Reviews

Darren Aronofsky slips into self-indulgence

Mother! apparently is in the Marmite category. You love it or hate it.

Imagine a police state that can read your thoughts in Philip K Dick’s Electric Dreams

philip k dick; electric dreams; the hood maker

Channel 4’s new series promises to go deeper than most adaptations into the cult science fiction writer’s nightmarish world, writes Ken Olende

Wry hitman fantasy shows wheelchair users’ reality in Kills on Wheels

kills on wheels; Zoltán Fenyvesi; Attila Till;

It’s no secret that disabled film roles tend to be played by able-bodied actors.

Nature of the Beast—Labour left stalwart Dennis Skinner has stories to tell

This documentary chronicles the life of veteran Labour MP Dennis Skinner, the “Beast of Bolsover”. Skinner has been an MP for 47 years. So in some ways this is an account of British politics for the past five decades.

Le Carré’s legacy—A Legacy of Spies is both prequel and sequel to earlier work

The author of The Spy Who Came in from the Cold delivers a tightly written novel that’s perfectly tailored for his loyal fans, writes Simon Basketter

New play falls short of its lofty ambition

Constance Marcievicz and Eva Gore-Booth, the subjects of a new piece of fringe theatre, were remarkable figures of the political tumult of the early 20th Century in Ireland and England.

Rock in a hard place - the sound of rebellion

Reading this book triggered many personal memories, as an Egyptian teenage metalhead in Cairo in the 1990s. We would barter and trade metal cassettes, we would laugh over sensationalist media articles about “Satanists” invading Egypt.

Levar Burton Reads—fantastic tales of past and future

Three months in, this new podcast is proving a reliably delightful source of short stories with a twist of fantasy.

What was it like to work deep under central London? Ride the Mail Rail at the Postal Museum

After more than 14?years hidden beneath the streets of central London, Mail Rail—Royal Mail’s underground electric railway—is open

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