Renfield review - Dracula meets Steptoe and Son

★★ RENFIELD Nic Cage's vampire still puts his servant in the shade, in a slight horror comedy

Nic Cage's vampire still puts his servant in the shade, in a slight horror comedy

Dracula’s fly-eating henchman Renfield (Nicholas Hoult) seeks solace in a self-help group from his co-dependent, fanged boss (Nicolas Cage), in a comic horror action flick which posits the pair as a vampiric Steptoe and Son – though that relationship was more genuinely nightmarish.

In the Court of the Crimson King: King Crimson at 50 review - Robert Fripp's iron claw

★★★★ IN THE COURT OF THE CRIMSON KING Robert Fripp's iron claw

Penetrating doc about the prog band's fraught journey under its leader

Whether grinding or eerie, bellicose or plaintive, the exquisite jazz- and classical-infused prog rock dirges disgorged by King Crimson over the last 54 years stand apart from the more accessible sounds made by their illustrious peers, including Pink Floyd, Jethro Tull, Yes, Genesis, Curved Air, and ELP. Given the discomfiting aesthetic of Crimson’s music – a fulminating anti-panacea, relentlessly modernistic – is it any wonder there was much misery in its making?

Album: boygenius - The Record

Boygenius’ debut takes three generation-defining songwriters and forges an almighty collective

Maybe you’ve heard the Native American parable about the two wolves. An old Cherokee’s grandson is grappling with internal tensions; self-hatred and self-aggrandising. For Phoebe Bridgers, one-third of indie supergroup boygenius (usually styled with no initial capital letter), this analogy sits at the heart of album standout ‘Not Strong Enough’.

Succession, Season Four, Sky Atlantic review - powerful beginning for the endgame

★★★★★ SUCCESSION, SEASON FOUR, SKY ATLANTIC Powerful beginning for the endgame

Patriarch vs pretenders: a primal story that's never been more compellingly told

How much more is there left to be said about the excellence of Succession? It’s back for a final season, and devotees will pore over every detail, every conversational ploy from robust to downright crude, every chess move on this volatile board. As they should, because nothing comparable has appeared on television.

Blu-ray: Kamikaze Hearts

★★★★ BLU-RAY: KAMIKAZE HEARTS Provocative 1986 docudrama about the adult entertainment industry

Provocative 1986 docudrama about the adult entertainment industry

Last month’s Storyville: Sex on Screen (available on BBC iPlayer) was a slick, speedy (and repetitive) canter through the history of the sexual exploitation of women in Hollywood. It had star names like Jane Fonda, many references to the #MeToo movement, and praise for the new role of intimacy co-ordinators. 

John Wick: Chapter 4 review - is this the El Cid of shoot-'em-up movies?

★★★★★ JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 4 Is this the El Cid of shoot-'em-up movies?

Keanu Reeves's Zen assassin scales new heights of awesomeness

Since the first John Wick film from 2014 became an unexpected hit, the Wick franchise has blossomed into a booming business empire, also including comic books, video games and upcoming TV spin-offs. The title role has transformed Keanu Reeves, who remains guarded about his spiritual leanings, into the Zen master of action heroes.

Album: Lana Del Rey - Did You Know That There's a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd

The latest from the sultry American singer is overlong but contains gold

Compared to her peers, Lana del Rey is mightily prolific. This is her eighth album since her breakthough 11 years ago (her ninth in total). Her last album appeared 15 months ago. There’s still much she wants us to hear. Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd is an hour-and-a-quarter long. It sprawls. It could do with an edit, but as so often when talented musicians sprawl, there are also gems.

Marjorie Prime, Menier Chocolate Factory review - superbly acted chiller about a contemporary crisis

Pulitzer finalist asks how good an ally is modern technology

Artificial intelligence has become an even hotter topic since Jordan Harrison’s Marjorie Prime was first staged in Los Angeles in 2014, so it’s not surprising that the play’s handling of AI is being seen as its unique selling point. (It subsequently played Off Broadway and was made into a film.) 

Album: 100 gecs - 10,000 gecs

★★★★ 100 GECS - 10,000 GECS Bonkers eclecto-core smash-pop from playfully noisy US duo

Bonkers eclecto-core smash-pop from playfully noisy US duo

If popular music is dead and done and there’s nowhere left to go, rising duo 100 gecs, from St Louis, Missouri, are here to prove there’s still deranged fun to be had cannibalising the corpse. The second album from the pair, both in their late twenties and with a background in electronic production, is a post-modern assault, garish and unapologetic, part satire (possibly), part avant-punk noisiness, and part wilfully infantile and ridiculous.

Play Dead review - chills, thrills and stolen body parts

Patrick Lussier's thriller is low-budget but never cheap

The moral of this story is that if you’re going out to commit a robbery, don’t take your iPhone with you. This was the grave error committed by TJ (Anthony Turpel) and his friend Ross (Chris Lee), whose attempted heist was foiled by an angry shotgun-toting citizen. TJ managed to get away, but Ross – carrying the iPhone containing incriminating evidence of the pair’s guilt – was shot and left for dead.