The Week’s best film, TV, book and live show on this weekend, with excerpts from the top reviews.
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“After Sue Perkins’s disastrous Japan series, you could be forgiven for praying for a ban on any more oriental odysseys until next year’s Olympics. However, thanks to the specific focus on machinery, as in his previous foreign trips, Guy Martin avoids the usual clichés.”
Friday at 9pm on Channel 4 (second episode of two-part documentary)
MOVIE: The Irishman
Adam Woodward at Little White Lies
“This immaculately crafted tale of power, corruption and lies, told from the perspective of an elderly, less-than-reliable narrator reckoning with a lifetime of regrets, speaks to a greater universal truth. Whatever path we choose in life – regardless of our successes and failures – we all meet the same fate, one way or another... A new American classic.”
Out on Netflix now
BOOK: A Warning by Anonymous
Julian Borger for The Guardian
“The book is by Anonymous, described on the cover as ‘a senior Trump administration official’, the same one who wrote an unsigned essay in the New York Times in September last year, declaring they were ‘part of the resistance Inside the Trump administration’ seeking to thwart the craziest impulses. Anonymous is now a year older, wiser and more depressed…Various unnamed officials are frequently cited saying such things as: ‘This place is so fucked up…There is literally no one in charge here’.”
Available now in hardback
STAGE: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe
Dominic Cavendish for The Telegraph
“The evening proves (forgive the hoary phrase) absolutely spellbinding: witty, gripping, moving. Cookson and co’s imagination answers that of the original and awakens our own…Snowbound Narnia is rustled up by swathes of sheeting, pulled through the aisles then engulfing the stage area, in one of a series of theatrical strokes that collapses the distance between us and the adventurers. Simple – easily tried at home – yet there’s no sense of our being scenically short-changed; propulsive image is harnessed to galvanic idea.”
Until 2 February at the Bridge Theatre, London
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Groypers: the alt-right group pulled into the foregroundThe Explainer The network is led by alt-right activist Nick Fuentes
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10 concert tours to see this upcoming fallThe Week Recommends Concert tour season isn't over. Check out these headliners.
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How to put student loan payments on pauseThe Explainer If you are starting to worry about missing payments, deferment and forbearance can help
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Friendship: 'bromance' comedy starring Paul Rudd and Tim RobinsonThe Week Recommends 'Lampooning and embracing' middle-aged male loneliness, this film is 'enjoyable and funny'
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The Count of Monte Cristo review: 'indecently spectacular' adaptationThe Week Recommends Dumas's classic 19th-century novel is once again given new life in this 'fast-moving' film
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Death of England: Closing Time review – 'bold, brash reflection on racism'The Week Recommends The final part of this trilogy deftly explores rising political tensions across the country
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Sing Sing review: prison drama bursts with 'charm, energy and optimism'The Week Recommends Colman Domingo plays a real-life prisoner in a performance likely to be an Oscars shoo-in
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Kaos review: comic retelling of Greek mythology starring Jeff GoldblumThe Week Recommends The new series captures audiences as it 'never takes itself too seriously'
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Blink Twice review: a 'stylish and savage' black comedy thrillerThe Week Recommends Channing Tatum and Naomi Ackie stun in this film on the hedonistic rich directed by Zoë Kravitz
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Shifters review: 'beautiful' new romantic comedy offers 'bittersweet tenderness'The Week Recommends The 'inventive, emotionally astute writing' leaves audiences gripped throughout
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How to do F1: British Grand Prix 2025The Week Recommends One of the biggest events of the motorsports calendar is back and better than ever
