Going out: Cinema
Amsterdam
Out now
We won’t see many more glittery casts this year than Christian Bale, Margot Robbie, John David Washington, Rami Malek, Anya Taylor-Joy, Taylor Swift, Chris Rock and Robert De Niro joining forces for a mystery about friends who witness a murder, but become suspects themselves.
The BFI London film festival
Various venues, London, to 16 October
Darren Aronofsky’s The Whale, Joanna Hogg’s The Eternal Daughter and Park Chan-wook’s Decision to Leave are among the titles premiering at the latest edition of the UK’s biggest film festival – but it’s well worth digging deeper into the extensive programme and taking a punt on the less established names, too.
Vengeance
Out now
You may recognise Vengeance director and star BJ Novak as the callow and manipulative but still rather likable Ryan in The US Office. Here he plays a podcaster from New York who heads to Texas to investigate the death of a girl he hooked up with, wisely making the most of those same qualities.
Bram Stoker’s Dracula (30th Anniversary Restoration)
Out now
Somewhere in an ancient crypt, the desiccated corpse of an aristocrat slumbers. Or does it? It’s impossible not to admire the lavish gothic pageantry of Francis Ford Coppola’s wildly cinematic take on Bram Stoker’s legend of the eternal bloodsucking leeches who feed remorselessly on ordinary folk. A cathartic and timely restoration. Catherine Bray
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Going out: Gigs
Priya Ragu
Electric Brixton, London, 13 October
Taking a break from work on her debut album, the Tamil-Swiss pop impressionist heads to the UK for this one-off show. Already the proud owner of a handful of live anthems, especially the groove-led Good Love 2.0, expect to hear new tracks alongside March’s excellent taster Illuminous. Michael Cragg
Roxy Music
10 to 14 October; tour starts Glasgow
Bryan Ferry et al don their crisp white suit jackets once again for this 50th-anniversary reunion. With a discography ripe with classics that take in sleek MOR, light-footed funk and glam rock, the setlist is basically an exhaustive rundown of 1970s pop. MC
Total Immersion: Sibelius the Storyteller
Barbican, London, 9 October
The BBC Symphony Orchestra’s series used to focus on major living composers, but now spreads its net wider. The first of this season’s all-day events is devoted to Sibelius’s narrative music; the great tone poems, conducted by Sakari Oramo, naturally figure prominently, but there are also concerts devoted to Sibelius’s songs and choral settings too. Andrew Clements
Dugong
Jazz at Lescar, Sheffield, 11 October; Vortex Jazz Club, London, 14 October
Touring their third album, Let the Good Be Good, one-off European jazz/post-rock quartet Dugong evoke glimpses of Frank Zappa or Radiohead, with ideas running all the way from New York avant-jazz improviser Craig Taborn to Chopin. But the energy of those fusions is all their own. John Fordham
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Going out: Art
Cecilia Vicuña
Tate Modern, London, 11 October to 16 April
The latest mega-installation in the Tate’s Turbine Hall promises to fill it with sprawling swagger. Vicuña is a poet and artist from Chile whose vision ranges from folk-style paintings to multimedia works that weave coloured threads in space to comment on ecology and inequality: expect a tangled labyrinth.
Cerith Wyn Evans
Mostyn, Llandudno, 8 October to 5 February
This famous Welsh contemporary artist is usually to be found at museums and biennales worldwide, but in a coup for the seaside town of Llandudno he has a show on home ground. His glowing, sometimes blazing hot, electrified and ethereal art is, at its best, a disco of the soul.
Hieroglyphs: Unlocking Ancient Egypt
British Museum, London, 13 October to 19 February
This blockbuster dives into ancient Egyptian pictorial symbols, and how they were decoded. At its heart is the Rosetta Stone, whose inscription in parallel scripts offers evidence of what hieroglyphs mean. Today papyri can be read rather than simply wondered at. Their truth turns out to be stranger than fiction.
Louise Bourgeois
Hauser & Wirth, Bruton, to 2 January
Drawings by one of the most revered female artists of the 20th century. Bourgeois drew compulsively, often in a stream of consciousness as she tried to set down her dreams. This automatist approach reveals how she was shaped by the surrealist movement that thrived in the France of her youth. Jonathan Jones
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Going out: Stage
Live at the Empire With David Cross
Hackney Empire, London, 13 October
Cross isn’t merely responsible for one of this century’s greatest sitcom characters (Arrested Development’s wannabe Blue Man, Tobias Fünke), he’s also a veteran standup with a rich seam in furiously righteous observations. Sindhu Vee and Celya AB provide support for this one-off London date. Rachel Aroesti
The Boy With Two Hearts
National Theatre, London, to 12 November
Based on Hamed and Hessam Amiri’s autobiographical book. In 2000 a young mother speaks out against the Taliban and flees Afghanistan. The family eventually finds refuge in the UK, where they must race to save their critically ill son. Miriam Gillinson
Fierce festival
Various locations, Birmingham, 11 to 16 October
Originally developed as Queerfest, this eclectic festival celebrates its 25th anniversary. There’s a new, autobiographical take on Pinocchio (The Making of Pinocchio), water-infused dance (Lavagem) and multi-sensory drag (Tentacular Spectacular). MG
Aakash Odedra Company: Samsara
The Lowry, Salford, 9 October
Based on the 16th-century Chinese tale Journey to the West, the story here may be somewhat enigmatic, but the two dancers are electric: choreographer-performer Aakash Odedra, trained in classical Indian dance, and molten, protean Chinese dancer Hu Shenyuan. Lyndsey Winship
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Staying in: Streaming
The Watcher
13 October, Netflix
Naomi Watts and Bobby Cannavale’s new home comes with a terrifying superfan in American Horror Story creator Ryan Murphy’s latest show, an imaginative riff on the real-life harassment experienced by a New Jersey family. Mia Farrow plays a creepy neighbour, while Jennifer Coolidge is in full goofy-glam mode as a local realtor.
Candy
12 October, Disney+
In its haste to convert human depravity into binge-watchable entertainment, the true-crime drama goldrush will inevitably double-up on source material now and then. Candy is the first of two forthcoming TV dramatisations of the brutal 1980 killing of Betty Gore, which features Jessica Biel as the titular type-A Texas housewife and the always-excellent Melanie Lynskey as the axe-attack victim.
Wreck
10 October, 10pm, BBC Three & iPlayer
A cruise becomes (even more of) a living nightmare (than usual) in this comedy slasher led by Ladhood’s Oscar Kennedy. A young man goes undercover to seek out his missing sister on board a ship called the Sacramentum, a self-contained floating universe plagued by strange and sinister happenings.
The Elon Musk Show
12 October, 9pm, BBC Two & iPlayer
From the makers of Jimmy Savile: A British Horror Story comes this three-part docuseries chronicling the wild trajectory of the world’s richest man: a South Africa-born tech giant whose unpredictable business decisions and unconventional family life has made him one of the most bewildering forces in the western world. Rachel Aroesti
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Staying in: Games
No Man’s Sky
Out now, Nintendo Switch
This astonishing space game, which simulates an infinite universe of planets for you to explore and colonise, has somehow been made to work on Nintendo’s diminutive console.
PGA Tour 2K23
Out 14 October, PlayStation, Xbox and PC
If realistic golf is your thing, 2K’s sports game starring Tiger Woods is the closest you’ll get to the actual sport without leaving your couch (although it’s easy to pick up and play, too). Keza MacDonald
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Staying in: Albums
Sorry – Anywhere But Here
Out now
If Sorry’s debut album, 925, showed off the London alt-rock five piece’s home town via rose-tinted glasses, then its follow-up displays it as, in their words, “a much more haggard place”. Inspired by both Carole King and Slint, recent single Let the Lights On is a brutal, London-grey love song penetrated by rusty guitar shards.
Broken Bells – Into the Blue
Out now
Eight years after their last album, the Shins’ James Mercer reunites with producer Danger Mouse for Broken Bells’ third dose of well-crafted space-rock. While lead single We’re Not in Orbit Yet … is built around a dazzling psych swirl, the pretty Love on the Run has the feel of a lost 70s soul workout.
Easy Life – Maybe in Another Life
Out now
Featuring an impressive roll-call of guests including bedroom pop practitioners Gus Dapperton and Benee, as well as Brockhampton’s Kevin Abstract, Leicester’s alt-pop rabble Easy Life’s second album takes their laid-back pop and gives it a cinematic sheen. The whimsical OTT, for example, would sound perfect on an indie romcom soundtrack.
Charlie Puth – Charlie
Out now
Utilising the very modern promo tactic of constant Instagram thirst traps, the third album by singer-songwriter Charlie Puth arrives via a flurry of unexpected online activity. Musically, however, it sticks to Puth’s lane of well-executed soft-pop, all doe-eyed on Smells Like Me, and rueful on its flip-side, I Don’t Think That I Like Her. MC
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Staying in: Brain food
Storyville: Beneath the Surface
11 October, 9pm, BBC Four
Director Alex Irvine-Cox’s film unflinchingly examines the prejudices faced by Norway’s indigenous Sami people. As the community launches a legal challenge against the Norwegian authorities, we hear first-hand testimony on generations of systemic discrimination.
The Art of Longevity
Podcast
Making a hit record is tough, but maintaining success is another skill entirely. Music industry executive Keith Jopling explores how bands have kept the creative flame alive in this incisive series, featuring Tears for Fears, Interpol and more.
Archimarathon
YouTube
Australian tour guide Kevin Hüi and architect Andrew Maynard make a chatty and informative duo in this video series explaining the architectural concepts and building designs behind distinctive global cities such as Sydney and Helsinki. Ammar Kalia
