TV
If you only watch one, make it …
Rivals
Disney+
Summed up in a sentence The preposterous adaptation of the late Jilly Cooper’s 80s bonkbuster is back and everyone involved is clearly having the time of their life.
What our reviewer said “Rivals is beyond earthly praise. Let us insert a single rose between its bum cheeks and raise a glass of Cinzano to its naked audacity. Bottoms up!” Sarah Dempster
Further reading Danny Dyer on going from hardman to heart-throb in Rivals
Pick of the rest
Children of the Blitz
BBC iPlayer
Summed up in a sentence The last survivors of the blitz tell their shattering stories in this wonderful, moving and hugely important film.
What our reviewer said “This kind of access to the inner lives of children in wartime is priceless and it’s impossible not to transpose these insights into emotional dislocation on to the modern-day kids of Gaza, Ukraine and Sudan.” Phil Harrison
Further reading From the blitz to Ukraine: has sheltering underground changed? – in pictures
Off Campus
Prime Video
Summed up in a sentence A straight copy of smash-hit hockey romcom Heated Rivalry.
What our reviewer said “Sit back with your beverage of choice, turn off your brain and relax.” Lucy Mangan
Wrestling With Trump
Channel 4
Summed up in a sentence Munya Chawawa delivers a smackdown to the US president.
What our reviewer said “If the Democrats had done what comedian and satirist Munya Chawawa does in his punchy, passionate and weirdly uplifting documentary, it might be a slightly better world today.” Lucy Mangan
Further reading A fascinating look at how Trump’s political style is inspired by WWE wrestling
Believe Me
ITVX
Summed up in a sentence A sensitive, compelling look at the fight for justice for the survivors of “black-cab rapist” John Worboys – which rightly pushes the perpetrator into the background.
What our reviewer said “A punchy, intelligent script makes it a compelling as well as nonexploitative drama that others would do well to learn from.” Lucy Mangan
Further reading Violence against women is at ‘breaking point’, says writer of John Worboys drama
Film
If you only watch one, make it …
The Christophers
In cinemas now
Summed up in a sentence Ian McKellen plays an irascible painter and Michaela Coel his assistant, hired by his children in an attempt to locate and/or forge a series of potentially valuable lost paintings of the artist’s former lover.
What our reviewer said “Steven Soderbergh’s latest London-set movie is terrifically exhilarating and funny, as bracing as a large vodka and tonic before lunch: fast, literate and funny.” Peter Bradshaw
Further reading Ian McKellen: ‘Of course Gandalf would beat Dumbledore in a fight’
Pick of the rest
Obsession
In cinemas now
Summed up in a sentence Writer-director Curry Barker follows up $800 YouTube hit Milk & Serial with an effective and head-smashingly gory cautionary tale.
What our reviewer said “Obsession is satisfyingly slick proof that Barker knows just what to do when levelling up to a different platform.” Benjamin Lee
Further reading ‘I never thought people might feel threatened by us’: YouTuber Curry Barker on his big horror ascent
Northern Soul: Still Burning
In cinemas now
Summed up in a sentence Centred on the Wigan Casino and its amphetamine-fuelled all-nighters, this documentary is a passionate portrait of a unique cultural moment.
What our reviewer said “This is an absorbing docu-celebration of the northern soul scene that flourished from the late 1960s to the end of the 1970s. It was a fascinating, vernacular youth movement and a kind of regional open secret: a club culture, a zine culture, a music-and-fashion culture.” Peter Bradshaw
Top Gun
In cinemas now
Summed up in a sentence Navy flyers’ yarn that was Tom Cruise’s entry into the A-list, as the brilliant, courageous rule-breaking pilot, frenemy of Val Kilmer and in love with Kelly McGillis.
What our reviewer said “It’s all very silly, though it’s impossible not to feel some affection for this film: Cruise’s pure, strenuous earnestness and the disconcerting laser focus of his stare.” Peter Bradshaw
Further reading Top Gun 3 officially confirmed with Tom Cruise returning
Now streaming
The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo
Mubi
Summed up in a sentence A striking debut mixing magic realism and melodrama in a tale of an LGBTQ+ community facing fear and superstition in 1980s Chile.
What our reviewer said “Here is a beautiful, raw debut from young Chilean director Diego Céspedes, a film that is part queer western, part beguiling fable, with some glorious scenes straight out of a Latin soap opera.” Cath Clarke
Books
If you only read one, make it …
The Savage Landscape by Cal Flyn
Reviewed by Edward Posnett
Summed up in a sentence A fascinating exploration of wilderness and its meaning.
What our reviewer said “It’s a work of extraordinary physical and narrative movement that takes us from the depths of the ocean to volcanoes and icebergs, but is also a journey into our own psyches.”
Pick of the rest
John of John by Douglas Stuart
Reviewed by Yagnishsing Dawoor
Summed up in a sentence A father and son in the Hebrides keep secrets from each other, in a story of faith, isolation and gay love from the Booker winner.
What our reviewer said “While this book will not appeal to those with a low tolerance for excess, diehard romantics will find much to love.”
Further reading ‘Your work changed the course of my entire life’: novelist Douglas Stuart meets painter Jenny Saville
The Correspondent by Virginia Evans
Reviewed by Rebecca Wait
Summed up in a sentence One woman’s life in letters, now shortlisted for the Women’s prize for fiction.
What our reviewer said “It’s been one of those word-of-mouth sensations that puts a spring back into publishers’ steps – and easy to see why, given that it’s such an immensely enjoyable read.”
Uprising by Tahmima Anam
Reviewed by Sana Goyal
Summed up in a sentence A story of female rebellion, inspired by a “brothel island” in Bangladesh.
What our reviewer said “Through her unwaveringly political and unflinchingly forthright novel, Anam shows the power of rage and radical hope.”
Weimar by Katja Hoyer
Reviewed by Alex Faludy
Summed up in a sentence How one small town voted for the Nazis and changed German history.
What our reviewer said “Understanding why people turned away from democracy in the past is essential to safeguarding freedom in the present.”
Albums
If you only listen to one, make it …
Kevin Morby: Little Wide Open
Out now
Summed up in a sentence With help from Aaron Dessner, Bon Iver and Lucinda Williams, the Americana artist shares his uncertainties around his roots and relationships in subtly melancholic songs.
What our reviewer said “There are a couple of moments that leap out, but for the most part, Little Wide Open’s main currency is subtle pleasures.” Alexis Petridis
Pick of the rest
Genesis Owusu: Redstar Wu & the Worldwide Scourge
Out now
Summed up in a sentence The Australian artist’s genre-hopping but cohesive LP is seething with righteous anger and moshpit-ready tracks.
What our reviewer said “For all its engagement with the unease of the present moment, the album is also a reminder that art – especially this raw and human – is itself a source of hope.” Jack Tregoning
Further reading Genesis Owusu: ‘We are not each other’s enemies’
Marisa Anderson: The Anthology of UnAmerican Folk Music
Out now
Summed up in a sentence The US guitarist excavates the outer reaches of the famed record collector’s work.
What our reviewer said “Anderson’s album constantly and magically questions how porous far-flung musical cultures really are.” Jude Rogers
Ensemble Modern and HK Gruber: Dancing on a Volcano
Out now
Summed up in a sentence An eclectic snapshot of musical Germany between 1920 and 1933, from Schoenberg to Kurt Weill.
What our reviewer said “It’s a perfect example of the kind of thing the Nazis couldn’t abide. ‘Too modern, too jazzy, too Jewish,’ they cried. No surprise then that these composers ultimately wound up in the United States.” Clive Paget
Now touring
Angine de Poitrine
Touring Europe to 31 May, then the UK from 13 to 20 October
Summed up in a sentence The polka-dotted phenomenon balance supremely complex musicianship with ridiculous good fun.
What our reviewer said “Wonderfully, their music is every bit as outre as their clothing: a weirdly hypnotic, berserk hybrid of math rock, prog rock, punk, jerkily repetitive rhythms, microtonal loops and twiddly guitar bits”. Dave Simpson
Further reading ‘We’re not Lady Gaga and Elton John’: unmasking Angine de Poitrine, the year’s buzziest, dottiest band