Critics’ choices for the week ahead
Cinema by Robbie Collin and Tim Robey
Colossal
Anne Hathaway plays a blackout drunk who discovers, bizarrely, that her drunken actions have spawned a giant monster, now wreaking havoc on the streets of Seoul. This is that rare thing: a high-concept film that gathers humour and meaning as it develops.
15 cert, 109 min
Snatched
Goldie Hawn and Amy Schumer as a messed-up mother and daughter stranded in the Ecuadorean jungle? It’s a double act you root for, but most of the laughs come early on, before the pair get abducted by some dodgy stereotypes and the film loses zest.
15 cert, 97 min
King Arthur: Legend of the Sword The prospects for Warner Bros’ proposed six-part Arthurian franchise seem bleak. Nothing to do with Charlie Hunnam, who’s tailor-cut to play the once and future geezerking: lay the blame with the artless and overblown battle scenes, and a more-or-less unfollowable plot, full of chasm-like gaps.
12A cert, 126 min
Alien: Covenant
Prometheus sequel or Alien reboot? Ridley Scott’s electrifying new science-fiction opus is a bit of both, and plenty more besides. It’s 2104 when Katherine Waterston and her crewmates on an interplanetary colonial mission touch down on a seemingly welcoming planet. The thing is, Prometheus’s enigmatic android David (Michael Fassbender) got first dibs on it, and has been doing some colonising of his own.
15 cert, 122 min
Miss Sloane
John Madden uses Jessica Chastain as a one-woman power supply for this furiously quippy, West st Wingtype drama about Washingtonngton power-broking.
15 cert, 132 min
Jawbone
The underrated Johnny Harris ( London to Brighton) wrote and stars in an absorbingly moody, South London boxing drama, as a former champ, now battling alcoholism.
15 cert, 91 min
Frantz
This First World War tale of a young German woman and the Frenchman who claims to have been a friend of her dead soldier fiancé was inspired by an Ernst Lubitsch melodrama, but it is Hitchcockian through and through.
12A cert, 114 min Gigs by Neil McCormick At 72, Eric Clapton remains an utterly thrilling live performer. A soulful singer-songwriter and master of the blues, he blends genuine warmth with dazzling skills.
Royal Albert Hall, London SW7 (020 7589 8212), Mon, Wed, and Thurs
John Cale
For the 50th anniversary of the Velvet Underground, avant garde Welsh rock icon John Cale pays tribute to his former band in a one-off UK show, recreating their 1967 debut album, with guests filling in for former bandmates Lou Reed and Nico. Liverpool Waters, Clarence Dock ( johncale.seetickets.com), Fri
Exhibitions by Mark Hudson
Hokusai: Beyond the Great Wave
A look at the last and most productive three decades in the 90-year life of Japan’s most renowned artist, Katsushika Hokusai. Superb landscapes – including the iconic The Great Wave – intimate scenes, ghouls, ghosts and deities, all played a part in the spiritual and artistic quest of
this extraordinary figure. The British M Museum, London WC1 (020 7323 829 8299), Thurs-July 6 Canaletto and the Art of Venice This spectacular array of Venetian art presents a number of Canaletto’s greatest works alongside paintings, drawings and prints by his contemporaries – from grandiose religious painter Sebastiano Ricci to the quirky observer of everyday life Pietro Longhi. The Queen’s Gallery, London SW1 (0303 123 7301), until Nov 12 Brian Sanders: 2001: A Space Odyssey to Mad Men Whether illustrating sob stories for women’s magazines or recording the making of the sci-fi classic 2001: A Space Odyssey, Brian Sanders perfected a quirky visual style that has come to epitomise the giddy Sixties. Lever Gallery, London EC1 (020 3217 2678), until July 29 Skin: Freud, Mueck and Tunick Skin, the ultimate surface, is explored through works by Lucian Freud, Ron Mueck and American photographer Spencer Tunick, who has created the UK’s largest nude installation to date. Ferens Art Gallery, Hull (01482 300 300), until Aug 13
Stage by Dominic Cavendish and Claire Allfree
Woyzeck In Jack Thorne’s adaptation, Georg Büchner’s 1837 drama – about a German soldier overcome with jealousy – is transposed to Eighties Berlin. John Boyega, lately seen in Star
Wars: A New Hope, takes the title role.
Old Vic, London SE1 (0844 871 7628), Tues-Jun 24
Lettice and Lovage
We all love Felicity Kendal and Maureen Lipman but this Trevor Nunn-directed revival of Peter Shaffer’s hit comedy of 1987 is not their finest hour. As Lettice Douffet, a Tudor house tour guide who embellishes her explanations to the point of being fired, Kendal lacks plausibility. But it certainly entertains, and Lipman impresses as ever. Menier Chocolate Factory, London SE1 (020 7378 1713), until Jul 8
Life of Galileo
This is a smart staging by Atonement director Joe Wright of Brecht’s approachable account of Galileo’s life – from his heliocentric breakthrough to his enforced recantation under pressure from the Roman inquisition. In the lead role, Brendan Cowell bounds around the circular stage like an Antipodean version of Brian Cox. The planetarium-like visual effects are spectacular. Young Vic, London SE1 (020 7922 2922), until Jul 1
Caroline, or Change
Michael Longhurst’s revival of Tony Kushner and Jeanine Tesori’s highly innovative 2003 musical, set in Civil Rights-era Louisiana, is beautifully staged and impeccably performed. Sharon D Clarke stars as the eponymous black maid, sweating out her days laundering clothes for her white employers. Minerva Theatre, Chichester (01243 781 312), until Jun 3