PAUL DONOVAN is tickled by the excruciating take-downs of one of the funniest, wittiest, political writers around.

RON JACOBS points out, via a transcription of Kissinger’s secret recordings, that Trump could never have existed without Nixon and Kissinger

ELLIS RAE is persuaded that the advantages of the ‘talking cure’ are superior to the treatment of mental illness with drugs

PAUL DONOVAN applauds an excellently crafted new musical that explores the life and death of Ruth Ellis

GEOFF BOTTOMS relishes a profoundly human portrait of a family as it evolves across 55 years in Sheffield

PAUL FOLEY speaks to Mark Calvert, director of I, Daniel Blake before a new tour

MICHAL BONCZA introduces a sculpture that celebrates the end of Franco’s fascist rule while commemorating some of the last victims of its proclivity for mass murder

JOHN GREEN, MICHAL BONCZA and BELLA KATZ review The Good Boy, Broken English, and Don't Be Prey

ANDY HEDGECOCK peers into the US psyche to find deluded ambition, toxic aggression and an obsession with fame

by Khayelihle Benghu

ALAN MORRISON recommends a consummate, heart-warming collection about a working-class upbringing in the industrial north-east

MIK SABIERS is enveloped by the enchanting bass and vocals of Beth Rettig in a small but historic venue

Taxi Driver at 50: Martin Scorsese’s film remains a troubling reflection of our times, writes ALEXANDER HOWARD

A dazzling novel, and autobiographical fiction, by Mexicans Brenda Navarro and Cristina Rivera Garza, and poetry by Brazilian Ricardo Domeneck

JONATHAN TAYLOR ponders the difference between autobiography and memoir - between life and story - in Margaret Atwood’s account of herself

DENNIS BROE examines two new horror films — Send Help and Scream 7 — for the way they demonstrate how capital routinely desensitises the consumer

Rereleases from Andrew Gold; John McFee, Stu Cook, Keith Knudsen; and The Outer Limits

KATAYOUN SHAHANDEH surveys Iran’s cultural heritage and explains what has been damaged and what could be lost

The Bard finds Bard Company, and rallies us all to the anti-fascist cause

JOHN GREEN is intrigued by an explanation of irrational behaviour from the point of view of brain science

SYLVIA HIKINS celebrates the chance that a new memoir offers to explore Frieda Brewster’s remarkable life story

MARIA DUARTE and ANDY HEDGECOCK review The Tasters, A Pale View of Hills, How To Make a Killing, and Reminders of Him

Five years ago a flash crowd of Glaswegian activists defeated the Home Office and the police; MATT KERR urges you to savour that day in a cinema

PAUL DONOVAN enjoys a somewhat rose-tinted survey of Brown’s achievements and legacy, as well as his moments of political cowardice

BRENT CUTLER admires the plotting but takes issue with the politics of a new Scottish crime thriller

SUSAN DARLINGTON applauds the sensuality and strong characterisation of an unconventional ballet about an unconventional woman

JOHN GREEN is disappointed by a history of the British working class that retreads familiar paths and offers no new insights

GUILLERMO THOMAS recommends an important, if dispiriting book about the neo-colonial culture of Uganda under Yoweri Museveni

by Patrick Cotter

KEN COCKBURN is intrigued by the publication of the Marxist theorist’s reminiscence of a bourgeois childhood

PAUL FOLEY steps gingerly through an exhibition that purports to show east and south-east Asian culture, and questions its intentions

Tyrannosaurs in Thailand, colonialism as videogame, and a feminist gem from 1936

DENNIS BROE surveys the bias of the US news networks, and recommends alternatives

New releases from Alex Wilson and Omar Rios Melendez, Hello Cosmos, and Harry Christelis

New releases from Shabaka, Squeeze, and Roswell Road

JOHN GREEN welcomes a vital contribution to the debates around genetic manipulation

GORDON PARSONS is intrigued by a biography of the Marxist intellectual and author, made from the point of view of his son

SYLVIA HIKINS is compelled by a travel writer’s personal exploration of his native Lancashire, by the Morning Star’s own Chris Moss

MARJ MAYO recommends a lyrical and disturbing account of the tragic suicide in Venice of Pateh Sabally, a refugee from the Gambia

In the face of Trump’s brutal aggression, DODIE WEPPLER and TRISH MEEHAN invite you to share some of the masterpieces of Cuban cinema

GEOFF BOTTOMS recommends an inspiring, political and bittersweet account of the munitions factory workers who are the fore-runners of the modern women’s game

MARY CONWAY is spellbound by superb performances in Arthur Miller’s study of the social and personal stress brought about by Nazi Germany’s Kristallnacht

MARIA DUARTE and ANGUS REID review The Bride!, The King’s Warden, Sound of Falling, and Mother’s Pride

ANDY HEDGECOCK recommends an unflinching analysis of the billionaire class that celebrates collective resistance to it

RON JACOBS recommends an outstanding family memoir of life in Gaza

SIMON PARSONS applauds an outstanding one woman show that weaves real poems and narratives into the story of one girl’s flight

MARY CONWAY applauds an exploration, through five short plays, that demonstrates the vital role of drama in furthering collective understanding

CHRIS SEARLE speaks to Nicaraguan guitarist OMAR RIOS MELENDEZ

by Gabriel Gbadamosi

SIMON PARSONS applauds an artist who rescues and rehumanises stories of women, the victims of violence, from a feminist perspective

Good Cop vs Bad Fascist fantasy, a guilty witness, Scottish witchcraft, and Camino de Santiago shocker

FIONA O’CONNOR relishes a cinematic exploration of the writing, and the historical context of Thomas Mann’s WWI masterpiece, The Magic Mountain

SHELLEY GALPIN points out that Thomas Hardy’s Jude the Obscure criticised university elitism, and still rings true today

Releases from Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Maggie Nicols/Robert Mitchell/Alya Al Sultani, and Gordon Beck Trio and Quintet

LEO BOIX reviews a dazzling art exhibition by one of Latin America’s most important and rebellious artists, whose art exposes the way state violence operates not only through physical force, but through culture

The Bard stands with the Reformers of Peterloo, and their shared genius in teaching history with music and song

MARJORIE MAYO is disappointed by the lack of class analysis in an all-too-plausible account of progressive causes

IAN SINCLAIR welcomes a mainstream scholar to the ranks of left-wing critique of US foreign policy

PETER MASON is disappointed that the eponymous Count fails to put in an appearance

STEVE ANDREW recommends a Marxist analysis of the long chains of production that global corporations exploit