TV
If you only watch one, make it …
Half Man
BBC iPlayer
Summed up in a sentence Baby Reindeer creator Richard Gadd tackles toxic masculinity in a brutal, brilliant drama that leaves you queasy.
What our reviewer said “Half Man needs to be shown in any place men gather.” Lucy Mangan
Further reading Half Man: Richard Gadd’s follow-up to Baby Reindeer is uncomfortably erotic – and utterly monstrous
Pick of the rest
MasterChef
BBC iPlayer
Summed up in a sentence The BBC’s biggest cookery show makes a post-scandal return with a new female presenting duo.
What our reviewer said “MasterChef has emerged from disgrace with a clean pair of heels. It’s warmer, funnier, sharper.” Jack Seale
Further reading ‘We don’t just point at scallops. It’s full on!’ Grace Dent and Anna Haugh take over MasterChef
This Is a Gardening Show
Netflix
Summed up in a sentence Zach Galifianakis’s utterly charming new horticulture show is part lark, part lesson, all delightful.
What our reviewer said “The series’ six 15-minute episodes have such a deliriously light touch that it makes you want to run outside and plunge your hands into the soil.” Stuart Heritage
Mint
BBC iPlayer
Summed up in a sentence A visually sumptuous love story that’s like Romeo and Juliet meets a modern-day gangster thriller – starring rapper Loyle Carner in his first acting role.
What our reviewer said “An undeniably impressive feat with an incredible payoff.” Rachel Aroesti
Further reading ‘I’m so glad they kept my acne in’: how a sparse, electrifying drama is reimagining a classic love story
You may have missed …
In Our Blood: The Forever Chemicals Scandal
ITVX
Summed up in a sentence An upsetting documentary looking into the town with the most terrifyingly high levels of Pfas in the UK – and whether the government has done anything to help them.
What our reviewer said “The lingering question is whether British authorities should have known earlier, and acted more swiftly.” Jack Seale
Further reading People in North Yorkshire town found to have ‘alarming’ levels of toxic Pfas chemicals in blood
Film
If you only watch one, make it …
Rose of Nevada
In cinemas now
Summed up in a sentence A vanished trawler returns in Cornish auteur Mark Jenkin’s uncanny ghost ship story, a time-slipping drama steeped in loss, memory and the unsettling rhythms of coastal life.
What our reviewer said “The movie itself feels to me like a kind of found object, and in this digital age it is vanishingly rare to encounter something that makes you think of the lost physical reality of celluloid whirring through a projector’s old-fashioned metal sprockets.” Peter Bradshaw
Further reading ‘This is my world’: Cornish director Mark Jenkin brings new film to home town
Pick of the rest
Exit 8
In cinemas now
Summed up in a sentence Video game adaptation featuring an Escher-esque subway station corridor that traps a commuter in a disquieting psychological mystery.
What our reviewer said “This film doesn’t need a midlife metaphorical reading to be scary. It is crushing just taking place in featureless modern buildings – what Marc Augé called the “non-places” of modernity – whose forms insist on our anonymity and insignificance. This is an elegant, chilly dream of despair.” Peter Bradshaw
Ultras
In cinemas now
Summed up in a sentence Ragnhild Ekner’s documentary about football’s most dedicated supporters weaves together breathtaking collective displays around the world.
What our reviewer said “The main line of argument is that becoming a super-fan is an act of individualistic rebellion against the suffocating political and economic status quo.” Phil Hoad
The North
In cinemas now
Summed up in a sentence Old friends trek through the Highlands in a hiking film that patiently follows the progress of two pals’ reunion across Scotland.
What our reviewer said “The North has a kind of purifying and uplifting effect that builds as the hikers approach their destination; a reminder for those interested in cinema going the distance, how the medium – in its commitment, immersion and focus – reaches altitudes TV can’t touch.” Phil Hoad
Now streaming
Agon
Mubi
Summed up in a sentence Three sportswomen undergo the various ordeals of competition in a spare, sometimes harrowing drama of the dark side of athletic perfection, suffused with a chilly vérité detachedness.
What our reviewer said “It is ice-cold and detached, almost without dialogue in the conventionally dramatic sense, other than the subdued exchanges which we, as audience, overhear rather than listen to. It accumulates its own kind of desolate force.” Peter Bradshaw
Books
If you only read one, make it …
Ghost Stories by Siri Hustvedt
Reviewed by Sukhdev Sandhu
Summed up in a sentence Hustvedt reflects on life without her late husband, Paul Auster.
What our reviewer said “For all the loss and loneliness it itemises, what offsets the pervasive melancholy of Ghost Stories – gives it life – is its incandescent anger”
Further reading ‘He said to me, ‘if I die of cancer, it will make a bad story’: Siri Hustvedt on losing Paul Auster
Pick of the rest
Son of Nobody by Yann Martel
Reviewed by Lucy Hughes-Hallett
Summed up in a sentence The Life of Pi author presents a long-lost poem of the Trojan war, with footnotes from a modern scholar.
What our reviewer said “It’s not a brand new form – think of Nabokov’s Pale Fire – but Martel handles it ingeniously.”
Further reading Yann Martel: ‘I hate the rich people of this world – of which I’m one, because of Life of Pi’
The Illuminated Man by Christopher Priest and Nina Allan
Reviewed by Adam Sisman
Summed up in a sentence A highly original biography of JG Ballard.
What our reviewer said “As a writer of speculative fiction and a perceptive critic, Priest was well equipped to assess Ballard’s oeuvre. But six months after starting the biography Priest was diagnosed with terminal cancer.”
Further reading Want to understand the sickness of Britain today? Look no further – a novel explained it all 20 years ago
The Asset Class by Hettie O’Brien
Reviewed by Caroline Knowles
Summed up in a sentence How private equity is taking over the public realm.
What our reviewer said “Everyone should read The Asset Class. It is a gripping and accessible tale about how private equity degrades our lives and living standards, a portrait of capital’s most rapacious configuration so far.”
Further reading Want to know capitalism’s endgame? Just look at private equity – it has captured our everyday lives
You may have missed …
Rejection by Tony Tulathimutte
Reviewed by Rebecca Liu
Summed up in a sentence This interlinked collection coolly interrogates modern life among the young, alienated and terminally online.
What our reviewer said “The stories capture the spirit of our doomscrolling age.”
Further reading Author Tony Tulathimutte: ‘The great millennial theme? Resentment’
Albums
If you only listen to one, make it …
Carla dal Forno: Confession
Out now
Summed up in a sentence The Australian songwriter’s fourth album of spartan, sunlit post-punk.
What our reviewer said “Rich, sympathetic self-portrait in song.” Ben Beaumont-Thomas
Pick of the rest
Walter Smith III: Twio Vol 2
Out now
Summed up in a sentence The redoubtable musician and guests including Branford Marsalis and Ron Carter make standard song-shapes sparkle with focus and rugged phrasing.
What our reviewer said “His sound and incisively rugged phrasing bring many sax icons to mind, but his storytelling focus makes new music of it all”. John Fordham
Timothy Ridout: Alto Appassionato
Out now
Summed up in a sentence Accomplished viola player Ridout and pianist Jonathan Ware add bristling imagination and rich emotional layers to music by Franck, Fauré and more.
What our reviewer said “Weightier than the violin yet airier than the cello, the viola proves well suited to Ridout’s skilful transcriptions”. Clive Paget
Noah Kahan: The Great Divide
Out now
Summed up in a sentence The breakout Stick Season star shares songs defiantly rooted in small-town life.
What our reviewer said “He’s good at what he does, even if what he does seems to come with self-imposed limitations.” Alexis Petridis
Now touring …
Olivia Dean
Touring the UK and Europe to 21 June
Summed up in a sentence The soul-pop superstar heads out on her first arena tour.
What our reviewer said “Her performance feels lived-in and natural, as does her soft, expressive voice.” Katie Hawthorne
Further reading Hard work, romance and bell hooks: how Olivia Dean became British pop’s newest megastar