Joseph Mazur: The Clock Mirage review – brief histories of time

JOSEPH MAZUR: THE CLOCK MIRAGE A 'curious tour of time'

How planets, people and proteins count the days and years

The Greek philosopher Zeno’s paradoxes, which have plagued thinkers for around 2500 years, tell us that super-speedy Achilles can never outrun the tortoise and that an arrow in flight must always occupy a fixed position at intervals of time – and so can never hit its target. My introduction to these favourite brain-tanglers came when, as an easily overawed teenager, I went to see Tom Stoppard’s play Jumpers and learned that, thanks to that arrested arrow, “Saint Sebastian died of fright”.

The Vast of Night review - perfectly paranoid

★★★★★ THE VAST OF NIGHT Teenage sleuths track visitors from afar in an impeccable low-budget indie

Teenage sleuths track visitors from afar in an impeccable low-budget indie

The Vast of Night’s premise scarcely guarantees originality. Non-science-fiction buffs scoping Amazon’s film listings will probably move on quickly when they learn it’s about two late-'50s teenagers discovering that an alien space craft is hovering over their rural New Mexico burg.

Album: Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith - The Mosaic of Transformation

★★★★ KAITLYN AURELIA SMITH - THE MOSAIC OF TRANSFORMATION Warm oceans of sound from the mystical synth-wrangler

Mystical synth-wrangler continues to create warm oceans of sound

A singer-songwriter of somewhat mystical bent, originally from a forested island in the US Pacific Northwest, Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith really came into her own when she discovered vintage synthesizers. In particular, her masterpiece, 2016's EARS, saw her vocals merging into the rich flows of bubbling tones, melodies channelling folk traditions from various corners of the world, creating an unmistakably utopian sound.

Westworld, Season 3, Sky Atlantic review – a cyberpunk triumph

★★★★ WESTWORLD, SEASON 3, SKY ATLANTIC A cyberpunk triumph 

It's still rich and intricate, but now stripped down and ready for action

In the time since the show’s inception four years ago, arguments have raged as to whether Westworld is a dud or a cult classic. For every dedicated fan, there’s someone out there crying, "The Matrix did it first!" and complaining that the plot didn’t make sense (it did).  

Sea Fever review - more ooze than aahs

★★★ SEA FEVER More ooze than aahs

A monster from the deep triggers mass contagion fears

When Sea Fever premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival last September, no one could have guessed its story about an Irish fishing trawler attacked by a giant jellyfish would in one respect prove prophetic. 

DVD: The Year of the Sex Olympics

Nigel Kneale's vision of broadcasting future is showing its age

Originally aired in BBC2’s “Theatre 625” slot in July 1968, Nigel Kneale’s The Year of the Sex Olympics has gathered a reputation as a groundbreaking piece of TV drama which uncannily anticipated the broadcasting future.

Gators, Tramp Productions online review - the glittering dark

★★★★ GATORS, TRAMP PRODUCTIONS Gloriously surreal monologue about everyday anxieties in extraordinary circumstances

Gloriously surreal monologue about everyday anxieties in extraordinary circumstances

She’s an ordinary young woman, and she really doesn’t know what to think. After all, things are way out of control. She knows that the natural world is pretty fucked, and that nothing grows in the earth any more — well, at least not on her patch. She knows that the gators, the semi-aquatic reptiles that used to live in swamps, have now taken to strolling through cities. And that they fall in love with humans, and serenade them, and feel bad when they are rejected.

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.

Little Joe - trouble in the greenhouse

★★★★ LITTLE JOE Jessica Hausner's exquisite sci-fi allegory about conflicted motherhood

Jessica Hausner's exquisite sci-fi allegory about conflicted motherhood

Austrian filmmaker Jessica Hausner’s disquieting fifth feature, and her first English language one, Little Joe is a sci-fi drama that ponders the tangled choices faced by many modern women – Kubrickian though it is in its immaculate production design and cold, affectless tone.