News

Patti Cake$ shows poverty and escapism from the wrong side of the tracks

A working class white woman finds her voice through hip hop in a provocative new film that’s tipped for awards, writes Oisín Challen Flynn

Hiraeth documents the beauty and ugliness of South Wales’ industrial past

Photographer Ceres spoke to Alistair Farrow about the influences behind his new book Hiraeth

New Ghostpoet album is best when it’s most political

London lyricist and musician Ghostpoet’s fourth album Dark Days and Canapes takes a more explicitly, and welcome, political direction than his previous work.

The Majority—an inventive format is wasted on a dismal message

Rob Drummond’s new one-man play is supposed to be about the Scottish independence referendum.

Coriolanus—‘People aren’t satisfied as pedestrians in the system’

Sope Dirisu, who takes the lead role in Royal Shakespeare Company’s Coriolanus this autumn, spoke to Lois Browne about a play debating power and the people

New Akala EP about black history hits the right notes

A new and ambitious EP from west London MC Akala looks at the history of black people’s oppression—and their resistance.

Detroit exposes the racism of US society in the 1960s

The racism that caused the 1967 Detroit riots is honestly documented in Kathryn Bigelow’s new film and makes painful viewing

Culture round up

Polly Nor

Bleak, unsettling, and powerful images in Gregory Crewsdon's exhibition

For the first time ever three floors of the Photographers’ Gallery have been given to a single exhibition—and it does not disappoint.

Valerian—a magnificent sci-fi mess that gets lost in excess

As special effects catch up with the vision of filmmakers and directors, the plots of science fiction epics need to race to keep up, writes Ken Olende

Sexism has undermined Game of Thrones’ wide appeal

The seventh season of Game of Thrones is well underway and has been met with much rejoicing from fans.

Tragedy rubs shoulders with controversy at Edinburgh Festival

This year’s Edinburgh Festival has been caught up in political controversy before it has even begun.

Werq—Ballroom at the Barbican

Voguing comes to London in August.

Spooks, lies and the state—new film grasps for the truth

A serious but mild-mannered civil servant with a drinking problem gets caught up in a web of intrigue and collusion between the state and private intelligence services.

A Good Day to Die, Hoka Hey—photographer’s film avoids the big picture

There is a stereotype of war photographers as hard-living egoists hooked on the adrenaline of the chase.

War for the Planet of the Apes—Attempt at gorilla warfare ends in monkey business

The film did not live up to the preceding films and seemed unsure of what it was trying to be.

Soul of a Nation exhibition paints a bold picture of Black Power

A powerful new exhibition at Tate Modern brings together the work of black artists from across decades of struggle in the US, writes Harold Wilson

Exhibitions in Middlesbrough that inspire radicalism

The Middlesbrough Museum of Modern Art (Mima) is far from having million pound paintings hanging on sterile walls.

New film Freesia tells the story of the fight against Islamophobia

Freesia uses real examples of racist attacks to paint a picture of Islamophobia in Britain today. The film’s director Conor Ibrahiem spoke to Yuri Prasad