From Late Fame to Katseye: the week in rave reviews
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 “This isn’t 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 – and I mean this lovingly – truly bizarre ... It is a rather ambitious feat.” Hannah J Davies
Pick of the rest
Stolen Babies
BBC iPlayer; available now
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.
What our reviewer said “The dehumanisation, the cruelty is unfathomable and the film leaves the viewer to sit and wrestle with the accruing conundrums.” Lucy Mangan
Turning Point: Generation 9/11
Netflix; available now
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.
What our reviewer said “The people who have grown up distanced from events by time perhaps have a clearer, calmer view of what is needed now. And perhaps – perhaps – they will turn in the right direction.” Lucy Mangan
You may have missed …
Tea With Judi Dench Featuring Sir Ian McKellen
Now TV, Sky Arts; available now
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.
What our reviewer said “I 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.” Lucy Mangan
Film
If you only watch one, make it …
Late Fame
In cinemas now
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.
What our reviewer said “There’s a marvellous tenderness and generosity to this elegant tale of autumnal regret; an intimate movie acted with effortless grace by Dafoe.” Peter Bradshaw
Pick of the rest
Super Nature
In cinemas now
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.
What our reviewer said “As they come in pre-loaded cartridges, Super 8 reels can only capture a few minutes’ 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.” Leslie Felperin
Lomu
In cinemas now
Summed up in a sentence Nuanced tribute to rugby’s first superstar, showing the life of chaos and emotional discord behind the exterior of a gentle giant.
What our reviewer said “If Lomu himself remains an enigma – as he readily admitted, talking about himself was not his forte – the chaos and emotion that swirled around him to the end makes fascinating viewing.” Andrew Pulver
The Death of Robin Hood
In cinemas now
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.
What our reviewer said “There’s really impressive craft here, with director Mike Sarnoski being a skilled transporter, making the most of the natural sounds and textures of the setting.” Benjamin Lee
Further reading ‘The folk scene is very middle class. The divide is huge’: Jim Ghedi, the Sheffield singer bringing his doomy music to the movies
Now streaming
Mayday
Apple TV; available now
Summed up in a sentence Cold war bromance with Ryan Reynolds as an American fighter pilot who teams up with Kenneth Branagh’s retired KGB officer.
What our reviewer said “It’s got some outrageous close-quarter fight scenes – and who knew Branagh could bust out martial arts moves? Is he going to follow Bob Odenkirk into an unexpected action movie career?” Peter Bradshaw
Books
If you only read one, make it …
Switzy by Emma Cline
Reviewed by Chris Power
Summed up in a sentence Booker-longlisted portrait of the final days of a man with Alzheimer’s, as he travels to a euthanasia clinic.
What our reviewer said “The last pages of Switzy, which mingle horror, beauty, absurdity, and a sense of profound finality, will probably stay with me for ever.”
Pick of the rest
Anita Brookner: Art and Life by Hermione Lee
Reviewed by Lucy Atkins
Summed up in a sentence A much needed reappraisal of the Booker winner.
What our reviewer said “Thankfully, 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.”
The Future Starts with Us by Gordon Brown
Reviewed by Gaby Hinsliff
Summed up in a sentence How global crises and community breakdown are linked, and what to do about it.
What our reviewer said “What could be just another nostalgic, even reactionary, argument for a bygone age when everyone knew their neighbours is tempered by Brown’s willingness to acknowledge that much of this togetherness was built on the unpaid labour of women stuck at home.”
The Golden Hours by Louisa Young
Reviewed by Ella Risbridger
Summed up in a sentence A continuation of the Cazalet Chronicles, taking the saga into the swinging 60s.
What our reviewer said “Happily, 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.”
The Bridge by Colm Tóibín
Reviewed by Alexandra Harris
Summed up in a sentence This sequel to a 2006 story focuses on an isolated young man in the Catalan Pyrenees.
What our reviewer said “Tóibín’s unsentimental prose is flawlessly matched to the austere worlds of people enduring, in their different ways, lives stripped back to the bone.”
A Death of One’s Own by Terry Eagleton
Reviewed by Kathryn Hughes
Summed up in a sentence Witty literary meditations on mortality.
What our reviewer said “Eagleton lets his capacious mind, vast reading and wicked wit loose over the whole business of arriving at a full stop.”
You may have missed …
Baldwin: A Love Story by Nicholas Boggs
Reviewed by Ralf Webb
Summed up in a sentence A biography of Baldwin that puts his relationships front and centre, now longlisted for the Baillie Gifford prize.
What our reviewer said “Boggs’s research is exhaustive, enabling him to meticulously re-stage Baldwin’s life in something like biographic ultra-high-definition.”
Albums
If you only listen to one, make it …
Adéla: Prima
Out now
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.
What our reviewer said “The 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.” Alexis Petridis
Pick of the rest
Chat Pile: Who Loves the Sun
Out now
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.
What our reviewer said “The structures are more dynamic, the guitars twangier and the vocals hookier, while Busch’s 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’s enough here to renew faith they’ll get there.” Alastair Shuttleworth
Further reading ‘Being alive is kind of painful’: the bleak vision of noise rockers Chat Pile
Kaija Saariaho: Vista, Saarikoski Songs, Three Preludes
Out now
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.
What our reviewer said “Kaija 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’s idiosyncratic fingerprints.” Clive Paget
Sairie: Beneath the Spreading Tree
Out now
Summed up in a sentence An exquisite debut album of 70s-inflected psych-folk that mixes an indie-girl chorister’s brightness with hints of darkness and ancient balladry.
What our reviewer said “The band’s musicianship is fantastic throughout, as are their shivery arrangements, which present like finely wrought 1970s curios while swerving pastiche.” Jude Rogers
Now touring …
Katseye
The O2, London; playing Co-op Live, Manchester, 6 September
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 “The choreography is frenetic throughout, aided by 10 dancers, but the minimalist staging – just a raised platform and a short runway – means the focus is very much on the songs themselves.” Michael Cragg
Further reading How Katseye became the world’s biggest girl group – while falling apart
KioskNews shows a cleaned-up reading view extracted from the publisher’s page — the original always lives on their site, not ours.