Critics’ choices for the week ahead
Cinema by Robbie Collin and Tim Robey Slack Bay When Aude Van Peteghem (Juliette Binoche) visits her sister on the Pas-de-Calais coast in 1910, no one warns her about a string of mysterious disappearances, which has prompted an inspector (Didier Després) to roll in to investigate. Turns out, there’s a real possibility in Bruno Dumont’s appealingly bonkers French-language period farce that Binoche is going to get chopped up and chomped by a group of local fishermenturned-cannibals.
15 cert, 122 min
Whitney: Can I Be Me
Whitney Houston’s story is so grimly familiar – God-given artistry burnt out by controlling relatives, a wayward lover, drugs and overwork – that you can understand Nick Broomfield’s resolve to find a new route around its tragic contours. The resulting documentary feels overthought but doesn’t lack for revelatory moments, thanks to perceptive interviews with her touring band and never-beforeseen backstage footage.
15 cert, 105 min My Cousin Rachel
This adaptation of Daphne du Maurier’s 1951 mystery-romance about a black widow maybe-murderess (Rachel Weisz) and her late husband’s lookalike cousin and heir (Sam Claflin) captures the spookiness of the novel. 12A cert, 106 min The Mummy
Graverobber Nick Morton (Tom Cruise) and archaeologist Jenny Halsey (Annabelle Wallis) battle a long-dead Egyptian Princess (Sofia Boutella) in an uninventive but none the less watchable caper, designed to kick off Universal’s new series of monster films.
15 cert, 110 min Norman
In this semi-screwball comedy-drama from the Beaufort director Joseph Cedar, Richard Gere plays a small-time Jewish fixer on the streets of Manhattan, who befriends a young politician destined to become Israel’s prime minister.
15 cert, 117 min Wonder Woman
Gal Gadot radiates movie-star appeal in this unabashedly heartfelt First World War-set adventure, during which she battles her way to the Western Front. Star Trek’s Chris Pine cuts a dashing figure as her Lois.
12A cert, 141 min Exhibitions by Mark Hudson Portraying a Nation: Germany 1919–1933
One of history’s diciest periods, interwar Germany none the less proved fertile ground for artists, as demonstrated in this substantial exhibition of two key figures, with August Sander’s haunting photographs pitted against painter Otto Dix’s social commentaries. Tate Liverpool (0151 702 7400), Fri-Oct 15 GF Watts: England’s Michelangelo A huge figure in his Victorian heyday, George Frederic Watts is celebrated in a show of his greatest works, many on loan from around the world. His bombastic English symbolism is set alongside artworks billed as “protest paintings and abstract canvases”. Watts Gallery, Surrey (01483 810235), Tues-Nov 26
Stage by Dominic Cavendish and Claire Allfree Barber Shop Chronicles Playwright Inua Ellams braids together conversations in six different barber shops, from London to Lagos to Johannesburg, during the course of a single day. National’s Dorfman Theatre, London SE1 (020 7452 3000), until July 8 Sweet Bird of Youth
A stylish if stilted revival from Jonathan Kent of Tennessee Williams’s mid-period Broadway hit about a washed-up film actress and a youngish gigolo whose liaison in a Gulf Coast hotel is offset against the latter’s Preparing(Julian Wadham)for D-Day: and MontgomeryChurchill (Brian Cox) doomed attempts to hook up with his first true sweetheart. Chichester(01243 781312), Festival until TheatreJune 24 AnatomyThere’s hugeof a elan Suicideto Alice Birch’s play chartingthree generationsthe impact of of women, suicide the across coup being that the three stories are played out concurrently in the same space, so we see how conversations ricochet down the decades.
Royal Court Theatre, London SW1 (020 7565 5000), until July 8 Bat Out of Hell
Jim Steinman always envisaged his Meat Loaf concept albums as a musical. After 40 years and tens of millions of record sales, his fantasy finally comes to the stage, with 17 classic songs performed by a young cast of postapocalyptic bikers. London Coliseum, WC2 (batoutofhellmusical.com), until Aug 5 Classical by Ivan Hewett BBC National Orchestra of Wales The latest instalment of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales’s “Tales of Travel” series, which explores music written by European travellers to the United States, has an interesting rarity: the Symphony in F Sharp Major by Erich Korngold, the Viennese composer who made it big in Hollywood. Alongside it is music by Bartok and Prokofiev.
BBC Hoddinott Hall, Cardiff (0800 052 1812), Fri Gigs by Neil McCormick Glastonbury Festival The main-stage headline acts for Britain’s favourite music festival are certainly impressive: Radiohead (Fri), Foo Fighters (Sat) and Ed Sheeran (Sun). But there is plenty more besides. Other highlights of the eclectic line-up include The xx, Lorde, Stormzy, Solange, Biffy Clyro and London Grammar. The big question for ticket holders is: sandals or welly boots? The rest of us can put our feet up and watch extensive coverage on the BBC. Worthy Farm, Somerset (glastonburyfestivals.co.uk), Thurs-Sun; BBC Two, from Fri at 8pm Mark Lanegan
With his gravel-pit voice, Lanegan brings emotional authority to everything he sings. Excellent new album Gargoyle harks back to his Seattle grunge roots with the Screaming Trees.
The Library, Birmingham (marklanegan.com), Mon, and touring