TV
If you only watch one, make it …
Andor season two
Disney+; new episodes Wednesdays
Summed up in a sentence Star Wars for grownups returns for a final season, as thrilling as ever.
What our reviewer said “Under the hard-nosed stewardship of writer Tony Gilroy, Andor bins the magic and myth and replaces them with the reality of anti-fascist struggle, where the good guys are ready to risk their lives for freedom. It’s the Star Wars spin-off with the strongest claim to being a proper drama – but, season two shows it can do sly, wry comedy too.” Jack Seale
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Further reading ‘It feels deeply human’: Andor’s Genevieve O’Reilly on turning a tiny Star Wars role into one of its biggest
Pick of the rest
Race Across the World
BBC One & iPlayer, new episodes Wednesdays
Summed up in a sentence Five brave duos battle the epic 14,000km trek across Asia … and this time, there are teenage lovers and a separated couple.
What our reviewer said “Of course, nothing goes to plan – but, as always, the joy comes from watching the pairs come way out of their comfort zones and bask in new experiences. Or, as one contestant puts it while working on a farm: ‘If I wasn’t being stabbed every three seconds by the thorns, it would actually be quite relaxing.’” Hannah J Davies
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999: The Critical List
Channel 4, new episodes Mondays
Summed up in a sentence A shocking glimpse into the sinking NHS and the under-pressure doctors and nurses staffing it.
What our reviewer said “It is rare that doctors are shown swearing in frustration, even in documentaries more tightly focused on the problems in the NHS than this one. But there are many such moments here, as the number of equally critically ill patients demands the kind of decision-making no human should have to make as part of a standard working day.” Lucy Mangan
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#1 Happy Family USA
Prime Video, full season available
Summed up in a sentence A surreal, quietly subversive tale of a Muslim family’s life in post-9/11 America.
What our reviewer said “#1 Happy Family USA is all about the modern Muslim experience, feeling adrift from the world, and the extent to which you should change yourself to fit in. And what better way to underscore this often excruciating, existential experience than to make our lead an insecure, hormone-plagued teen, coming of age in the wake of the September 11 attacks.” Hannah J Davies
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Further reading ‘I had a recurring dream that Bin Laden was in my kitchen’: Ramy Youssef on his 9/11 comedy
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Dying for Sex
Disney+, full season available
Summed up in a sentence Michelle Williams stars as a woman with terminal cancer on a mission to make better love.
What our reviewer said “Perhaps uniquely in the annals of modern television history, Dying for Sex feels like it could do with longer episodes or a longer season, so that more justice could be done to all parts of the life of its lead character. But perhaps the pell-mell rush is in keeping with her pressing need to do all that she wants before the inevitable arrives. There is never enough time.” Lucy Mangan
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Further reading ‘I’ve never masturbated on film before’: Michelle Williams’ orgasm odyssey in Dying for Sex’
Film
If you only watch one, make it …
Julie Keeps Quiet
In selected cinemas now
Summed up in a sentence A star player at an elite tennis school stays silent when the head coach is suspended in an absorbing study of things unsaid and subjects avoided.
What our reviewer said “A tense movie of silences and absences, of difficult terrain skirted around, of subjects avoided. It’s a reminder that in key situations, to keep quiet is a stressful, strenuous and, crucially, public activity – and a survival instinct that many young people have to learn.” Peter Bradshaw
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Further reading ‘Where is the adult?’: how Leonardo Van Dijl filmed the story of a child tennis star’s abuse
Pick of the rest
Pink Floyd at Pompeii MCMLXXII
In cinemas now
Summed up in a sentence Filmed in 1971, this outrageously indulgent yet vivid film captures the Floyd playing live in an ancient amphitheatre.
What our reviewer said “The band are shown performing in the late afternoon, but not to an audience as you might assume, but weirdly and almost haughtily alone. The banks of amplifiers are pounding out the music just to the ancient stones and pillars and to the film crew facing them. It really is a beguilingly weird film.” Peter Bradshaw
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Further reading Pink Floyd to rerelease restored 1972 Pompeii concert film in Imax
April
In cinemas now
Summed up in a sentence Shocking violence is tempered by silent sequences in a Georgian abortion drama about an obstetrician under investigation.
What our reviewer said “The power of April is that it shows how very illusory the idea of modernity is. In these spaces, the same old male attitudes and prejudices hold sway – effectively unchanged over centuries. Women’s bodies are at the mercy of men. A deeply unsettling meditation on sexuality and transgression.” Peter Bradshaw
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Wind, Tide & Oar
In cinemas now
Summed up in a sentence A documentary love letter to the good old-fashioned art of sailing.
What our reviewer said “Filmed over three years and shot on 16mm film, there are some gorgeous images here that would give Turner a run for his money, like a milky sky melting into the white sea. It’s a feast for the ears, too, with a soundtrack of waves, creaking wood, the clank of metal and shrieking oystercatchers.” Cath Clarke
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Now streaming
Conclave
Prime Video, available now
Summed up in a sentence Gripping – and suddenly very timely – drama about the election of a new pope.
What our reviewer said “Edward Berger’s drama is adapted with masterly flair by screenwriter Peter Straughan from the Robert Harris page-turner; Ralph Fiennes is on sumptuous form as the deeply troubled Cardinal Lawrence at the centre of a murky Vatican plot. The result is a high-camp gripper, like the world’s most serious Carry On film.” Peter Bradshaw
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Further reading Experts talk realism of Conclave movie: ‘Gets a lot of the details right’
Books
If you only read one, make it …
Moral Ambition by Rutger Bregman
Reviewed by Rowan Williams
Summed up in a sentence Why you should quit your job to make the world a better place.
What our reviewer said “At its best it offers a bracingly hopeful perspective, insisting on the necessity of doing all you can to allow yourself to be sensitised and resensitised to that which eats away at the dignity not only of humanity but of the entire living environment.”
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Further reading No, you’re not fine just the way you are: time to quit your pointless job, become morally ambitious and change the world
Pick of the rest
Open, Heaven by Seán Hewitt
Reviewed by Sarah Perry
Summed up in a sentence Exquisite debut about teenage gay love from the acclaimed poet and memoirist.
What our reviewer said “Hewitt seems to me to be working, with immense fidelity and skill, towards a singular vision, in which profound sincerity of feeling – and the treatment of sexual desire as something close to sacred – is matched with an almost reckless beauty of expression.”
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Enough Is Enuf by Gabe Henry
Reviewed by Matthew Cantor
Summed up in a sentence The battle to reform English spelling.
What our reviewer said “In his amusing and enlightening new book, Gabe Henry traces the history of these efforts, beginning with a 12th-century monk named Orrmin, continuing through the beginnings of American English and the movement’s 19th-century heyday, finally arriving at textspeak.”
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Sister Europe by Nell Zink
Reviewed by Rita Bullwinkel
Summed up in a sentence A gritty first world war tale of secrets, guilt and desire.
What our reviewer said “Griffiths grew up in Aberdeenshire and her use of the vernacular vividly conveys the period and a God-fearing, closed community, used to hardship and quick to judge outsiders. She writes well about forbidden desire, shame and the seasonal rhythms of a rural community on the eve of radical change.”
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Further reading On my radar: Nell Zink’s cultural highlights
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Perfection by Vincent Latronico
Reviewed by Thomas McMullan
In a sentence A cool satire of perfectly curated hipster lives in Berlin.
What our reviewer said “Anna and Tom are expats living in Berlin in the 2010s. As freelance digital creatives, their Neukölln flat is affordable, their windowsills are plant-lined, their armchairs are Danish mahogany. Meanwhile, their social lives are curated around gallery openings for art they do not much care about, cooking and the occasional attempt at an orgy.”
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Albums
If you only listen to one, make it …
Maria Somerville: Luster
Out now
Summed up in a sentence The Irish artist’s folk-inflected shoegaze sound is both unnerving and alluring on her luxuriant second album.
What our reviewer said “These songs reveal themselves to be unusually swollen with texture and detail: harps twinkle like broken glass and baggy breakbeats reverberate widely. Somerville has an expansive purview: part of the thrill of Luster is listening closely enough to pick up on the traces of pop, hymnal, trip-hop and experimental electronic music that lies beneath.” Shaad D’Souza
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Further reading The bands saving shoegaze, from Deafheaven to Feeble Little Horse
Pick of the rest
Zoé Basha: Gamble
Out now
Summed up in a sentence The Guardian’s folk album of the month is by a Dublin-based French-American singer and guitarist, whose songs swim from country to blues and French chanson.
What our reviewer said “Bookended with canonical traditional songs and sung in eerily bright a cappellas, Gamble is a confident, self-produced debut by an exciting new voice. This is a nourishing, impressive 11-song set, with Basha’s voice swooping high and low like the Appalachian mountain music she loves.” Jude Rogers
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Self Esteem: A Complicated Woman
Out now
Summed up in a sentence Rebecca Lucy Taylor works through her worries in real time on her new album – to fascinating and confusing effect.
What our reviewer said “The music on A Complicated Woman reaches for feelgood stadium singalongs, evokes sweaty dancefloors and aims itself at the dead centre of 21st-century mainstream pop … But for the most part, the songs thrash about and contradict themselves as if Taylor is, right in front of your ears, working out exactly how she feels about ageing, drinking or her career.” Alexis Petridis
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Further reading Self Esteem on stardom, self-doubt, and making it in a man’s world
Nicola Benedetti: Beethoven’s Violin Concerto
Out now
Summed up in a sentence Benedetti is joined by the Aurora Orchestra in a fun and free performance.
What our reviewer said “The recording was made in studio conditions but with all involved playing from memory, as is Aurora’s trademark. Does that make a difference in an audio-only context? Perhaps – there’s certainly a sense of freedom, of phrasing that isn’t bound by bar lines. In any case, the result is music of irresistible ebullience.” Erica Jeal
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You may have missed …
Annie and the Caldwells: Can’t Lose My (Soul)
Out now
Summed up in a sentence Forty years into their career, the Mississippi gospel band deliver a life-affirming debut.
What our reviewer said “These are great, powerful, moving songs, made all the more potent by the fact that they’re recorded live, without an audience, in a church in the band’s home town. The plain production makes Can’t Lose My (Soul) feel as if it’s happening before your eyes, adding a vividness and urgency.” Alexis Petridis
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