From Cape Fear to Zoh Amba, this week's cultural highlights are packed with rave reviews. Javier Bardem delivers a menacing performance in a wild remake of the psychological thriller, while jazz saxophonist Zoh Amba surprises with raw country rock spirituality. Here's the pick of the week's culture, taken from the Guardian's best-rated reviews.
TV
If you only watch one, make it ... Cape Fear
Apple TV; available now. Summed up in a sentence: Javier Bardem and Amy Adams star in a wild, wild remake of the Scorsese classic – which is destined to be seen as the definitive version. What our reviewer said: "Bardem is having the absolute time of his life." – Lucy Mangan. Read the full review. Further reading: Cape Fear: Amy Adams is incredible in this twisty remake of the classic Scorsese thriller.
Pick of the rest
Emma Barnett: Surviving Endometriosis
BBC iPlayer; available now. Summed up in a sentence: The Today presenter takes an unflinching look at a horrific illness that leaves one in 10 women in extreme pain – including her. What our reviewer said: "Barnett is determined to confront viewers with the constant struggle that belies her professional achievements and family life." – Rachel Aroesti. Read the full review.
Tip Toe
Channel 4; available now. Summed up in a sentence: Russell T Davies takes on homophobia, gay rights and Trump in a tale of warring neighbours featuring excellent performances from Alan Cumming and David Morrissey. What our reviewer said: "Cumming keeps the spiky, idiosyncratic Leo just the right side of likable and relatable and Morrissey does his usual magnificent lot." – Lucy Mangan. Read the full review. Further reading: 'How often I'm called a paedophile online is shocking': inside Russell T Davies's horrifying drama about rising hatred.
You may have missed ... American Classic
MGM+; available now. Summed up in a sentence: A delightful, comforting sitcom about a small-town theatre starring Kevin Kline and Laura Linney. What our reviewer said: "American Classic's combination of charm, wit and tenderness – and especially the encouragement to forgive ordinary human frailties – is reminiscent of Ted Lasso and Schitt's Creek." – Lucy Mangan. Read the full review.
Film
If you only watch one, make it ... Enzo
In cinemas now. Summed up in a sentence: Powerful drama from late Palme d'Or winner Laurent Cantet and his longtime collaborator Robin Campillo, who directs, charts the growing pains of a teenager from a privileged family in a heartfelt tale of youth and desire. What our reviewer said: "Campillo and Cantet show us that the agonies of being young and existentially rebellious are not simply shallow and callow: they represent a state of idealism which is poignantly brief, like everything else about youth." – Peter Bradshaw. Read the full review.
Pick of the rest
Ghost in the Machine
In cinemas now. Summed up in a sentence: The roots of AI in rightwing ideology is examined in Valerie Veatch's enjoyable documentary that dives into the technology's dark history in race politics and eugenics, and finds room for an array of colourful, often crazed, figures. What our reviewer said: "The thrust of the film is largely polemic, guiding the viewer towards AI-sceptical conclusions one persuasive soundbite at a time." – Leslie Felperin. Read the full review.
Acting
In cinemas now. Summed up in a sentence: Thoughtful documentary from Sophie Fiennes that follows Cheek By Jowl's Declan Donnellan as he helps actors find their way through Macbeth's lines. What our reviewer said: "There is something very refreshing about the calm, collaborative creativity being presented here." – Peter Bradshaw. Read the full review.
The Misfits
In cinemas now. Summed up in a sentence: Marilyn Monroe is in her most serious and poignant role in John Huston's desolate western, a bleak American pastoral written by Arthur Miller, in which Monroe plays a naive divorcee who meets three new suitors. What our reviewer said: "The key irony of the title is that of course no one on screen is a misfit: they fit in all too well with the stark landscape and each other in their loneliness, their discontent and their yearning for something else or something more to live for." – Peter Bradshaw. Read the full review. Further reading: A girl's best friend: Marilyn Monroe remembered by her closest confidants.
Now streaming ... Affection
Available now. Summed up in a sentence: Memory-loss thriller that benefits from terrific acting, especially an intriguingly ambiguous turn by child actor Julianna Layne, in a twisty little horror debut from BT Meza. What our reviewer said: "This nifty movie keeps you guessing and when it eventually shows its hand, there's still plenty of mileage left in the characters." – Catherine Bray. Read the full review.
Books
If you only read one, make it ... Tonight the Music Seems So Loud by Sathnam Sanghera
Reviewed by Alexis Petridis. Summed up in a sentence: A love letter to the genius of George Michael. What our reviewer said: "Sanghera traces Michael's progress from pudgy, acne-ridden teen, to pop star girls screamed at, to gay icon, and is packed with anecdotes, sharp analysis and context." Read the full review.
Pick of the rest
Land by Maggie O'Farrell
Reviewed by Melissa Harrison. Summed up in a sentence: Multigenerational epic of Ireland and migration from the Hamnet author. What our reviewer said: "As a novel Land feels somehow uncomfortable in its own skin, neither fable nor history nor family saga." Read the full review. Further reading: Maggie O'Farrell: 'Fiction comes from what you don't know'.
Wimmy Road Boyz by Sufiyaan Salam
Reviewed by Sana Goyal. Summed up in a sentence: Three British Pakistani friends have a wild night out on Manchester's Curry Mile. What our reviewer said: "A literary performance like no other, this coming-of-age meets state-of-the-nation novel tears through Britain's social fabric to examine toxic masculinity, community and youth culture." Read the full review.
The Children by Melissa Albert
Reviewed by Sam Leith. Summed up in a sentence: The adult children of a bestselling kids' writer reckon with their traumatic past. What our reviewer said: "One of the pleasures of The Children is that you're quite some way through it before you figure out what, exactly, it is. Is it a psychological drama, a haunted house story, or a dark fairytale?" Read the full review.
The Common Good Economy by Mariana Mazzucato
Reviewed by Heather Stewart. Summed up in a sentence: The progressive economist on how to make prosperity work for everyone. What our reviewer said: "She urges us to reject altogether the idea of patching up 'market failures', or treating social and economic problems as nasty but inevitable side-effects of economic growth." Read the full review.
You may have missed ... The Heart-Shaped Tin by Bee Wilson
Reviewed by Kathryn Hughes. Summed up in a sentence: An emotional history of everyday objects. What our reviewer said: "In this delightful book, part memoir, part anthropological investigation, food writer Wilson explores the way that kitchen objects have the power to move, soothe and even reproach us." Read the full review.
Albums
If you only listen to one, make it ... Zoh Amba: Eyes Full
Out now. Summed up in a sentence: Raw, rugged country rock also has real tenderness, as the musician – better known as a free jazz saxophonist – recounts cryptic postcards from her Tennessee childhood home. What our reviewer said: "Eyes Full couples a rough-and-tumble sound with real tenderness: in the here-and-now, it's a wild, beautiful thing." – Katie Hawthorne. Read the full review.
Pick of the rest
Lizzo: Bitch
Out now. Summed up in a sentence: After scrapping an album and starting anew, the pop star still sounds lost amid these weak genre-hopping songs. What our reviewer said: "Perhaps the zeitgeist has simply left her behind – the era of body positivity has been displaced by the era of Ozempic and Mounjaro; the kind of post-pandemic, post-Trump optimism now sounds like a transmission from a distant lost age." – Alexis Petridis. Read the full review.
Beethoven: The Violin Sonatas Vol 1
Out now. Summed up in a sentence: Violinist Alina Ibragimova and pianist Cédric Tiberghien, on period instruments, offer zest-filled and elegant readings of four Beethoven sonatas. What our reviewer said: "They perform on period instruments but there's nothing academic about these fresh-as-a-daisy interpretations – among the Op 12, the D major sonata crackles with an almost capricious theatricality." – Clive Paget. Read the full review.
Gintė Preisaitė: Instruments of Forgetting and the Singing Bone
Out now. Summed up in a sentence: The Lithuanian musician – a graduate of Copenhagen's Rhythmic Music Conservatory – mixes beguiling found sounds into left-field pop and modern classical. What our reviewer said: "These moments demonstrate her proficiency as a songwriter as well as an experimentalist – among the abstraction are shades of left-field pop and modern classical." – Safi Bugel. Read the full review.
On tour
Mike D
26 Leake Street, London, 6 June. Summed up in a sentence: The ex-Beastie Boy's first UK gig in two decades, in a Tyneside bingo hall, is uproarious fun, teeing up a forthcoming solo album. What our reviewer said: "With turntables on stage, hip-hop clobber in the audience, a six-piece band in matching outfits and bingo tables at the back, this unlikely show feels simultaneously low-key and an event." – Dave Simpson. Read the full review.
