Reviews
Review of the Week: Erykah Badu & the Alchemist – Before The World Blows: The Abi and Alan Experiment
The neo-soul queen is back with her first full-length release in over a decade: a hazy, epic collaboration with the Alchemist that transports you with every listen, writes Kate Hutchinson
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Review of the Week: Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma
Director Jane Schoenbrun’s dazzling meta-slasher features lesbian lust, KFC, a spear-wielding killer and Gillian Anderson. What’s not to love, writes Nerve film critic Ellen E Jones
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Review of the Week: Game of Thrones: The Mad King at the RSC
The stage version of George RR Martin’s blood-and-thunder saga is spectacular, serious, surprisingly empathetic – and could turn out to be a blockbuster, writes Nerve theatre critic Dorian Lynskey
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Review of the Week: Richard Dadd - Beyond Bedlam at the RA
This reappraisal of the Victorian fantasy painter, who spent decades in institutions after killing his father, reveals both his extraordinary technical prowess and his limitations as an artist, writes Ben Luke
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Review of the Week: Tao of Glass at Soho Place
Phelim McDermott’s passion-project tribute to, and collaboration with, the composer Philip Glass may not be for everyone, but its audacity and originality shine through, writes Nerve theatre critic Dorian Lynskey
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Review of the Week: Music, Fashion, Film by Charli xcx
The follow-up album to 2024’s zeitgeist-defining Brat is short, sharp and rocky – but also feels like it’s grasping for something that stays out of reach, writes Nerve music critic Kate Hutchinson
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Review: The Odyssey
Christopher Nolan’s immersive and beautiful retelling of Homer isn’t just an epic story but an epic achievement – a truly five-star film, writes Nerve film critic Ellen E Jones
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Review: Rosebush Pruning
Karim Aïnouz’s stylish, starry satire about a super-rich family indulges our obsession with the depraved excesses of the wealthy, but it’s no Parasite, writes Nerve film critic Ellen E Jones
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Review: Ai Weiwei: Button Up!
The scale is vast, and the message sometimes obvious, but this major exhibition in Manchester shows the celebrated artist can still create genuine intensity, writes Kadish Morris
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Review: Frida Kahlo - The Making of an Icon
Frida Kahlo's image is now so commercialised that her celebrity is in danger of eclipsing her art. The problem with the much-anticipated Tate show about her legacy is that we don’t see enough of her electrifying work, writes Imogen Carter
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Review of the Week: Glengarry Glen Ross at the Old Vic
Patrick Marber’s daring female reimagining of Mamet’s testosterone-soaked classic shows that capitalism can make a desperado of anyone, writes Dorian Lynskey
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Review: Disclosure Day
A Spielberg alien movie is not to be missed, writes Ellen E Jones – especially when the extraterrestrials might offer an alternative to our fraught political reality
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Review of the week: Cry Baby by Vince Staples
Over a foreboding rock soundtrack, the California rapper delivers hard-edged, compelling social commentary on Trump, violence, Black stereotypes and more, writes Nerve music critic Kate Hutchinson
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Review of the Week: The Tempest at the RSC
Kenneth Branagh’s return to the RSC as Prospero, directed by the great Richard Eyre, might sound like a heritage piece – but this is a production that fizzes with invention, illusion and relevance, writes Claire Armitstead
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Review of the Week: The Color of Rain by Aja Monet
The American blues poet’s new album moves from neo-soul to spiky social commentary in a thrilling, sonically inventive mix, writes Jude Rogers
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Review of the Week: The Christophers
Ian McKellen and Michaela Coel make for a gorgeous, if unlikely, double act as a painter and his assistant in Steven Soderbergh’s generation-gap comedy, writes Nerve film critic Ellen E Jones. But is it art?
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Review of the Week: Rosalía at the O2
The Spanish star’s multifaith, multilingual live spectacular – featuring saints, sinners, an orchestra, and an incense-burner overhead – would make anyone a believer, writes Nerve music critic Kate Hutchinson
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Review of the Week: Mass at the Donmar
Fran Kranz’s play, about two families’ long-delayed reckoning in the wake of a school shooting, is moving and superbly acted but not to be entered lightly, writes Nerve theatre critic Dorian Lynskey
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Review of the Week: Rose of Nevada
Cornish auteur Mark Jenkin’s drama about ghost ships and gentrification, all shot on 16mm film, is eerie, disorienting and his most audience-pleasing film to date, writes Ellen E Jones
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Review of the Week: The Music Is Black: A British Story at V&A East
An ambitious exhibition launching the V&A's brand new outpost shies away from the hardest parts of the social history behind the tunes, but tells its story with verve, writes music critic Damien Morris
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Review of the Week: Veronica Ryan: Multiple Conversations
The sculptor’s joyous, organic creations, repurposed and reimagined from everyday objects, speak to each other beautifully in her new exhibition, writes Emily LaBarge
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Review of the Week: Romeo and Juliet / Les Liaisons Dangereuses
Two inventive, high-profile openings pay striking testament to the dangerous power of love, writes Dorian Lynskey
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Review of the Week: Sexistential by Robyn
Babies, boobs and pop bangers! The Swedish star is back with a euphoric new album embracing the joy of motherhood and messy, middle-aged desire, writes Nerve music critic Kate Hutchinson
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