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Joining Tom this week:

Theatre critic Susannah Clapp
Writer and television producer James Runcie
Journalist Miranda Sawyer

Julia

When she won an Oscar for her role in Michael Clayton earlier this year, the famously versatile British actress Tilda Swinton morphed from arthouse movie queen into international movie star. Now she takes the lead in French director Erick Zonca’s new film, Julia. Swinton plays an LA alcoholic who is sliding into oblivion - until she decides to kidnap a child. At which point she - and the plot - lurch chaotically into life…

Julia, directed by Erick Zonca, is on release nationwide, certificate 15.

Amazonia

Since the mid-Nineties, the Young Vic Theatre in central London has developed a reputation for delivering innovative Christmas shows, from The Grimm Tales to The Adventures of Tintin. This year’s offering, Amazonia, draws on Brazilian musical and dance culture to celebrate the life of the murdered environmental activist Chico Mendes. But does it measure up to the theatre’s own track record?

Amazonia by Colin Teevan is at the Young Vic Theatre until 24 January

Japan Car

What does a bonsai tree have in common with a Japanese hatchback? This exhibition, conceived by an architect and a graphic designer, and sponsored by seven Japanese car manufacturers, argues that in the years to come, cars will be small and green and beautiful…

Japan Car: Designs for the Crowded Globe is at the Science Museum in west London until 19 April.

The Wizard of Oz

It’s almost seventy years since one of cinema’s most famous films was released. But is it really such a triumph? Susannah Clapp challenges the prevailing wisdom; Miranda Sawyer and James Runcie defend what they both still see as a classic.

Mekong Diaries

Amid the vast sufferings of the Vietnam War, the Viet Cong dispatched trained artists down the ‘Ho Chi Minh Trail’ into the heart of battle, to record the events in watercolours and drawings. Forty years on, this new book compiles their work, to reveal a surprisingly gentle aspect to a notoriously brutal conflict.

Mekong Diaries: Viet Cong Drawings and Stories 1964-1975 by Sherry Buchanan is published by the University of Chicago Press.

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