Chemical Hearts review - turn off the sound

★★ CHEMICAL HEARTS Traumatic teen romance story looks good but lands with a thud

Story of traumatic teen romance looks good but lands with a thud

Musings on the agonies of adolescent love fall like dead weight in this wearying if well-acted adaptation by writer-director Richard Tanne of the 2016 Young Adult novel Our Chemical Hearts by Krystal Sutherland. 17-year-old Henry Page (Austin Abrams) falls hard for Grace Torn (Lili Reinhart, from TV's Riverdale), the indrawn new transfer student at his New Jersey high school who walks with a cane and speaks of needing her sins erased.

Songs for a New World, The Other Palace Digital review - chimes with our extraordinary 'moment'

★★★★ SONGS FOR A NEW WORLD, THE OTHER PALACE DIGITAL Abstract musical offers resonant tales of the unexpected

Jason Robert Brown's abstract musical offers resonant tales of the unexpected

We’ve already had The Last Five Years in lockdown; now, we get a digital production of American composer Jason Robert Brown’s earliest work. A series of wistful pop/jazz numbers loosely linked thematically, rather than narratively, this 1995 abstract musical features various characters responding to a moment that upends their lives.

Come As You Are review - a road trip with a difference

★★★★ COME AS YOU ARE Comedy about sex and disability is full of heart and laughs

Comedy about sex and disability is full of heart and laughs

At a point in the early noughties, every third film was a teen comedy about a road trip to lose one's virginity. It’s a genre most were glad to see the back of. What a pleasant surprise Come As You Are is then, which brings much needed heart and relevancy to this tired trope.

The Last Five Years, The Other Palace Digital review - socially distanced heartbreak

★★★ THE LAST FIVE YEARS, THE OTHER PALACE DIGITAL Socially distanced heartbreak

Jason Robert Brown's chamber musical has new lockdown resonance

A musical featuring two people who are physically separated? Jason Robert Brown’s work is a shutdown natural – as this new digital theatre version demonstrates.

Antony and Cleopatra, National Theatre at Home review – Fiennes and Okonedo triumph in dragging tragedy

★★★ ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA, NATIONAL THEATRE AT HOME A triumvirate of talent and a slick set can't speed things along

A triumvirate of talent and a slick set can't in themselves speed things along

Like an asp eating its own tail, the National Theatre's 2018 production of Antony and Cleopatra, streaming on YouTube until 14 May, begins as it will end. Director Simon Godwin's first tableau is the play's finale: Cleopatra (Sophie Okonedo) lies in queenly repose, a snakebite on her neck; her servants, Charmian (Gloria Obianyo) and Iras (Georgia Landers), slump around her.

Romantic Comedy review - a not-so-guilty pleasure

★★★★ ROMANTIC COMEDY Tough yet passionate look at joys & flaws of romcoms

Elizabeth Sankey's tough yet passionate look at the joys and flaws of romcoms

Only those who really love you can deliver the hard truths, and for filmmaker Elizabeth Sankey, that one love is romantic comedies. Better known as one half of band Summer Camp, Sankey is a self-confessed romcom expert, having watched nearly every film from the 80s onwards.

Run, Sky Comedy review - vicarious thrills for the self-isolation era

★★ RUN Vicarious thrills for the self-isolation era

Vicky Jones' ‘Run’ is a sexy, unpredictable thriller about being anywhere but home

Watching Run, HBO’s newest seven-part series, feels like off-the-rails escapism: it’s a fast-paced thriller about dropping everything, chasing intimacy and courting danger. It’s a vicarious adventure centred on a woman who has spent too long stuck at home. Run has hit our screens at the best possible time.