TV
If you only watch one, make it …
Jared Leto: Hollywood’s Dark Secret
BBC iPlayer; available now
Summed up in a sentence A unsettling documentary in which four women speak out about their underage experiences with the movie star and musician.
What our reviewer said “A disturbing look at what is alleged to be a skin-crawling pattern of behaviour.” Stuart Heritage
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Pick of the rest
Furious
Disney+; available now
Summed up in a sentence An enormously entertaining crime drama about a female serial killer powered by its female characters’ unfaltering current of rage.
What our reviewer said “Television for grownups, television to pay attention to and to entertain you enormously.” Lucy Mangan
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Gomorrah: The Origins
Now; available now
Summed up in a sentence A prequel to the hit mob series with a cheeky, fresh take on the genre.
What our reviewer said “You half-expect a young Al Pacino to walk into shot.” Jack Seale
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You may have missed …
Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed
Apple TV; available now
Summed up in a sentence A moreish, inventive and twisty drama about a woman being blackmailed by a camboy.
What our reviewer said “A sure-footed and completely bingeable thriller with an edge of unpredictability that holds you doubly fast to your seat.” Lucy Mangan
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Film
If you only watch one, make it …
Ish
In cinemas now
Summed up in a sentence Imran Peretta’s Luton-set coming of age story in which racial profiling pushes two teen friends apart.
What our reviewer said “It’s a poignant and poetic urban pastoral about young masculinity, Muslim and south Asian communities, and the seedy and insidious new petty harassment of racial profiling and facial recognition tech.” Peter Bradshaw
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Further reading ‘It was 100% the moment I lost innocence’: how a childhood stop-and-search led to the British debut movie of the year
Pick of the rest
Spider-Man: Brand New Day
In cinemas now
Summed up in a sentence Tom Holland is back as the vexed webslinger in a sometimes shocking, occasionally sluggish new instalment opposite his Odyssey castmate Zendaya.
What our reviewer said “Spider-Man: Brand New Day, like all MCU movies, always gravitates towards apocalyptic but weirdly temporary destruction in the digitally confected big city. It’s an entertaining spectacle.” Peter Bradshaw
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Further reading Tom Holland says some of his films are ‘shit’ and people shouldn’t see them
Wham! 10 Days in China
In cinemas now
Summed up in a sentence Using footage shot by Lindsay Anderson (who was ultimately fired from the project), this documentary reveals the pop duo’s groundbreaking 1985 tour of communist China.
What our reviewer said “In our modern age, the movie and music businesses routinely consider China as the key element of the all-important Asian market, but in 1985, Michael and Ridgeley were the Kirk and Spock of the charts, going where no pop act had gone before.” Peter Bradshaw
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Further reading ‘I thought it didn’t stand a cat’s chance in hell’: Andrew Ridgeley on Wham’s surreal trip to China
The Sacrifice
In cinemas now
Summed up in a sentence Andrei Tarkovsky’s tragic final film, from 1986, about a retired actor (Erland Josephson) who makes a bargain with God.
What our reviewer said “It is brilliant and audacious, with one of the most extraordinary final sequences in modern cinema, and all in a manner which Hollywood in the succeeding decade would learn to call “high concept”. Peter Bradshaw
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Solo Sunny
Mubi
Summed up in a sentence Konrad Wolf’s 1980 drama follows a singer trying to escape the drab compromises of GDR life, a study of thwarted ambition, loneliness and faded dreams.
What our reviewer said “There is something very melancholy in the shots of the gaunt tenements, uncool denims and boxy Trabants on the gritty streets of Berlin’s Prenzlauer Berg.” Peter Bradshaw
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Books
If you only read one, make it …
Reviewed by Anne Enright
Summed up in a sentence A landmark Canadian novel about a woman who leaves her family in search of her self.
What our reviewer said “Gaining Ground is a wonderful slow burn of a book and Barfoot’s originality and control remain exciting, nearly half a century on.”
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Pick of the rest
Upland by Ed Douglas
Reviewed by Kathryn Hughes
Summed up in a sentence A beguiling history of Britain’s high places.
What our reviewer said “One delight of his capacious, looping narrative is the room it leaves for delightful cameos by remarkable individuals, including several women.”
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Mario Vargas Llosa by Gerald Martin
Reviewed by Pratinav Anil
Summed up in a sentence The story of the Peruvian Nobel laureate, who went from staunch socialist to Margaret Thatcher fanboy.
What our reviewer said “His brief flirtation was not with socialism so much as with a socialist: the dazzling, unattainable Lea Barba. Their comradeship unfolded between bookshops and the smoky tables of a bohemian nightclub owned by her communist father.”
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Jacaranda by Gaël Faye, translated by Sarah Ardizzone
Reviewed by Rachel Seiffert
Summed up in a sentence A bold exploration of the Rwanda genocide and its aftershocks by the French-Rwandan rapper and writer.
What our reviewer said “Faye gives face and voice to the human capacity for endurance.”
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What If We Got AI Right? by Eleanor Drage
Reviewed by Sophie McBain
Summed up in a sentence Why ethical tech is still possible – if we want it.
What our reviewer said “The cultural obsession with the AI-induced apocalypse conveniently redirects attention from the practical conversations we could be having about how to make AI safer.”
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You may have missed …
John of John by Douglas Stuart
Reviewed by Yagnishsing Dawoor
Summed up in a sentence The follow-up to Shuggie Bain and Young Mungo, now on the Booker longlist.
What our reviewer said “The novel is outstandingly canny and wrenching on self-contempt, on the toilsome art of deceit, and on the contradictions we all contain.”
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Albums
If you only listen to one, make it …
Shaboozey: The Outlaw Cherie Lee & Other Western Tales
Out now
Summed up in a sentence A striking addition to the rich canon of country concept albums, with Hollywood narrators, Pink Floyd-y interludes and accompanying comic books.
What our reviewer said “Beneath the Hollywood narrators, Pink Floyd-y interludes and accompanying comic books lies songwriting that proves the Tipsy singer’s breakout success was no fluke.” Alexis Petridis
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Pick of the rest
Arca: XXXXX
Out now
Summed up in a sentence A wild, brilliant album that taps into our bodies’ most feral frequencies, jumbling the building blocks of electronic music to create a beautiful, disorienting sound world.
What our reviewer said “The resulting album is one of Arca’s densest and best: music for the body and brain that is unrelenting and unerringly brilliant.” Shaad D’Souza
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Melodies International presents Ariwa Sounds
Out now
Summed up in a sentence Head-spinning classics from dub legend Mad Professor, hopping from skulking proto-grime to dreamy lovers rock between 1984 and the present day.
What our reviewer said “At no point does the genre- and timeline-hopping feel jarring. In fact, it’s what makes the compilation special.” Safi Bugel
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John Tilbury: At Home
Out now
Summed up in a sentence The great interpreter of Morton Feldman and a towering figure of experimental music signs off with four discs of intimate, revelatory recordings.
What our reviewer said “Few have made a more significant contribution to the fields of contemporary, improvised and experimental music than John Tilbury.” Clive Paget
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Now touring …
Luke Combs
Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh; Wembley Stadium, London, 31 July to 2 August
Summed up in a sentence Regular Joe megastar brings the arena-sized party home with the vocal firepower and heavyweight hits to deliver two hours of crowd-pleasin’ pyrotechnics.
What our reviewer said “By storming closer Ain’t No Love in Oklahoma, Combs is crackling with energy, his arms in the air, humbleness be damned – and deservedly so.” Katie Hawthorne
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