TV

If you only watch one, make it …

Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed

Apple TV

Summed up in a sentence A moreish, twisty drama about a woman being blackmailed by a camboy, featuring a uniformly excellent cast.
What our reviewer said “A sure-footed and completely bingeable thriller with an edge of unpredictability that holds you doubly fast to your seat.” Lucy Mangan

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Pick of the rest

Kylie

Netflix

Summed up in a sentence A raw, real docuseries about the pop icon, whose intimacy and honesty is a far cry from most celeb hagiographies – particularly the shocking revelation in its moving final episode.
What our reviewer said “What emerges is Kylie’s sunny disposition, vitality and her immense struggle to become what she always was at heart – a magnificent pop star.” Chitra Ramaswamy

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Further reading I didn’t think it was possible to love Kylie Minogue any more – her new Netflix series changed that

The Boroughs

Netflix

Summed up in a sentence A terrifying monster lurks in a US retirement village, prompting a gang of retirees to take it on – and Stranger Things creators the Duffer Brothers to exec produce.
What our reviewer said “Creators Jeffrey Addiss and Will Matthews channel the spirit of Spielberg as the Duffers did, though they manage to emulate not just his unerring instinct for storytelling but his emphasis on emotional truth.” Lucy Mangan

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The Dark Side of Married at First Sight

BBC iPlayer

Summed up in a sentence A hugely troubling Panorama investigation into the Channel 4 reality series, featuring ex-participants making allegations of rape and sexual assault.
What our reviewer said “There is enough in this half-hour programme to fuel a hundred, a thousand documentaries.” Lucy Mangan

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Further reading Channel 4 boss apologises after Married at First Sight sexual misconduct allegations

You may have missed …

Inside Britain’s National Parks

BBC iPlayer

Summed up in a sentence A fascinating, fact-packed tour of the UK’s protected rural areas and cheery local people.
What our reviewer said “The interviews with the people who live there make your heart truly sing.” Lucy Mangan

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Film

If you only watch one, make it …

Eagles of the Republic

In cinemas now

Summed up in a sentence In this satirical political thriller, the third film in Tarik Saleh’s “Cairo trilogy” about post-Mubarak Egypt, a washed-up movie star is bullied into starring in government propaganda films.
What our reviewer said “A rackety, despairing, funny film with something of Billy Wilder, or István Szabó’s Mephisto, or Bertolucci’s fascism parable The Conformist.” Peter Bradshaw

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Pick of the rest

Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu

In cinemas now

Summed up in a sentence The helmeted bounty hunter from the Disney+ series takes on the Empire and Jabba the Hutt’s family in this addition to the ever-expanding Star Wars universe.
What our reviewer said “It serves up some entertaining but familiar Star Wars narrative tropes on a spectacular Imax scale. And if you thought it was possible to end a movie like this without a climactic aerial combat scene involving X-wing fighters, think again.” Peter Bradshaw

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Further reading Star Wars has to deliver a proper movie with The Mandalorian and Grogu – otherwise the franchise is dead

Hen

In cinemas now

Summed up in a sentence Weirdly uplifting survival story from György Pálfi that follows a plucky chicken in a parable of animal and human interrelations.
What our reviewer said “How Pálfi manages to pull this off is a cinematic mystery, but it probably has to do with his light tonal touch and his ability to truly empathise with his avian heroine without resorting to anthropomorphic sentimentalism.” Leslie Felperin

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Further reading ‘Somehow you become the chicken’: inside the film about people-smuggling told through the eyes of a hen

Tycoon

In cinemas now

Summed up in a sentence Set against the 2028 Olympics, Charlotte Zhang’s debut follows two Latino men in a dystopian future-LA as they game a system of state-sanctioned racial violence.
What our reviewer said “Zhang is beautifully attentive to blocking and composition. Scenes of house parties, twilight rides against the setting sun, or high-rev street drifting harmonise into a stunning city symphony, in which a visual rhythm gradually emerges from disorder.” Phuong Le

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Now streaming

Tribe

Available on digital platforms from Monday

Summed up in a sentence Unsettling search for a lost sect in the California mountains follows a retired professor, played by director Dan Asma, whose research leads him to Lovecraftian terrors.
What our reviewer said “Asma bakes in a palpable sense of disintegration and malignancy into the very fabric of the film; our technological compulsion to constantly record, seek meaning and rewind back towards our origins feels like the real corrupting force here.” Phil Hoad

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Books

If you only read one, make it …

Stephen Sondheim: Art Isn’t Easy by Daniel Okrent

Reviewed by Emma Brockes

Summed up in a sentence A gossipy and erudite biography of the musical master.
What our reviewer said “As in most biographies, the successful years are slightly less enjoyable than the slog to the top. But even after his greatest hits – Company, A Little Night Music, Sunday in the Park and Into the Woods – turned him into an icon, the dynamics around Sondheim were still dynamite.”

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Further reading The flop that finally flew: why did it take 40 years for Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along to soar?

Pick of the rest

I Want You to be Happy by Jem Calder

Reviewed by Sam Leith

Summed up in a sentence A love story for our terminally online age.
What our reviewer said “The characters here live both in and out of the physical world, and everything is so mediated that reality itself comes to seem secondary.”

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Further reading ‘I don’t know what could top that’: debut author Jem Calder on being discovered by Sally Rooney

Hunger and Thirst by Claire Fuller

Reviewed by Lara Feigel

Summed up in a sentence Gothic horror meets social realism in the story of a sculptor’s dark past.
What our reviewer said “This is a lurid, big-boned, messy, often brilliant book, full of the intense feeling and intimate portrayal of the inner life that characterises Fuller’s work.”

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Smallie by Eden McKenzie-Goddard

Reviewed by Emma Loffhagen

Summed up in a sentence A tender and assured debut about a woman threatened with deportation during the Windrush scandal.
What our reviewer said “Despite the heaviness of its subject matter, Smallie moves with a propulsive energy, structured around cliffhangers and withheld revelations.”

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You may have missed …

Love’s Labour by Stephen Grosz

Reviewed by Sophie McBain

Summed up in a sentence Stories of love and relationships from the psychoanalysit’s couch.
What our reviewer said “What a privilege it must be to accompany another person so closely as they try to figure out the challenge of living – of change and love, and accepting love and change. And what a privilege it is for the reader to catch a glimpse of this process.”

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Further reading What 40 years as a psychoanalyst has taught me about sex and desire

Albums

If you only listen to one, make it …

Kurt Vile: Philadelphia’s Been Good to Me

Out 29 May

Summed up in a sentence Indie rock’s most easy-going dude surveys the bliss and bumps of life in his mid-40s.
What our reviewer said “It is, emphatically, a Kurt Vile record – loose, lush, ambling, aimless, and totally, deeply poetic, bruh.” Shaad D’Souza

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Pick of the rest

Dallas Symphony Orchestra/Fabio Luisi: Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen

Out now

Summed up in a sentence Captured live in concert performances, Fabio Luisi’s clear-sighted command and strong orchestral playing make this Wagner set frequently impressive.
What our reviewer said “Concert performances of opera can provide ideal conditions for live recordings. This ambitious release of Wagner’s Ring Cycle on 13 CDs is a fine example.” Clive Paget

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Miles Davis: Ascenseur pour l’Échafaud

Out now

Summed up in a sentence The trumpeter’s improvised soundtrack for Louis Malle’s 1958 film still glows with sensuality, tension and nocturnal beauty in this lavish reissue.
What our reviewer said “A quiet slow-burn, but simmering with all of Miles Davis’s timelessly extraordinary light and heat.” John Fordham

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Further reading ‘He used the trumpet as a songbird’: 100 years of Miles Davis, by jazz greats Sonny Rollins, Yazz Ahmed and more

Mabe Fratti and Bill Orcutt: Almost Waking

Out now

Summed up in a sentence The Guatemalan newcomer and US veteran find striking common ground on an intimate collaboration full of agitation, complexity and uncanny chemistry.
What our reviewer said “While their friendship is new, Almost Waking reveals a deep kinship between these true originals.” Alastair Shuttleworth

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Now touring …

Kraftwerk

Touring the UK to 9 June

Summed up in a sentence Ralf Hütter and his bandmates show how profound their influence has been on huge swathes of popular music.
What our reviewer said “Fifty-five years since the band formed, the machines still need their man.” Brian Coney

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Further reading ‘A road trip like no other’: my epic drive on Kraftwerk’s Autobahn