A Quiet Place Part II review - noise abatement sequel

★★★★ A QUIET PLACE II Family vs alien monsters franchise sustains suspense

Family vs alien monsters franchise sustains suspense

Fourteen months after the Manhattan premiere of John Krasinski's A Quiet Place Part II – and three years after his taut, spare original spawned the most suspenseful sci-fi horror franchise of recent times – the movie is setting post-pandemic box office records. Not unexpectedly, it finds the reduced Abbott family still in desperate survival mode in decimated upstate New York.

Mare of Easttown, Season Finale, Sky Atlantic review - great performances in a town called malice

★★★★ MARE OF EASTTOWN, SEASON FINALE, SKY ATLANTIC Brad Ingelsby's brilliant but bleak drama storms to a close

Brad Ingelsby's brilliant but bleak drama storms to a close

With the last series of Line of Duty having left portions of its viewership dismayed and disgruntled, one consolation prize has been the way the many fine qualities of HBO’s Mare of Easttown (on Sky Atlantic) have seen it promoted it into the “unmissable” bracket. It isn’t anything like LoD, of course, and indeed the way it has stepped nimbly around the conventional pigeonholes of thriller or cop-show is one of the keys to its success.

Walden, Harold Pinter Theatre review – where’s the emotion?

★★★ WALDEN, HAROLD PINTER THEATRE Debut play about siblings, climate change and space travel is full of ideas - but where’s the emotion?

Debut play about siblings, climate change and space travel is full of ideas

There’s something definitely inspiring about producer Sonia Friedman’s decision to reopen one of her prime West End venues with a season, called RE:EMERGE, of three new plays. The first drama is American playwright Amy Berryman’s ambitious debut, Walden, and this will be followed later in June by Yasmin Joseph’s J’Ouvert and then in July by Joseph Charlton’s Anna X.

Album: Liz Phair - Soberish

★★★★ LIZ PHAIR - SOBERISH The songwriter with something to say returns

A welcome return from a songwriter with something to say

Pop music, like Hollywood, is a dream factory: a place where you can be anything you like, as long as that’s not a middle-aged woman. I’ll hit the last year of my 30s next week, with the number one spot in the country held by a woman who has her driving licence but isn’t old enough to drink. Cannot relate. In either respect. Thank god, then, for the return of Liz Phair.

Blu-ray: Jungle Fever

Spike Lee's provocative portrait of love across the racial divide

Thirty years since its original release, Jungle Fever appears on Blu-ray for the first time, courtesy of the British Film Institute. Some aspects of the movie have aged well – it’s electrifying to revisit Samuel L Jackson’s breakthrough performance as a crack addict plumbing new depths to feed his habit. But other aspects haven’t fared so well, primarily the script’s sexual politics and the casting of Wesley Snipes as the (anti) romantic male lead.

Matthew Barney: Redoubt, Hayward Gallery review - the wild west revisited

★★★ MATTHEW BARNEY: REDOUBT, HAYWARD GALLERY The wild west revisited

A fusion of classical and modern mythology

The focal point of Matthew Barney’s Hayward exhibition is Redoubt, a two-and-a-quarter-hour film projected on a giant screen that invites you to immerse yourself in the rugged terrain of the Sawtooth Mountains in Idaho, where he grew up.

Nomadland review - on the road in the American West

★★★★ NOMADLAND Frances McDormand on the road in the American West

Frances McDormand shines in Chloé Zhao's Oscar-scooping third feature

Fern (a luminous Frances McDormand) used to work in HR. Now, aged 62, she’s harvesting sugarbeets, hauling rocks, cleaning toilets in a trailer park and doing shifts in an Amazon warehouse. And she’s living out of her camper van, a shabby, lovingly restored RV she calls Vanguard. “I’m not homeless, I’m houseless,” she says, driving through vast Western landscapes under spectacular skies.

Army of the Dead review - triumphant return to zombieland by director Zack Snyder

★★★★ ARMY OF THE DEAD Triumphant return to zombieland by director Zack Snyder

Who knew battling the undead could be this much fun?

Zack Snyder’s CV includes such fantastic fare as Watchmen, 300, Man of Steel and his career-launching zombie-fest Dawn of the Dead, so who better to helm a zombies-in-Vegas heist movie?

The Underground Railroad, Amazon Prime review - a horrifying ride through America's heart of darkness

★★★★ THE UNDERGROUND RAILWAY, AMAZON PRIME Barry Jenkins' adaptation is a horrifying ride through America's heart of darkness

Barry Jenkins's adaptation of Colson Whitehead's novel hits you with shock and awe

Many a director might have considered that televising Colson Whitehead’s novel The Underground Railroad was impossible, but Barry Jenkins, Oscar-winning director of Moonlight, has proved it can be done. His 10-part series for Amazon Prime is a remarkable achievement in its authorial depth and cinematic scope.