CULTURE DIGEST 12: Courtrooms and Close-Ups
Monthly recommendations from the team behind the TV Foundation and Edinburgh TV Festival.
Hello culture vultures! As we hurtle toward summer (seriously, how is it almost June?), our team has been soaking up a bit of everything — film, television, books, and a few chaotic weekend outings. Below, you’ll find the things we’ve been loving, questioning, and raving about over coffee this month. As ever, consider this your informal guide to good storytelling — wherever it might appear.
TV
📺 The Genius Game (ITVX) – If you’re missing the clever machinations of The Traitors, try this. South Korea delivers high-concept competition TV like no one else.
📺 The Four Seasons (Netflix) – No spoilers, but this quiet, elegant drama crept up on us. Lush in tone, loaded with subtext.
📺 Love on the Spectrum US (S3) (Netflix) – Still heartfelt, still funny, still human. Reality TV at its kindest.
📺 The Piano (Channel 4) – Turns out a train station can be the most moving concert hall in the UK. Beautifully filmed and unpretentiously emotional.
📺 Matlock (NOW) – Kathy Bates doing double duty as a razor-sharp grieving mother posing as a sweet southern bell of a lawyer. Yeah, it’s as good as it sounds.
FILM
🎬 Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning – Tom Cruise runs. Things explode. We’re not immune to popcorn cinema, okay?
🎬 Hotel Coolgardie – An older documentary but still devastatingly relevant. A tense, quiet examination of gender, isolation, and the deeply ingrained microaggressions that shape public spaces. Not a comfortable watch —but an important one.
🎬 The Wild Robot - Oscar nominated. Can a robot learn to love? Bring tissues — it’ll leave a lump in your throat.
🎬 Paddington 2 – Because sometimes, pure joy is a radical act. Always worth a rewatch, especially if life feels a bit too cynical.
IRL EXPERIENCES
🎭 Moulin Rouge! The Musical – Camp. Maximalist. Joyful. Go for the rotating elephant, stay for the absurd number of pop mashups.
🎭 The Lightning Thief (musical) – Teen angst + Greek mythology = a surprisingly winning campy combo.
🎭 Conversations After Sex – A sparse but tender play that lingers. If (when) this gets a remount, please see it.
📖 Offprint at Tate Modern – A mad, brilliant whirlwind of independent publishing. Books, zines, conversations, and chaos. RIP David Lynch — your books now cost as much as a week’s rent.
🎞️ Close-Up Film Centre – Part video archive, part coffee sanctuary. An East End gem. If you’re in the area, pop in and lose yourself in film history — or just a great flat white.
BOOKS
📖 The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart – Technically for younger readers, but full of smart twists and moral clarity that’s refreshing.
📖 Die, My Love by Ariana Harwicz – A fever dream of a novel. Brutal, poetic, and already heading to the big screen via Lynne Ramsay (fresh out of Cannes). Read it before it’s everywhere.
📖 Black Sunset: Hollywood Sex, Lies, Glamour, Betrayal and Raging Egos by Clancy Sigal – Old Hollywood scandal meets leftist politics. Sigal’s life as an agent-turned-writer (and FBI surveillance subject) is wild. Barbara Stanwyck, Humphrey Bogart, communist pamphlets — it’s all here, and it’s all true (apparently?).
MUSIC
🎧 Self Esteem – “A Complicated Woman” is an absolute vibe. Bold, brilliant pop with teeth. Put it on while walking too fast or feeling your feelings — preferably both.
🎧 CMAT – Taylor Swift for girls who drink Guinness and probably take too long to do their washing up. Always the cowboy, never the cow!
That’s about it for this month’s Culture Digest. We’ll leave you with that video of Tom Cruise calling out a fan for eating all their popcorn…
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