RuPaul's Drag Race, Season 12, Netflix review - 13 queens up the game

★★★★ RUPAUL'S DRAG RACE, SEASON 12, NETFLIX 13 queens up the game

Shantay, they all stay, for now, but who'll win the crown is anyone's guess

As RuPaul's best squirrel friend Michelle Visage, co-doyenne of the amused and amusing judges, put it, "that was some next-level shit". She was referring to a high point in the contest's weekly lip sync-ing finales, right at the end of the new season's first entertainment (on Netflix), but it's true of the majority of the 13 queens presented over two episodes to compete for the crown.

Onward review - do you believe in magic?

★★★ ONWARD Pixar excels at brotherly love in familiar, charm-filled family quest

Pixar excels at brotherly love in a familiar but charm-filled family quest

Welcome to New Mushroomton: a fantasy land that’s forgotten itself. This is how we’re introduced to Pixar’s Onward, which is set in a Dungeons & Dragons daydream of suburbia. Director Dan Scanlon’s film is a tribute to his late father, but it begins with a separate elegy.

The Photograph review - star-powered romance mostly simmers, sometimes soars

★★★ THE PHOTOGRAPH Star-powered romance mostly simmers, sometimes soars

Lakeith Stanfield and Issa Rae star in Stella Meghie's light-soaked love story

The Photograph, from writer-director Stella Meghie, tells twin tales. The first is all flashback and follows Christine (Chanté Adams, pictured below with Y'lan Noel), a young photographer balancing love and ambition.

The Last Five Years, Southwark Playhouse review - an inspired actor-musician take on a cult classic

★★★★ THE LAST FIVE YEARS, SOUTHWARK PLAYHOUSE Inspired actor-musician takes on cult classic

Jason Robert Brown's conceptual relationship musical gets an enriching new layer

There’s concept on top of concept in this revival of Jason Robert Brown’s beloved 2001 musical, which charts the ebb and flow of a relationship by juggling timelines: aspiring actress Cathy’s story is told in reverse chronological order, while aspiring writer Jamie’s moves forward. It’s an apt framing for a couple who are never on the same page, their dual ambitions and relative success wrenching them apart.

Dark Waters review - an ominous drama with plenty of backbone, but not enough flesh

★★★ DARK WATERS Ominous drama with plenty of backbone, but not enough flesh

Mark Ruffalo stars as a remarkable American hero in the latest whistleblower flick

Watching Dark Waters, the latest film from director Todd Haynes (Carol, Far from Heaven), I kept thinking — what’s the opposite of a love letter? The film is based on the work of Rob Bilott, a real-life lawyer who uncovered a corruption scandal so toxic that it was literally poisoning us. Dark Waters stars Mark Ruffalo as Bilott, and it functions as a dignified takedown of DuPont: the chemical giant responsible for the poison.

CD: James Taylor, American Standard - a trip down memory lane

★★★ CD: JAMES TAYLOR, AMERICAN STANDARD A trip down memory lane

Leaves from the Great American Songbook

“Fire and Rain”. Who doesn’t recall James Taylor’s first number one 50 years ago! Born in Carolina and a “graduate” of the 1960s Greenwich Village music scene, Sweet Baby James has given the world some enduring songs and been part of some of music’s greatest scenes.

First Person: Hassan Abdulrazzak on the real-life drama behind American deportation to the UK

FIRST PERSON Hassan Abdulrazzak on the real-life drama behind American deportation to the UK

A provocative fact-based play locates truth in transcripts

You are at a party having a good time when someone gives you a glass of champagne. You take one and then another and soon the party is over. You get in the car to go home and are driving along when you see a police car in the rearview mirror: how annoying! Now you are regretting that indulgent second glass but what’s done is done. The cop gives you a breathalyzer test and you are exactly at the legal limit. The cop says you have to be below that limit, and you are arrested, charged, imprisoned and deported.