Film With the “inspirational movie” genre honed to a glossy, Netflix-ready sheen by Hollywood, the 2013 Lukas Moodysson film We Are the Best! may seem an obscure pick. But, frankly, do the polished formulas of your Blind Sides etc actually work on anyone? We Are the Best! is a far scrappier coming-of-ager about three Stockholm schoolgirls bonding, bickering and bellowing their way to local punk stardom. It’s sweet enough to deliver the warm fuzzies, but tart and jangly enough to be a properly motivational pick-me-up. Think nothing could make you stir from the settee these dark days? Just try to keep from standing and cheering as three misfit Swedish tweens become just about the punkest thing you’ve ever seen. Jessica Kiang Music Beyoncé Knowles-Carter has always delivered a strong line in inspirational performance, but Homecoming – her 2018 Coachella show and live album – is surely her most undeniable feat: an emblem of what can be achieved when you creatively direct yourself with ambition and ruthless passion. Most of us aren’t going to be signing a Netflix deal or putting ourselves through a punishing 44-day diet regime any time soon (and we advise that you probably don’t), but Homecoming is an uplifting reminder of the payoff that can occur when you dare to really push yourself. Jenessa Williams Art Yoko Ono’s ladder is an invitation to step up. Literally. Those who make the effort and ascend its rungs are rewarded with a tiny affirmation. On the ceiling, under a pane of glass, is a single word only visible through a magnifying glass: Yes. Yoko Ono’s Ceiling Painting/Yes Painting was first shown in 1966 in swinging London’s storied basement gallery Indica, where John Lennon turned up in search of “a bit of a happening”. Its positivity inspired him to get to know its creator, and paved the way to one of rock’s best-known creative and romantic partnerships. Skye Sherwin Book “Let’s go, let’s not stop – go now! Yes!” yells Dean Moriarty, the fast-talking, even-faster-driving hero of Jack Kerouac’s On the Road. Such enthusiasm was so infectious that the world would never be the same after the book was published in 1957. The Beats, the hippies and subsequent millions of would-be saints and midnight poets all heard its call to “burn, burn, burn”. On the Road made them explore their own consciousness. It made them question the status quo. It made them want to get out there. “It changed my life like it changed everyone else’s,” said Bob Dylan. Sam Jordison Television Warning: the following cultural recommendation may be – if anything – a little too motivating. The frenzied real-time action of 24 (which is now on Disney+ in its entirety) is so adrenaline inducing that it’ll leave you in danger of karate kicking items off your mantlepiece and tackling household chores with the fury of someone who has 20 seconds to save the president’s life. Will Kiefer Sutherland’s counter-terror operative Jack Bauer be able to save the US from its latest terror threat? Can he beat the frenetically ticking clock that bookends every scene? Will you get so carried away by this brilliantly gripping show that you’ll wind up emulating Bauer’s inexplicable habit of yelling “Damn it!” every 37 seconds? Damn it! We don’t have time for all these questions! Alexi Duggins