Black Panther review - more meh than marvellous

★★ BLACK PANTHER The Marvel movie made by black talent takes itself too seriously

The Marvel movie made by black talent takes itself too seriously

Black Panther arrives with all the critics displaying superhero-sized goodwill for its very existence. It’s a big budget mainstream Marvel movie that not only features a nearly all-black cast, but it also has an African-American writer director (Ryan Coogler) and co-screenwriter (Joe Robert Cole).

Collective Rage, Southwark Playhouse review - a rollicking riot

★★★★ COLLECTIVE RAGE, SOUTHWARK PLAYHOUSE Absurd romp through love, lust, and friendship is a knock-out

Absurd romp through love, lust, and friendship is a knock-out

“Pussy is pussy” and “bitches are bitches” but Jen Silverman’s Collective Rage at Southwark Playhouse smashes tautologies with roguish comedy in a tight five-hander smartly directed by Charlie Parham.

Afua Hirsch: Brit(ish) review - essential reading on identity

★★★★ AFUA HIRSCH: BRIT(ISH) Memoir meets history in this investigation into race, identity and belonging

Memoir meets history in this investigation into race, identity and belonging

Usually extracts in newspapers should stimulate the appetite of the reader to get with it; this is a rare moment when the glimpses afforded to Afua Hirsch’s Brit(ish): On Race, Identity and Belonging have peculiarly maligned a complex and amply researched investigation into questions of race, identity, politics, geography and history.

Kiri, Channel 4 review - transracial adoption drama muddies the waters

★★★★ KIRI, CHANNEL 4 - No easy answers in Jack Thorne's latest four-parter, starring Sarah Lancashire

No easy answers in Jack Thorne's latest four-parter, starring Sarah Lancashire

“I’m black – I need to find out how black people live.” So reasoned Kiri, sitting in the back seat of the car driven by her social services case worker. She was on the way from her prospective adopters, a white middle-class couple who already had a teenage son, to pay a first unsupervised visit to her Nigerian-born grandparents. Kiri (Felicia Mukasa, pictured below) was mature beyond her years, open-minded and well-spoken, while her case worker Miriam (Sarah Lancashire) brimmed with mumsy good cheer and sensible advice.

DVD/Blu-ray: Detroit

Kathryn Bigelow's remembrance of riot and racism keeps a claustrophobic grip

Detroiters razed sections of their own city as surely as Rome did Carthage, during five summer days in 1967. It took, amongst others, the 101st Airborne – victors at the Battle of the Bulge, then just back from Vietnam – to crush America's worst race riot of the decade.

Suburbicon review - George Clooney's jarring pastiche of the American dream

★★ SUBURBICON George Clooney's jarring pastiche of the American dream

Promising cast and an original Coen brothers' script fails to deliver

If you’re hoping for an incisive look at Fifties American suburbia in this unappealing film, directed and co-written by George Clooney, you’ll be disappointed. It’s hardly worthy of the director of Good Night, and Good Luck, also set in the Fifties and co-written by Grant Heslov.

DVD/Blu-ray: My Beautiful Laundrette

★★★★★ DVD/BLU-RAY: MY BEAUTIFUL LAUNDRETTE Stephen Frears’ unexpected 1985 hit is as fresh and relevant as ever

Stephen Frears’ unexpected 1985 hit is as fresh and relevant as ever

This rerelease of Stephen Frears’ My Beautiful Laundrette comes as part of the wider BFI programme marking the 50th anniversary of the passing of the Sexual Offences Act 1967, and its presence in that strand, as one of the foremost works of its time to engage with gay issues, is a given.