Album: David Crosby - For Free

★★★★ DAVID CROSBY - FOR FREE Age has not withered him

Age has not withered him

David Crosby hit the headlines a few months back, another artist selling his song catalogue in order to secure his house. These days musicians must stay on the road to earn a living and sell records. It’s a punishing life, even for the young and fit. When you’re pushing 80, especially when you’ve spent years punishing your body, it becomes a real challenge, but it’s the only way to survive.

Carlos Ghosn: The Last Flight - Storyville, BBC Four review - the tycoon who fell to earth

★★★★ CARLOS GHOSN: THE LAST FLIGHT - STORYVILLE, BBC FOUR The tycoon who fell to earth

Astonishing story of power, politics, money and corruption in the automobile industry

The extraordinary story of motor industry executive Carlos Ghosn is a heady combination of power, money, corruption and international politics, with a Mission: Impossible-style ending that carries it over the finishing tape in dramatic style. It might be considered a cautionary tale, except that Ghosn’s experiences and personality were so unique that a repeat performance could never happen.

Blu-ray: The Night of the Hunter

★★★★★ BLU-RAY: THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER Poetic and chilling

Charles Laughton’s only film as a director is a dark thriller, both poetic and chilling

A United Artists studio executive was treated to a pre-release screening of Charles Laughton’s The Night of the Hunter in 1955. His damning response was, “it’s too arty.” The studio showed little interest in promotion and it was deemed a flop. Laughton, stung by his directorial debut’s muted reception, never directed another film.

Hairspray, London Coliseum review - brighter and more welcome than ever

★★★★★ HAIRSPRAY, LONDON COLISEUM Popular London and Broadway musical soars anew

Popular London and Broadway musical soars anew

A revival of a multi-award winning musical, with a big star or two, may look like a safe choice to re-open London’s largest theatre, the Coliseum, but there was a tingle of jeopardy in the air, exemplified when the show catches you by surprise, the curtain rising when (surely) people remain in the bar?

In the Heights review - to life, Lin-Manuel Miranda-style

★★★★ IN THE HEIGHTS To life, Lin-Manuel Miranda-style

2008 Tony winning musical transfers joyously to the screen

The general uptick of late in film versions of stage musical hits continues apace with In the Heights, which, to my mind anyway, is far more emotionally satisfying and visually robust onscreen than it was on Broadway, where it won the 2008 Tony for Best Musical.

Danielle Evans: The Office of Historical Corrections review - what happens when history comes knocking

Short fiction that summons the past to put the present to the test

There’s something refreshing about fiction you can easily trace back to the question what if? What if this or that existed? What would happen? What could? That question doesn’t have to send you down memory lane, wondering about roads not taken, or into the future, into space. You can stay right here, more or less in the present, in charted territory.

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.