Shifty to 28 Years Later: the week in rave reviews
BBC iPlayer; full series available now
Summed up in a sentence In his signature kaleidoscopic style, celebrated documentarian Adam Curtis looks back at Britain over the past 40 years … and how it has come to the brink of collapse.
What our reviewer said 'It is an increasing rarity to stand in the presence of anyone with an idea, a thesis, that they have thoroughly worked out to their own satisfaction and then present stylishly, exuberantly and still intelligently. The hell and the handcart feel that bit more bearable now.' Lucy Mangan
Read the full review
Further reading Thatcher, Farage and toe-sucking: Adam Curtis on how Britain came to the brink of civil war
BBC Two/iPlayer; available now
Summed up in a sentence The celebrated chef opens up with searing honesty about being sectioned by his wife 18 months ago.
What our reviewer said 'A conversation with his son Jack, also a chef, is one of the most dreadfully honest and painful things I have seen on television in years. Pent-up emotions pour forth from Jack as he remembers 'just wanting relaxing conversation with our dad and not being allowed to have one … You didn't want to know anyone's thoughts. I just didn't think you gave a shit.' Lucy Mangan
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Further reading 'It's part of who I am': Heston Blumenthal on the bipolar diagnosis that saved his life
ITV1/ITVX; full series available now
Summed up in a sentence The veteran presenter returns to show us his woo woo life in New Zealand in a show that is surely destined to be a cult classic.
What our reviewer said ''All we are is body energy systems,' he … is 'explains' the word? 'They touch everything around us. Which is how you move into the bigger matrix, the universal energy system.' You know what? I loved Noel's House Party. And nothing has ever made me cry happier tears than Noel's Christmas Presents. He's earned this.' Lucy Mangan
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Further reading 'I am Jesus!': the TV brilliance of Noel Edmonds
BBC iPlayer; all series available now
Summed up in a sentence The worst Motherland mother gets her own spin-off – and the gag rate is so high it fizzes with the energy of perimenopause.
What our reviewer said 'The gags – about Gloria Hunniford, the Just Seventeen problem page and Sinn Féin – are very British and aimed at a very particular audience, namely strung out middle-aged mums longing to laugh until they wee a bit at jokes about wellness supplements. Too rarely do we get the chance.' Chitra Ramaswamy
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In cinemas now
Summed up in a sentence Powerful documentary following six former inmates revisiting their old cells in the former women's prison to reflect on childhood trauma and domestic abuse.
What our reviewer said 'The film producers explain at length in notes provided that their process involved working with the six women, who had a say in the final edit and were given access throughout to a psychotherapist. Their collaborative documentary feels like essential viewing for policymakers.' Cath Clarke
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Further reading 'Prison was the first place we felt sisterhood': six women return to the ruins of Holloway
In cinemas now
Summed up in a sentence Danny Boyle's horror threequel brings back the sprinting zombies as an island lad seeks help for his sick mum on the undead-infested mainland.
What our reviewer said 'The film takes a generational, even evolutionary leap into the future from the initial catastrophe, creating something that mixes folk horror, little-England satire and even a grieving process for all that has happened.' Peter Bradshaw
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Further reading 'You'd never make Slumdog today': Danny Boyle on risks, regrets and returning to the undead
In cinemas now
Summed up in a sentence Pixar's latest offers Spielbergian twists and an aggressive, deal-oriented alien in a story about a lonely boy who finds friendship in space.
What our reviewer said 'Elio may well indeed do the business. It has charm, likability and that potent ingredient: childhood loneliness and vulnerability.' Peter Bradshaw
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Further reading Raspberry scented weirdness: will Elio be Pixar's wildest ride to date?
In cinemas now
Summed up in a sentence Michael Haneke's stalker drama, rereleased as part of a retrospective season, Complicit, is a compelling tale about the denial and guilt mixed into the foundations of western prosperity.
What our reviewer said 'There is no dramatic musical score, none of the traditional shocks or excitements, just an IV-drip-drip-drip of disquiet leading finally to a convulsion of horror.' Peter Bradshaw
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Further reading Michael Haneke films – ranked!
Netflix; out now
Summed up in a sentence Bleak, enraging documentary combining first-hand accounts of the disaster with an appalling record of official negligence.What our reviewer said 'With the very considerable help of the housing-issues journalist Peter Apps, the film shows how the horror was created by a perfect storm of incompetence, mendacity, greed, and (that heartsinking phrase) systemic failure.' Peter Bradshaw
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Further reading 'Grenfell should make us all uncomfortable': Olaide Sadiq on making Grenfell: Uncovered
Reviewed by Kathryn Hughes
Summed up in a sentence An ambitious meditation on the power of stories in an age of migration.
What our reviewer said 'Over the past 50 years of her distinguished career as a cultural historian, Warner has immersed herself in fairytales, playground chants, lullabies and fables. Now she suggests using these folk forms to forge connections between arrivants (a term she prefers to 'migrants') and their often hostile hosts.' Read the full review
Reviewed by Amy-Jane Beer
Summed up in a sentence From buzzards in Oxfordshire to cranes in Kent – how once common birds left their mark in British placenames.
What our reviewer said 'Warren's wordcraft is sublime … his style textured and generous, weaving fascination, family life, and lightly carried expertise.'
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Reviewed by Fiona Sturges
Summed up in a sentence The daughter of the Fear of Flying author on being neglected as a child – and dealing with her mother's dementia.
What our reviewer said 'The writing veers between punchy and meandering, with moments of deep sadness leavened by a sardonic humour.'
Read the full review
Further reading My mother was a famous feminist writer known for her candour and wit. But she was also a fantasist who couldn't be bothered to spend time raising me
Reviewed by Sam Byers
Summed up in a sentence A polyphonic portrait of contemporary Belfast digs into the faultlines of class and money.
What our reviewer said 'In her first novel, this acclaimed short-story writer revels in the possibilities of an expanded cast, yet controls the pace and framing with all the precision of a miniaturist.'
Read the full review
Reviewed by Toby Litt
Summed up in a sentence A standup takes revenge after a hatchet-job review.
What our reviewer said 'Is giving an artist a one-star review an act of abuse? That's the starting point of this entertaining and very timely debut novel.'
Read the full review
Reviewed by Joe Moran
Summed up in a sentence A brilliant history of a weaponised mantra.
What our reviewer said 'He wants us to think of free speech as being not just about the content of words but about which voices are heard most loudly and which are marginalised.'
Read the full review
Further reading The big idea: what do we really mean by free speech?
Out now
Summed up in a sentence Family, fatherhood and friendship fill the British rapper's fourth album – along with, for the first time, his singing voice.
What our reviewer said 'Whenever Carner slips into his low-pitched, totally unaffected croon, it cuts through any over-sweetness like a squeeze of lemon.' Rachel Aroesti
Read the full review
Out now
Summed up in a sentence These New Yorkers made one of our favourite rock albums of recent times with 2023's Cartwheel. This follow-up broadens out their sound.
What our reviewer said 'The way bandleader Will Anderson weaves acoustic and distorted guitars and blasts of needling feedback into something as beguiling as Julia's War is evidence of a unique talent operating in a crowded field.' Stevie Chick
Read the full review
Further reading The bands saving shoegaze, from Deafheaven to Feeble Little Horse
Out now
Summed up in a sentence This Estonian duo utilise runo song, a form of oral poetry specific to the Baltic Finnic languages, and play the kannel (an Estonian zither).
What our reviewer said 'These songs are rhythmically complex and have solid, ancient roots, but fans of ambient, Balearic dreaminess and the softer sides of indie pop and psych-folk will find woozy comforts here.' Jude Rogers
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Out now
Summed up in a sentence Conductor Klaus Mäkelä leads the Orchestre de Paris, performing Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique and Ravel's La Valse, having blown minds with their rendition of the former at last year's Proms.
What our reviewer said 'It's all played with consummate skill by an orchestra who are clearly responsive to their conductor's every move.' Erica Jeal
Read the full review
Further reading Prom 58: Orchestre de Paris/Mäkelä review – electrifying music-making from an elite team
Out now
Summed up in a sentence Currently on tour across the UK, this Chicago indie trio channel the Raincoats, the Feelies and the Velvet Underground on their second album.
What our reviewer said 'The album feels almost clockwork: every element machine-tooled, a place for everything, and everything in its place. But there's no coldness here, the poignancy only accentuated by the poise with which these songs are delivered.' Stevie Chick
Read the full review
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The Guardian
19 minutes ago
- The Guardian
‘It's hard to find work': Marlee Matlin on making Hollywood history but waiting for change
In 1987, at the age of 21, Marlee Matlin became the youngest person ever to win a best actress Oscar. Footage of her victory appears early in Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore, a new documentary on the trailblazing actor's life and career: Matlin, remarkably fresh-faced even for 21, in her very 80s purple dress, her brunette hair swept up by a floral headpiece, black-rimmed glasses on, appears stunned as William Hurt, her co-star in Children of a Lesser God and her boyfriend at the time, reads her name. Thunderous applause. The camera captures fellow nominee Jane Fonda mouthing 'that's so great' as Matlin, the first and still only deaf actor to win the award, approaches the podium and kisses Hurt. As she delivers her speech in American Sign Language (ASL), she seems almost too shocked to emote, overcome with the gravity of the moment. Matlin's win was indeed groundbreaking, a watershed moment for deaf representation. But as Not Alone Anymore explains, it was also much more complicated than a feelgood story of societal triumph, or a turning point for deaf creatives. Nor was it one of personal glory. Halfway through the film, the scene is replayed again, this time with the sound taken away – the thunderous applause muted to just a simulation of Matlin's own thunderous heartbeat as she walked to the stage. 'I was afraid as I walked up the stairs to get the Oscar,' Matlin recalls on screen in ASL. 'I was afraid because I knew, in my gut, that he wasn't that happy.' Hurt, 16 years her senior and an established Hollywood star, was intensely jealous of her success, and had already begun physically abusing her. Without sound and with context, what once read as overwhelming shock on her face instead appears as something darker, shaded with fear. The twist, of sorts, is one of many decisions by director Shoshannah Stern to subvert the hearing perspective that most viewers automatically assume. 'I wanted to return to her Oscar-winning moment twice,' Stern, a deaf actor herself, told me through an interpreter, 'because sound does limit people. There are a lot of things that I feel hearing people miss when they are just listening with their ears and not listening with their eyes.' When I first watched Matlin's win, I assumed, as Stern expected, that 'it's this roaring applause, so we're celebrating'. Without sound, the picture is clearer. 'You could see in that moment how scary it is,' said Stern. 'And it's right there. It's been in front of us this whole time.' Stern's intrinsic understanding of the deaf perspective was the reason Matlin, who went on to a long career on such shows as Seinfeld, The West Wing, The L Word and, most recently, the Oscar-winning film Coda, decided to make the film at all. 'Almost none of the documentaries that I've seen that have to do with a subject matter like myself have not been done right,' she told me over Zoom via her interpreter, Jack Jason, who has worked with Matlin since 1985. When PBS's American Masters approached her about a documentary, she had one demand: the director had to be deaf, and it had to be Stern, a longtime friend and occasional collaborator who co-created the show This Close. As she did with early financiers of Coda who wanted to cast big-name hearing actors for two deaf roles, Matlin stuck to her guns. Deaf participation, take it or leave it. 'I wanted to have that type of conversation I could [with] Shoshannah, where I could feel free and sign and not worry about an interpreter voiceover, not worry about my surroundings, not worry about any of that, just be there,' Matlin said. 'That was the first time that I felt at ease.' Much of Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore, which first premiered at the Sundance film festival, features Stern and Matlin in conversation unlike in any prior documentary I've seen, even with deaf subjects. The two women sign without voiceover, just subtitles for hearing viewers. Any ASL interpreters were not only off camera, but in a different room, communicating via earpieces. 'I wasn't accustomed to that approach. I've never seen that,' said Matlin. 'I'm accustomed to being voiced over, because that's how it's been in my entire career. That's the hearing perspective.' As the first Oscar-winning deaf actor and still the most famous, Matlin knows how, as Stern puts it, 'the world often tries to force perspectives on people, put the weight of explaining an entire community's experience on one person'. Voiceover and interpreters 'are another forced perspective', she said. 'When I'm interviewed by hearing people, I have to look at the interpreter. Where are they? How is my language being translated into English? And then I'm limiting myself. I'm thinking in a way that the hearing interviewer or the hearing director is thinking. I'm not thinking as myself.' 'It wasn't what I wanted Marlee to say in our documentary, it was how she spoke, how that changes when our expectations and our perspectives change,' she added. 'Accessibility is for everyone. It's not just for us as deaf people, but a lot of times that responsibility, that weight, is put on one person.' Not Alone Anymore illustrates that weight, which Matlin felt acutely as a very young person experiencing rapid professional success. Cast in Children of a Lesser God fresh out of high school, Matlin was new not only to screen acting but the world beyond her small community in suburban Chicago. The youngest of three children in a hearing family – Matlin became deaf at 18 months, for unknown reasons that, she recalls, nevertheless left her parents guilt-stricken – she attended a mixed deaf/hearing school and began acting at age seven; she was inspired, in part, by Henry Winkler, a lifelong mentor she first met backstage at a school show at age 12. (In 1993, Matlin married Kevin Grandalski, a cop she met on the set of Reasonable Doubts, in the Winklers' back yard. They have four children.) Matlin's family was not fluent in ASL, and it took years for her to understand the loneliness and isolation at home. She coped by smoking marijuana. At 19, she began dating Hurt, who was then 35. Her drug use escalated with the physical and emotional abuse; she has said she smoked 20 joints a day, plus cocaine. In the midst of her awards season run, she entered rehab. She emerged sober, and also the face of a deaf community she did not totally understand. 'I didn't realize that there were more deaf people out there, outside of Chicago, a whole community. It was bigger than what I even realized,' she said. Not Alone Anymore powers through cringey clips of interviewers asking Matlin to explain deafness. How did it feel to be deaf? Had she come to terms with it? Matlin powered through as best she could. She quickly became an activist, successfully pushing legislation in the US requiring closed captioning on TV and streaming sites. But she struggled as the lone representative of deafness for hearing people. The film lingers on backlash from the deaf community when Matlin spoke at the 1988 Oscars, which many felt encouraged the stereotype that deaf intelligence was connected to one's ability to imitate hearing speech. Matlin says the incident, fanned by hearing media attention, drove her away from the deaf community for over a decade. 'I had no guidance in terms of someone to sit down to me and explain about the language that was being used, about the language that I used,' she said. 'I had to find out the hard way.' Matlin faced similar media blowback, though of a different tenor, when she disclosed Hurt's abuse, as well as incidents of molestation by a babysitter and teacher in her childhood, in her 2009 memoir, I'll Scream Later. Not Alone Anymore again assembles very pre-#MeToo clips in which interviewers discounted or dismissed her experience. In one clip, Joy Behar asks about 'spectacular' sex with Hurt. 'Marlee has always been ahead of the curve,' said Stern of Matlin's willingness to speak up years before it became more common to do so. When Hurt died in 2022, at the age of 71, Matlin found her name once again brought up in his wake. 'On social media, I had to look at both sides of the conversations,' she recalled. In posts and comments, some people accused her of lying about the abuse; others were mad at those who accused her of crying wolf. 'They were trying to define me,' she said. 'And I would have none of that. I wanted them to stop, but at the same time, I decided to step away from the conversation' during Coda's press run. Did she wish now that she said anything? 'No, I don't,' she answered, after a beat. 'Because nothing would satisfy these people. And why should I have to? I didn't trust what would happen if I did get involved, because of my past experience of being ignored, of being overlooked, not getting any help. But it was interesting to observe, to see the two factions fighting about me thinking that they knew me.' It's a typically strident answer from Matlin, who has never minced words, particularly on how her Oscar did not open up more opportunities for deaf actors – the film's title comes from her emotional reaction to Coda costar Troy Kotsur's supporting actor Oscar in 2022, becoming only the second deaf actor to win. As with Matlin's 1987 trophy, Kotsur's win hasn't changed much. 'I'm not seeing more opportunities open up,' said Stern. 'It's still up to deaf people or people from a minority group to explain their experience to the majority,' she added. 'We continue to say what is expected of us, which is: 'Great story. Representation has changed! There's going to be so many job opportunities!' That's what people are expecting us to say. And if we say that, nothing's going to change.' 'My least favorite question is: Are you working? What's next?' said Matlin. 'I hate answering that question. I say, 'Oh, well, I have this.' I try to change the subject, talk about something else because they won't understand what I'm going through. 'It's hard to find work,' she said, but still insists: 'This is something I love to do. This is a business that I love being in. I love acting. I love it all.' Naturally, she can't say what is next – 'waiting for a yes or no, an answer, that's typically what I do' – beyond press for a film she and Stern both hope challenges some perspectives. 'I hope it makes people think. I hope that people feel seen,' said Stern. 'I hope people know that they have value in how they see the world, and you don't just have to accept how things have been done for so long.' Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore is out now in US cinemas
The National
37 minutes ago
- The National
BBC axes Gaza doctors documentary over 'impartiality'
Gaza: Doctors Under Attack explored the destruction of the health service in Gaza under Israel's brutal bombardment, and was reportedly ready to be broadcast in February. We told how the documentary was shelved last month following the controversy around How to Survive a Warzone, which featured the son of a Hamas official. READ MORE: UK Government 'set to proscribe Palestine Action after RAF protest' The production firm behind Gaza: Doctors Under Attack, Basement Films, said at the time that the BBC had postponed airing their film until after a review into How to Survive a Warzone is complete. However, despite the fact that this review remains ongoing, the BBC has now officially scrapped plans to show the documentary after concluding that it "risked creating a perception of partiality" over the corporation's coverage of Israel and Gaza. In a statement published on Friday, the BBC said: 'Our aim was to find a way to air some of the material in our news programmes, in line with our impartiality standards, before the review was published. "For some weeks, the BBC has been working with Basement Films to find a way to tell the stories of these doctors on our platforms.' It added: 'Yesterday it became apparent that we have reached the end of the road with these discussions. "We have come to the conclusion that broadcasting this material risked creating a perception of partiality that would not meet the high standards that the public rightly expect of the BBC. "Impartiality is a core principle of BBC News. It is one of the reasons that we are the world's most trusted broadcaster." READ MORE: Presiding Officer to step down at Holyrood election The BBC said it was transferring ownership of the film material to Basement Films, and that the documentary had "not undergone the BBC's final pre-broadcast sign-off processes", as some reports had suggested. The corporation also "thank[ed" those who contributed to the documentary and said "we are sorry we could not tell their stories". The BBC has been increasingly accused of failing to report on Israel's assault on Gaza in an impartial manner. A report published this week by the Centre for Media Monitoring found that the corporation's coverage showed a "pattern of bias, double standards and silencing of Palestinian voices". It found that the word massacre(d) was used 18 times more frequently in the context of Israeli deaths than Palestinian deaths in BBC articles. Emotive terms such as 'atrocities', 'slaughter', 'barbaric', 'deadly', 'brutal' were used four times more often when reporting on Israeli victims, while 'murder(ed)' was used 220 times in the Israeli context and just once for Palestinians. The report analysed a total of 3873 articles and 32,092 TV and radio broadcasts between October 7, 2023 to October 7, 2024.
The Sun
43 minutes ago
- The Sun
The 1% Club wipes out seven players instantly on easy 90% question – but would you have known the answer?
A QUESTION on The 1% Club wiped out players from the get-go - despite being deemed as easy. The popular quiz show, fronted by Lee Mack, is known for leaving players with their minds boggling thanks to its tough questions as the game goes on. 3 3 However for most of the 100 players, they manage to sail through the first few round which are deemed easy thanks to most of the general public being able to correctly answer them. But for one episode of the Saturday night quiz favourite, seven people fell at the very first hurdle. They all failed to correctly identify the answer to the opening 90% question - which was all about letters. Reading the question aloud, Lee said: "Which of the following words still makes a valid word if you change the first letter to the next letter in the alphabet?" Lee then told the players of the three choices they had to pick from, which were - Page, Rage and Wage. With 30 seconds on the clock, the 100 players did their best to attempt to answer the question. However, for seven of them, they could not get to the right answer. Lee then confirmed that the answer was in fact, Rage. By switching the 'R' to an 'S' - the following letter in the alphabet - players were left with the word, Sage. Page would have produced "oage", whilst Wage would have read "xage". The 1% Club wipes out 20 people on tricky numbers question One player who got it wrong admitted it was his "biggest fear" to go out on the 90% question. He told Lee that he panicked and failed to read the question properly before selecting the answer as "wage". Hardest Quiz Show Questions Would you know the answers to some of quizzing TV's hardest questions Who Wants To Be A Millionaire - Earlier this year, fans were left outraged after what they described as the "worst" question in the show's history. Host Jeremy Clarkson asked: 'From the 2000 awards ceremony onwards, the Best Actress Oscar has never been won by a woman whose surname begins with which one of these letters?' The multiple choice answers were between G, K, M and W. In the end, and with the £32,000 safe, player Glen had to make a guess and went for G. It turned out to be correct as Nicole Kidman, Frances McDormand and Kate Winslet are among the stars who have won the Best Actress gong since 2000. The 1% Club - Viewers of Lee Mack's popular ITV show were left dumbfounded by a question that also left the players perplexed. The query went as follows: "Edna's birthday is on the 6th of April and Jen's birthday falls on the 15th of October, therefore Amir's birthday must be the 'X' of January." It turns out the conundrum links the numbers with its position in the sentence, so 6th is the sixth word and 15th is the fifteenth word. Therefore, Amir's birthday is January 24th, corresponding to the 24th word in the sentence. The Chase - The ITV daytime favourite left fans scratching their heads when it threw up one of the most bizarre questions to ever grace the programme. One of the questions asked the player: "Someone with a nightshade intolerance should avoid eating what?" The options were - sweetcorn, potatoes, carrots - with Steve selecting sweetcorn but the correct answer was potatoes. 3
