Författare: Anna Walker Senior Arts Culture Editor

In 2022, it was estimated that more than 4,200 cases of missing or murdered Indigenous women remained unsolved in the US. To make a film that explores this injustice with dignity and authenticity is no mean feat. To make a film that does so, and still has the joy of Native American culture shine through is a marvel. That’s what the team behind Apple TV’s Fancy Dance (which was written, directed and acted by a Native American cast) has achieved.

The film stars Oscar nominee Lily Gladstone as Jax, a Seneca Cayuga woman who finds herself the primary caregiver to her niece, Roki, after her sister goes missing. While battling the child protection agent who is threatening to hand Roki over to her semi-estranged white grandparents, Jax makes a promise that her mum will return by the next powwow – an event at the core of Indigenous life in the US.

As our reviewer, professor of American studies Jacqueline Fear-Segal explains, Fancy Dance is a powerful, disquieting film that allows culture, resilience, humour and love to take centre stage.

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Fancy Dance film review: heartbreaking but beautiful tale draws attention to the struggles of reservation life

The name Naomi Campbell is now synonymous with “supermodel”. One of the five models who defined the fashion scene of the 1990s (along with Linda Evangelista, Christy Turlington, Tatjana Patitz and Cindy Crawford), she is a household name around the world.

Naomi In Fashion, now at the V&A, is the first exhibition of its kind, exploring Campbell’s career in a show produced in collaboration with the model herself. Our reviewer, fashion culture expert Tania Phipps-Rufus, was dazzled by the show, calling it “a testament to just how important the Black British model has been to wider culture and representation, in the fashion world and beyond”.

Read more:
Naomi in Fashion: groundbreaking V&A show highlights the career of a trailblazing model and activist

Elsewhere, it’s a big summer for female pop stars. Of the top ten records in the UK album chart this week, six are by women. One of the standouts is The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess by Chappell Roan. If you haven’t heard Roan’s music yet, you’re in for a treat. Think Kate Bush meets Cyndi Lauper meets drag queen icon Divine. Her songs are cheeky, poppy and, at times, utterly gut-wrenching.

She’s one of a new generation of queer women artists dominating the playlists at Pride celebrations and the stages at festivals this summer.

L. Holland, who is undertaking a PhD in queerness in popular music, describes Roan’s sound as “heady and atmospheric”, applauding her sexy lyricism and impressive vocal range.

Read more:
How Chappell Roan and Reneé Rapp’s star power is making 2024 the year of lesbian pop

Peaking at number two in the chart is Charli XCX’s new album, Brat. It’s the singer’s sixth album, and while she’s had a hardcore fan following for years, it feels like her first record to truly make the jump to the mainstream. And what an album it is. Danceable, with ultra-fun melodies, but marked by lyrics with a raw, depressive honesty. A year ago, Charli joked on Twitter that she was the voice of her generation – with this album she proves it.

For our reviewer, a long-time fan, this album is a work of imagist poetry that unapologetically reclaims “bratty” women’s art.

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Brat by Charli XCX is a work of contemporary imagist poetry – and a reclamation of ’bratty’ women’s art

Elsewhere on streaming, House of the Dragon has returned to Sky and Now TV for its second season. It was always going to be hard to carve out a distinct voice for this series, which is a spin-off of one of the most successful TV franchises of all time – Game of Thrones. But with the second season it seems the writers have finally done it.

The second series is subtle, suspenseful and extremely bingeable, with cliffhangers sprinkled across the season and some breathtaking special effects. The dragons of the title in particular (which were one of the most popular elements of the Game of Thrones franchise) are used to great effect.

For Mark Lorch, professor of chemistry, they’re also the cause of serious curiosity. “If dragons existed,” he wonders in this article, “what real-world biological mechanisms and chemical reactions might they use?” The answer involves oils, exothermic reactions and … um … electric eels.

Read more:
House of the Dragon: if dragons were real, how might fire-breathing work? Läs mer…

With a general election on the horizon, it’s probably safe to say most of us are experiencing a little more anxiety than usual. No matter how old I get, the physical manifestation of anxiety doesn’t seem to have changed much from that pit-in-my-stomach, will-I-be-picked-last-for-the-rounders-team feeling of my teenage years.

These first waves of anxiety are the focus of the hotly anticipated sequel to Disney Pixar’s 2015 masterpiece, Inside Out. It told the story of 11-year-old Riley as she navigated moving to a new city, while her emotions – personified as Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear and Disgust – struggled to maintain balance within her mind. In Inside Out 2, which is released in cinemas today, we return to Riley’s life in San Francisco, where her core emotions have become a well-functioning team. All seems to be going well – until the puberty alarm goes off.

Our reviewer Alana James, an expert in teenage psychology, is impressed by the film’s depiction of anxiety, personified as a bright orange, frizzy haired avatar with perpetually upturned eyebrows. She thinks it’s a fresh follow-up to the first film, and likes the way it portrays anxiety as a normal feeling that can have a positive purpose – so long as it doesn’t take over.

Read more:
Inside Out 2: this fresh sequel shows teenage anxiety is not always a bad thing

Women, boys and Lady Parts

Another group of people feeling anxiety this past week were the authors shortlisted for the coveted Women’s Prize for Fiction. Since its launch in 1996, the prize has become one of the most influential and popular literary awards in the world, with writers such as Zadie Smith and Andrea Levy among its past winners.

This year’s winner is V.V. Ganeshananthan for her book Brotherless Night, a heart-breaking and searing novel about the Sri Lankan civil war. We asked six experts to review the shortlisted books, which are a testament to the diversity of stories being told by women around the world.

Read more:
Women’s prize for fiction 2024: six expert reviews of the shortlisted books

From women to The Boys. The much-lauded fourth season of this very adult superhero show arrives on Amazon Prime today. Unlike the sanitised world of Marvel, where “mutants” and “supers” are positioned as aspirational heroes, the spiky crew of The Boys are flawed, and all-too-human.

The titular boys are on a mission to undermine the “supes” – a crew of super-powered jerks who abuse their abilities to gain influence and control. It’s funny, political and, as our reviewer puts it, “gleefully nasty” stuff.

Read more:
The Boys season four: gleefully nasty, gory and dysfunctional anti-superhero show is back

Trailer for season four of The Boys.

Meanwhile, in the Channel 4 sitcom We Are Lady Parts (which has just returned for its second season), an all-female Muslim punk band are on a mission of their own – “to save the world one chord at a time”. In the process, they confront the taboo of music being “haram”, or forbidden, by Islamic law.

Matthew Noone, a former punk musician himself, is interested in how the show continues the legacy of the Muslim punk genre taqwacore. Its name is derived from the Arabic term taqwa, which pertains to consciousness of the divine and, as Noone explains, has become something of a global Islamic punk manifesto.

Read more:
We are Lady Parts: how the show continues the legacy of Muslim punk genre taqwacore

British novelist Rachel Cusk is known for her Outline trilogy, a daring series of novels that satisfy and disturb in equal measure. Her new novel, Parade, strikes out against conformity once again in an exploration of the role of gender in the genesis and reception of art.

Each of the four chapters – G, The Stuntman, The Midwife and The Diver – is told from a different point of view, creating a kaleidoscope of narratives. Our reviewer found it to be a novel in which selfhood, creativity and family relations are submitted to unflinching analytical scrutiny. It’s without doubt a difficult read – but one that rewards the effort.

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Parade by Rachel Cusk review: a daring work of experimentation that strikes out against conformity Läs mer…