Going Out: Cinema
The Worst Person in the World
Out now
Joachim Trier captures a decade or so’s worth of romances in a young woman’s life, wrapping an unflinching portrait of emotional immaturity up in a lovely warm blanket of compassion, aided by a sympathetic central performance from Renate Reinsve. Anyone with a history of romantic flakiness will be able to both relate and finally forgive themselves at the same time.
Umma
Out now
Sandra Oh (Killing Eve) and Fivel Stewart (Atypical) play a mum and daughter who embrace sustainable rural living in a big way, until one day a box containing a certain somebody’s cremated ashes shows up. The subsequent emergence of an absolutely furious ancestral ghost makes going off grid suddenly seem less appealing.
Ambulance
Out now
Get ready for some Bayhem, as the world’s loudest film-maker, Michael Bay, returns with this sensitive tale of an elderly lady’s detective agency. Just kidding, it’s an action film about a $32m heist in a hijacked ambulance. The gentlemen dedicated to blowing shit up real nice, include Jake Gyllenhaal and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II.
The Hermit of Treig
Out now
If you feel like getting away from it all for a bit of peace and seclusion, you’re not alone – retreats have never been more popular. Ken Smith takes it to the next level, however, living in solitude for decades in remote rural Scotland. This affectionate documentary portrait by film-maker Lizzie MacKenzie examines the appeal of an alternative lifestyle. Catherine Bray
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Going Out: Gigs
Thundercat
29 March to 3 April; tour starts Glasgow
Released just as the world closed, bass virtuoso Thundercat’s Grammy-winning fourth album It Is What It Is offered up some well-needed hazy escapism. Expect that album’s head-rush moments, specifically the propulsive I Love Louis Cole, to sit perfectly alongside elongated jams such as the classic Them Changes on this much-delayed tour. Michael Cragg
Dorian Electra
1 to 10 April; tour starts London
Brace yourselves for the full sonic onslaught of hyperpop activist Dorian Electra. While 2020’s My Agenda was already quite a lot, fusing nu-metal and dubstep with Gregorian chants, last year’s deluxe version added unspeakable remixes featuring the likes of Danny Brown, Alice Glass and Rebecca Black. Not for the faint-hearted. MC
SoundState
Southbank Centre, London, 30 March to 3 April
The Southbank Centre’s five-day event is the nearest thing in London to a new music festival. Edward Gardner and the London Philharmonic launch this year’s SoundState, with UK premieres from Missy Mazzoli, Rebecca Saunders, Mason Bates and George Walker; later highlights include Bang on a Can playing with Meredith Monk, and flautist Claire Chase performing Liza Lima and Pauline Oliveros. Andrew Clements
Cleveland Watkiss
Boisdale of Canary Wharf, London, 26 March
Cleveland Watkiss is one of the UK’s great idiomatic vocalists – and moreover, a co-founder of the game-changing Jazz Warriors big band, a composer, MC, electronics innovator and actor, too. On this rare gig, Watkiss showcases Jamaica’s rich musical history, celebrating classics of ska, mento, reggae, dub, and more. John Fordham
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Going Out: Stage
Le Bal de Paris
Barbican theatre, London, 1 to 9 April
Blanca Li, a choreographer who’s worked with everyone from Pedro Almodóvar to Beyoncé (and made the moves for Daft Punk’s Around the World video) brings a virtual reality dance party to London, set in a fantastical Parisian ballroom where the audience interacts with real-life performers. Digital costume design is by Chanel. Lyndsey Winship
The 47th
Old Vic theatre, London, 29 March to 28 May
Following on from King Charles III, Mike Bartlett returns with another biting political comedy. It’s 2024. America goes to the polls, and democracy is on the brink. Directed by Rupert Goold. Miriam Gillinson
A Monster Calls
Rose theatre, Kingston-upon-Thames to 9 April, then touring
Sally Cookson’s Olivier award-winning production returns. This spellbinding family show re-imagines Patrick Ness’s powerful novel about a young boy, his sick mum – and a monster who comes calling in the middle of the night. MG
Bobby Mair
Soho theatre, London, 30 March to 1 April; touring to 28 May
The Canadian comic has long mined material from his psyche’s darkest corners: addiction, mental health issues, childhood trauma. Yet on his latest tour, the 36-year-old is changing tack: now a husband and new father, he must extract laughs from a life filled with wholesome conventionality. Rachel Aroesti
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Going Out: Art
Human Conditions of Clay
John Hansard Gallery, Southampton to 7 May
Clay has a way of capturing what it is to be human. Maybe it’s the soft fluidity of the material before it is fired that resembles our moving natures. Rachel Kneebone, Ai Weiwei, Lubaina Himid, Jonathan Baldock (above) and Antony Gormley are among those throwing new ideas on an ancient wheel.
Canaletto’s Venice Revisited
National Maritime Museum, London, 1 April to 25 September
The 18th-century painter Canaletto captured a Venice that was already old and mouldering yet magnificent. How do his views compare with the state of the city today, menaced by mass tourism and impending climate catastrophe? This exhibition looks at the Serenissima through Canaletto’s eyes and brings its perils up to date.
Rachel Goodyear
Grundy Art Gallery, Blackpool, 26 March to 11 June
Birds and stag beetles crawl on peculiarly stilled human figures, a woman has a birdcage on her head, and planets fly around a figure: the drawings of Rachel Goodyear create impossible yet matter-of-fact collisions of the fantastic and real. It’s well worth exploring the worlds of this contemporary surrealist.
Titus Kaphar
Gagosian Grosvenor Hill, London, to 7 May
Religious altarpieces haunt modern art – we can’t get away from the power and mystique of devotional imagery. This Michigan-born sculptor creates alternative altars of found stuff that resemble the dream art of Joseph Cornell and magic installations of Betye Saar, assembling photographs and fragments of Americana to mourn our sins. Jonathan Jones
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Staying In: Streaming
Slow Horses
1 April, Apple TV+
A six-part thriller with Gary Oldman as Jackson Lamb: the rude, shabby boss of Slough House, a knacker’s yard for disgraced MI5 operatives. It’s adapted from Mick Herron’s novels by Veep’s Will Smith, so expect arch humour amid the jaw-clenching tension.
Banned! The Mary Whitehouse Story
29 March, 9pm, BBC Two & iPlayer
With the moral status of pop culture once again a political hot potato, now seems like the perfect time to return to the Whitehouse crusade. This two-part doc – whose talking heads include Peter Tatchell and Ken Loach – finds new relevance in the Midlands teacher’s policing of 70s British TV.
Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty
28 March, 9pm, Sky Atlantic & Now TV
So iconic was Los Angeles Lakers’ basketball in the 1980s, the era had its own nickname: Showtime. This drama, produced by Adam McKay, relives those glory days with a stellar cast, including John C Reilly, Adrien Brody, Gaby Hoffmann and newcomer Quincy Isaiah as Magic Johnson.
Hacks
1 April, Amazon Prime Video
Already an Emmy-winning hit across the pond, this dramedy follows an old-school standup (Jean Smart) who finds herself collaborating with a recently “cancelled” Gen Z joke writer. With the generation gap feeling more like a chasm, can they bridge the divide? RA
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Staying In: Games
Kirby and the Forgotten Land
Out now, Nintendo Switch
Nintendo’s enemy-gobbling pink puffball explores a post-apocalyptic Earth, for some reason. The juxtaposition of setting and character here is fascinating.
Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands
Out now, PS4/5, Xbox, PC
A fantasy action game with spells, monsters, and lots of guns, because it’s set inside the dungeon-master fantasy of the trigger-happy teen from Borderlands.
Glitchhikers
Out 31 March, PC
A kind of magical-realist road trip where you meet strange characters who prompt you to reflect on life, the universe and everything. Keza MacDonald
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Staying In: Albums
Koffee – Gifted
Out now
Mikayla Simpson, AKA 21-year-old Grammy-winning Jamaican rapper Koffee, started life wanting to be an astronaut. Space travel’s loss is reggae and dancehall’s gain, however, with this debut album building on the impact of 2019’s breakthrough banger Toast. Featuring co-production from the likes of Frank Dukes, it’s the perfect soundtrack for the arrival of spring.
Placebo – Never Let Me Go
Out now
Fearful of getting stuck in a rut, alt-rock titans Placebo – now streamlined down to just frontman Brian Molko and guitarist Stefan Olsdal – turned their creative process on its head for album eight. Starting with the album’s imagery first, they built songs influenced by environmental catastrophe, sci-fi apocalypses and surveillance culture.
Destroyer – Labyrinthitis
Out now
On their 13th album, Canadian rock experimentalists Destroyer continue to poke and prod at the outskirts of their sound. Current single June, for example, starts as slinky louche pop before morphing into something darker, frontman Dan Bejar vamping it up via a two-minute spoken-word outro. A glorious oddball of a record.
Kilo Kish – American Gurl
Out now
Since emerging in 2012, singer-songwriter Lakisha Robinson has worked with the likes of the Internet and Gorillaz, and had her playful electro-R&B fusion featured in teen controversy magnet Euphoria. On this typically eclectic follow-up to 2016’s Reflections in Real Time debut, she’s joined by Miguel and longterm collaborator Vince Staples. MC
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Staying In: Brain food
My Garden of a Thousand Bees
Now TV
Part-ASMR, part-nature diary, this eminently soothing documentary finds wildlife cameraman Martin Dohrn attempting to film all of the bees in his Bristol garden during lockdown. While befriending the buzzing critters, he explains their crucial significance.
This Being Human
Podcast
An insightful podcast on the nuances of Muslim life from Toronto’s Aga Khan Museum. Host Abdul-Rehman Malik interviews everyone from Nasa scientist Farah Alibay on her views on humanity, to Lebanese designer Roni Helou on the Beirut explosion.
Honest Vocal Coach
YouTube
Georgina Hill-Brown has been posting her reaction videos to popstars’ singing abilities since 2014 and has built a committed following for her emotive responses mixed with technical analysis. Start with her joyous viral take on Lady Gaga’s Rain On Me. Ammar Kalia
