Sidelined: The QB and Me review – hot cheerleader meets star quarterback movie is streaming-age bubblegum

Slickly made high-school movie is packed with slow-motion corridor walks and flawless cheer-squad routines – but it’s hard to get caught up in a plot with so few surprises

The Stepford Wives at 50: a compelling idea in search of a better movie

The 1975 adaptation of Ira Levin’s influential sci-fi thriller has its share of unnerving moments but its brainwashed housewives concept is still in search of a better vehicle

The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep review – gore flows in bloody animated mer-western

Lovejoyish dude with magical powers wanders into a seaside kingdom where merpeople and regular humans are at loggerheads

Cottontail review – life lessons are learnt in tender, Beatrix Potter-inspired tale

A Japanese man journeys to the Lake District to honour his late wife, testing his relationship with his son in the process

‘They were trying to do 200 different poses during power cuts’: Bridget Jones director takes on The Joy of Sex

In the 1970s a ‘nude biologist brandishing a cigar’ wrote a game-changing sex manual. Now, ‘Shazza’ is putting his story on the big screen

On my radar: Sharon Van Etten’s cultural highlights

The US singer-songwriter on the Cure, The Bear, neighbourhood restaurants and spiritual solace

‘Pre-sales are bigger than Barbie’: Bridget Jones 4 set to break box office records – despite no US cinema release

The fourth instalment, Mad About the Boy, on course to become biggest homegrown hit of the year in the UK, but will only be available on streamers stateside

Joan Lindsay by Brenda Niall review – a poignant biography of the Picnic at Hanging Rock author

Lindsay was 71 when her gothic classic was published. A new book unearths the winding, often thwarted creative endeavours of her life – and delights in her late success

Dog Man review – goofy gags galore as the Franken-pooch takes on a fiendish feline

Dav Pilkey’s canine supercop creation is upstaged by the world’s most evilest cat in this energetic animated feature

Bridget Jones is a welcome reminder of a much more comfortable era

She worried about her drinking, smoking and weight – but there was never any doubt she would have a job and be able to pay her rent. It’s a very different world for gen Z, writes Zoe Williams

Once more unto the breeches: the 20 best Jane Austen TV dramas – ranked!

Colin Firth in a wet shirt! Elizabeth Bennet as a YouTuber! As the BBC marks the author’s 250th anniversary with four-parter Miss Austen, we pick her finest television outings

Big knickers, bad decisions and old bats: Renée Zellweger on the return of Bridget Jones

Nearly 25 years after the first film, the actor, her co-stars and the writer Helen Fielding discuss the ultimate singleton, love and loss – and the final resting place for Bridget’s massive knickers

Blue Road: The Edna O’Brien Story review – engaging study of a life less ordinary

One of Ireland’s most important novelists and a woman of fierce intelligence and bravery is celebrated in Sinéad O’Shea’s thoroughly enjoyable documentary

The People Before review – house holds terrible secrets in efficient rural-set thriller

A family seek a fresh start but their new home isn’t the haven of tranquility they were hoping for in this interesting but predictable thriller

I’ve Never Wanted Anyone More review – Goethe’s Werther remade as charming contempo romcom

An 18th-century love triangle relocated to the well-to-do of modern Toronto is big on banter and farce even if real passion is sometimes lacking