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Drax of Drax Hall by Paul Lashmar review – forensic exposé of a British dynasty built on slavery

This timely and important book reveals Barbados plantation owner James Drax to be the equal of Robert Clive or Cecil Rhodes in his profiteering from human miseryIn his enthusiastic introduction to Paul Lashmar’s Drax of Drax Hall, David Olusoga observes that Britain’s role in slavery was, until rece...

‘Drawings do not lie’: film-maker Michel Hazanavicius on his animated feature about the Holocaust

The Oscar‑winning director of The Artist spent five years creating The Most Precious of Cargoes. He talks about why he would never have made it as a live action movieWhen the acclaimed French film-maker Michel Hazanavicius was approached by his parents’ best friend, the author and playwright Jean-Cl...

‘I would never be able to sing a song that a robot wrote’: Lucy Dacus on her new album’s themes of artistry and intimacy

As the indie singer-songwriter and Boygenius star releases her latest, highly personal solo record, she talks of her weariness of AI and digital art, the pressures of being in a public relationship, and her anger and fears in Trump’s USIn the shadow of a Hogarth painting, accompanied by guitar and v...

Revenge review: a luridly fascinating smorgasbord of Trump’s score settling

Pursuit of enemies has quickly emerged as a key theme of Trump 2.0 and Alex Isenstadt is happy to dish the dirtAlex Isenstadt is a senior political reporter at Axios and an alumnus of Politico. For a decade, he has covered Donald Trump and the Republicans. In March 2015, an Isenstadt dispatch blared...

A Working Man review – Jason Statham puts the hours in, to no avail

The actor dons a hard hat for more knuckle-dusting mayhem but is let down by David Ayer’s portentous directionThere’s a knack when it comes to showcasing the talents of Jason Statham. The Stath vehicles that work best tend to be the ones that deliver a wink to camera along with a punch to the throat...

Usher review – glitzy Vegas-style spectacle is completely preposterous and preposterously entertaining

The O2, LondonFrom rollerskating around the stage wearing a union jack suit to feeding cocktail cherries to women in the audience, Usher wears middle age incredibly wellEarly on during the first show of Usher’s London residency, the audience is treated to the sight of the teenaged singer fantasising...

DiDonato/Emelyanychev review – ingenious artistry brings Schubert’s bleak Winterreise to life

Wigmore Hall, LondonJoyce DiDonato’s theatrical skills enabled her to feminise the cycle in a particularly original way, before Strauss’s Morgen! gave us all hopeJoyce DiDonato doesn’t just sing Winterreise. She acts it too. This is not as rare as you may imagine. The desolated lover’s winter journe...

Of Mice and Men review – a tepid revival of Steinbeck’s dust bowl classic

Octagon, BoltonSarah Brigham’s new production is beautifully designed but struggles to capture the drama’s claustrophobic tensionBefore it got into the hands of readers, John Steinbeck’s 1937 novella Of Mice and Men first got into the jaws of the author’s dog. The dog would find less to get its teet...

The Woman in the Yard review – uncanny chiller loses its way

A mysterious woman gradually advances on a widow’s isolated home in Spanish director Jaume Collet-Serra’s creepy latestIn horror, as in most film genres, simplicity is power, and the lean initial premise here is as potent as it gets. One morning, a motionless, black-shrouded woman (Okwui Okpokwasili...

Art can help remind US and Europe of special relationship, says director of reopening Frick Collection

After a $220m five-year renovation, the New York museum is set to showcase a trove of European masterpieces Can masterpieces of European art help smooth over the fissures between the old world and the new? It’s a hope, say officials at the Frick Collection in New York, which reopens next month after...

‘People have walked through here for centuries’: the rhythms of the Welsh valleys in pictures

The beautiful and hardy herds of the Welsh valleys act as a counterpoint to three decades of change in photographer Ken Grant’s imagesKen Grant’s Cwm: A Fair Country, a collection of nearly 30 years of landscape photography in the South Walian valleys, begins with a moving prologue. It mentions a pa...

Visions of America: 25 films to help understand the US today

From The Apprentice to 13th, our critic selects titles that shed light on the US under Trump. Alex Gibney, whose new documentary examines how ‘dark money’ became part of the American system, introduces the listThis is a dire moment in the US. It’s a moment where there’s an opportunity for people wit...

The big picture: a Chad gymnast scores top marks for determination

Behind Antonio López Díaz’s image of the inspirational Achta Derib is a story of how small changes can transform livesThe wall behind her is pockmarked and worn. She’s barefoot against a hard, cracked floor. And yet Achta Derib’s pose in this photograph by Antonio López Díaz, a finalist in the p...

‘I go for the jugular’: Carrie Coon on The White Lotus, female friendship and toxic politics

Fearsomely authentic, Carrie Coon has dazzled in a host of roles, from The Leftovers to Gone Girl and Fargo. With the latest season of The White Lotus glueing us to our screens, she talks about US politics, freedom and finding her voiceCarrie Coon is done with small talk. “I tend to go right for the...

‘Expressing your pain in artistic form is not easy’: exiled Russian theatre director builds bridges in London

Dmitry Krymov, who fled Moscow after the Ukraine invasion, plans Dickens hybrid with UK and Russian actorsThe acclaimed Russian stage director Dmitry Krymov the winner of many of Moscow’s top theatre prizes before his exile due to public criticism of the invasion of Ukraine, has spoken angrily of th...