CD: Grimes - Miss Anthropocene

★★★ GRIMES - MISS ANTHROPOCENE Grandiose ideas and production

Grandiose ideas and production, with the same old nerdy Grimes in there somewhere

Grimes is hilarious. For all the grandiose conceptualism, apocalyptic visions, high tech sonic manipulation, outré costumes, modish witchery, multiple personas, arch media baiting with her billionaire boyfriend and all the rest, she is still essentially a dork. When she emerged from the weird end of the 00s online electronic music landscape where semi-serious lo-fi genres like “witch house” and “seapunk” abounded, she always seemed kind of goofy with it.

The Visit, National Theatre review - star turn bolsters baggy rewrite

★★ THE VISIT, NATIONAL THEATRE Lesley Manville rises above the prevailing muddle

Lesley Manville rises above the prevailing muddle

Lesley Manville’s thrilling career ascent continues apace with The Visit, which marks American playwright Tony Kushner’s return to the National Theatre following the acclaimed Angels in America revival nearly three years ago.

Sonic the Hedgehog review - stuck in first gear

★★ SONIC THE HEDGEHOG Stuck in first gear

Bizarrely slow-motion effort to exploit Sega's speedster

An early trailer for this adaptation of the ‘90s games franchise caused Cats­-like horror at its overly humanoid Hedgehog. Rather than the former film’s risky freak-show, though, this diligently redesigned Sonic is the most safely saccharine family movie imaginable.

Darren Waterston: Filthy Lucre, V&A review - a timely look at the value of art

Whistler's Peacock Room destroyed, or so it seems

It looks as if vandals have ransacked Whistler's Peacock Room. The famous interior was commissioned in the 1870s by shipping magnate, Frederick Richard Leyland to show off his collection of fine porcelain. The specially designed shelves have been broken and their contents smashed; shards of pottery lie strewn across the floor.

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood review - an emotionally honest biopic

★★★ A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD Emotionally honest biopic

Tom Hanks gives one of his finest recent performances as Mr. Rogers

The role of Fred Rogers in A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood was made for Tom Hanks – and he excels in it. Rogers’ sixth cousin, Hanks has at his fingertips the compassion and warmth that made the zipper-cardigan-clad American children’s educational TV host a phenomenon.

Richard Jewell review - a portrait of duty and dignity in this true-life tale

Clint Eastwood offers up a complex, but flawed, account of the real-life hero blamed for the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Park bombing

Since Play Misty For Me in 1971, Clint Eastwood has been tearing up the American myth with a body of muscular, often melancholic work. He continues this theme with Richard Jewell, the story of a security guard falsely accused of the 1996 Atalanta Olympic Park bombing.

Queen & Slim review - a stylish and raw tale of outlaws on the lam

★★★★ QUEEN & SLIM A heady road trip across modern day America 

Melina Matsoukas’ potent protest drama is a heady road trip across modern day America

There’s a palpable rage to Melina Matsoukas’ first feature film Queen & Slim, starring Get Outs Daniel Kaluuya and newcomer Jodie Turner-Smith. Cast in the mould of Bonnie and Clyde, it’s a film that has you clinging to the arms of your seat from the first fifteen-minutes. 

The Sunset Limited, Boulevard Theatre review - all talk, no theatre

★★ THE SUNSET LIMITED, BOULEVARD THEATRE All talk, no theatre

Cormac McCarthy two-hander tries an audience's patience

Cormac McCarthy’s two-hander, premiered at Chicago's mighty Steppenwolf Theatre in 2006, has by this point been everything short of an ice ballet: a self-described “novel in dramatic form”, as one might expect from the American author of such titles as All the Pretty Horses and The Road, followed by a film made for TV directed by, and starring, Tommy Lee Jones, opposite Samuel L Jackson.

The Grudge review - non-stop shocks wear out their welcome

★★ THE GRUDGE Non-stop shocks wear out their welcome

Rebooted reboot of Japanese horror hit turns terror into tedium

The 18-year-old Japanese horror hit Ju-On (The Grudge) was remade once before, as – yes – The Grudge (2004), with Sarah Michelle Gellar. Now it's re-rebooted in this stylishly photographed but fatally crass incarnation directed by Nicolas Pesce, who is of the view that if something is scary once, keep repeating it ad nauseam.