Amandaland to Olof Dreijer: the week in rave reviews

Lucy Punch’s middle-class antihero is back, and one half of the Knife presents an album of dazzlingly inventive psychedelia. Here’s the pick of the week’s culture, taken from the Guardian’s best-rated reviews

Primavera review – Vivaldi’s Four Seasons is school-of-Salieri backdrop for period musical biopic

The composer has a musical relationship with a teenage violinist in this lifeless adaptation of a novel by Tiziano Scarpa

Kae Tempest on creativity and his gender transition: ‘I’m just glad to be alive’

Ten years after his debut novel, the poet and musician has written a follow-up exploring self-discovery and a life lived on the edge. He talks about sexuality, pronouns and drawing strength from the literature he loves

‘This craving to go viral is tiresome’: the artists sick of the pressure to promote on social media

From Stewart Lee in his wolf costume to Werner Herzog’s big steak sizzle-up, artists are now under huge duress to ‘chase the algorithm’ and reach audiences. Many of them are hitting burnout – and hitting back

Gillian Anderson and Cara Delevingne to hit Cannes as auteur heavyweights dominate festival lineup

The 79th edition of the film festival will see work by Pedro Almodóvar, Hirokazu Kore-eda and László Nemes considered for the coveted Palme d’Or

The Guide #237: Fab 5 Freddy, the street artist at the heart of New York’s creative zenith

A new memoir by Fred Brathwaite offers an insight into the city’s emerging underground scene in the 70s and 80s – and shows us the power of subcultures in difficult times

Fainting in front of Michael Jackson and feuding with Monica: inside Brandy’s jaw-dropping memoir

The R&B singer’s must-read autobiography candidly describes a life of heady highs and horrific lows

Dua Lipa to curate London literature festival at Southbank Centre

The British pop star will lead the 2026 London literature festival in collaboration with her Service95 book club, as part of the Southbank Centre’s 75th anniversary celebrations

‘African people are surreal’: songwriter and blues poet Aja Monet on Black resistance and love as spiritual warfare

Radicalised by the inventiveness of groups such as the Harlem Renaissance, the LA-based artist is determined to reclaim the radical possibilities of culture in an age of institutional and algorithmic exploitation

No New York by Adele Bertei review – a vivid, vibrant, musical coming of age

1970s and 80s New York are viscerally evoked in this potent memoir of the ‘no wave’ scene

Country star Ty Herndon: ‘The drugs could be forgiven. Being gay definitely could not’

In an honest new memoir, the musician opens up about being closeted in country, sexual assault and finding love in his 60s

Shoplifting, sex shows and sheepdog-breeding: great artists and the side-hustles they did to get by

John Cage appeared on an Italian quizshow. Jean Genet stole rare books. Emily Carr reared bobtails. And Kathy Acker did X-rated acts with her boyfriend … we explore the unlikely sidelines of struggling artists

Sex with Scorsese, beef with Sondheim … and inventing the moonwalk? The wildest moments in Liza Minnelli’s memoir

From Peter Sellers dressing like a Nazi, to having to manage her mother Judy Garland’s addiction, jaws will drop at Minnelli’s anecdotes

Kids, Wait Till You Hear This! by Liza Minnelli review – a heady brew of gossip, glamour and defiance

Lady Gaga and David Gest are among those who get ferocious dressings-down in this brutally candid memoir

Why Train Dreams should win the best picture Oscar

With its meditative pace and sincere interest in moral questions, Clint Bentley’s film of a rudderless man cutting down trees in Idaho’s verdant vistas has the air of a Hollywood classic from another era