TV
If you only watch one, make it …
Make That Movie
Channel 4
Summed up in a sentence Last One Laughing finalist delivers one of the funniest shows of the year, with this mockumentary about a director who makes awful films.
What our reviewer said “So ostentatiously silly that it deserves to be paraded around the streets.” Stuart Heritage
Further reading ‘People are like: you’re a crackpot’: how Sam Campbell became comedy’s oddball superstar
Pick of the rest
The Four Seasons
Netflix
Summed up in a sentence Tina Fey triumphs again with the return of this comedy about a group of middle-aged friends who reunite during holidays throughout the year.
What our reviewer said “Even more perspicacious, poignant and hilarious than the first.” Chitra Ramaswamy
Spider-Noir
Prime Video
Summed up in a sentence In Marvel’s witty homage to the hard-boiled films and fictions of the 40s – which can be watched in colour or black-and-white – Nicolas Cage plays Ben Reilly, who gave up being superhero “the Spider” five years ago …
What our reviewer said “Everything is shot with style and confidence.” Lucy Mangan
Further reading The life of PIs: the strange case of 2026’s resurgence of hard-boiled detectives
You may have missed …
Ponies
Now/Sky Atlantic
Summed up in a sentence Emilia Clarke and Haley Lu Richardson have heaps of fun as two widows who become cold war spies in this espionage comedy-drama.
What our reviewer said “It’s a mashup of genres and tropes, but it is its own thing too – and an unexpected treat at that.” Lucy Mangan
Film
If you only watch one, make it …
Backrooms
In cinemas now
Summed up in a sentence A debut from 20-year-old director Kane Parsons that examines memory, reality and fear in an icily disturbing horror, in which Chiwetel Ejiofor accesses an infinite series of hidden rooms that all feel creepily askew.
What our reviewer said “Backrooms progressively raises its game towards the big finish with jump scares, squirm scares and tiny shiver scares. There is real fascination in exploring this vast, invisible city state of fear.” Peter Bradshaw
Further reading Are you sitting uncomfortably? How Backrooms upended the horror movie
Pick of the rest
Power Ballad
In cinemas now
Summed up in a sentence Nick Jonas and Paul Rudd star in a comedy of bromance and betrayal from Irish writer-director John Carney that brilliantly brings together Rudd’s washed-up wedding singer and Jonas’s insecure ex-boyband superstar.
What our reviewer said “Power Ballad is about making it and dreaming big, about every busker never giving up on hopes of one day being mega. But as so often with Carney, it’s about something else, usually left unacknowledged in movies about music or any sort of show business: the terrible binary of success and failure.” Peter Bradshaw
Tuner
In cinemas now
Summed up in a sentence Playing a piano tuner with super-sensitive hearing, Leo Woodall’s relationship with Dustin Hoffman is a tender highlight in this safe-cracking thriller.
What our reviewer said “What a pair they are; they are a real pleasure to watch in an easy, unforced drama that mixes romcom moments with a relaxed crime thriller. It’s like the Safdie brothers in chill-out mode.” Cath Clarke
Bullet in the Head
In cinemas now
Summed up in a sentence Hong Kong action master John Woo’s deliriously violent 1990 epic fuses gangland thriller, Vietnam war movie and tragic melodrama into a spectacular vision of greed and moral collapse.
What our reviewer said “The director counterintuitively uses sad music – harmonica, woodwind – over grisly, brutal action sequences, as if what he wants us to register is not the violence or the shock but just how poignantly futile and pathetic it all is.” Peter Bradshaw
Now streaming
Propeller One-Way Night Coach
Apple TV
Summed up in a sentence John Travolta directs and narrates a short-haul joyride of a film, a 60-minute adaptation of his own short story about a boy who dreams of being a pilot.
What our reviewer said “It is an hour-long novelty feature commissioned by Apple TV, with lovingly detailed but innocent Mad Men 1960s period production design, and narrated throughout by Travolta itself. That’s an indulgence you have to get used to – but if Alec Baldwin was doing it, you might almost think this was a Wes Anderson movie.” Peter Bradshaw
Further reading The lesson from John Travolta’s dramatic new look: always dress for the job you want
Books
If you only read one, make it …
Crossing the Wine-Dark Sea by Emily Wilson
Reviewed by Blake Morrison
Summed up in a sentence The acclaimed translator of the Odyssey and the Iliad sets out her philosophy in this fascinating collection.
What our reviewer said “Wilson’s new book is a series of essays on the challenges of translation and the pleasures and insights to be gained from reading the classics. She is fascinated by how far the ancient world intersects with the modern.”
Pick of the rest
Whistler by Ann Patchett
Reviewed by Beejay Silcox
Summed up in a sentence A woman reunites with her long-lost stepfather in the new novel from the Tom Lake author.
What our reviewer said “Whistler is top-shelf comfort food, the literary equivalent of pricey ice-cream.”
Fieldwork As a Sex Object by Meena Kandasamy
Reviewed by Fatima Bhutto
Summed up in a sentence A sharp comedy of online shaming after a deepfake sex tape.
What our reviewer said “Kandasamy is one of India’s most exciting writers precisely because she doesn’t pull any punches – on the contrary, she really packs them in.”
A Billion Years of Sex Differences by Steve Stewart-Williams
Reviewed by Sophie McBain
Summed up in a sentence A psychologist wades into controversial territory in this study of nature, nurture and gender.
What our reviewer said “This book is filled with interesting, counterintuitive findings, studies you might want to discuss with a friend. But evolutionary psychology isn’t always the most useful lens.”
You may have missed …
Dream State by Eric Puchner
Reviewed by Sarah Crown
Summed up in a sentence A love triangle plays out over decades in this deliciously immersive American saga.
What our reviewer said “Puchner tells his tale with such warmth and humour, that it’s not until you set the book down that you can appreciate the breadth and brilliance of what he’s done.”
Albums
If you only listen to one, make it …
Iceage: For Love of Grace & the Hereafter
Out now
Summed up in a sentence The Danish quintet add shoegaze, country and 50s rock’n’roll to their core indie-punk sound, offsetting lyrical bleakness with gleeful, uplifting music.
What our reviewer said “The result is the sixth fantastic Iceage album: a hugely impressive streak.” Alexis Petridis
Pick of the rest
Paul McCartney: The Boys of Dungeon Lane
Out now
Summed up in a sentence From nostalgic returns to his Liverpool childhood to a crazed Glastonbury fantasia, these are songs written with real purpose and a master’s finesse.
What our reviewer said “If you’re going to make an album at 83, you’d better make something that counts, which The Boys of Dungeon Lane does.” Alexis Petridis
Further reading Paul McCartney on how old bandmates – and Oasis – inspired his nostalgic new album
Colin Matthews: Seascapes
Out now
Summed up in a sentence Soprano Claire Booth and baritone Marcus Farnsworth celebrate the influential British composer with this collection of four song cycles.
What our reviewer said “What’s striking throughout these four song cycles is the kaleidoscopic sound world he creates with such forensic precision, whether he has seven players to work with or 17.” Erica Jeal
Matías Aguayo: Anenoa
Out now
Summed up in a sentence The shapeshifting vocals of the Chilean-German producer add a playful touch to ebullient tracks made to get you moving.
What our reviewer said “The record has an infectious, lively energy, encouraging listeners to turn up the volume and dance to Aguayo’s irrepressible sounds.” Ammar Kalia
Now touring
Sugar
Touring the UK and Ireland to 4 June
Summed up in a sentence After decades away, Bob Mould’s post-Hüsker Dü band return with a ferocious rapid-fire set.
What our reviewer said “There’s no time for messing around, just a furious charge through 23 songs in 90 minutes.” Michael Hann
Further reading 90s rock icon Bob Mould: ‘When Cobain died, I pulled the plug – there was nothing worth saving’