TVIf you only watch one, make it \u2026Stranger Things<\/p>\n
Netflix<\/p>\n
Summed up in a sentence The blockbusting sci-fi franchise returns to chronicle Hawkins residents\u2019 final epic battle with Vecna\u2019s forces of the Upside Down.<\/p>\n
What our reviewer said \u201cWith each of the four episodes running on from the previous one, we have a five-hour action-comedy-horror movie, where each part of the story is luxuriously stretched.\u201d Jack Seale<\/p>\n
Read the full review<\/a><\/p>\n Further reading \u2018It\u2019s time for it to end\u2019: the stars of Stranger Things open up about their final, epic season<\/a><\/p>\n Pick of the restPoison Water<\/p>\n BBC iPlayer<\/p>\n Bad taste in the mouth \u2026 Poison Water. Photograph: Mei Williams\/Button Down\/Keo Films<\/p>\n Summed up in a sentence A damning documentary about the 80s Cornwall residents whose tap water caused Britain\u2019s biggest mass poisoning \u2013 and their painful fight for justice.<\/p>\n What our reviewer said \u201cTaking a four-decade step back from events casts them in a different light. And there are enough new interviews here \u2013 with residents, experts and politicians \u2013 to bring the whole thing startlingly, discomfitingly into the present.\u201d Hannah J Davies<\/p>\n Read the full review<\/a><\/p>\n The Beatles Anthology<\/p>\n Disney+<\/p>\n Summed up in a sentence The seminal 90s Beatles docuseries is digitally enhanced, and rereleased alongside a bonus episode.<\/p>\n What our reviewer said \u201cEssentially, The World at War but about the band that made Maxwell\u2019s Silver Hammer, The Beatles Anthology is a meticulously assembled collage of all available footage of the Beatles, interspersed with contemporary interviews that were apparently conducted over a long enough period to encompass a genuinely giddy array of facial hair (George Harrison), haircuts (Ringo Starr) and dye-jobs (Paul McCartney).\u201d Stuart Heritage<\/p>\n Read the full review<\/a><\/p>\n Further reading Stuart Maconie on why our opinions about the Beatles keep changing<\/a><\/p>\n Chris Hemsworth: A Road Trip to Remember<\/p>\n Disney+<\/p>\n Summed up in a sentence The movie star goes on a heartbreaking journey through his childhood haunts with his dad \u2013 in an attempt to slow his father\u2019s dementia.<\/p>\n What our reviewer said \u201cNot just a programme about Chris\u2019s horror at losing his father of today, but a moving treatise on his sadness at letting go, as every grownup must, of the person his parent used to be, the one who gave him his childhood.\u201d Jack Seale<\/p>\n Read the full review<\/a><\/p>\n You may have missed \u2026Frauds<\/p>\n ITVX<\/p>\n The con show \u2026 Jodie Whittaker as Sam in Frauds. Photograph: Leandro Betancor Fajardo\/ITV<\/p>\n Summed up in a sentence Suranne Jones and Jodie Whittaker put in astonishing performances as conwomen bent on pulling off one last job.<\/p>\n What our reviewer said \u201cYou get all the satisfactions of a Thomas Crown Affair-ish caper \u2013 executed with no shortage of brio and admirable willingness to skate over rampant absurdities \u2013 plus a mesmerisingly intricate portrait of a friendship.\u201d Lucy Mangan<\/p>\n Read the full review<\/a><\/p>\n FilmIf you only watch one, make it \u2026Blue Moon<\/p>\n In cinemas now<\/p>\n Margaret Qualley as Elizabeth Weiland and Ethan Hawke as Lorenz Hart in Blue Moon. Photograph: Sabrina Lantos\/PA<\/p>\n Summed up in a sentence Ethan Hawke plays lyricist Lorenz Hart as he spirals into vinegary jilted despair after his split from Richard Rodgers in Richard Linklater\u2019s Broadway breakup drama.<\/p>\n What our reviewer said \u201cThe movie tells us about something rarely touched on in films: the terrible overlap between professional and romantic failure. Yet at some level, Hart is defiantly aware that what he has achieved will survive. It\u2019s a terrific performance from Hawke.\u201d Peter Bradshaw<\/p>\n Read the full review<\/a><\/p>\n Further reading Ethan Hawke and Richard Linklater on Blue Moon and their 32-year friendship<\/a><\/p>\n Pick of the restPillion<\/p>\n In cinemas now<\/p>\n Alexander Skarsg\u00e5rd and Harry Melling in Pillion. Photograph: Picturehouse Entertainment<\/p>\n Summed up in a sentence Alexander Skarsg\u00e5rd and Harry Melling play unlikely lovers in a BDSM biker romance adapted from Adam Mars-Jones\u2019s novel Box Hill<\/a>.<\/p>\n What our reviewer said \u201cFirst-time feature director Harry Lighton has created something funny and touching and alarming \u2013 like a cross between Alan Bennett and Tom of Finland with perhaps a tiny smidgen of what could be called a BDSM Wallace and Gromit.\u201d Peter Bradshaw<\/p>\n Read the full review<\/a><\/p>\n Further reading \u2018I think my mum\u2019s going to like it\u2019: Alexander Skarsg\u00e5rd on his gay biker \u2018dom-com\u2019 Pillion<\/a><\/p>\n Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery<\/p>\n In cinemas now; Netflix from 12 December<\/p>\n Summed up in a sentence Daniel Craig returns as private eye Benoit Blanc in the latest Knives Out murder mystery with a religious undercurrent, and a strong cast including Josh O\u2019Connor, Glenn Close and Josh Brolin.<\/p>\n What our reviewer said \u201cAs with the previous two Knives Out films, the enjoyment is, for me, most intense before the actual murder itself, when we see the characters joust and spark unencumbered by murder and suspicion.\u201d Peter Bradshaw<\/p>\n Read the full review<\/a><\/p>\n Further reading Glenn Close on growing up in a cult, marching against Trump \u2013 and being unlucky in love<\/a><\/p>\n Zodiac Killer Project<\/p>\n In selected cinemas now<\/p>\n Summed up in a sentence Charlie Shackleton\u2019s would-be film about 70s serial murderer turns into critique of true crime after original documentary is aborted.<\/p>\n What our reviewer said \u201cIf Laurence Sterne made a true-crime documentary it might resemble this exasperating, sometimes negligible but also often amusing and rather insightful personal work from British film-maker Shackleton.\u201d Peter Bradshaw<\/p>\n Read the full review<\/a><\/p>\n Further reading How my failed attempt to make a Zodiac Killer film took me to the dark heart of true crime<\/a><\/p>\n Now streamingDracula<\/p>\n On digital from 1 December<\/p>\n Zoe\u0308 Bleu and Caleb Landry Jones in Dracula. Photograph: Signature Entertainment<\/p>\n Summed up in a sentence Another film version of Bram Stoker\u2019s story, directed by Luc Besson and starring Caleb Landry Jones as the undead count and Christoph Waltz as his hunter.<\/p>\n What our reviewer said \u201cBesson\u2019s lavishly upholstered vampire romance has ambition and panache \u2013 and in all its Hammer-y cheesiness, I\u2019m not sure I don\u2019t prefer to it to Robert Eggers\u2019s recent, solemnly classy version of Nosferatu.\u201d Peter Bradshaw<\/p>\n Read the full review<\/a><\/p>\n BooksIf you only read one, make it \u2026The School of Night by Karl Ove Knausg\u00e5rd, translated by Martin Aitken<\/p>\n Reviewed by Charles Arrowsmith<\/p>\n Summed up in a sentence The latest instalment in the Norwegian author\u2019s sprawling addictive series of supernatural existentialism.<\/p>\n What our reviewer said \u201cAs in the first three books, the author\u2019s philosophical preoccupation with death is a constant, expressed through the tension between an instinctual materialism and the haunting possibility of something beyond comprehension.\u201d<\/p>\n Read the full review<\/a><\/p>\n Further reading Karl Ove Knausg\u00e5rd on the fallout from My Struggle and the dark side of ambition<\/a><\/p>\n Pick of the restHolbein: Renaissance Master by Elizabeth Goldring<\/p>\n Reviewed by Kathryn Hughes<\/p>\n Summed up in a sentence A magnificent portrait of the Tudor court painter.<\/p>\n What our reviewer said \u201cHis great achievement was to bring before us the living, breathing men and women who plotted, suffered, contrived and triumphed through the most terrifying decades of English history\u201d<\/p>\n Read the full review<\/a><\/p>\n The Matchbox Girl by Alice Jolly<\/p>\n Reviewed by Natasha Walter<\/p>\n Summed up in a sentence The ethics of Dr Asperger in second world war Vienna, as seen by a mute autistic girl.<\/p>\n What our reviewer said \u201cThis is a book that walks a tightrope between sentimentality and honesty, between realism and imagination, and creates something spirited and memorable as it does so.\u201d<\/p>\n Read the full review<\/a><\/p>\n Further reading How could Hans Asperger have collaborated with the Nazis?<\/a><\/p>\n Bog People: A Working-Class Anthology of Folk Horror edited by Hollie Starling<\/p>\n Reviewed by Catriona Ward<\/p>\n Summed up in a sentence Dark tales of English myth and magic from 10 leading authors.<\/p>\n What our reviewer said \u201cHuman relationships are not always the most important ones here. The writers and their protagonists are in conversation with the past, with the land, with the polarising and sometimes toxic nature of national identity.\u201d<\/p>\n Read the full review<\/a><\/p>\n Further reading \u2018It\u2019s insanely sinister\u2019: horror writers on the scariest stories they\u2019ve ever read<\/a><\/p>\n You may have missed \u2026The Artist by Lucy Steeds<\/p>\n Reviewed by Christobel Kent<\/p>\n Summed up in a sentence Waterstones\u2019 book of the year sees a young English journalist gain entry to the house of a reclusive artist in post-war Provence.<\/p>\n What our reviewer said \u201cA seductive combination of romance, puzzle and poetry, The Artist also offers a considered interrogation of the value of art: to open windows in human existence, to push against limits, to bring freedom, perspective and light.\u201d<\/p>\n Read the full review<\/a><\/p>\n Further reading The Artist by Lucy Steeds wins Waterstones book of the year<\/a><\/p>\n AlbumsIf you only listen to one, make it \u2026The Durutti Column: The Return of the Durutti Column<\/p>\n Out now<\/p>\n Life of Reilly \u2026 The Durutti Column: The Return of the Durutti Column.<\/p>\n Summed up in a sentence A deluxe reissue of the band\u2019s debut album, whose delicate experimentation was ahead of its time in the post-punk-tinged early 80s.<\/p>\n What our reviewer said \u201cPerhaps the peculiar circumstances of its creation \u2013 people experimenting for their own benefit, rather than actively making an album for public consumption \u2013 helped forge its distinctly beguiling atmosphere.\u201d Alexis Petridis<\/p>\n Read the full review<\/a><\/p>\n Pick of the restHTRK: String of Hearts (Songs of HTRK)<\/p>\n Out now<\/p>\n Wizards of Oz \u2026 HTRK: String of Hearts (Songs of HTRK).<\/p>\n Summed up in a sentence Sharon Van Etten, Stephen O\u2019Malley, Perila and more transform the veteran duo\u2019s gloomy, sensual songs on an album of covers and remixes.<\/p>\n What our reviewer said This brilliant, genre-agnostic record allows you to trace the breadth of the Melbourne band\u2019s shapeshifting sound, echoes of which can now be found all over underground and commercial music, without leaning too hard on nostalgia. Safi Bugel<\/p>\n Read the full review<\/a><\/p>\n Further reading HTRK turn 21: \u2018Whenever I met fans I could tell they were a bit shocked I wasn\u2019t the gothic lord\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n Tognetti\/Australian Chamber Orchestra: Beethoven & Brahms \u2013 Violin Concertos<\/p>\n Out now<\/p>\n Summed up in a sentence This 50th anniversary live recording of two great concertos are a wonderful souvenir of a remarkable group.<\/p>\n What our reviewer said \u201cEven if these performances do not rival the finest of the myriad other versions on disc, they are thoroughly convincing\u201d. Andrew Clements<\/p>\n Read the full review<\/a><\/p>\n Ikonika: Sad<\/p>\n Out now<\/p>\n Summed up in a sentence The dancefloor producer weaves seductive and steely lyrics with their trademark production in a convincing embrace of pop.<\/p>\n What our reviewer said \u201cListening to Sad feels a little like reading someone\u2019s journal, full of earnest middle-of-the-night thoughts and raw desire. Its mission statement arrives early on: \u2018Are you even listening? Listen to your heart.\u2019 Shaad D\u2019Souza<\/p>\n