The Critics

Taking the piss

If you’re going to be provocative, people are going to be provoked

Taking flight

Why planes make such a great setting for films

Vinyl solution

Vinyl’s comeback is down to a desire for a tangible point of contact with a performer

The human subject

Tár is a film of moving ambiguities

Beyond satire

Opera North and English Touring Opera have plied an honourable trade without trying to gain kudos

Boats and bombs

A Netflix winner, a Netflix disappointment and a classic American hero on Amazon Prime

Passion and percussion

Two tastes of Chinese culture in London

Lost in the Moral Maze

What is kindness, and is it the highest of virtues?

The man who saved Italy’s art

The man, the schemes and the burglar-alarmed fortress that kept Italy’s artistic legacy away from German acquisition

Family troubles

Frecknall’s Streetcar is a commendable, if not stellar outing