TV
If you only watch one, make it …
Wonder Man
Disney+
Summed up in a sentence This tale of a secretly super-powered actor’s attempt to act in a superhero movie is that rarest of things – a Marvel Cinematic Universe show which is genuinely good.
What our reviewer said “A rather clever, tender and altogether wonder-ful thing.” Lucy Mangan
Further reading Wonder Man to Take That: the seven best shows to stream this week
***
Pick of the rest
Take That
Netflix
Summed up in a sentence A fantastically enjoyable documentary about the boyband, packed with interviews, archive footage, and tonnes of nostalgia.
What our reviewer said “It’s hugely enjoyable stuff. Directed by David “Bros: After the Screaming Stops” Soutar and told through new, off-screen interviews with the three remaining Thats, the series is replete with archive footage, acres and acres of the stuff, brilliantly edited and much of it previously unseen.” Sarah Dempster
Clive Myrie’s African Adventure
BBC iPlayer
Summed up in a sentence One of the BBC’s best-known news presenters serves up a joyful travelogue around South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana and Morocco.
What our reviewer said “A wonderful series which shows that the much-maligned celebrity travel show can be educational, informative and really moving.” Hannah J Davies
***
You may have missed …
Poison Water
BBC iPlayer
Summed up in a sentence A hugely powerful documentary about north Cornwall residents’ long struggle for justice, following their water turning toxic.
What our reviewer said “There are enough new interviews here – with residents, experts and politicians – to bring the whole thing startlingly, discomfitingly into the present.” Hannah J Davies
***
Film
If you only watch one, make it …
Primate
In cinemas now
Summed up in a sentence Pet chimp goes wild in a brief, brutal and slickly made creature feature from British director Johannes Roberts.
What our reviewer said “At 89 minutes and paced like a rollercoaster, there’s little room for life lessons, although the film does make for a stern, grisly reminder of why chimps should not be considered part of the family.” Benjamin Lee
***
Pick of the rest
Nouvelle Vague
In cinemas now
Summed up in a sentence Richard Linklater recreates the making of the landmark French New Wave classic Breathless in homage to the prickly Jean-Luc Godard.
What our reviewer said “It’s a good natured, intelligent effort for which Godard himself, were he still alive, would undoubtedly have ripped Linklater a new one.” Peter Bradshaw
Further reading ‘I have Yes tattooed on my foot!’ Zoey Deutch on playing Jean Seberg in a joyous celebration of Godard classic Breathless
Is This Thing On?
In cinemas now
Summed up in a sentence Bradley Cooper directs Will Arnett in a drama based on the life of comedian John Bishop, about a man heading for a divorce who discovers a cathartic outlet in comedy.
What our reviewer said “Arnett has such a gentle face: handsome yet sensitive and wounded, the kind of face that you want to stroke sympathetically.” Peter Bradshaw
Further reading Have you heard the one about the Bradley Cooper film inspired by John Bishop … ?
Strongroom
In cinemas now
Summed up in a sentence A gang of bank robbers return to the scene of their crime to free the employees they imprisoned in a vault in this suspenseful 1962 British thriller.
What our reviewer said “The movie delivers a couple of big shocks, and everything is briskly wrapped up inside 80 minutes. The performances are stagy and yet robust in the manner of British cinema of those days, but always plausible and watchable.” Peter Bradshaw
***
Now streaming
The Wrecking Crew
Prime Video
Summed up in a sentence Dave Bautista and Jason Momoa play abundantly muscled estranged siblings avenging their father in an action-comedy throwback.
What our reviewer said “The final big-boss banter between Claes Bang and Momoa is a gas, as is the chemistry between Momoa and Bautista, two lovable lugs who clearly like each other. The whole package is an easily digested guilty pleasure.” Leslie Felperin
***
Books
If you only read one, make it …
Glyph by Ali Smith
Reviewed by Keiran Goddard
Summed up in a sentence A brave and playful tale of sisterhood, conflict and mortality that faces up to the war in Gaza.
What our reviewer said “Smith’s tonal skill as a writer is used to great effect when dealing with the bureaucratic, authoritarian absurdity of the British state.”
Further reading Ali Smith: ‘Henry James had me running down the garden path shouting out loud’
***
Pick of the rest
Lost Lambs by Madeline Cash
Reviewed by Lara Feigel
Summed up in a sentence A comic debut for our conspiracy theory era about a dysfunctional American family.
What our reviewer said “Cash’s virtuosic wit allows her to warm hearts at the same time as satirising the world.”
A Guardian and a Thief by Megha Majumdar
Reviewed by Keshava Guha
Summed up in a sentence In the follow-up to A Burning, a woman tries to escape from climate disaster in near-future Kolkata.
What our reviewer said “A Guardian and a Thief has the pace of a thriller, but it derives its drama from the ratcheting up of moral stakes, rather than suspense.”
David Bowie and the Search for Life, Death and God by Peter Ormerod
Reviewed by Simon Critchley
Summed up in a sentence A religious reading of the star’s life and work, from Space Oddity to Blackstar.
What our reviewer said “It is irresistibly tempting to see Bowie’s extraordinary archive at the V&A as a vast reliquary that inspires that most medieval of practices: pilgrimage”
Further reading A Day with David Bowie: how a visit to a psychiatric clinic changed him – and his music
***
You may have missed …
Death of an Ordinary Man by Sarah Perry
Reviewed by Joe Moran
Summed up in a sentence A deeply moving portrait of the end of life, Perry’s book won this year’s Nero prize for nonfiction.
What our reviewer said “What makes this book gem-like is that it succeeds in conveying the reality of death as this monumental, mythic thing that coexists surreally with the mundane world of council bin collections and neighbours hanging out their washing.”
Further reading ‘I wanted to write more than I wanted to have children’: author Sarah Perry on rejecting motherhood
***
Albums
If you only listen to one, make it …
Leonkoro Quartet: Out of Vienna
Out now
Summed up in a sentence The young quartet give a fiercely alert account of Berg, Webern and Schulhoff – beautifully capturing Vienna’s prewar musical fault lines.
What our reviewer said “The playing is unflinching and seethes with imaginative detail.” Clive Paget
***
Pick of the rest
Tyler Ballgame: For the First Time, Again
Out now
Summed up in a sentence Debut from the much-hyped LA singer – who has been compared to Tim Buckley, Elvis and more.
What our reviewer said “His voice is straightforwardly beautiful – a bruised, brooding croon that sweeps into an emotive falsetto as if doing so were the easiest thing in the world – and slightly theatrical.” Alexis Petridis
Further reading Tyler Ballgame: ‘Self help shocked me out of depression. I had this spiritual awakening’
Julie Campiche: Unspoken
Out now
Summed up in a sentence The composer’s first unaccompanied album turns extended harp technique into music of intimacy, restraint and conviction – inspired by the women who shaped her world.
What our reviewer said “You might call her soundscape magical or otherworldly if it didn’t coexist with a campaigner’s political urgency on environmental and social issues. But Campiche is too much of a visionary to overwhelm the eloquence of pure sound with polemic.” John Fordham
Yumi Zouma: No Love Lost to Kindness
Out now
Summed up in a sentence The New Zealand dream-poppers edge away from their trademark sound with louder guitars and bolder intentions.
What our reviewer said “Far from a dramatic reinvention, this is Yumi Zouma remaking themselves in real time.” Katie Hawthorne
***
Now touring …
Lucinda Williams
Touring the UK to 7 February
Summed up in a sentence At 73, the lodestar of Americana still writes with urgency, as the patient force of her band sends the music grooving skywards.
What our reviewer said She is living with the after-effects of a stroke, yet once she’s behind the mic she radiates resolve. If anything, the voice sounds newly burnished; the phrasing more deliberate, the vibrato catching the light. Brian Coney
Further reading Lucinda Williams: ‘My singing is better now than it was before my stroke’
