The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE reviews Here, Vermiglio, William Tell and Wolf Man
Culture
New releases from Thorpe and Morrison, Daria Kulesh, and Will Finn and Rosie Calvert
RINA ARYA confronts the brutal operation of Francis Bacon’s approach to portraiture
Emphasising his continuous engagement in labour movement struggles, ALISTAIR FINDLAY salutes John Foster’s contribution as activist, strategist, intellectual and defender of the Morning Star
ANDY MIAH advocates the use of AI to assist people by expanding access to global literature and culture
EWAN KOTZ relishes a veteran Glasgow band that have lost none of their verve for live performance
RON JACOBS relishes a riotous epistolary novel of revenge against sexual harassment and patriarchy
New releases from Mary Chapin Carpenter, Julie Fowlis, Karine Polwart; The Weather Station; and Sam Amidon
ANGUS REID wrestles with a detailed analysis of the competing religious alliances behind the ascendancy of conservative nationalism in today’s Turkey
ROSIE NELSON applauds a graphic novel that asks what does it mean to exist as a fat person in a fatphobic society?
MARGARET HEFFERNAN draws attention to a new report on the conditions of financial precariousness facing visual artists
Anna flees the floods and fires of Earth, but life as a migrant worker on Ganglian-A is grim and exploitative. Her plan of escape is simple and, paradoxically, rocket science
JONATHAN TAYLOR is moved by the plea to replace mechanistic medicine with a ‘narrative’ approach based on imagination and humanity
MARIA DUARTE recommends a buddy road-trip comedy that deals with third generation Holocaust trauma
MAYER WAKEFIELD salutes a fresh angle on the conflicted soul that led the civil rights movement
LOUIS BAYMAN admires Mike Leigh’s bleakly comic take on a black woman’s experience of depression that offers no easy answers
DAVID NICHOLSON draws attention to an album of music and poetry that channels a first-hand experience of Gaza
MATTHEW HAWKINS is drawn into the everyday lives of women and girls in Muslim communities in southern India
An unexpected favourite at Sunday’s Golden Globes, JENNY FARRELL inspects the political context of the film Kneecap and its ferocious advocacy of the Irish language
The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE recommends an impressive impersonation of Bob Dylan
TONY CONWAY recommends a welcome overview of Cornwall that traces its industrialisation, class differences and path to a socialist future
JOHN GREEN relishes the rediscovery of a Spanish anarchist and radical, and the light he throws on the little-known story of Paraguay
ANDY HEDGECOCK is inspired by accessible insights into the theory, function and psychological impact of our digital tools
STEVEN ANDREW recommends an informed and personable work that contains as many ommisions as it does analyses
by Alistair Findlay
Brett Gregory speaks to STEVE PRESENCE and MATTHIAS KISPERT, co-conveners of the RFN, the largest alternative film/media communication hub in the world
EWAN KOTZ tunes into a chilling and subversive album that speaks for a splintered US, its political apathy and complicity in war-crimes
JOHN GRAVERSGAARD recommends a study of trade union organising that brings together exemplary lessons from the Uk and Kenya
The bard’s indefatigable knack for rhythm and rhyme tunes into the gloomy zeitgeist and comes out cheerful
The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE reviews Nickel Boys, Bank of Dave 2: The Loan Ranger, Babygirl, and Maria