This week's cultural landscape offers a stark contrast, from a potentially career-ending exposé of a music mogul to a surreal, award-winning masterpiece from a censored filmmaker. We've sifted through the Guardian's highest-rated reviews to bring you the essential picks across television, film, music, and more.
Television: A Reckoning and Royal Scrutiny
The most talked-about release is undoubtedly Sean Combs: The Reckoning on Netflix. The docuseries has sent shockwaves through the industry with its thorough and horrific allegations against the musician, commonly known as Diddy. Reviewer Stuart Heritage suggests the evidence presented is so damning it has likely blocked any path back to his former stardom for good. The series has provoked such a strong reaction that Combs's legal team has reportedly demanded Netflix remove it.
Elsewhere on the box, veteran broadcaster David Dimbleby turns his critical eye on the monarchy in What’s the Monarchy For? on BBC iPlayer. Jack Seale's review notes that Dimbleby, enjoying his post-BBC freedom, is "sliding his knife in slowly" as he scrutinises the royal institution. For a gentler watch, The Marvellous Miniature Workshop (also on iPlayer) sees model makers recreate poignant personal places in tiny detail, a concept that sent critic Lucy Mangan into raptures.
Don't miss Joe Wicks: Licensed to Kill on Channel 4, where the fitness star adopts a surprisingly political stance. Wicks highlights the unhealthy reality of many snack bars by creating an intentionally harmful one, in what Jack Seale calls a radical and angry take on commercialism.
Cinema: From Iranian Grotesquery to Journalistic Legend
The film highlight this week is Jafar Panahi's Palme d'Or-winning It Was Just an Accident, now in UK cinemas. The Iranian dissident director's latest work begins with an unfortunate encounter with a dog, spiralling into a chain of surreal and grotesque events. Peter Bradshaw describes it as Panahi's "most emotionally explicit film yet," dealing with state violence, revenge, and the pain of tyranny beneath a veneer of normality.
Documentary fans are served a profile of a journalistic giant in Cover-Up, which charts the career of the combative reporter Seymour Hersh. The film explores how his old-school, dogged methods uncovered scandals from My Lai to Abu Ghraib. For a classic revival, Billy Wilder's 1950 masterpiece Sunset Boulevard returns to cinemas, featuring Gloria Swanson's iconic performance as faded silent film star Norma Desmond.
Also newly released is a documentary portrait of New Zealand's former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, titled Prime Minister. Bradshaw's review praises her as a leader who appeared more authentically human than most career politicians.
Albums and Tours: Folk Intimacy and Rock Reinvention
In music, the album of the week is Galway-born artist Dove Ellis's Blizzard. Drawing comparisons to Jeff and Tim Buckley, Ellis crafts strong, immediately familiar tunes that, as Dave Simpson notes, may not reinvent the wheel but give it "a caring coat of varnish."
Other notable releases include This Is Lorelei: Holo Boy, an acoustic re-recording project from Nate Amos of Water from Your Eyes, and a poignant final recording from the Nash Ensemble dedicated to Ravel, serving as a farewell to its founder Amelia Freedman. For a darker seasonal twist, violinist Laura Cannell offers a murky take on Christmas standards with Brightly Shone the Moon.
On tour, Wolf Alice are captivating UK audiences until 8 December. Their current show is described as their most complete reinvention yet, packed with 70s rock references and cabaret-theatre vibes, anchored by what reviewer Amelia Fearon calls Ellie Rowsell's "glam god"-level vocal performance.
