Ramayana: Rise of a Legend review – India’s most expensive film ever becomes spectacular, huge-scale epic
Based on the ancient classical poem about Rama, the avatar of the Hindu god Vishnu, this three-hour blockbuster is highly enjoyable
Oh to Believe in Another World review – William Kentridge’s amazing animated ballet of black comic pain
William Kentridge’s cine-musical creation, made to accompany Shostakovich’s 10th Symphony, is a marvel of puppetry, dance and humour, exploring humanity, grief and idealism
From Fatherland to Aberfan: The Village That Fought Back: the week in rave reviews
Sandra Hüller excels as Thomas Mann’s daughter in a fine historical drama, and a BBC documentary about the Welsh mining tragedy will enrage. Here’s the pick of the week’s culture, taken from the Guardian’s best-rated reviews
The little-known friendship between Nina Simone and Langston Hughes
A new book charts how a 1949 meeting between the renowned poet and the legendary musician, then a 16-year-old girl, sparked enduring ties and fruitful collaboration
Listen out for Lanny: can Max Porter’s mythic tale of a mulch-guzzler really be heard in this woodland?
Every sun-dappled object is an instrument as composer Dom Coyote and sound designers Elena Peña and Dave Price conjure trip-hop-inspired rhythms in the Mendips for a new stage adaptation
‘We tried to levitate the Pentagon’: the almost unbelievable life of Ed Sanders, trickster god of the US counterculture
He gave Jimi Hendrix his gear, freaked out Frank Sinatra, inspired Norman Mailer – and tried to topple the American war machine. As a documentary about his band the Fugs comes out, the 87-year-old gives a rare interview
From Time to Fontaines DC: the week in rave reviews
David Tennant wows in the third series of Jimmy McGovern’s harrowing prison drama, and the Dublin band are back with a beguiling fifth album. Here’s the pick of the week’s culture, taken from the Guardian’s best-rated reviews
‘He’s terrified, panicked, can’t sleep’: the tragic, lonely death of Beatles manager Brian Epstein
Spandau Ballet’s Gary Kemp paid £10k at auction for Epstein’s address book. He then used it to co-author a thrilling account of the swinging 60s – and an intimate portrait of a tormented man whose life was unravelling
Wildwood review – Laika’s pleasingly old fashioned stop-motion magic-forest odyssey
The makers of Coraline return with their distinctive animation style in a magical tale of a secret world of strange beasts, talking animals and evil governesses
From Carrie to Olivia Dean: the week in rave reviews
Stephen King’s high-school scare-’em-up is reinvented for 2026, and the pop superstar brings the love in her feelgood live extravaganza. Here’s the pick of the week’s culture, taken from the Guardian’s best-rated reviews
Holding Lightning by Emily Lordi review – an intimate portrait of Whitney Houston
An empathetic biography of the the singer recasts her tumultuous later career as a triumph of self-expression
Sleeping Beauties by David Byrne review – a quirky journey through the afterlife of invention
The Talking Heads frontman considers dormant ideas that made a comeback – from Indian irrigation to Kafka
From Celebrity Traitors to Extra Geography: the week in rave reviews
Claudia Winkleman joins a castle full of celebs as the duplicitous favourite returns, while Molly Manners’ extremely funny boarding school comedy tackles desire and adulthood. Here’s the pick of the week’s culture, taken from the Guardian’s best-rated reviews
‘A genre-defying monument’: how Sign o’ the Times captured Prince at his creative peak
As a new book on the Paisley Park polymath is released, author John McKie explains why Prince’s 1987 album is the ultimate showcase of his genius
From Youth to Heart of the Beast: the week in rave reviews
Sharon Horgan takes on divorce in a new series about life as a single fiftysomething, while Brad Pitt makes his way across Alaska with a loyal hound. Here’s the pick of the week’s culture, taken from the Guardian’s best-rated reviews