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Going out: Cinema
Emily
Out now
Out on the wild and windy moors, we’d roll and fall in green … The book that inspired not only the Kate Bush banger but also countless adaptations gets a gorgeous behind-the-scenes treatment in this lovely, loose and elemental reimagining of how Emily Brontë came to write Wuthering Heights, with a breakthrough lead turn from rising star Emma Mackey.
The Lost Boys (35th Anniversary 4K Restoration)
Out now
What with rampant inflation and a mortgage crisis currently in the offing, the 1980s have never been more in vogue: time to get out the bleach blond and smudgy eyeliner and experience the ultimate 80s vampire movie, starring Kiefer Sutherland as a Billy Idol-esque bloodsucker.
All That Breathes
Out now
From director Shaunak Sen (Cities of Sleep) comes a documentary about a pair of brothers in Delhi who aim to protect birds of prey at a time when worsening environmental conditions and social upheaval combine to threaten their future.
Halloween Ends
Out now
One of those titles to which the only appropriate response is “you promise?”, the horror franchise crawls, bleeding, to the finish line, after an iffy last few outings for fractious siblings Laurie and Michael Myers. Still, might as well see how it all turns out, eh? Catherine Bray
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Going out: Gigs
Lauren Aquilina
Hoxton Hall, London, 20 October
Having taken time out from her own recording career to co-write songs with Little Mix, Rina Sawayama and Demi Lovato, Aquilina returns to her day job for this one-off London show. Expect the set to lean heavily towards 2020’s excellent, darkly hued EP Ghost World. Michael Cragg
Sŵn festival
Various venues, Cardiff, 21 to 23 October
Wales’s premier multi-venue fest returns for another year. As well as showcasing some of the best in Welsh music, from Greta Isaac, Panic Shack and Welsh-language rockers Sŵnami, the bill also includes US singer-songwriter BC Camplight, transatlantic indie stars Prima Queen and the Faroe Islands’ excellently named Joe & the Shitboys. MC
Joe Locke’s Amaranth
Dorking, 18 October; London, 19 & 20 October; Ambleside, 21 October
Equally expressive as an interpreter of sumptuous slow-burn music or hurtling uptempo jazz, the celebrated American vibraphonist Joe Locke imparts an imaginative drive to the sound of an instrument that can be languorous in some hands. A powerful European-American quartet including internationally acclaimed Slovenian saxophonist Jaka Kopač adds momentum on this tour. John Fordham
Puss in Boots
Bishop’s Castle, 15 October; Swansea, 19 October; Criccieth, 20 October; Colwyn Bay, 21 October; touring to 12 November
Mid Wales Opera is devoting its 2022-23 season to fairytales, beginning with a work that’s little known in Britain. First performed in 1948, Puss in Boots was the Catalan Xavier Montsalvatge’s first opera, an approachable, tuneful work, presenting the Italian fairytale in a single act. MTW’s production is directed by Richard Studer and performed in a chamber arrangement by Jonathan Lyness. Andrew Clements
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Going out: Art
Turner prize
Tate Liverpool, 20 October to 19 March
The Turner prize hasn’t been winning any prizes lately and last year’s all-collective shortlist was bizarre. But with four actual artists on the shortlist, this one could be good. Ingrid Pollard’s incisive explorations of race and landscape should win but Heather Phillipson, Veronica Ryan and Sin Wai Kin will make for a lively show.
Manet and Eva Gonzalès
National Gallery, London, 21 October to 15 January
The pioneering modern painter Manet’s 1870 portrait of his pupil Gonzalès depicts her at her easel in a long white silk dress, working on a still life: he seems to heighten stereotypes of 19th-century femininity while paradoxically celebrating her defiance. This show examines this intriguing work and its context.
Science Fiction
Science Museum, London, to 4 May
A whizz-bang exhibition that surveys the relationship between science fact and fantasy, from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein to 21st-century cyborgs. Explore the possibility of time travel and the science of Star Trek, and compare the worlds of HG Wells and Isaac Asimov with our reality.
Reena Saini Kallat
Compton Verney, Warwickshire, 20 October to 22 January
The line of partition that separated India and Pakistan in 1947 is a central image in Mumbai artist Reena Saini Kallat’s latest show. Lines are her thing. She mixes drawing with photography and installation, and here she draws with thread. Within the tangle, ghost maps of the Indian subcontinent materialise. Jonathan Jones
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Going out: Stage
Ivo Graham
Foxlowe Arts Centre, Leek, 21 October; touring to 23 November
The Eton-Oxford pathway may be responsible for some of the very worst politicians, but it has also produced 32-year-old Graham, a standup who tempers his privilege with industrial quantities of self-deprecation. His new show My Future, My Clutter milks laughs from his many recent humiliations, from pandemic Zoom gigs to a comedown-blighted trip to Peppa Pig World. Rachel Aroesti
Crystal Pite: Light of Passage
Royal Opera House, London, 18 October to 3 November
It is tricky to make dance that addresses current affairs, but Canadian choreographer Crystal Pite manages to tread that line. Light of Passage expands on her 2017 piece Flight Pattern, about refugee crises, now a full-length work set to Górecki’s Symphony of Sorrowful Songs. Lyndsey Winship
Good
Harold Pinter Theatre, London, to 24 December
A crack creative team revives CP Taylor’s powerful play about a liberal-minded professor seduced by nazism. Dominic Cooke directs David Tennant alongside the dependably excellent Elliot Levey and Sharon Small. Miriam Gillinson
Local Hero
Chichester Festival Theatre: Minerva, to 19 November
Daniel Evans directs David Greig’s typically charming musical, with music from Dire Straits’ Mark Knopfler. It’s based on Bill Forsyth’s 1983 film about a US oil exec sent to secure a development deal in a tiny Scottish fishing village. MG
Staying in: Streaming
Gangs of London
19 October, 9pm, NOW & Sky Atlantic
The grisly thriller returns to chronicle the ongoing exploits of the Wallace Organisation, an ultra-violent crime conglomerate with tentacles that stretch across the globe. The original cast has been brutally thinned out by series one’s numerous bloodbaths, but Paapa Essiedu’s Alex and Sopé Dìrísù’s Elliot remain in play – for now.
The Peripheral
21 October, Amazon Prime Video
There’s TV as mindless escapism, then there are the shows that send you scrabbling for the Wikipedia entry on theoretical physics. See: this adaptation of William Gibson’s 2014 novel, which follows Chloë Grace Moretz’s Flynne as she is transported to a bleak future. Except, inevitably it’s a bit more complicated than that.
Somewhere Boy
16 October, 10pm, Channel 4
Danny has lived his entire 18 years in isolation with his father, who has convinced him the outside world is plagued by monsters. His sudden release sees him guilelessly confront the world’s actual terrors – and pleasures – in this moving drama from the team behind The End of the F***ing World.
Friday Night Live
21 October, Channel 4, 9pm
Nostalgia for comedy’s good old days is often misplaced, but it’s hard not to yearn for a time when mainstream TV hosted bleeding-edge talent – like on C4’s mid-80s alternative comedy series Saturday Live, later Friday Night Live. Hopefully, this one-off reboot – presented by Ben Elton and featuring old-school stars plus next-gen players – can recapture some of the original’s magic. RA
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Staying in: Games
Mario + Rabbids Spark of Hope
Out 20 October, Nintendo Switch
A very silly game about some cartoon rabbits teaming up with Nintendo’s mascots to save the world.
A Plague Tale: Requiem
Out 18 October, PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Switch
By contrast, this is a disturbing, absorbing medieval-ish fantasy game about a plague of rats, a family and the struggle to stay alive. Keza MacDonald
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Staying in: Albums
The 1975 – Being Funny in a Foreign Language
Out now
Eschewing their propensity for the overblown, the fifth album from the 1975 is a leaner, more streamlined beast, with 11 songs clocking up 43 minutes. It’s also lighter in places, as evidenced by the buoyant I’m in Love With You and the Peter Gabriel-esque Happiness. All I Need to Hear, meanwhile, is their best ballad to date.
MIA – Mata
Out now
After claiming 2016’s AIM would be her last, the iconoclastic rapper returns with her sixth album. Featuring production from T-Minus, Skrillex and Rick Rubin, it’s a typically frenetic hotchpotch of styles and ideas. The highlight is the tongue-in-cheek Popular, in which she reunites with longterm collaborator Diplo.
Tove Lo – Dirt Femme
Out now
On her fifth album, initially an independent release, Swedish agit-pop practitioner Lo explores femininity, sexuality and marriage, all while sampling Crazy Frog on nostalgia vacuum 2 Die 4. Elsewhere, the brooding True Romance utilises the 1993 Tony Scott film of the same name for its broken love story backdrop.
Mykki Blanco – Stay Close to Music
Out now
Recorded at the same time as 2021’s Broken Hearts & Beauty Sleep, the third album proper by poet, artist and musician Blanco again demonstrates their eagerness to shed labels. Having previously dabbled in hip-hop and trap, here the focus is on live instrumentation and weaving in guest vocals from the likes of Kelsey Lu and Michael Stipe. MC
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Staying in: Brain food
Descendant
21 October, Netflix
Director Margaret Brown’s beguiling film features interviews with inhabitants of the Alabama community Africatown as they reclaim and recount their history as descendants of the Clotilda, the last known ship illegally carrying enslaved Africans to the United States.
Terrestrials
Podcast
US podcasting giant Radiolab’s latest offering is a joyous six-episode series aimed at children. Host Lulu Miller explains a new natural phenomenon each week, with the help of scientific experts and wacky songs by indie musician Alan Goffinski.
Samplebrain
Online
Electronic experimentalist Aphex Twin has launched a playfully chaotic music-making app with engineer Dave Griffiths. The free-to-use software, Samplebrain, allows users to upload snippets of audio to be reconfigured into new, unpredictable sounds.
