediocre mid-90s Disney cartoons, it even…
The Monkees — well, two of them, anyway — came to Auckland this weekend. Simon and Steve were both keen to enjoy some nostalgic, feel-good pop songs; Simon and Steve were both just a little disappointed. Rocketman, on the other hand, is…
Simon’s just back from a short overseas trip and took the opportunity to catch up with a few films during his flight. One was a movie he’d wanted to catch on its release last year but missed. He reckons it…
Steve had seen them before. Simon hadn’t. So both of Crave!’s reviewers offer their thoughts on The Monkees show in Auckland. Steve first, then Simon. STEVE’S REVIEW: On the strength of last night’s show at Auckland’s Town Hall, it’s not…
Rocketman is Elton John in therapy. The film opens with Elton John, in full stage costume, devil horns and all, quite literally in therapy, confessing himself an alcoholic and a drug addict at a rehab meeting; John then tells the…
The biggest problem with Disney’s new live-action remake of its 1992 animated feature, isn’t even in the film. But we’ll come to that later. Before that, let’s talk about what is in the film. It is, by and large, a…
Episode 83 of Crave! is a short, bonus episode — Steve and Simon’s take on the final instalment of Game Of Thrones. Be warned — it’s chock-full of spoilers, so if you’ve not seen, seriously, all of Game Of Thrones,…