'Daddy' A Melodrama, Almeida Theatre review - production exuberance carries a new play of promise

★★★★ 'DADDY' A MELODRAMA, ALMEIDA Production exuberance carries new play of promise

Jeremy O Harris's scintillating drama poses questions about possession, in life and art

Danya Taymor’s production of “Daddy A Melodrama has a huge exuberance: a tour de force in itself, it's also a scintillating introduction to the work of Jeremy O Harris. The young American dramatist earned considerable attention, and acclaim for the acuity of his investigation of race issues, for his 2018 Slave Play, but it's this earlier piece, written when Harris was in his mid-twenties, that reaches London first (after a two-year Covid delay).

Ambulance review – Michael Bay in excelsis

An emotionally vacant, absurd thrill-ride through the streets of LA

Speed in an ambulance? Gone In 60 Seconds meets Heat? Reports that Michael Bay’s lockdown-shot LA film would be an intimate, “character-based” drama don’t survive contact with the director’s high-concept, high-velocity MO.

Pam & Tommy, Disney+ review - the infamous sex tape that went global

★★ PAM & TOMMY, DISNEY+  The infamous sex tape that went global

The exploitation of a historic episode of exploitation?

The transformation of Lily James, demure star of Yesterday, Cinderella and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, into smokin’ beach babe Pamela Anderson is the most memorable thing about Disney+'s uneven eight-part drama.

Album: Finneas - Optimist

★★★★ FINNEAS - OPTIMIST Brother and collaborator of a big star steps out on his own

Brother and collaborator of one of the biggest stars on earth steps out on his own

This record is a heck of a metatextual experience to listen to. In releasing his debut album, 24 year old Finneas O’Connell is attempting to step out of the shadow of one of the biggest pop cultural behemoths of our time – his own sister, Billie Eilish, who he also writes and produces for – and mark out a creative lane of his own. And he’s documenting this in many of these songs, which touch repeatedly on his experience of fame, struggles with identity and the like.

Album: Lindsey Buckingham - Lindsey Buckingham

★★★★ LINDSEY BUCKINGHAM A lovely reckoning with ambiguity and loss

A lovely reckoning with ambiguity, loss and Fleetwood Mac by their exiled leader

Lindsey Buckingham was last in and first out of Fleetwood Mac’s classic line-up (quitting in 1987, and forced out by long ago ex- Steve Nicks in 2018).

Album: Willow - Lately I Feel Everything

Scion of Hollywood royalty goes punk

Willow Smith has done more during her life than the average 20-year-old. The daughter of Will Smith and Jada Pinkett-Smith, she bounced off her childhood appearance in her father’s film I Am Legend to a No 2 UK hit with “Whip My Hair” a decade ago, and has since released a bunch of music.

Album: Peyton - PSA

★★★ PEYTON - PSA Perfectly smooth and subtly strange modernist Texan soul

Perfectly smooth and subtly strange modernist Texan soul

For 25 years now, LA label Stones Throw records has become one of the most reliable brands in music. It began with, and has always been associated with, the leftfield hip hop of founder George “Peanut Butter Wolf” Manak, and regular contributors Madlib and J Dilla.

Billie Eilish: The World's a Little Blurry, Apple TV+ review - sprawling account of the singer's rise to superstardom

★★★ BILLIE EILISH: THE WORLD'S A LITTLE BLURRY Sprawling account of the singer's rise to stardom

Would RJ Cutler's documentary work better in bite-sized chunks?

The Billie Eilish story is a paradigm of pop music and marketing, 2020s-style. Eilish’s instinctive talent became evident when she was barely into her teens, and she flourished with the support of a close-knit and musical family. But the club-gigs-and-radio-play model is long gone, and Eilish’s high-speed ride was boosted by a deal with Apple Music, releases of individual tracks on SoundCloud and YouTube and hefty promotional support from Spotify.

Blu-ray: Visual Acoustics

★★★★ BLU-RAY: VISUAL ACOUSTICS 'The Modernism of Julius Shulman' salutes an eminent American architectural photographer

'The Modernism of Julius Shulman' salutes an eminent American architectural photographer

One of the world’s leading architectural photographers, Julius Shulman was the subject of a show at London’s Photographers’ Gallery this autumn, “Altered States of America”. That title surely alluded to the visual modernism that changed the face of that country over the course of the 20th century, which Shulman, working in close tandem with the architects concerned, captured over a career of almost eight decades, in California especially.