.png)
1 month ago
47
Going out: Cinema
Mickey 17
Out now
Clones of Robert Pattinson? Thanks, we’ll take 10 please. Parasite director Bong Joon Ho crafts a sci-fi comedy in which a disposable man is sent to attempt colonisation of an inhospitable ice planet in the full knowledge that he will die many times over during the course of his task. But how much does death matter when you can regenerate with most of your memories still intact?
Marching Powder
Out now
Director Nick Love and Danny Dyer are back together for more unapologetically foul-mouthed antics of the sort that made them such a popular cinematic proposition in their 2000s heyday for anyone who wanted to revel in lads being lads and damn the consequences.
On Falling
Out now
Now that Ken Loach has mostly retired, his production company is working with the next generation of directors telling timely stories grounded in the kinds of urgent truths Loach made his speciality. Here, director Laura Carreira examines the gig economy from the perspective of Aurora, a Portuguese worker in a Scottish warehouse.
One of Them Days
Out now
A bright and breezy buddy comedy clocking in at just over 90 mins? Thanks, we’ll take 10 please. Keke Palmer and SZA play BFFs racing to raise their rent money after a no-good boyfriend absconds with same. But it’s not about the plot, it’s about the lols and the hijinks. Catherine Bray
Going out: Gigs
C2C festival
14 to 16 March; London, Glasgow and Belfast
The multi-city country hoedown returns to arenas. Headliners include Lainey Wilson, Dierks Bentley and Cody Johnson, but one of the big draws should be Grammy-nominated Beyoncé collaborator Shaboozey, who recently spent 19 weeks at No 1 in the US. Michael Cragg
The Lathums
13 March to 3 May; tour starts Glasgow
Wigan’s jangly rock quartet head out on the road in support of last month’s third album, Matter Does Not Define. With two UK chart-topping records under their belts, and 00s indie revivalism still in full swing, their brand of big anthems won’t be going anywhere soon. MC
Uproar
Cardiff, 13 March; Hafren, Newtown, 14 March, then touring
Ligeti’s glittering Chamber Concerto is the 20th-century classic in Uproar’s latest programme, alongside a work composed to accompany it, Anna Thorvaldsdóttir’s Hrim. There are also three new commissions: Ashley John Long’s Imagin’d Games, Litang Shao’s Floating Theatre and Harm Reduction by David John Roche. Andrew Clements
Alison Rayner Quintet
9 March to 4 April; tour starts London
UK bassist Rayner’s vivacious quintet has been splicing jazz, Latin, folk and pop-like accessibility for 12 years, but her musical affinity with its members goes back a lot further. They’re touring a live album, SEMA4, a mix of tight grooves, swing, reggae, ambient sounds and more. John Fordham
Going out: Art
Richard Serra: The Final Works
Cristea Roberts Gallery, London, 13 March to 26 April
The abstract art of Richard Serra was a genuinely great American achievement. His colossal sculptures, from precariously balanced steel plates to his labyrinths of curving metal at the Guggenheim, Bilbao, are among the masterpieces of our time. Here his last works on paper take you to the heart of darkness.
Siena
National Gallery, London, to 22 June
There was an artistic revolution 700 years ago in the Tuscan city of Siena, where Simone Martini, Duccio and other trailblazers took the art of painting to golden heights. This exhibition lets you into their lost world with one ravishing work after another, revealing the sensitivity and passion of medieval Europe.
Lindsey Mendick
Sainsbury Centre, Norwich, to 27 April
The joyously slapdash, copiously productive, often brilliant ceramicist Mendick explores the impact of drugs on health, happiness and sanity. She portrays herself disintegrating in flecks and specks of exploding clay as she contemplates her own experiences with alcohol and antidepressants. Her bold self-exposure responds to the Sainsbury collection, especially Francis Bacon.
Rhea Storr
Site Gallery, Sheffield, to 25 May
Film artist Storr, who is doing a PhD on Black experimental film, has worked with Caribbean community organisations in Wolverhampton and Sheffield to make this new multichannel work. It’s called Subjects of State, Labours of Love and is shot on 16mm film, capturing shared joys, suffering and resistance. Jonathan Jones
Going out: Stage
Kemah Bob
8 March to 9 July; starts London
Like Rich Hall and Katherine Ryan before her, Bob crossed the Atlantic to establish herself in the UK standup scene. The Texan is now embarking on her first nationwide tour with Miss Fortunate, the jaw-dropping tale of a catastrophic Thailand trip. Rachel Aroesti
Retrograde
Apollo theatre, London, to 14 June
Following his mega-hit For Black Boys … , Ryan Calais Cameron has a new play heading to the West End. Very different in style, this sharp period drama follows the actor Sidney Poitier on the verge of stardom. What will he have to sacrifice to get there? Kate Wyver
Wild Rose
Royal Lyceum theatre, Edinburgh, to 19 April
Jessie Buckley starred in the movie as a Glaswegian mother dreaming of becoming a Nashville country singer. Now director John Tiffany brings the story to the stage, with Dawn Sievewright in the leading role. KW
Jane Eyre
Leeds Grand theatre, 14 to 22 March; touring to 24 May
Cathy Marston’s fine ballet based on Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, originally made in 2016, makes a welcome return. Marston is one of the best ballet storytellers in the business and her choreography here is full of well-chosen detail and personality, as well as lyrical dancing. Lyndsey Winship
after newsletter promotion
Staying in: Streaming
Adolescence
Netflix, 13 March
After working together on harrowing lockdown drama Help, Jack Thorne and Stephen Graham reunite for a similarly hard-hitting real-time four-parter about a 13-year-old suspected of murdering a classmate. Graham stars as the boy’s father, Erin Doherty is a clinical psychologist and Ashley Walters plays the investigating DI.
Dope Thief
Apple TV+, 14 March
Atlanta star Brian Tyree Henry brings his signature irreverence to this sweatily tense tale of two Philly friends who pose as anti-drugs agents in order to rob dealers – until they accidentally target a massive criminal operation. With the lives of their loved ones on the line, can they outsmart (and outshoot) the gang pursuing them?
Everybody’s Live With John Mulaney
Netflix, 12 March
First the streamers started reverting back to weekly episodes, now Netflix is doubling down on its live programming with this new chatshow hosted by the droll US standup. That said, UK viewers probably won’t be watching the show as it happens – it’s set to be broadcast at 2am GMT.
Class Apart: The Great US School Swap
Channel 4, Tuesday, 8pm
British TV loves a student switch-up: in 2015, ITV swapped private and state pupils; in 2019, Channel 4 mixed white and Asian children who were schooled separately. Now the latter is flying London kids to Arkansas and their counterparts to the UK to shed light on the transatlantic cultural chasm. RA
Staying in: Games
Split Fiction
Out now; PS5, Xbox, PC
Vibrant, big-hearted narrative co-op adventure from the creators of 2021’s multi-award-wining It Takes Two, in which a pair of bickering authors are sucked into a VR world of dragons, robots and puzzles, where an unscrupulous publisher is trying to steal their book ideas. Designed to be played shoulder-to-shoulder on a couch in good old-fashioned split-screen.
FragPunk
Out now; PS5, Xbox, PC
Can the latest multiplayer hero shooter succeed where so many have failed, and unseat the reigning behemoths of the genre, Apex Legends and Overwatch 2? Probably not. But there’s plenty of daffy, arcadey fun to be had regardless. Luke Holland
Staying in: Albums
Jennie – Ruby
Out now
As Blackpink announce a reunion summer tour, Jennie joins her bandmates in quickly releasing a solo album before returning to the K-pop mothership. Ruby is the starriest of the lot, with features from Dua Lipa, Kali Uchis and rapper Doechii, who appears on the braggadocious ExtraL.
Lady Gaga – Mayhem
Out now
Five years after taking us to Chromatica, Oscar winner Stefani Germanotta hopes to transport us back to the 2010s on this seventh album. Its two singles, Poison and the pummelling UK Top 3 Abracadabra, are very Born This Way-era, while there’s promise of “utter chaos” throughout. It’s good to have her back.
Hamilton Leithauser – This Side of the Island
Out now
After reuniting his idiosyncratic rockers the Walkmen in 2023, frontman Leithauser returns to his solo career with this follow-up to 2020’s The Loves of Your Life. Created alongside his wife, Anna Stumpf, and the National’s Aaron Dessner, songs such as Knockin’ Heart place his highwire vocals in a clattering rock storm.
Sasami – Blood on the Silver Screen
Out now
The LA alt-pop maven focuses on “romanticism to the point of self-destruction” on this third album, co-produced by Jennifer Decilveo and Rostam (Vampire Weekend). That sense of illogical passion comes to the fore on the heaving ballad, Honeycrash, which careens headfirst into danger. MC
Staying in: Brain food
We Came to the Forest
Podcast
Ahead of the opening of a police training facility in the South River forest in Atlanta, this investigative series explores the longrunning opposition from environmental activists at its construction, resulting in the 2023 shooting of a protester.
Signal Hill
Online
Billed as an “audio magazine”, this fascinating online publication presents a series of shortform documentary podcasts and recorded essays exploring everything from the work of historian Robin DG Kelley to the trials of family group chats.
Mhairi Black: Being Me Again
BBC Scotland, 9 March, 9pm
The former SNP MP fronts this personal film charting her rise as one of the UK’s youngest elected officials and the ensuing online abuse she received, ultimately leading to her standing down at the 2024 election. Ammar Kalia
