TVIf you only watch one, make it \u2026La Mes\u00edas<\/p>\n
Mubi; available now<\/p>\n
Darkly funny \u2026\u00a0La Mes\u00edas. Photograph: sophiekoehler\/Mubi<\/p>\n
Summed up in a sentence A wild, darkly funny Spanish TV mega-hit about estranged brother and sister, Enric and Irene, who discover that their siblings have become a viral Christian pop band.
What our reviewer said \u201cThis isn\u2019t a series you will forget in a hurry. As well as being incredibly long (some episodes clock in at close to an hour and 20 minutes), it is \u2013 and I mean this lovingly \u2013 truly bizarre … It is a rather ambitious feat.\u201d Hannah J Davies<\/p>\n
Read the full review<\/a><\/p>\n Pick of the restStolen Babies<\/p>\n BBC iPlayer; available now<\/p>\n Mark Lloyd Fox, who had to be put up for adoption by his birth mother Ann Keen. Photograph: Ann Keen\/courtesy Finestripe Productions<\/p>\n Summed up in a sentence A blood-boiling documentary which speaks to the women who were forced to put their babies up for adoption when they were younger because they were unmarried. Read the full review<\/a><\/p>\n Turning Point: Generation 9\/11<\/p>\n Netflix; available now<\/p>\n Summed up in a sentence A documentary marking 25 years since 9\/11 and looking at how it changed the world, following the breadth of events and people in the aftermath. Read the full review<\/a><\/p>\n You may have missed \u2026Tea With Judi Dench Featuring Sir Ian McKellen<\/p>\n Now TV, Sky Arts; available now<\/p>\n Brew\u2019s company \u2026 Judi Dench and Ian McKellen. Photograph: Mindhouse\/PA<\/p>\n Summed up in a sentence The two icons are devilish and delightful as they reminisce over tea and cake, with moments that will bring you to tears. Read the full review<\/a><\/p>\n FilmIf you only watch one, make it \u2026Late Fame<\/p>\n In cinemas now<\/p>\n Young at heart \u2026\u00a0Willem Dafoe as Ed Saxberger in Late Fame. Photograph: Atsushi Nishijima All Rights Reserved\/PA<\/p>\n Summed up in a sentence Willem Dafoe plays a twilight-years bohemian in an adaptation of an Arthur Schnitzler novella, about an ageing poet embraced by a younger cohort of capricious hipsters. Read the full review<\/a><\/p>\n Pick of the restSuper Nature<\/p>\n In cinemas now<\/p>\n Stock and awe \u2026 A dolphin caught on Super 8 film in Super Nature. Photograph: BFI<\/p>\n Summed up in a sentence Crowd-sourced Super 8 collage that gathered footage from collaborators all over the world, cleverly edited to combine human and animal contributions. Read the full review<\/a><\/p>\n Lomu<\/p>\n In cinemas now<\/p>\n Summed up in a sentence Nuanced tribute to rugby\u2019s first superstar, showing the life of chaos and emotional discord behind the exterior of a gentle giant. Read the full review<\/a><\/p>\n The Death of Robin Hood<\/p>\n In cinemas now<\/p>\n Summed up in a sentence Hugh Jackman stars in a grim drama with a conceptually intriguing treatment that turns the medieval outlaw hero into a selfish criminal. Read the full review<\/a><\/p>\n Further reading \u2018The folk scene is very middle class. The divide is huge\u2019: Jim Ghedi, the Sheffield singer bringing his doomy music to the movies<\/a><\/p>\n Now streamingMayday<\/p>\n Apple TV; available now<\/p>\n Cold company \u2026 Kenneth Branagh and Ryan Reynolds in Mayday. Photograph: Apple TV<\/p>\n Summed up in a sentence Cold war bromance with Ryan Reynolds as an American fighter pilot who teams up with Kenneth Branagh\u2019s retired KGB officer. Read the full review<\/a><\/p>\n BooksIf you only read one, make it \u2026Switzy by Emma Cline<\/p>\n Reviewed by Chris Power<\/p>\n Summed up in a sentence Booker-longlisted portrait of the final days of a man with Alzheimer\u2019s, as he travels to a euthanasia clinic. Read the full review<\/a><\/p>\n Pick of the restAnita Brookner: Art and Life by Hermione Lee<\/p>\n Reviewed by Lucy Atkins<\/p>\n Summed up in a sentence A much needed reappraisal of the Booker winner. Read the full review<\/a><\/p>\n The Future Starts with Us by Gordon Brown<\/p>\n Reviewed by Gaby Hinsliff<\/p>\n Summed up in a sentence How global crises and community breakdown are linked, and what to do about it. Read the full review<\/a><\/p>\n The Golden Hours by Louisa Young<\/p>\n Reviewed by Ella Risbridger<\/p>\n Summed up in a sentence A continuation of the Cazalet Chronicles, taking the saga into the swinging 60s. Read the full review<\/a><\/p>\n The Bridge by Colm T\u00f3ib\u00edn<\/p>\n Reviewed by Alexandra Harris<\/p>\n Summed up in a sentence This sequel to a 2006 story focuses on an isolated young man in the Catalan Pyrenees. Read the full review<\/a><\/p>\n A Death of One\u2019s Own by Terry Eagleton<\/p>\n Reviewed by Kathryn Hughes<\/p>\n Summed up in a sentence Witty literary meditations on mortality. Read the full review<\/a><\/p>\n You may have missed \u2026Baldwin: A Love Story by Nicholas Boggs<\/p>\n Reviewed by Ralf Webb<\/p>\n Summed up in a sentence A biography of Baldwin that puts his relationships front and centre, now longlisted for the Baillie Gifford prize. Read the full review<\/a><\/p>\n AlbumsIf you only listen to one, make it \u2026Ad\u00e9la: Prima<\/p>\n Out now<\/p>\n Prima queen \u2026 Ad\u00e9la. Photograph: Iulia Matei<\/p>\n Summed up in a sentence The 22-year-old Slovakian star puts a distinctive spin on 00s hedonism and industry sleaze with her frank, meta-commentary debut pop album. Read the full review<\/a><\/p>\n Pick of the restChat Pile: Who Loves the Sun<\/p>\n Out now<\/p>\n Summed up in a sentence The Oklahoma sludge-metal quartet soften their early ugliness with a slightly limiting alt-rock rebrand that explores the abstract horrors of desensitisation. Read the full review<\/a><\/p>\n Further reading \u2018Being alive is kind of painful\u2019: the bleak vision of noise rockers Chat Pile<\/a><\/p>\n Kaija Saariaho: Vista, Saarikoski Songs, Three Preludes<\/p>\n Out now<\/p>\n Summed up in a sentence Three previously unrecorded works by the idiosyncratic Finnish composer, spanning 40 years, are evocatively rendered with sensitive and authoritative performances. Read the full review<\/a><\/p>\n Sairie: Beneath the Spreading Tree<\/p>\n Out now<\/p>\n Summed up in a sentence An exquisite debut album of 70s-inflected psych-folk that mixes an indie-girl chorister\u2019s brightness with hints of darkness and ancient balladry. Read the full review<\/a><\/p>\n Now touring \u2026Special K \u2026 Katseye rock the O2.Katseye<\/p>\n The O2, London; playing Co-op Live, Manchester, 6 September<\/p>\n Summed up in a sentence The reshaped multinational K-pop hybrid girl band deliver frenetic choreography and ludicrous bangers to ear-piercing screams on their debut UK arena tour.
What our reviewer said \u201cThe dehumanisation, the cruelty is unfathomable and the film leaves the viewer to sit and wrestle with the accruing conundrums.\u201d Lucy Mangan<\/p>\n
What our reviewer said \u201cThe people who have grown up distanced from events by time perhaps have a clearer, calmer view of what is needed now. And perhaps \u2013 perhaps \u2013 they will turn in the right direction.\u201d Lucy Mangan<\/p>\n
What our reviewer said \u201cI am very much in the mood for the gentle celebration of ageing icons while we still have them. An hour of 91-year-old Judi Dench having tea with 87-year-old Ian McKellen? Sign me right up and I will not so much as breathe heavily in their direction lest anything go wrong.\u201d Lucy Mangan<\/p>\n
What our reviewer said \u201cThere\u2019s a marvellous tenderness and generosity to this elegant tale of autumnal regret; an intimate movie acted with effortless grace by Dafoe.\u201d Peter Bradshaw<\/p>\n
What our reviewer said \u201cAs they come in pre-loaded cartridges, Super 8 reels can only capture a few minutes\u2019 worth of film, and so this must have been a fiendishly complex puzzle in the editing room; all credit to director ED Sayers not just for his own lovely footage and clever vision but for his nimble collaging of the whole thing together.\u201d Leslie Felperin<\/p>\n
What our reviewer said \u201cIf Lomu himself remains an enigma \u2013 as he readily admitted, talking about himself was not his forte \u2013 the chaos and emotion that swirled around him to the end makes fascinating viewing.\u201d Andrew Pulver<\/p>\n
What our reviewer said \u201cThere\u2019s really impressive craft here, with director Mike Sarnoski being a skilled transporter, making the most of the natural sounds and textures of the setting.\u201d Benjamin Lee<\/p>\n
What our reviewer said \u201cIt\u2019s got some outrageous close-quarter fight scenes \u2013 and who knew Branagh could bust out martial arts moves? Is he going to follow Bob Odenkirk into an unexpected action movie career?\u201d Peter Bradshaw<\/p>\n
What our reviewer said \u201cThe last pages of Switzy, which mingle horror, beauty, absurdity, and a sense of profound finality, will probably stay with me for ever.\u201d<\/p>\n
What our reviewer said \u201cThankfully, it is no longer cool to Brookner-bash. This astute and tireless biography succeeds, against the odds, in unearthing the author – who would be appalled by our scrutiny.\u201d<\/p>\n
What our reviewer said \u201cWhat could be just another nostalgic, even reactionary, argument for a bygone age when everyone knew their neighbours is tempered by Brown\u2019s willingness to acknowledge that much of this togetherness was built on the unpaid labour of women stuck at home.\u201d<\/p>\n
What our reviewer said \u201cHappily, the gamble has paid off: The Golden Hours is a total delight. It is not the flawless The Light Years, but it is not remotely out of place in the series.\u201d<\/p>\n
What our reviewer said \u201cT\u00f3ib\u00edn\u2019s unsentimental prose is flawlessly matched to the austere worlds of people enduring, in their different ways, lives stripped back to the bone.\u201d<\/p>\n
What our reviewer said \u201cEagleton lets his capacious mind, vast reading and wicked wit loose over the whole business of arriving at a full stop.\u201d<\/p>\n
What our reviewer said \u201cBoggs\u2019s research is exhaustive, enabling him to meticulously re-stage Baldwin\u2019s life in something like biographic ultra-high-definition.\u201d<\/p>\n
What our reviewer said \u201cThe 22-year-old Slovakian has chosen to differentiate herself from the serried ranks of post-Brat female pop stars by spiking her songs about hedonism and messy sexual encounters with a kind of meta commentary on what it is to be a female pop star.\u201d Alexis Petridis<\/p>\n
What our reviewer said \u201cThe structures are more dynamic, the guitars twangier and the vocals hookier, while Busch\u2019s lyrics zoom out from American violence to the abstract horrors of desensitisation. Chat Pile remain stuck between their debut and something equally distinctive, but there\u2019s enough here to renew faith they\u2019ll get there.\u201d Alastair Shuttleworth<\/p>\n
What our reviewer said \u201cKaija Saariaho died in 2023, leaving behind a significant body of unrecorded music. The three works here, all premiere recordings, span 40 years, yet each bears the Finnish composer\u2019s idiosyncratic fingerprints.\u201d Clive Paget<\/p>\n
What our reviewer said \u201cThe band\u2019s musicianship is fantastic throughout, as are their shivery arrangements, which present like finely wrought 1970s curios while swerving pastiche.\u201d Jude Rogers<\/p>\n
What our reviewer said \u201cThe choreography is frenetic throughout, aided by 10 dancers, but the minimalist staging \u2013 just a raised platform and a short runway \u2013 means the focus is very much on the songs themselves.\u201d Michael Cragg<\/p>\n