TV
If you only watch one, make it …
The Jury: Murder Trial
Channel 4; available now
Summed up in a sentence A Bafta-winning recreation of a real-life murder case, with participants role-playing the jurors – shedding new light on what happens when verdicts are reached.
What our reviewer said “Like all great reality shows, The Jury uses unusual circumstances to reveal the deeply ingrained prejudices and perspectives that shape our daily lives.” Rachel Aroesti
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Pick of the rest
Dear Viv
BBC iPlayer; available now
Summed up in a sentence Following the death of beloved drag star The Vivienne, this tribute documentary talks to those closest to them.
What our reviewer said “A warm and nuanced portrait of an artist as the giver of great joy – and of a man whose calling both allayed and intensified his vulnerabilities.” Rachel Aroesti
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Further reading The Vivienne died from cardiorespiratory arrest due to ketamine use, inquest finds
Atomic
Now & Sky Max; available now
Summed up in a sentence Alfie Allen is a uranium smuggler in a relentlessly intense thriller with unexpected depth.
What our reviewer said “Atomic brings with it that ineffable pleasure caused by watching something that someone took just one or two extra passes over, to give its audience an experience just a bit better than you were expecting.” Lucy Mangan
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Katrina: Come Hell and High Water
Disney+; available now
Summed up in a sentence Oscar-winning director Spike Lee’s stirring look back at the biggest tragedy in 21st-century Black American history, 20 years later.
What our reviewer said “Come Hell and High Water is a stirring tribute to what has been lost and what has been stolen, but it assures us that New Orleans will never be gone, even if it will never be the same.” Jack Seale
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Further reading You had to fend for yourself: Hurricane Katrina haunts New Orleans as Trump guts disaster aid
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One Day in Southport
Channel 4; available now
Summed up in a sentence A year after the tragedy, this documentary looks back at the murder of three girls at a Taylor Swift dance class – and how the far-right twisted it to their own ends.
What our reviewer said “It is essentially a mood piece, tracking the development of the hijacking of grief to violent ends and leaving us to draw our own conclusions about where, why and if we would have stepped back to say: ‘This has gone too far.’” Lucy Mangan
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Books
If you only read one, make it …
A Truce That Is Not Peace by Miriam Toews
Reviewed by Blake Morrison. In bookshops now
Summed up in a sentence A radically intimate literary memoir.
What our reviewer said “This book is a triumph – a meditation on writing, suicide, guilt and silence; a fragmented account of Toews’ life so far; and an illustration of why she’s one of Canada’s most admired writers.”
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Further reading ‘My sister, my God. It’s a visceral pain that never goes away’: Miriam Toews on a memoir of suicide and silence
Pick of the rest
Seascraper by Benjamin Wood
Reviewed by Jude Cook. In bookshops now
Summed up in a sentence Booker-longlisted fable about a shrimp fisher in the 1960s whose life is changed by a mysterious stranger.
What our reviewer said “There’s a clarity of observation and lack of sentimentality that raises the book from a simple tale of unfulfilled lives and nostalgia for a vanished past. The short form feels Conradian, lending a welcome density and brevity – apt for a protagonist grappling with physical adversity and inner turmoil.”
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Further reading The Young Accomplice by Benjamin Wood review – a tender tale of learning from mistakes
Good and Evil and Other Stories by Samanta Schweblin, translated by Megan McDowell
Reviewed by Sam Byers. In bookshops now
Summed up in a sentence Eerie short stories from an Argentinian prizewinner.
What our reviewer said “In Schweblin’s vision, the barriers that separate one thing from another are so porous as to be nonexistent. True horror, she reminds us, is neither otherworldly or supernatural, it is simply the acknowledgment of life’s fundamental conditions.”
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Further reading Samanta Schweblin: ‘In fiction we try not to talk about technology’
Love’s Labour by Stephen Grosz
Reviewed by Sophie McBain. In bookshops now
Summed up in a sentence Stories of love and relationships from the psychoanalyst’s couch.
What our reviewer said “What a privilege it must be to accompany another person so closely as they try to figure out the challenge of living – of change and love, and accepting love and change. And what a privilege it is for the reader to catch a glimpse of this process.”
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Everything We Do Is Music by Elizabeth Alker
Reviewed by Steven Poole. In bookshops now
Summed up in a sentence How avant garde classical music shaped pop.
What our reviewer said “Radio 3 presenter Elizabeth Alker’s book is a sparkling map of connections, enlivened by encounters with practitioners including Paul McCartney, Jonny Greenwood from Radiohead and DJ the Blessed Madonna.”
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Further reading ‘The King Lear in I Am the Walrus? That came from John Cage’: Paul McCartney on the Beatles’ debt to great avant garde composers
You may have missed…
The Cuckoo’s Lea by Michael Warren
Reviewed by Amy-Jane Beer. In bookshops now
Summed up in a sentence A magical ornithological history of Britain.
What our reviewer said “The secrets lie in plain sight and plain speech, spelled out on maps, road signs and along urban streets: toponyms invoking cranes and crows, hawks and geese, eagles and owls.”
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Film
If you only watch one, make it …
Caught Stealing
In cinemas now
Summed up in a sentence Darren Aronofsky’s violent and enjoyable crime flick centres on a washed-up alcoholic former baseball star’s encounters with a villainous underworld.
What our reviewer said “Aronofsky directs with gleeful energy, flair and a dark humour that straddles the mischief/malice borderline. Incredible to think that his last film was the solemn and inertly sententious body-image drama The Whale.” Peter Bradshaw
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Further reading ‘The 90s were remarkable – we weren’t all living in existential terror!’ Darren Aronofsky on Caught Stealing, his love letter to New York
Pick of the rest
Young Mothers
In cinemas now
Summed up in a sentence The Dardenne brothers return to form with poignant, compassionate work of social realism about teen mums being taught how to take care of their babies amid drug addiction, mental illness and family conflict.
What our reviewer said “There is such simplicity and clarity here, an honest apportioning of dignity and intelligence to everyone on screen: every scene and every character portrait is unforced and unembellished. The straightforward assertion of hope through giving help and asking for help is very powerful.” Peter Bradshaw
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Further reading ‘The most difficult word to say is “Cut!”’: an audience with Cannes conquerors Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne
Little Trouble Girls
In cinemas now
Summed up in a sentence Absorbing Slovenian debut by Urška Djukić is a Catholic coming-of-age tale dominated by a monstrous choirmaster.
What our reviewer said “The choral sequences of the film are wonderful, and the simple business of rehearsing, of taking music to pieces and putting it back together, is gripping.” Peter Bradshaw
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Dogtooth
In cinemas now
Summed up in a sentence Rerelease of Yorgos Lanthimos’ brilliant black comedy from 2009, a scalp-pricklingly strange fable of dysfunction and self-harm with a hint of Michael Haneke.
What our reviewer said “Dogtooth can be read as a superlative example of absurdist cinema, or possibly something entirely the reverse – a clinically, unsparingly intimate piece of psychological realism.” Peter Bradshaw
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Further reading Attenberg, Dogtooth and the weird wave of Greek cinema
Now streaming…
Vice Is Broke
Mubi; available now
Summed up in a sentence Documentary fronted by Eddie Huang about the rise and fall of a media empire, from edgy magazine to billionaire backing, to bankruptcy.
What our reviewer said “The hubris was epic. Huang says that Vice co-founder Shane Smith once boasted to him that he was planning to buy the BBC with Elon Musk. Huang, who is very, very funny, replied: ‘Don’t you have to buy England first?’” Cath Clarke
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Further reading Vice magazine founders apologise over ‘boys’ club’ culture
Albums
If you only listen to one, make it…
Blood Orange: Essex Honey
Out now
Summed up in a sentence Gorgeous melodies ground Dev Hynes’s questing fifth album, via dancefloor rhythms, indie pop and languorous funk – plus cameos from Lorde and Zadie Smith.
What our reviewer said “All the constituent elements are held together by tone and a sense of place. Its primary mood is a very British kind of late summer-into-autumn melancholy … desperately sad, but beautiful.” Alexis Petridis
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Pick of the rest
CMAT: Euro-Country
Out now
Summed up in a sentence Who else could combine soul, yodelling, Jamie Oliver and Calpol into such charming songs about the messy modern psyche? Only Europe’s best new breakout star.
What our reviewer said “A roiling sea of charm, chaos, substance, sadness and piercing insight.” Rachel Aroesti
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Further reading CMAT, pop’s gobbiest, gaudiest star: ‘Everyone else in music needs a kick up the hole!’
Titanic: Hagen
Out now
Summed up in a sentence On their second collaborative album, Mabe Fratti and Hector Tosta, based in Mexico City, add pop shimmer and thundering blastbeats to their unique, always surprising sound.
What our reviewer said “A remarkable achievement: a reimagining of pop music that revels in lingering unease.” Ammar Kalia
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Further reading ‘Doubt is exciting’: cellist Mabe Fratti on chaos, curiosity and climbing volcanoes
Nova Twins: Parasites & Butterflies
Out now
Summed up in a sentence Trailblazers Amy Love and Georgia South push the boundaries of their trademark hybrid rock sound while confronting mental health and naysayers.
What our reviewer said “Lyrically, there’s more openness and introspection … The particularly anthemic Monsters still packs the attitude that saw off the naysayers who think this kind of music should not be made by young Black women, but adds vulnerability.” Dave Simpson
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Further reading Nova Twins on silencing the heavy metal doubters: ‘People don’t question men’
Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1
Out now
Summed up in a sentence Working his way through Bach’s keyboard works for the Hyperion label, harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani arrives at one of the great monuments of western music.
What our reviewer said “There is a real sense in his performances of each prelude and fugue defining its own dramatic space … his approach never seems wilful or perverse.” Andrew Clements
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