Katherine Angel: Tomorrow Sex Will Be Good Again review – the complexities of consent

★★★★ KATHERINE ANGEL: TOMORROW SEX WILL BE GOOD AGAIN Consent as a binary cannot be everything we want it to be

Consent as a binary cannot be everything we want it to be

Katherine Angel borrows the title of her latest book, Tomorrow Sex Will Be Good Again, from an essay by Foucault. The phrase parodies the supposed sexual liberation on the horizon in the ‘60s and ‘70s, picking apart the notion that sexuality and pleasure are intrinsically linked to some future freedom to speak.

Albums of the Year 2020: Fiona Apple - Fetch the Bolt Cutters

★★★★★ ALBUMS OF THE YEAR 2020: FIONA APPLE - FETCH THE BOLT CUTTERS Making space for the things we don't talk about in quarantine times

Making space for the things we don't talk about in quarantine times

Back in October, Fiona Apple – whose Fetch the Bolt Cutters, released in April, captured a particular early pandemic mood – was interviewed by Emily Nussbaum for The New Yorker Festival. “I think we women should be marrying our friends,” she told the journalist. “We have sexual freedom! We have dogs! We have fun! We can do whatever we want!”

Natalie Palamides: Nate: A One Man Show, Netflix review - deep dive into toxic masculinity still has power

★★★★★ NATALIE PALAMIDES: NATE: A ONE MAN SHOW, NETFLIX A deep dive into toxic masculinity

'One-man' show about consent

Edgy comedy runs the risk of discomfiting the audience so much that they can't relax and enjoy the show. But Natalie Palamides, appearing as Nate, her alter ego, in Nate: A One Man Show on Netflix, pulls it off, and then some.

The Other Lamb review - a surreal portrait of an abusive cult

Beautiful but dull: Malgorzata Szumowska's English-language debut lacks substance

“Thank you, Shepherd, for allowing us to be your wives. Come down upon me and fill me with yourself.” Collective ecstasy – and a lot of wool – is the order of the day in this cult led by Michael, aka Shepherd (Michiel Huisman; Game of Thrones; The Haunting of Hill House), a handsome, bearded chap who looks soft and likeable but has a sadistic Jesus complex.

theartsdesk Q&A: Sally Anne Gross and Dr George Musgrave, authors of 'Can Music Make You Sick?'

Q&A: SALLY ANNE GROSS, DR GEORGE MUSGRAVE The authors of incisive new study 'Can Music Make You Sick?'

On World Mental Health Day we meet the authors of an incisive new study of music and musicians

Today is World Mental Health Day and of course that means an awful lot of hugs and homilies, thoughts and prayers, deep-breathing exercises and it’s-good-to-talk platitudes from people speaking from positions of immense privilege – ranging from the well-meaning to outright grifters.

Ian Williams: Reproduction review - a dazzling kaleidoscope of life's tragicomedy

★★★★ IAN WILLIAMS: REPRODUCTION Dazzling kaleidoscope of life's tragicomedy

Restless tale of stress and strife is invigorated by endless wordplay and stylistic surprises

Ian Williams’s writing is always in motion. For his 2012 poetry collection Personals, and since, he has composed little circular poems, similar (in style though not sentiment) to the posies you sometimes find inscribed on the inside of rings. He incorporates a couple into Reproduction, his debut and Griffin Prize-winning novel. “I’m sorry I made you hate me”, “no I don’t hate you baby don’t hurt me”, they read.

Emma Cline: Daddy review - scintillating short stories by the author of The Girls

★★★★ EMMA CLINE: DADDY Scintillating short stories by the author of The Girls

Dark, ambiguous tales of deviance and disconnection

The Girls, Emma Cline’s acclaimed debut novel of 2016, was billed as a story based on the Manson murders. But in fact, like some of the stories in Daddy, her new short-story collection (written over a decade, several have already been published in magazines), it was an investigation into female friendship and what it means to be a teenage girl, when that state in itself makes feelings unreliable, “handicaps your ability to believe yourself”, and when so much time is spent trying “to slur the rough, disappointing edges of boys into the shape of someone we could love”.

On the Record review - #MeToo turns its lens to the music industry, gives the mic to women of colour

★★★ ON THE RECORD #MeToo turns its lens to the music industry, gives the mic to women of colour

An unflinching look at #MeToo, misogyny in hip hop, and the burdens of black women

On the Record, the latest documentary from Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering (acclaimed directors of The Hunting Ground), dives into the sexual misconduct allegations against music mogul Russell Simmons, the so-called ‘Godf

The Assistant review - riveting #MeToo drama

★★★★ THE ASSISTANT Riveting #MeToo drama

Julia Garner is the newbie personal assistant whose boss is a sexual predator

Harvey Weinstein is never mentioned in The Assistant, but the former movie mogul and convicted rapist looms large over this savagely relevant drama, which offers a vivid picture of what life might have been like for every one of the employees – male as well as female, victim or no – trapped in Weinstein’s evil little world.