From Cunk on Cinema to Prima Facie: the week in rave reviews
Summed up in a sentence This documentary lays out the results of a three-year investigation by ITV and the Guardian into claims by multiple women of David Walliams’s predatory behaviour.
What our reviewer said “It is a meticulous hour detailing a meticulous investigation. It is only left to hope that it brings about equally meticulous change.” Lucy Mangan
Further reading ‘It wasn’t long until he asked me if I’d ever had sex before’: David Walliams accused of preying on young women for sex
Pick of the rest
Rivals
Disney+, episodes weekly
Summed up in a sentence The bonkbuster grows more poignant, following the shock death of Monica – but there’s still plenty of backcombing, betrayals and sex.
What our reviewer said “It is still, taken in the round, a joy – filled with warmth, wit, intelligence and brilliant actors (plus a touching appearance by the woman without whom none of this would exist, Dame Jilly).” Lucy Mangan
Further reading Shower orgasms, golf carts, spread-eagled on the stairs – it’s the 10 best Rivals sex scenes so far
Mums v Big Pharma
BBC iPlayer, available now
Summed up in a sentence The mind-boggling story of Janet Williams and Emma Murphy, two mothers of children with disabilities who exposed a horrifying scandal.
What our reviewer said “We were referred to as ‘bored, hysterical housewives,’” says Murphy. Williams remembers an official turning to her to ask if she understood what a word meant. She did. ‘The way they dealt with us was sickening … But it drove me on.’” Lucy Mangan
Cunk on Cinema
BBC iPlayer, available now
Summed up in a sentence Daft documentarian Philomena Cunk (Diane Morgan) is back with an unofficial guide to Hollywood – and it provides belly laugh after belly laugh.
What our reviewer said “If, like me, you consider writing stupid jokes to be another of humanity’s greatest achievements, you’ll have no choice but to consider Cunk on Cinema a true work of art.” Rachel Aroesti
Further reading ‘Let’s take Alexa out into the garden and smash it with a shoe’: Charlie Brooker and Diane Morgan take aim at Hollywood, AI ... and each other
You may have missed …
Tall Tales & Murder
BBC iPlayer, available now
Summed up in a sentence Aidan Gillen plays a gangster who wakes up from a coma and meets a nurse with a drug habit in this twisty Irish crime caper.
What our reviewer said “Tall Tales & Murder is likely to elicit varied responses from viewers, but boredom will surely be low on the list. This Irish caper – based on the first of the Dublin Trilogy novels by Caimh McDonnell, and written for TV by Stuart Carolan – moves at a mile a minute.” Hannah J Davies
Film
If you only watch one, make it …
Prima Facie
In cinemas now
Summed up in a sentence Screen adaptation of Suzie Miller’s international stage hit stars Cynthia Erivo as the lawyer whose career defending rape suspects is undermined by experience.
What our reviewer said “A blazingly fierce, effortlessly commanding central performance from Erivo, like something from classical drama, powers the movie.” Peter Bradshaw
Further reading ‘If a person isn’t conscious, they’re not saying yes’: Cynthia Erivo on her searing new film about sexual assault
Pick of the rest
Whispers in the Woods
In cinemas now
Summed up in a sentence Director Vincent Munier takes his father and son into the Vosges forest in France in a emotional study of human-animal interaction
What our reviewer said “A subtle, tender work that evokes the need to pass on interest and engagement in the natural world to younger generations, but which manages to avoid feeling too preachy or sanctimonious.” Leslie Felperin
1 in 2
In cinemas now
Summed up in a sentence David Wilkinson’s compassionate film about dealing with how own bowel cancer treatment, and asks why so many much younger people are getting the same diagnosis.
What our reviewer said “This is a sobering but very compassionate, humorous, generous film, and one that shows how Wilkinson’s highly personal and unselfconsciously confessional style has grown into something very watchable and distinctive.” Peter Bradshaw
The Man Who Fell to Earth
In cinemas now
Summed up in a sentence David Bowie plays an an intergalactic visitor who becomes a successful tech entrepreneur in Nicolas Roeg’s 1976 sci-fi story.
What our reviewer said “There is an extraordinary sui generis central performance by David Bowie whose unselfconscious gentleness and vulnerability now look very moving and bizarrely authentic in a way that they didn’t in 1976.” Peter Bradshaw
Further reading How we made: Paul Mayersberg and Tony Richmond on The Man Who Fell to Earth
Now streaming
Female Perversions
Mubi 13 Nov
Summed up in a sentence Tilda Swinton’s first US film, from 1996, playing a lawyer who searches for erotic adventures in a rework of Madame Bovary.
What our reviewer said “It’s an amazingly unselfconscious performance which marked her out as quite unlike any other female lead, all but impossible to cast in boilerplate Hollywood cinema.” Peter Bradshaw
Books
If you only read one, make it …
Look at Me by Dustin Hoffman
Reviewed by Peter Bradshaw
Summed up in a sentence The star of The Graduate looks back at a life on and off camera.
What our reviewer said “Dustin Hoffman is a garrulous, grandfatherly, un-self-aware figure in this book, a brilliant, intuitive, era-defining screen actor.”
Further reading Dustin Hoffman says filming The Graduate was ‘a terrible experience’ due to Mike Nichols’ ‘sadism’
Pick of the rest
Ten Lives by Mona Chalabi
Reviewed by Rachel Clarke
Summed up in a sentence An eye-opening exercise in financial transparency from the data journalist and illustrator.
What our reviewer said “Unless we talk more openly about our personal wealth, as Chalabi has, we will never be able to tackle the economic problems causing insecurity and anxiety for us all.”
Lessons in Harmony by Jonathan Coe
Reviewed by Clare Clark
Summed up in a sentence A portrait of the unlikely friendship between musicians Maurice Ravel and Ralph Vaughan Williams.
What our reviewer said “Coe has described the book as a fantasia, a freeform composition that does not follow strict traditional structures, and the novel has all of the exhilarating immediacy of improvisation, shifting suddenly in tempo and mood, modulating frequently to unexpected keys.”
Public Access Afterworld by Jane Schoenbrun
Reviewed by Sandra Newman
Summed up in a sentence The debut novel from the Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma writer-director.
What our reviewer said “The novel fits into a contemporary school of cool, self-aware horror in books and on screen that is at once high-art and kitsch, moving seamlessly from cosmic terror to moody introspection to fan-friendly jokes.”
You may have missed …
I Deliver Parcels in Beijing by Hu Anyan
Reviewed by Joe Moran
Summed up in a sentence The viral journal of a gig-worker in China’s new economy.
What our reviewer said “To his customers, Hu is just a blurred head on their video intercom staring awkwardly into the camera.”
Albums
If you only listen to one, make it …
U2: Carnival de Luz
Out now
Summed up in a sentence On the band’s first album of new songs in nearly a decade, even earnest Bono-isms carry weight amid music that is impassioned and rejuvenated.
What our reviewer said “As with all their best stuff, the music is so epically impassioned and elevating that, while it might not change the world, it can certainly uplift anyone listening to it.” Dave Simpson
Further reading U2 on 50 years together – and why Bono can’t work with Trump
Pick of the rest
Blackhaine: Saints in the Wethouse
Out now
Summed up in a sentence The Preston rapper splits the difference between UK drill and extreme electronics on a bracing debut that exists far from the mainstream
What our reviewer said “Saints in the Wethouse is an experience that wrings the listener out, dragging them headlong through an unforgiving musical landscape.” Alexis Petridis
Sheherazaad: Khudgarzi
Out now
Summed up in a sentence Urdu folk acoustics are transformed by an eerie haze of grunge on this disarming debut by the south Asian-American composer and vocalist.
What our reviewer said “Sheherazaad creates an engrossing fusion that turns away from explosive dynamics and bright optimism and instead embraces the sombre solipsism of night. Ammar Kalia
Orliński/Devieilhe/Il Pomo d’Oro/Corti: Giulio Cesare in Egitto
Out now
Summed up in a sentence Francesco Corti keeps the drama on the boil in this period instrument recording of Handel’s opera, with herculean feats of vocal dexterity by Jakub Józef Orliński in the title role – but it’s Sabine Devieilhe’s breathtaking queen who steals the show.
What our reviewer said “A lived-in quality is palpable here, from the frisson of emotional risk-taking to imaginatively decorated da capo sections”. Clive Paget
Now touring …
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra: War Requiem
European tour, 14 to 19 November; streaming on BBC Sounds to 10 December
Summed up in a sentence A monumental and moving performance of Britten’s towering work, marking both Armistice Day and the 50th anniversary of the composer’s death.
What our reviewer said “The most explosive passages of Britten’s score continue to detonate as if physically threatening”. Flora Willson
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