RICHARD MURGATROYD is intrigued by a study that asks why the ability to diagnose outstrips the ability to cure
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Virtually brilliant
Steven Spielberg's exhilarating sci-fi fantasy has his hallmark stamped all over it, says MARIA DUARTE
SYLVIA HIKINS recommends a sweeping survey of the world's biggest desert and the people who live there
MICHAL BONCZA highly recommends a revelatory exhibition of work by the doyen of indigenous Australians’ art, Emily Kam Kngwarray
The Bard commutes to work for the first time in 45 years
DAVID RENTON is puzzled by an ambitious attempt to look back on world culture from the future without engaging with or understanding it
GORDON PARSONS is riveted by a translation of Shakespeare’s tragedy into joyous comedy set in a southern black homestead
GEORGE FOGARTY relishes the music of black British artists that channels Carribbean, Latin and club sounds, along with contemporary west African radicalism
Ready Player One (12A)
Directed by Steven Spielberg
READY PLAYER ONE is set in a dystopian future where people spend most of their time in a virtual reality universe called Oasis in order to escape their bleak and harsh lives — not so far-fetched, given the growing popularity of VR.
Based on Ernest Cline's best-selling novel of the same name the narrative centres on troubled teenager Wade Watts (Tye Sheridan) who in 2045 spends all his waking hours in the Oasis as a better and more confident version of himself.
On the death of its eccentric creator James Halliday (Mark Rylance) — a modern day Willy Wonka — it is revealed that he will bequeath his legacy aka Oasis and his immense fortune to the winner of a three-part game within his virtual creation.
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MARIA DUARTE recommends a remarkable documentary, culled from 20 years of smartphone footage, that documents the trials of being a single parent
MARIA DUARTE recommends the intricate study of a high-performance and highly dysfuntional German family
MARIA DUARTE recommends the ambitious portrait of an agricultural community confronted by the trauma of enclosure
MARIA DUARTE recommends a chilling examination of the influence of Evangelical Christianity over the far right in Brazil
