TVIf you only watch one, make it …The Pitt
HBO Max; available now
Summed up in a sentence The much-anticipated medical drama is a gory, gripping treat that somehow manages to live up to the hype.
What our reviewer said “Noah Wyle is the rock – the actor upon which showrunner John Wells must know he can build any story, as large or small, as dramatic or quiet, as he wants.” Lucy Mangan
Further reading Inside The Pitt: the stunning, smash-hit medical drama from the team behind ER
Pick of the restBoom Box: Beats and Betrayal
HBO Max; available now
Boom Box: Beats and Betrayal. Photograph: HBO
Summed up in a sentence An astonishing tale of police entrapment in a north London recording studio that seemed too good to be true – and very much was.
What our reviewer said “The ethics of what those officers did is questioned by those who feel they were ensnared at Boom Box, and manipulated to commit serious crimes they would never have thought about otherwise.” Hannah J Davies
Bait
Prime Video; available now
Summed up in a sentence Riz Ahmed uses a James Bond audition to explore Muslim British identity, family values and the chaos of social media in this smart meta comedy.
What our reviewer said “Bait overcomes any viewer skepticism by rooting the silly fun of set-pieces such as the Bond fight send-up in an emotionally authentic family drama.” Ellen E Jones
Further reading ‘The dream is to be a standup, but everyone who knows me says: Please don’t’ – Riz Ahmed on chaos, comedy, and defying categorisation
Something Very Bad is Going to Happen
Netflix; available now
Summed up in a sentence The Duffer Brothers are back with a hellish cabin-in-the-woods shocker whose underlying message is even more unsettling than the horror itself.
What our reviewer said “Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen has me hysterical on the sofa and unable to sleep for four days.” Lucy Mangan
You may have missed …LS Lowry: The Unheard Tapes
BBC iPlayer; available now
L.S. Lowry: The Unheard Tapes. Photograph: BBC/Wall to Wall Media/Connor Harris/PA
Summed up in a sentence A young fan of the reclusive painter formed a bond with her hero – and this revelatory and beautiful dramatisation starring Sir Ian McKellen is the result.
What our reviewer said “I started to marvel at both masters: the artist and actor in perfect sync. McKellen’s Lowry is a thing of bleak and beautiful northern wonder, all obfuscating harrumphs and carefully placed blows on his hankie.” Chitra Ramaswamy
FilmIf you only watch one, make it …Two Prosecutors
In cinemas now
Anatoliy Beliy (left) and Alexander Kuznetsov in Two Prosecutors. Photograph: Andrejs Strokins/Janus Films/AP
Summed up in a sentence Drawn from a suppressed story by gulag survivor Georgy Demidov, Sergei Loznitsa’s haunting portrait of Stalinist insurrection is a terrifying parable of bureaucratic evil.
What our reviewer said “An icy chill of fear and justified paranoia radiates from this starkly austere and gripping movie from Sergei Loznitsa, set in Stalin’s Russia of the late 30s.” Peter Bradshaw
Pick of the restThe Magic Faraway Tree
In cinemas now
The Magic Faraway Tree. Photograph: Entertainment Film Distributors
Summed up in a sentence Paddington 2 co-creator Simon Farnaby branches out with adaptation of Enid Blyton’s children’s classic boasting lively performances from Claire Foy and Andrew Garfield among others.
What our reviewer said “A thoroughly likable and sweet-natured family fantasy film for the Easter holidays, with acres of innocent jollity and eccentric quirkiness.” Peter Bradshaw
Redoubt
In cinemas now
Summed up in a sentence Denis Lavant is intriguing as an oddball building a public shelter in John Skoog’s black-and-white film based on an art installation.
What our reviewer said “Lavant’s performance is utterly unique, and he demonstrates his skills on the accordion (which I remember from Leos Carax’s Holy Motors) and what appears to be his ability to hypnotise a chicken.” Peter Bradshaw
William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet
In cinemas now
Summed up in a sentence Baz Luhrmann’s 90s update on the Shakespeare classic, with Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes as the star-crossed lovers in a lurid, DayGlo “Verona Beach”.
What our reviewer said “It is irreverent and questioning in just the right way, a sunburst of energy, but instinctively respectful to the story, with Luhrmann cutting the original but not changing or modernising it.” Peter Bradshaw
Further reading Romeo + Juliet at 20: Baz Luhrmann’s adaptation refuses to age
Now streaming …Pompei: Below the Clouds
Available now
Pompei: Below the Clouds. Photograph: BFA/Alamy
Summed up in a sentence Third in Gianfranco Rosi’s trilogy of films is a distinctive documentary of war, violence, cynicism and the climate crisis in an uneasy city.
What our reviewer said “It’s another of Rosi’s brilliantly composed docu-mosaic assemblages of scenes and tableaux, shot from fixed camera positions without any camera narration.” Peter Bradshaw
BooksIf you only read one, make it …The News from Dublin by Colm Toibin.The News from Dublin by Colm Tóibín
Reviewed by Sarah Crown
Summed up in a sentence Powerful, globe-trotting short stories about being far from home.
What our reviewer said “Tóibín lulls the reader into a kind of complicit attentiveness, so that the full force of what has happened only lands after the sentence, or the story, has finished.”
Further reading ‘I’ve learned first-hand how evil is tolerated’: Colm Tóibín on living in the US under Trump
Pick of the restWe Know You Can Pay a Million by Anja Shortland
Reviewed by Dorian Lynskey
Summed up in a sentence The bizarre new world of ransomware.
What our reviewer said “Ambitious hackers build ransomware brands, sharing their top-of-the-range software with affiliates who do the dirty work of extortion. The major brands have salaried employees, help desks and even human resources departments.”
Enough Said by Alan Bennett
Reviewed by Kathryn Hughes
Summed up in a sentence Waspish observations from a literary national treasure.
What our reviewer said “Bennett greets the publication of Michael Palin’s fourth volume of diaries with a rivalrous side-eye. He can only get through it, he explains, ‘after much skipping’ thanks to the overabundance of detail, which makes the volume ‘something of an animated desk diary’.”
Further reading ‘I feel I am not yet grown up’: Alan Bennett’s diary of his 90th year
Black Bag by Luke Kennard
Reviewed by Christopher Shrimpton
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.
What our reviewer said “It is a campus novel for our end times, packed with keen insights into the current state of art, masculinity and friendship.”
Permanence by Sophie Mackintosh
Reviewed by Sarah Moss
Summed up in a sentence Adulterous couples find themselves in an alternate world set up for romance.
What our reviewer said “This is less plainly political than her earlier work, concerned more with allegories of desire than oppression.”
You may have missed …King of Kings by Scott Anderson
Reviewed by John Simpson
Summed up in a sentence How the last Shah of Iran sealed his own fate.
What our reviewer said “From the Middle East to the war in Ukraine, the world is still experiencing the aftershocks of the fall of the Shah, and it’s not over yet.”
AlbumsIf you only listen to one, make it …Robyn: Sexistential
Out now
Robyn: Sexistential. Photograph: AP
Summed up in a sentence Eight years after the sensual softness of her last album, Honey, the Swedish emo-pop superstar returns with a suite of idiosyncratic electro bangers.
What our reviewer said “Sexistential … unravels the fixation on romantic love that fuelled her biggest songs.”
Katie Hawthorne
Further Reading Pop maverick Robyn on sleaze, snobbery and dating during IVF: ‘When there isn’t as much at stake, sex becomes more fun’
Pick of the restRaye: This Music May Contain Hope
Out now
Summed up in a sentence The multi-Brit award winner’s ambitious second album arrives stuffed full of ideas, forming an elegant creative statement from a one-off talent.
What our reviewer said “You simply don’t get many albums like this in the 21st century, because the climate of the 21st century has led artists to be risk-averse. That’s not a label you could pin on Raye.”
Alexis Petridis
Miroslav Vitous: Mountain Call
Out now
Summed up in a sentence Seven years in the making, the Czech double bass virtuoso and composer channels his love of classical-influenced jazz into this breathtaking opus.
What our reviewer said “Mountain Call could hardly be a more personal contemporary music chronicle from an unflinching one-off.”
John Fordham
Fcukers: Ö
Out now
Summed up in a sentence The much-hyped New York duo (Harry Styles and Charli xcx are both fans) transform their promise into a riotous, gloriously escapist debut.
What our reviewer said “Ö is noticeably more polished than the singles with which they attracted so much attention but still summons an appealingly seamy mood.”
Alexis Petridis
Now playingTeeth ’n’ Smiles
Duke of York’s theatre, London, to 6 June
David Hare’s Teeth ’n’ Smiles, starring Rebecca Lucy Taylor. Photograph: Dave Benett/Grant Buchanan/Getty
Summed up in a sentence Rebecca Lucy Taylor, AKA Self Esteem, stars in this timely revival of David Hare’s play about the self-destructive side of fame.
What our reviewer said “The show comes alive with every song. Taylor becomes magnetic. The sound, by Ben and Max Ringham, moves though you.”
Arifa Akbar
Further reading ‘It shook the plaster off the ceiling’: Self Esteem and David Hare on reviving rock romp Teeth ’n’ Smiles