Further reading Sex, drugs and serial killers: inside Ryan Murphy and Bret Easton Ellis\u2019s lurid TV thriller<\/a><\/p>\n Pick of the rest<\/p>\n Sterling Point Ella Rubin and Ame\u0301lie Elisabeth Hoeferle in Sterling Point. Photograph: Prime<\/p>\n Summed up in a sentence An escapist YA drama from the makers of Gossip Girl about a teenager who inherits a house in Canada and sets off on a soul-searching adventure. Read the full review<\/a><\/p>\n The Salisbury Poisonings: A Spy Next Door Summed up in a sentence A gripping look at the poisonings of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, featuring interviews with Theresa May and Amber Rudd. Read the full review<\/a><\/p>\n You may have missed \u2026<\/p>\n Richard E Grant\u2019s Very Modern Odyssey Richard E Grant\u2019s Very Modern Odyssey. Photograph: James Gavin Walker\/Emporium Productions<\/p>\n Summed up in a sentence In a much more relaxed (and glamorous) alternative to Christpher Nolan\u2019s blockbuster, the actor sets off on a moving, beautiful journey in the footsteps of Odysseus. Read the full review<\/a><\/p>\n FilmIf you only watch one, make it \u2026<\/p>\n How to Feed a Dictator How to Feed a Dictator. Photograph: Tribeca Film Festival<\/p>\n Summed up in a sentence What was on the menu for the world\u2019s most evil men? Andrew Neel\u2019s documentary serves up interviews with the personal chefs to Pol Pot, Idi Amin, Saddam, Pinochet and Kim Jong-il, and garnishes with chilling detail. Read the full review<\/a><\/p>\n Further reading \u2018A man of great appetites\u2019: what\u2019s it like to be a dictator\u2019s personal chef?<\/a><\/p>\n Pick of the rest<\/p>\n Bouchra Bouchra.<\/p>\n Summed up in a sentence Autobiographical animation about a gay anthropomorphised coyote film-maker in Brooklyn documenting her relationship with her mother in Casablanca. Read the full review<\/a><\/p>\n Practical Magic Summed up in a sentence Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman\u2019s 90s romcom fantasy about unlucky-in-love witches casts its spell once more \u2013 rereleased before a sequel manifests next month. Read the full review<\/a><\/p>\n Further reading \u2018Reconciliation across difference\u2019: why Practical Magic is my feelgood movie<\/a><\/p>\n Hunt for the Wilderpeople Summed up in a sentence A 10th-anniversary rerelease of Taika Waititi\u2019s big-hearted comedy, with Sam Neill as a bushman on the lam with a 13-year-old runaway in the New Zealand wilderness. Read the full review<\/a><\/p>\n Further reading Sam Neill\u2019s 20 best roles<\/a><\/p>\n Now streaming<\/p>\n A Child of My Own A Child of My Own. Photograph: Luis Antonio Rojas\/Netflix<\/p>\n Summed up in a sentence Candy-coloured Netflix true-crime doc tells the stranger-than-fiction story of a woman whose desperation to be a mother leads her to take extreme measures. Read the full review<\/a><\/p>\n Further reading \u2018She wasn\u2019t acting, she wanted to live it\u2019: how a fake pregnancy resulted in the wildest true crime film of the year<\/a><\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n Sign up to The Guide<\/p>\n Get our weekly pop culture email, free in your inbox every Friday<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n BooksIf you only read one, make it \u2026<\/p>\n The August Coup by Robert Service Summed up in a sentence The comic and chaotic fall of the Soviet Union. Read the full review<\/a><\/p>\n Pick of the rest<\/p>\n Children of the Wild by Kevin Powers Summed up in a sentence A mythic story of the first world war from the American author and army vet. Read the full review<\/a><\/p>\n Sky City by Jacqueline Crooks Summed up in a sentence The follow-up to the Women\u2019s prize-shortlisted Fire Rush. Read the full review<\/a><\/p>\n The Ghost of the Mountains by Kulbhushansingh Suryawanshi Summed up in a sentence A conservationist\u2019s brilliant study of the snow leopard. Read the full review<\/a><\/p>\n What Happened to Liberal Democracy? by Daron Acemo\u011flu Summed up in a sentence A Nobel-winning economist\u2019s prescription for fixing the system. Read the full review<\/a><\/p>\n You may have missed \u2026<\/p>\n Black Bag by Luke Kennard Summed up in a sentence Inspired by a real-life experiment, an out-of-work actor agrees to go through life covered in a black leather bag in this Booker-longlisted novel. Read the full review<\/a><\/p>\n AlbumsIf you only listen to one, make it \u2026<\/p>\n Phoebe Bridgers: Lost Weekend Lost Weekend by Phoebe Bridgers album cover. Photograph: Olof Grind\/Dead Oceans\/AP<\/p>\n Summed up in a sentence Six years since her last album, and with her influence growing via a tranche of new singer-songwriters that have arrived in her absence, Bridgers releases this complex and emotionally turbulent opus. Read the full review<\/a><\/p>\n Pick of the rest<\/p>\n Ravyn Lenae: Blue Island Blue Island by Ravyn Lenae album cover.<\/p>\n Summed up in a sentence Following her viral success with 2024\u2019s Love Me Not, and its accompanying accusations of \u201cselling out\u201d, R&B and alt-pop experimentalist Lenae returns with a third album full of attention-grabbing songs to silence the doubters.
Prime Video; available now<\/p>\n
What our reviewer said \u201cIf escapism is the brief, then Sterling Point fulfils it expertly. Sure, it doesn\u2019t carry the intensity or the existentialism of its edgier counterparts. But I was surprised by how long I wanted to stay with these characters and inhabit their island bubble. It kept subverting my expectations. I didn\u2019t want to go home.\u201d Micha Frazer-Carroll<\/p>\n
Sky Documentaries & Now TV; available now<\/p>\n
What our reviewer said \u201cA not quite comprehensive but still nicely busy feature-length documentary that offers a compendium of ways in which the Salisbury attack was fascinating and deeply strange.\u201d Jack Seale<\/p>\n
Channel 4; available now<\/p>\n
What our reviewer said \u201cIt\u2019s a loose-limbed, easygoing thing that attempts to separate Homeric myth from reality but appears equally \u2018chill\u2019 with the fact that much of it remains fundamentally unknowable. \u2018Essentially,\u2019 says Grant, grinning hugely, \u2018we\u2019re dealing with an act of the imagination.\u2019\u201d Sarah Dempster<\/p>\n
Out now<\/p>\n
What our reviewer said \u201cEach chef is in denial to varying degrees about their culpability in the repressive state apparatuses for which they worked. Ermanno Furlanis looks baffled how he ended up making pizza for Kim Jong-il while millions of North Koreans starved.\u201d Leslie Felperin<\/p>\n
Out now<\/p>\n
What our reviewer said \u201cDespite grappling with intergenerational tension, the film also makes space for the erotic thrill of sexual intimacy. And far from reiterating tired binaries \u2013 tradition v modernity, elders v youngsters \u2013 it embraces the beauty of contradictions with open arms.\u201d Phuong Le<\/p>\n
Out now<\/p>\n
What our reviewer said \u201cA zanier adventure in occult romance can hardly be imagined, and the elements of grownup noir violence only make it weirder. It is as if The Witches of Eastwick took on Thelma & Louise with a decaffeinated David Lynch.\u201d Peter Bradshaw<\/p>\n
Out now<\/p>\n
What our reviewer said \u201cThe recent sad loss of Sam Neill is a great opportunity to revisit one of his greatest roles in this tremendous family film, a goofy mix of Butch and Sundance and Chaplin\u2019s The Kid.\u201d Peter Bradshaw<\/p>\n
Netflix<\/p>\n
What our reviewer said \u201cReminiscent of Bart Layton\u2019s The Imposter in its portrayal of unfeasible auto-delusion, A Child of My Own is a refreshing branch-out for true-crime stories into less violent, more intimate enigmas.\u201d Phil Hoad<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1783162883_81_500.jpg\")
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Reviewed by John Simpson<\/p>\n
What our reviewer said \u201cThe acting president, Gennady Yanayev, was supposedly in charge, but he had been drinking solidly for an entire day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reviewed by Marcel Theroux<\/p>\n
What our reviewer said \u201cPowers has an amazing knack for storytelling that seems to unfold visually and conveys landscapes, gestures and complex military engagements with great flair.\u201d<\/p>\n
Review by Emma Loffhagen<\/p>\n
What our reviewer said \u201cThis is a haunting, polyphonic meditation on trauma and belonging that hovers between realism and dream, asking how a person might rebuild a self after childhood has shattered it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reviewed by Edward Posnett<\/p>\n
What our reviewer said \u201cThe effect of this book is a gradual stripping away of mystification, revealing the snow leopard to be fragile and beautiful just like any other inhabitant of high mountain ranges.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reviewed by Steven Poole<\/p>\n
What our reviewer said \u201cLiberal democracy is in a crisis, largely owing to the abandonment of the working class by liberalism\u2019s \u201cprogressive\u201d wing. The left ceased to speak of economic class and spoke instead of identity.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reviewed by Christopher Shrimpton<\/p>\n
What our reviewer said \u201cIt is a campus novel for our end times, packed with keen insights into the current state of art, masculinity and friendship.\u201d<\/p>\n
Out 14 August<\/p>\n
What our reviewer said \u201cA heady, potent, occasionally wrenching album, albeit one flecked with optimism.\u201d Alexis Petridis<\/p>\n
Out now<\/p>\n
What our reviewer said \u201cIts collage of styles makes for an original, idiosyncratic pop album, something worth celebrating rather than picking apart for ulterior motives.\u201d Alexis Petridis<\/p>\n