From Fatherland to Aberfan: The Village That Fought Back: the week in rave reviews
Summed up in a sentence Sixty years after the Welsh mining disaster, people tell their devastating stories – and their infuriatingly difficult fight to get justice.
What our reviewer said “Further indignities were caused to the stricken villagers, powerfully evoked in this restrained documentary by well-chosen memories from its interviewees. Gaynor remembers her father sitting puce with rage every evening in his chair as the NCB continued to fight liability for the deaths and deny the (expensive) need to remove the tips.” Lucy Mangan
Further reading I survived for a reason’: Aberfan fights to preserve memory of disaster 60 years on
Pick of the rest
Ellie & Natasia
BBC iPlayer; available now
Summed up in a sentence Ellie White and Natasia Demetriou are joined by a roster of brilliant comedy names in the second series of their hilariously weird sketch show.
What our reviewer said “There’s also a bit about a sack-wearing, trad wife-style content creator (White) who enjoys eating croissants, making collages and, er, keeping the woman her boyfriend cheated with locked up in her basement. So silly, so irresistible.” Hannah J Davies
The Experiment
Channel 4; available now
Summed up in a sentence In a shocking experiment, members of the public tour a fake “residential home” for disabled people that’s riddled with Nazi ideology – and their reactions need to be seen to be believed.
What our reviewer said “This is a show so disturbing, timely and surreal that within 90 seconds of viewing it alone, I am looking around for confirmation from an empty room that any of this is happening.” Frances Ryan
It Gets Worse
Channel 4; available now
Summed up in a sentence Comedian Leo Reich’s new sitcom, produced by A24, takes on gen Z houseshare life in London, with guest stars Lena Dunham and Andrew Scott.
What our reviewer said “It Gets Worse is, in many ways, a classic sitcom about surviving your 20s, complete with intensely awkward sex scenes (“Pull out!” “I’m not even in!”). And yet there’s a lot more going on here.” Hannah J Davies
Further reading ‘I’m lovingly making fun of everyone I’ve ever met’: on the set of Leo Reich’s gen Z sitcom
You may have missed …
VisionQuest
Disney+; available now
Summed up in a sentence Paul Bettany stars in a WandaVision spin-off that is visually striking and good fun – but it can’t help overdoing it on the dialogue and fight scenes.
What our reviewer said “VisionQuest is sometimes entertaining and always clever, yet if it does have anything to say about human nature, it is drowned out by dizzying plot particulars and the need for a big brawl every episode.” Rachel Aroesti
Film
If you only watch one, make it …
Fatherland
In cinemas now
Summed up in a sentence Hanns Zischler stars as Thomas Mann on his 1949 tour of Germany along with his daughter Erika, played by an extraordinary Sandra Hüller.
What our reviewer said “An impossibly elegant, poised historical vignette whose brevity and control can hardly contain its characters’ personal and historical pain.” Peter Bradshaw
Further reading ‘I struggle to see myself as someone special’: Sandra Hüller on being the star of four – or, possibly, five – of the year’s biggest films
Pick of the rest
Possible Love
In cinemas now
Summed up in a sentence Acclaimed Korean director Lee Chang-dong returns with an inspired account of an unhappy married couple befriended by a documentary-maker and her wealthy husband.
What our reviewer said “A finely judged, beautifully acted and rather novelistic work, in which a character at one point actually compares her surroundings to something from a novel.” Peter Bradshaw
Further reading ‘Fighting an impossible fight is the only way to reclaim dignity’: Lee Chang-dong on class warfare and his searing Oscar contender
Ghosts: The Possession of Button House
In cinemas now
Summed up in a sentence Spin-off from the warm and comforting BBC TV sitcom, that picks up not long after the events of the final episode of the haunted house comedy.
What our reviewer said “Breaking out of the 30-minute episode structure seems to have freed up the writers to unleash new levels of giddiness with added spoonfuls of silliness.” Cath Clarke
Scream
In cinemas now
Summed up in a sentence Thirtieth anniversary re-release of the Wes Craven meta horror with Neve Campbell and Courteney Cox – and a still alarming masked killer.
What our reviewer said “This film is brash and smart in that distinctive 90s way – and the title sounds like an order.” Peter Bradshaw
Further reading Scream: darkly funny, extremely meta horror and a 90s time capsule that never gets old
You may have missed …
Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom
In cinemas now
Summed up in a sentence Third cinematic adventure for Aardman’s resourceful ovine, in a spooky-season caper in which Shaun’s pumpkin-supersizing serum ends up in a balding farmer’s hair-growth bottle.
What our reviewer said “This is another excellent family film, crammed as ever with top visual gags, great throwaway references and, of course, a homemade Heath Robinson contraption, so often to be found in Aardman films.” Peter Bradshaw
Further reading ‘He goes to the dark side’: behind the scenes on the Shaun the Sheep horror movie
Books
If you only read one, make it …
On Another Planet They Can Save Me by Lieke Marsman
Summed up in a sentence The extraordinary posthumous memoir of a Dutch poet.
What our reviewer said “Marsman’s language is so beautiful … and her textual references so original … she cites Leopardi, Pasolini, Alanis Morissette, Robert Musil, Spinoza, Euripides, Wittgenstein and William James.” Edward Posnett
Pick of the rest
Gilgamesh by Simon Armitage
Summed up in a sentence The poet laureate takes on the ancient Mesopotamian epic about the adventures of a demigod king.
What our reviewer said “Armitage’s tactile, visceral version is a tour de force, combining careful scholarship with poetic verve and deft linguistic meldings.” Philip Terry
The Mystery of What Befell in the Ditch by Thure Erik Lund, translated by David M Smith
Summed up in a sentence A long-thought-untranslatable portrait of a breakdown by the man Karl Ove Knausgård considers Norway’s best living writer.
What our reviewer said “This is a universal story of modernity and its discontents, but Lund is at pains to give it a specifically Norwegian dimension.” Sukhdev Sandhu
Emperor of Nothing by Blake J Harris
Summed up in a sentence The definitive biography of Seinfeld creator Larry David.
What our reviewer said “In 1992, just before it became the biggest show in America, [David] told friends: ‘Honestly, I would rather spend a year in prison than do another season of Seinfeld. It would be peaceful. Nobody would make me write anything.’ He was only half joking.” Dorian Lynskey
Under Fire by Humza Yousaf
Summed up in a sentence The former Scottish first minister on his family’s Gaza ordeal.
What our reviewer said “Under Fire is most powerful when Yousaf gives full vent to his anger at the unfolding genocide in Gaza and articulates not just the plight of his in-laws … but the barbarity of Israel’s actions.” Fiona Sturges
You may have missed …
We Love You, Bunny by Mona Awad
Summed up in a sentence This follow-up to the cult horror-satire Bunny has been shortlisted for the Wodehouse prize for comic fiction.
What our reviewer said “Awad is here to show us that romantasy can be serious literature, and nothing can really be too camp.” Sandra Newman
Albums
If you only listen to one, make it …
Shovel Dance Collective: Everything in Readiness
tak:til; out now
Summed up in a sentence The nine-piece London-based group take a radically fresh approach to traditional music, sounding raging, lo-fi and joyful as they link Britain’s violent past to its present.
What our reviewer said “The most immediate pleasure of Everything in Readiness lies in the head-spinning sonic surprises it delivers. As it lurches wildly around, you find yourself struggling to keep up, a sure sign that you’re in the presence of music that feels entirely fresh and different.” Alexis Petridis
Pick of the rest
Michael Kiwanuka: Fudge
Polydor; out now
Summed up in a sentence Its release delayed by ill health, Kiwanuka’s latest was made in tandem with 2024’s Small Changes – but it’s much more than a mere companion album.
What our reviewer said “It may have had experimental beginnings, but it sounds remarkably like the work of a man who knows exactly what he wants to do. You leave it hoping that he’s able to continue doing it at some point in the not-too-distant future.” Alexis Petridis
Further reading ‘Everyone can relate to pain and struggle. So I’m sharing mine’: Michael Kiwanuka on life after his devastating stroke
Bartók: Miraculous Mandarin Suite, The Wooden Prince
LPO; out now
Summed up in a sentence Edward Gardner and the LPO are taut and dramatically alert in fine performances of these two theatrical works.
What our reviewer said “As for The Miraculous Mandarin Suite, this is as fine a performance as any, sleek and sinister in its evocation of the honeytrap antics of the sex worker and her thuggish pimps, swaggering or shy in her encounters with the old rake and the young man.” Clive Paget
Basma and Temir Alcy: NAD
Stroom; out now
Summed up in a sentence Vocalist Basma and group Temir Alcy offer a dark and disorienting listen that contemplates loss and new beginnings, stoking a captivating sense of tension.
What our reviewer said “On Ana Jaya, where the experimentalism peaks, the line between instruments and vocals blurs as the sound dissipates. The effect is bodily: tension you can feel, but can’t quite pin down. It’s a brilliant, heady formula.” Safi Bugel
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