TV
If you simplest watch one, make it …
Forever
Netflix; complete collection to be had now
Summed up in a sentence An lovable TV tackle Judy Blume’s banned teenager intercourse vintage.
What our reviewer mentioned “As a teen drama, it works because, Heartstopper-style, its teenagers actually look and behave like teenagers. It’s a romantic melodrama, so their young love is at the centre of this show’s world, but to its credit for an older viewer, it comes across as knowing and self-aware too.” Rebecca Nicholson
Further studying Judy Blume without end: the creator who dares to inform ladies the apparent fact
Pick of the remainder
Malpractice, season two
ITVX; complete collection to be had now
Summed up in a sentence The relentlessly annoying drama returns with some other physician receiving a probe via the Medical Investigations Unit.
What our reviewer mentioned “The new series promises to be as addictive and unsettling as the last, with another good cast and its doctor creator Grace Ofori-Attah still with plenty of material. Malpractice can surely run and run – which is great news for viewers, if less so for doctors and their patients out in the real world.” Lucy Mangan
Untold: Shooting Guards
Netflix; to be had now
Summed up in a sentence Netflix’s recreation documentary strand examines two basketball gamers’ combat to deal with good fortune.
What our reviewer mentioned “Over the years the reliable US documentary strand Untold has found numerous variations on the sad old story of the young adult who gets to the big leagues then throws it all away, and it’s turned up a devastating one in Shooting Guards” Jack Seale
Long Way Home
Apple TV+; new episodes Fridays
Summed up in a sentence Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman are again for some other epic motorcycle travelogue, this time taking within the Arctic circle, the Baltic states and western Europe.
What our reviewer mentioned “It may not entertain viewers less invested in McGregor and Boorman’s friendship, or vintage motorcycles, or relentless rain. But the footage of them riding eventually becomes mesmerising, in a gentle, slow-TV kind of way, and while it is steady, it is also perfectly pleasant.” Rebecca Nicholson
You could have ignored …
The Settlers
BBC iPlayer; to be had now
Summed up in a sentence Louis Theroux revisits the West Bank settlers he first encountered in 2011 documentary The Ultra Zionists, in what could be his maximum confrontational movie but.
What our reviewer mentioned “I’ve been watching Theroux’s films for more than three decades, since his days on Michael Moore’s TV Nation, and watching him be this forthright feels like a true watershed moment in his career. This level of stridently editorialising just hasn’t been in his toolbox until now. It suits him.” Stuart Heritage
Further studying Palestinian activist says house raided ‘in revenge’ for showing in Louis Theroux documentary
Film
If you simplest watch one, make it …
Ocean with David Attenborough
In cinemas now
Summed up in a sentence Visually surprising nature documentary protesting in opposition to the ruination of the seas.
What our reviewer mentioned “He shows us an amazing vista of diversity and life, an extraordinary undulating landscape, a giant second planet of whose existence humanity has long been unaware but now seems in danger of damaging or even destroying.” Peter Bradshaw
Further studying 99 tactics David Attenborough has impressed us, via Barack Obama, Billie Eilish, Morgan Freeman and extra
Pick of the remainder
Motel Destino
In cinemas now
Summed up in a sentence A tender guy at the run from a mob boss lands an not going process in a love motel and begins an affair with the executive’s spouse.
What our reviewer mentioned “This film is terrifically acted by its central trio: three intensely and unselfconsciously physical performances in which their bodies are frequently on show, sensual but fragile.” Peter Bradshaw
The Surfer
In cinemas now
Summed up in a sentence Barmy Australian mystery about would-be wave-chaser Nicolas Cage tangling with native bullies.
What our reviewer mentioned “With a pleasing, no-frills intensity, The Surfer feels resolutely old-school. It’s a low-budget, hard-hitting comic bruiser of a picture: a midlife-crisis movie dressed up as a 1970s exploitation flick.” Xan Brooks
Further studying Nicolas Cage: ‘I don’t assume an afternoon is going via the place I’m now not wrong for Nick Cave’
In cinemas now
Summed up in a sentence Dance/tune movie telling the tale of a girl’s secret affairs thru a cache of affection letters, soundtracked via Emilíana Torrini.
What our reviewer mentioned “The Extraordinary Miss Flower is a real pleasure: luxuriant like a good glass of red wine. Partly that’s down to the songs, vivacious pop-electronica numbers sung with seductive intimacy by Torrini, who is pretty extraordinary herself.” Cath Clarke
Now streaming
A Real Pain
Disney+
Summed up in a sentence Jesse Eisenberg writes, directs and stars in a masterpiece of a Holocaust excursion comedy, which includes a standout efficiency from Kieran Culkin.
What our reviewer mentioned “It is a road movie which is partly about the Holocaust and about America’s third-generation attempt at coming to terms with it, at confronting what their parents and grandparents found too painfully recent to revisit, or necessary to forget in order to survive. And partly it’s about family, male friendship and growing older.” Peter Bradshaw
Further studying ‘A collective sigh of relief’: how Jesse Eisenberg’s A Real Pain went down in Poland
Books
If you simplest learn one, make it …
Dream State via Eric Puchner
Reviewed via Sarah Crown
Summed up in a sentence A love triangle performs out over a long time on this deliciously immersive American saga.
What our reviewer mentioned “Puchner seduces us with a familiar narrative structure, only to undermine that structure, to force it to tell a tale of profound and fatal insecurity. But he 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.”
Pick of the remainder
Gunk via Saba Sams
Review via Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett
Summed up in a sentence A spiky story of surprising motherhood and selected circle of relatives from the creator of Send Nudes.
What our reviewer mentioned “Sams is a skilled writer, sometimes a sublime one. The way she relates labour, birth and newborns is a mark of her talent and will make you forgive her occasional lapse into cliche.”
Further studying Writer Saba Sams: ‘I wanted it to be sexy and really messy’
Mark Twain via Ron Chernow
Review via John Mullan
Summed up in a sentence The definitive tale of America’s most renowned creator, from the creator of Hamilton.
What our reviewer mentioned “Chernow makes out of a vast archive this admirably animated, readable account of one of the modern world’s first literary celebrities.”
The Names via Florence Knapp
Review via Clare Clark
Summed up in a sentence A high-concept sliding doorways debut through which 3 other names given to a toddler boy ship him down 3 very other paths.
What our reviewer mentioned “This compelling and original debut asks at least as many questions as it answers. In the end, despite the neatness of its premise, it is not so much about the impact of our names but about the implications of our decisions.”
Further studying Love Groundhog Day and Russian Doll? These are the novels for you
You could have ignored …
Careless People via Sarah Wynn-Williams
Review via Steven Poole
Summed up in a sentence A whistleblower’s no-holds barred account of Facebook.
What our reviewer mentioned “Mark Zuckerberg turns out to be a giant man-baby suffering from a severe case of the Dunning-Kruger effect, whereby people overestimate their own cognitive abilities”
Further studying Meta places prevent on promotion of tell-all e-book via former worker
Albums
If you simplest pay attention to at least one, make it …
PinkPantheress: Fancy That
Out now
Summed up in a sentence Back after her TikTok-powered burst to preliminary repute, the singer-songwriter-producer continues to be making pithy pop – in longer shape this time.
What our reviewer mentioned “There’s something infectious and gleeful about the way she stitches together her disparate influences, but her real skill lies in her ability to imprint her own identity on the results.” Alexis Petridis
Further studying PinkPantheress: ‘I don’t assume I’m very brandable. I get dressed bizarre. I’m shy’
Pick of the remainder
Lido Pimienta: La Belleza
Out now
Summed up in a sentence Five years since her Grammy-nominated step forward file Miss Colombia, the singer and manufacturer takes a thorough shift in route.
What our reviewer mentioned “La Belleza (The Beauty) is a nine-track orchestral suite touching on everything from Gregorian chant to strings-laden love songs and dembow rhythms. The result is a moving work of remarkable depth.” Ammar Kalia
Billy Woods: Golliwog
Out now
Summed up in a sentence The underground New York rapper, celebrated for his leftfield linguistic invention, delivers certainly one of his heaviest albums to this point.
What our reviewer mentioned “Through samples, guest verses and his own lyrics, Woods unearths innumerable images of inhumanity: from stories of CIA torture methods to “12 billion USD hovering over the Gaza strip”. Golliwog is ruled via inherited trauma and state-sanctioned terror, and Woods assesses all of it with terrible readability.” Shaad D’Souza
Further studying Attenborough, weed and ‘American apartheid’: the superior thoughts of rapper Billy Woods
Brahms: Complete Symphonies
Out now
Summed up in a sentence John Eliot Gardiner conducts the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in those are living recordings.
What our reviewer mentioned “There’s a litheness to the approach, a refusal to get distracted by subsidiary detail from the essential symphonic argument, and a sense of always keeping the structure taut and purposeful.” Andrew Clements
You could have ignored…
Sherelle: With a Vengeance
Out now
Summed up in a sentence The UK dance manufacturer is dedicated to tracks on the excessive finish of the bpm scale, spanning footwork, jungle and techno
What our reviewer mentioned “With her socially conscious projects that spread access and opportunity, Sherelle is building the future she’d like to see. Her music is charged with the same sense of determination.” Ben Beaumont-Thomas