The Modern by Anna Kate Blair review – millennial ennui lacks thrills

This novel, about an Australian woman’s existential spirals while working in New York’s Museum of Modern Art, is often frustratingly opaque

Father & Son by Jonathan Raban – in retrospect

The travel writer’s posthumously-published memoir charts a complex family history and his own life-changing illness

Rouge by Mona Awad review – a modern fairytale

This beauty industry satire from the author of Bunny explores buried trauma, the tyranny of wellness and mother-daughter relationships

Origin review – a heartfelt look at a journalist challenging the concept of race

There are solid performances in this dramatisation of Isabel Wilkerson’s attempt to explain racism as an aspect of the caste system, but it may have been better as a documentary

Weirdo by Sara Pascoe review – the standup’s bravura debut

A funny-peculiar first novel about a woman lurching through life that will challenge your preconceptions

Bring No Clothes: Bloomsbury and the Philosophy of Fashion by Charlie Porter review – style revolution

A fashion journalist links the sartorial choices of Virginia Woolf, Vanessa Bell, TS Eliot et al to their avant garde outlook on life

The Seventh Son by Sebastian Faulks review – what does it mean to be human?

This elegant near-future novel about a daring scientific experiment explores the evolution of consciousness

The best recent crime and thriller writing – review roundup

Richard Osman, Stephen King, Mick Herron and Ann Cleeves return with murder aplenty, espionage antics and terrible secrets in basements

Ruskin Park: Sylvia, Me and the BBC by Rory Cellan-Jones review – an intimate tale of romance and betrayal

The former BBC correspondent’s discovery of his mother’s letters to and from the father he first met at 23 makes for a captivating family detective story – and a poignant social history of Britain

Priscilla review – Sofia Coppola paints an absorbing, intimate portrait of Elvis’s wife

Based on Priscilla Presley’s memoir, the film shows how a naive schoolgirl became trapped behind the gates of Graceland in a bizarrely co-dependent relationship

In the Ditch by Buchi Emecheta review – ‘a documentary novel’ from the 1970s

Reissued as a Penguin Classic, the late Nigerian-born novelist’s debut work evokes life at the mercy of the welfare state in London with a sharp and wry eye

Politics on the Edge by Rory Stewart review – blistering insider portrait of a nation in decline

The former Tory minister exposes the ‘shameful state’ of recent Conservative rule in this brilliantly frank account of dysfunctional government

The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial review – William Friedkin’s final film looks for the truth

A courtroom drama based on events in Herman Wouk’s second world war novel The Caine Mutiny, Friedkin leaves us with a worthy last effort

The Killer review – terrific David Fincher thriller about a philosophising hitman

Michael Fassbender is perfect in the main role of a yoga-loving assassin who discourses on everything from morality to the Smiths

In brief: The Maverick; North Woods; Ready for Absolutely Nothing – review

An even-handed biography of a pioneering publisher; a twisty New England historical tale; and a surprisingly poignant celebrity memoir