Counting Sheep, The Vaults review - visceral recreation of an uprising

★★★★ COUNTING SHEEP, THE VAULTS Viscereal recreation of an uprising

Revolution is about youth, music, anger, and - frankly - sex

Is there a connection between revolution and theatre? The answer has to be yes – a visceral one. The supremacy of symbols, the collective strength of a crowd, a sense that some kind of pressure valve is being released to challenge the dominant social narrative. The Ancient Greeks understood this – it was from such impulses that theatre had its birth. So how does that work amid the populist turbulence of the twenty-first century?

Destroyer review - Kidman shines in middling crime drama

A cliched script and grim aesthetic sours a powerhouse performance

Destroyer. It’s an apt name. Like the film, it's grandiose and blunt. Nicole Kidman is almost unrecognisable (a requirement when aiming for nominations) as Detective Erin Bell, a damaged survivor of an undercover heist gone wrong. When her target resurfaces after 17 years, she must pull her life together to hunt him down and finally close the case, whatever it takes.

Kreator / Dimmu Borgir, Roundhouse review - explosive extreme metal extravaganza

★★★★ KREATOR / DIMMU BORGIR, ROUNDHOUSE Explosive extreme metal extravaganza

A tour-concluding night of energised international thrash mayhem

It’s about to begin. The final performance on the final night – and only UK date – of the European Apocalypse package tour featuring four extreme metal bands. The 1,700 capacity Roundhouse is sold out. Touts outside are scrabbling for tickets. A curtain covers the stagefront. A procession of images flicker across it; ancient art, demons, gods and hellish conflict. Then the screen goes black. In large white gothic letters, words in sequence: LONDON. PREPARE. TO. GET.

Lizzie review - murder most meticulous

★★★★ LIZZIE Historic axe-killer mystery reworked as feminist fable

Historic axe-killer mystery reworked as feminist fable

The story of Lizzie Borden, controversially acquitted of murdering her father and stepmother with an axe in Fall River, Massachusetts in 1892, has been explored many times on screen and in print (there’s even an opera and a musical version, not to mention the Los Angeles metal band Lizzy Borden).

Laurent Cantet: 'Young people have different preoccupations nowadays' – interview

LAURENT CANTET The award-winning director on his new film 'The Workshop'

The award-winning director discusses his new film, The Workshop, in which some newbie writers get in a tizz over the fine line between fact and fiction

Like Ken Loach and the Dardennes brothers, Laurent Cantet is a filmmaker with a keen interest in social issues and themes, often using non-professional actors and a naturalistic approach, but perfectly willing to inject a little plot contrivance to spice things up.

Suspiria review - kindly, slow-motion grand guignol

★★★★ SUSPIRIA Horror shocker remade with heartfelt emotion

Horror shocker remade with heartfelt emotion

The first Suspiria was a sensation, and spectacularly, monomaniacally new. Its young heroine Susie Bannon’s ride from an innately hostile airport through eldritch woods in which a panicked girl ran from her destination, the Markos Academy of Dance, as Goblin’s rock score gibbered and pounded at the senses, was hysterical, relentless film-making.

Peterloo review - Mike Leigh's angry historical drama

★★★★★ PETERLOO Angry, riveting historical drama from Mike Leigh

Sprawling and wordy, but riveting

Considering how the UK prides itself on having created the "Mother of Parliaments" and its citizens having once chopped off a king's head for thwarting its will, remarkably little is taught in our schools about one of the seminal events on the way to fully democratising this country: the Peterloo Massacre.