Going out: Cinema
Poor Things
Out now
Start the new year right: Poor Things is one the best films you’re likely to see in 2024. Starring Emma Stone as a sort of inquisitive Frankenstein’s monster, it’s as brilliant and barmy as you’d expect from Yorgos Lanthimos, the man who brought us The Favourite and Dogtooth.
The Beekeeper
Out now
There is a section of the cinema-going population who will turn out for absolutely anything with Jason Statham in (this writer included), and this is the latest for them. The Stath plays a former operative of a shady organisation called the Beekeepers, and he’s on some sort of revenge mission, obviously.
The Boys in the Boat
Out now
Directed by George Clooney from a screenplay by Mark L Smith (The Revenant), this sports movie starring Joel Edgerton is based on the true story of the University of Washington crew who represented the United States in the men’s eight rowing event at the 1936 Olympics in Adolf Hitler’s Germany.
British Film Stars: The Rank Charm School
Home, Manchester, to 28 January
In the late 1940s, the film company Rank ran its so-called “charm school”, training various stars of UK cinema, including Diana Dors and Christopher Lee. It’s now the focus of a season of special screenings. Films include: Spartacus, Dracula and The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. Catherine Bray
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Going out: Gigs
Jesca Hoop
17 to 27 January; tour starts Brighton
Across six experimental albums Hoop, who was mentored early in her career by Tom Waits, has touched on everything from folk to electronica. Expect her to cherrypick here from a constantly searching discography full of sudden mood changes. Michael Cragg
Jasper Høiby Trio
Verdict, Brighton, 13 January
Danish bassist-composer Jasper Høiby, former cornerstone of the much-feted jazz power trio Phronesis, unveils a new three-way partnership, featuring fast-rising young UK pianist Noah Stoneman and genre-crossing newcomer Luca Caruso on drums. John Fordham
Wavering World
Symphony Hall, Birmingham, 17 January
Kazuki Yamada conducts the CBSO in the UK premiere of Dai Fujikura’s 2022 orchestral piece inspired by Japanese creation myths and evoking “an uncertain world … floating without knowing what kind of world it will be”. Commissioned as a companion piece to Sibelius’s Seventh Symphony, Wavering World here prefaces a very different work, Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique. Andrew Clements
Five Day Forecast
The Lexington, London, 15 to 19 January
Having previously championed the likes of Jockstrap, Squid and Soccer Mommy, music website The Line of Best Fit’s annual spotlight on exciting new talent returns for a ninth year. The 2024 lineup includes lo-fi indie exponent Viji, Texan singer-songwriter Jess Williamson and Nottingham’s punky country types Divorce. MC
Going out: Art
Charlotte Keates, Margaret R Thompson and Frida Wannerberger
Arusha Gallery, Edinburgh, 19 January to 11 February
Three pictorial artists whose contrasting styles should make for a brightly interesting winter warmer. Charlotte Keates depicts interiors and gardens in a sharp yet seductive way. Margaret R Thompson is more romantic and splashy in her ruminations, while Frida Wannerberger’s dreamy portraits have one foot in the fashion world.
Lubaina Himid
Holburne Museum, Bath, 19 January to 21 April
The Turner prize-winning painter and installationist brings her keen eye to bear on Bath with its history of Georgian art, architecture and fashion, partly underwritten by slave owners such as the local Beckford family. She winds Dutch wax fabric around and through the Holburne Museum to reveal history’s “lost connections”.
Pasquarosa
Estorick Collection, London, to 28 April
Pasquarosa Marcelli was a pioneering female artist in 20th-century Italy who started out as a model then showed her own work from 1915 to her death in 1973. In an age when Italy was torn by war and fascism she became a hit with her free, spontaneous painting style.
Counterpoint
Cristea Roberts Gallery, London, 19 January to 2 March
Think of abstract art and you picture huge paintings, but there’s a long history of abstract prints, too. This survey of strongly coloured shapes on paper ranges from Bridget Riley’s waves and lozenges to the squares of Josef Albers. There are also works by Polly Apfelbaum, Sean Scully and more. Jonathan Jones
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Going out: Stage
Ian Smith
19 January to 28 March, tour starts Brighton
You may assume that being extremely funny is a basic requirement for standup, but in a comedy landscape rife with commentary and emotional heft it’s not always a given. Crabby Yorkshireman Smith, however, is primarily hilarious, spinning comic gold from life’s irritations. Rachel Aroesti
Les Noces – The Departure
Woolwich Works, London, 13 & 14 January
It’s been a while since we’ve heard from multidisciplinary dance company New Movement Collective, but it’s been cooking up an ambitious new show, inspired by the centenary of Bronislava Nijinska’s masterpiece Les Noces (The Wedding). It features more than 50 dancers and musicians in choreography exploring human relationships and commitment. Lyndsey Winship
Kin
National Theatre: Lyttelton, London, to 27 January
Physical theatre company Gecko’s dance-led shows hum with passion and purpose. Its National Theatre debut is inspired by artistic director Amit Lahav’s grandmother and her flight from Yemen to Palestine to escape persecution. Miriam Gillinson
Jekyll & Hyde
Royal Lyceum theatre, Edinburgh, to 27 January
Gary McNair transforms Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic novel into an unnerving one-man play. Forbes Masson stars in a darkly atmospheric show that reveals how far we’ll go to hide our deepest secrets. MG
Staying in: Streaming
True Detective: Night Country
Sky Atlantic & Now, 15 January, 9pm
After a five-year hiatus, the crime anthology series returns, swapping to an all-female lineup, including stars Jodie Foster and Kali Reis and showrunner Issa López. Set in Alaska, season four follows a labyrinthine and horrifying investigation into the disappearance of a group of men from a research station.
Big Boys
Channel 4, 14 January, 10pm
It isn’t often you get to describe a straightforward British sitcom as beautiful, but the first series of Jack Rooke’s semi-autobiographical student comedy verged on the sublime thanks to its delicate study of masculinity and mental health. Now we rejoin Jack (Dylan Llewellyn) and Danny(Jon Pointing) for more mid-10s uni-based stunts, suffering and self-discovery.
The Great American Buffalo
iPlayer & BBC Four, 15 January, 10pm
Documentarian Ken Burns is a veteran chronicler of subjects such as baseball, Vietnam and the Roosevelts. His latest series leapfrogs back over such recent developments to focus on the awful desecration of the Native American way of life, which revolved around the buffalo, in the 1800s.
Monsieur Spade
Acorn TV, 14 January
Fresh from a skin-crawling turn as a tech giant in A Murder at the End of the World, Clive Owen goes retro in this almost century-late sequel to The Maltese Falcon, created by Scott Frank (The Queen’s Gambit). It’s 1963 and detective Sam Spade has retired to the south of France, but a spate of grisly killings mean his leisure time doesn’t last long. RA
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Staying in: Games
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown
Out 18 January, all platforms
One of gaming’s most venerable heroes makes a return in this stylish modern action game (above), that sees you manipulating time and slicing up enemies against a Persian-inspired mythological backdrop.
The Last of Us Part II Remastered
Out 19 January, PlayStation 5
Naughty Dog’s bruising tale about cycles of revenge in a ravaged world is not the kind of game that everyone would want to play twice, but if you’ve yet to partake, you’ll get the jump on what happens in season two of the HBO series. Keza MacDonald
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Staying in: Albums
Marika Hackman – Big Sigh
Out now
Following a tough lockdown, singer-songwriter Hackman worried she’d never make music again. Her fifth album, on which she plays every instrument apart from the brass and strings, grapples with topics such as love, loss, sex and mental health. It’s full of slowly unfurling alt-pop such as lead single, No Caffeine.
The Vaccines – Pick-up Full of Pink Carnations
Out now
After a lineup shuffle – founding member and lead guitarist Freddie Cowan left last year – the Vaccines return with their sixth album of urgent indie pop. Recorded in LA with producer Andrew Wells (Halsey, Jake Bugg), Love to Walk Away and Lunar Eclipse add to their canon of indie dancefloor earworms.
Kali Uchis – Orquídeas
Out now
This follow-up to last year’s excellent Red Moon in Venus finds the Colombian-American singer-songwriter in all-Spanish mode. Singles Muñekita and Labios Mordidos toy playfully in the worlds of dembow and reggaeton, and Te Mata is a sweeping ballad anchored by Uchis’s rich vocals.
Casey – How to Disappear
Out now
Welsh rockers Casey return after their hiatus with a long-awaited third album. Billed as the “enigmatic intersection of existence and grief across the course of 12 songs”, Bite Through My Tongue certainly sounds royally angry, while the title track explores mental health issues through the prism of skyscraping rock. MC
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Staying in: Brain food
Butts & Guts
Podcast
This snappily titled series provides a no-nonsense guide to all things digestive health. A welcome scientific corrective to some wellbeing podcasts, it hears from surgeons and doctors on how we can improve our gut health.
Who Is Killing Cinema?
YouTube
Mixing economics with cultural analysis, this fascinating documentary from YouTuber Patrick Willems explores why physical releases are dying while streamers such as Netflix are thriving and altering the ways that films are being made in the process.
The War on Disco
Tuesday, PBS America
After riding high for a decade, disco music encountered a swift downfall in 1980s America and soon became a battleground between progressive and reactionary values. This insightful film traces the social impact of the anti-disco movement. Ammar Kalia
