Florian Zeller’s The Son is a work of crass melodrama
The decorated playwright and director’s follow-up to his Oscar-winning The Father is manipulative and underwritten.
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An unmissable view of Vermeer’s secret worlds
This unprecedented gathering of the artist's works at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam reveals the painter's mastery, if not his mystery.
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Magic Mike’s hollow feminism
This “empowering” franchise about male strippers peddles an offensive, patronising narrative about women and sexuality.
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Our Shamima Begum obsession
Her story has been told and retold in countless newspaper articles, three podcasts and three documentaries. Why can’t we look…
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Subscriber of the week: Paul Pearce
Please email peter.williams@newstatesman.co.uk if you would like to be the New Statesman’s subscriber of the week.
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What does Evgeny Lebedev want?
Buying British newspapers gave the Lebedevs clout in Tory high politics. Over a decade on, it remains unclear what they…
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Yalda Hakim’s Diary: Afghanistan’s freezing winter, secret schools for girls, and the crime of being a woman
After the Taliban took over I met many women who told me they had no intention of leaving – but…
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Another Rishi reshuffle won’t help him restore party discipline
Your weekly dose of gossip from around Westminster.
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Letter of the week: Reasons to stay put
Write to letters@newstatesman.co.uk to have your thoughts voiced in the New Statesman magazine.
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Why Europeans should not get too used to Joe Biden, the last of the Atlanticists
After the traumas of the Trump presidency, Europe is mistaking his successor’s leadership for the new normal.
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This England: Twitchers vs Twitter
This column – which, though named after a line in Shakespeare’s “Richard II”, refers to the whole of Britain –…
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From Brian Dillon to Tara Zahra: new titles reviewed in short
Also featuring Masters of the Lost Land by Heriberto Araujo and I Am Still With You by Emmanuel Iduma.
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The age of hyper-globalisation is ending
As competing geopolitical blocs emerge, countries are increasingly turning to regional allies for trade and financial security.
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The idiot rich are taking over our cities – and our culture
Why the Supreme Court's decision on the Tate Modern is bad news for London. Plus: Lydia Tár, audiobooks, and rowdy…
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An Everywoman on her way up
Funny Woman is a broad, old-fashioned comedy about an aspiring female comic in Sixties London with an indisputable star at…
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The decline of the One Nation Tory
That Rishi Sunak is under pressure to pursue a Trussite agenda is a reflection of how narrow the Conservatives’ ideological…
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Rishi Sunak, the man who isn’t there
As the Prime Minister dithers, his foes advance and Britain declines.
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A queer kind of poetry
This bittersweet, beautiful programme highlights odes to relationships between two men or two women.
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Psychic Sisters’ Jayne Wallace: “I open my crown chakra and throw out a beam of light”
The Essex clairvoyant – a hit on Dragons’ Den – is finding a UK market for Goop-like wellness with a…
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Albert Namatjira: outsider of the outback
Only in his paintings could the Aboriginal artist overcome the prejudice of white Australia.
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