DVD/Blu-ray: Lino Brocka - Two Films

Homage to the Filipino master of social film-making

With some re-releases, the fascination is not only discovering the work of a director, but also the environment and context in which he or she worked.

Twelfth Night, Shakespeare's Globe review - Emma Rice goes out with a bang

★★★ TWELFTH NIGHT, SHAKESPEARE'S GLOBE Emma Rice goes out with a bang

Shakespeare's cross-dressing comedy gets the high-seas treatment, but loses the poetry

The Globe’s artistic director Emma Rice has made no secret of her desire to go out with a bang, in this, the final season of her brutally truncated tenure at the company. With this Twelfth Night she stages a departure with bells (and whistles, and disco-balls, electric guitars, congas, Sister Sledge, and yes, a whole rig of lighting) on – a neon-bright, two-fingered salute to the board that forced her out.

McLaren review - illuminating portrait of New Zealand's racing ace

★★★ McLAREN Director Roger Donaldson revisits the career of a motorsport icon

Director Roger Donaldson revisits the career of a motorsport icon

We’ve recently seen how Formula One heroes Ayrton Senna, Niki Lauda and James Hunt can become box office gold, in the form of Senna and Rush.

Reissue CDs Weekly: Brinsley Schwarz

Last gasp album by the pub rock legends shows how Nick Lowe leapfrogged punk

In the second week of September 1979, Nick Lowe’s “Cruel to be Kind” entered the Top 40. A month later, it peaked at number 12. The commercial success was belated validation for a song with a history. In May 1978, an earlier version was the B-side of his “Little Hitler” single. Fans with long memories heard another, even earlier, “Cruel to be Kind” when his old band Brinsley Schwarz recorded it for the BBC’s John Peel Show in February 1975. It was co-written by Lowe with fellow bandmember Ian Gomm.

Reissue CDs Weekly: The Vibrators

Whether punk or not, new box set of the opportunistic pop-rockers comes up with the goods musically

When the Sex Pistols first played live on 6 November 1975 at St. Martin’s School of Art, they were the support act to a Fifties-influenced band called Bazooka Joe whose roadie was John “Eddie” Edwards. Of the first band on that night, he declared “everyone said ‘oh, they’re not much good are they?’ They were a bit untogether.”

Guerrilla review – 'it takes itself fantastically seriously'

★★★ GUERILLA, SKY ATLANTIC Racism and revolution in 1970s London

Racism and revolution in 1970s London

Devised and written by John Ridley, the Oscar-winning writer of 12 Years a Slave, Guerrilla (Sky Atlantic) takes us back to London, 1971. The story is set among a group of black activists agitating against racism and police brutality, and the city is portrayed as a shabby, smouldering dystopia about to erupt into apocalyptic violence.

DVD: Crimson

Nasty and brutish grade-Z Eurotrash marriage of crime drama and horror

After watching the grim Crimson, it’s impossible not to feel grubby and perplexed. Grubby, as this is a catering-size example of squalid exploitation cinema. Perplexed, as its plot is senseless, the charisma-free acting so inept that the cast may as well be talking in a bus queue, and the technical aspects of the film-making thoroughly lacking: continuity errors abound and microphones are in shot. It also lacks any sense of drama and pace, and is over-talky. Yet, as it rolls towards its ludicrous conclusion, Crimson exerts a horrid fascination.

DVD: Slaughterhouse-Five

DVD: SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE Deft and faithful film adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut’s bold novel

Deft and faithful film adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut’s bold novel

“I never saw anything like it,” declares Billy Pilgrim in wonderment. “It’s the Land of Oz.” He has just seen Dresden’s splendour from the train carriage into which he and other American prisoners of war are crammed en route to the city. They’ve been told it will be easier there than the prison camp they’ve left: they will experience less hardship at their new quarters. Dresden is not the Land of Oz, though.

Reissue CDs Weekly: Gerry & The Holograms

Did an obscure Manchester electronic duo influence New Order?

It’s been suggested that New Order’s “Blue Monday” borrowed from Gerry & The Holograms’ eponymous 1979 A-side.

Reissue CDs Weekly: Wigwam

REISSUE CDS WEEKLY: WIGWAM Finland’s progressive rock titans caught in their live splendour

Finland’s progressive rock titans caught in their live splendour

Over 1972 to 1975, Finland staged a small-scale invasion of Britain. A friendly one, it was confined to music. First, the progressive rock band Tasavallan Presidentti came to London in May 1972 and played Ronnie Scott’s. The Sunday Times’ Derek Jewell said they were “frighteningly accomplished” and that readers should “watch them soar”. The next year, they toured and appeared on BBC2’s Old Grey Whistle Test.