Going out: Cinema
The Fabelmans
Out now
Steven Spielberg excavates his childhood anxieties about his parents’ failing marriage to construct a semi-autobiographical drama detailing his early years as a would-be film-maker. The comic highlight is a teenage incident with a Christian girl whose idea of praising the Lord is an enthusiastic make-out session.
All the Beauty and the Bloodshed
Out now
It is rare for the top prize at a film festival such as the Venice Biennale to go to a documentary, but that’s exactly what happened to director Laura Poitras’s acclaimed film. It follows the life and career of the artist Nan Goldin and her role in the downfall of the wealthy pharmaceutical clan and art patrons, the Sackler family.
Unwelcome
Out now
For city dwellers tempted by a life of rural tranquillity, this Ireland-set horror provides a reminder that country life has just as much potential for bloodthirsty chaos, as a young couple relocate and find that the supernatural residents of their new home are none too impressed by their arrival.
Plane
Out now
For anyone who thought the 2006 Samuel L Jackson vehicle Snakes on a Plane seemed a bit highfalutin, here’s a sleeker, simpler proposition of an action movie entitled simply Plane. Starring the ever-game Gerard Butler as the unimprovably named Brodie Torrance. Catherine Bray
Going out: Gigs
Betty Who
London 3 February; touring to 5 February
Having cemented her status as purveyor of Carly Rae Jepsen-esque alt-pop, Australia’s Betty Who sidestepped into TV last year, hosting Amazon dating show The One That Got Away. She returns to music with shows in support of recent fourth album, Big!. Michael Cragg
Beats & Pieces Big Band
Sheffield, 3 February; touring to 9 February
One of the most creative young big bands in the UK, Manchester’s Beats & Pieces inimitably rework the Beatles, Radiohead and Björk, alongside contemporary jazz originals including music by leader Ben Cottrell. Some of the north’s most exciting improvisers stir spice into the mix. John Fordham
Bag of Bones
Bristol, 2 February; Cardiff, 3 February; touring to 11 February
Manchester Collective’s latest touring programme is Alice Zawadzki’s music-theatre piece, which explores her Polish roots. Music from Zawadski’s own group is interlaced with arrangements of traditional music by Misha Mullov-Abbado, as well as pieces by David Lang, Henryk Górecki, Simón Díaz and Angela Torrodi. Andrew Clements
Jessie Reyez
28 to 31 January; tour starts Birmingham
Raspy voiced Canadian singer-songwriter Reyez has become the collaborator du jour, working consistently with the likes of Calvin Harris, Eminem and Sam Smith. She has a lot to offer solo, too, as showcased on last year’s underrated second album, Yessie, which she’ll highlight on this run of dates. MC
Going out: Art
Martin Parr
Cromwell Place, London, 1 February to 19 February
The master of luridly bright British kitsch shows his touching photographs of everyday pleasures and holiday dreams alongside snaps collected by the Anonymous Project. Parr’s eye for real life is matched with simple, joyous records of the moment taken by ordinary photographers from the 1930s to 1980s.
Elizabeth Price
Gallory of Modern Art, Glasgow, to 14 May
The art of Elizabeth Price is investigative and questioning yet its apparently rational premises plunge you into unease and paranoia. Her complex video work Slow Dans features three strands of typically surreal imagery, and coincides with her show at Glasgow’s Hunterian. Dive into the modern gothic at it very best.
The New Bend
Hauser & Wirth, Bruton, to 8 May
The alternative American art of quilt making is celebrated in this group show that connects folk tradition and the contemporary cutting edge. The artists here, who take inspiration from the Gee’s Bend Alabama quilt makers, include Zadie Xa, Sojourner Truth Parsons, Dawn Williams Boyd and Qualeasha Wood.
A New Power: Photography and Britain 1800-1850
Bodleian, Oxford, 1 February to 7 May
From farmyard scenes to stereoscopic images of the Great Sphinx, photography changed British culture by the middle of the 19th century. This exhibition shows how quickly the “pencil of nature”, as Fox Talbot called the medium he pioneered, caught on. The title stresses the “power” it gave the British empire. Jonathan Jones
Going out: Stage
Tom Allen
1 February to 25 November; tour starts Frome
Allen’s sardonic but self-effacing brand of camp has turned him into a national treasure in training. In fact, such is the standup’s recent success (TV presenting gigs, two acclaimed memoirs) that he’s finally decided, in his late 30s, to fly the nest – a move he muses on in this new show. Rachel Aroesti
Vault festival
Various SE1 venues, London, to 19 March
Eight weeks of live performance in Waterloo, with theatre, comedy, cabaret, VR and endless other events. It’s London’s answer to the Edinburgh fringe and always brims with energy, excitement and opportunity. Miriam Gillinson
LuYang: DOKU, The Binary World
Zabludowicz Collection, London, 28 January
Creating and transforming avatars, Shanghai-based multimedia artist LuYang seems like they’ve beamed in from the future. Here, two dancers in motion-capture suits have their physical moves metamorphosed live into virtual beings. Lyndsey Winship
Manipulate festival
Various venues, Edinburgh, 2 to 12 February
This year, Edinburgh’s festival of visual theatre and film will feature large illuminated hands roaming the city, an aerial work inspired by lobster fishing, and theatre live-streamed between Scotland and Argentina. MG
Staying in: Streaming
Nolly
3 February, ITX
Telly connoisseurs, nostalgists and lovers of camp, this is for you. Russell T Davies (It’s a Sin, Doctor Who) is behind this Helena Bonham Carter-starring drama about “queen of the Midlands” Noele Gordon, abruptly sacked from her role in the famously shoddy soap Crossroads in 1981.
Pamela: A Love Story
31 January, Netflix
Last year’s true-crime drama Pam & Tommy - about the 1995 theft of Anderson and Lee’s infamous sex tape – was a tale of exploitation that many regarded as exploitative itself. Now the Baywatch actor gets to tell her own story in a documentary film.
Dear Edward
3 February, Apple TV+
The year has only just begun, but this adaptation of Ann Napolitano’s 2020 novel, about a young boy who is the sole survivor of a plane crash that kills his entire family, looks set to be one of the year’s most devastating dramas. Newcomer Colin O’Brien plays Edward; Connie Britton and Taylor Schilling also star.
The Royals: A History of Scandals
31 January, All 4
The Windsors’ reputation may be in freefall, but it’s worth remembering the royals have weathered many storms over the centuries. This doc examines the kind of bizarre financial intrigue – from the Field of the Cloth of Gold to George IV’s debts – that puts Prince Harry being forced to use Meghan’s credit card to buy a sofa firmly in the shade. RA
Staying in: Games
Season: A Letter to the Future
Out 31 January, PlayStation 4/5, PC
You have a bike, a camera, a notebook and a voice recorder, and your job is to document the last moments of a dying place. An intriguing game, infused with climate anxiety.
Dead Space
Out now, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series S/X, PC
The cult sci-fi horror from 2008 returns in this from-the-ground-up remake, having influenced countless other games with the oppressive atmosphere of its space station and visceral, gory struggles against the things that live in it. Keza MacDonald
Staying in: Albums
Ava Max – Diamonds & Dancefloors
Out now
With her inescapable debut single (2018’s Sweet But Psycho), Ava Max carried the distinct whiff of one hit wonder. On this second album, led by the pogoing Maybe You’re the Problem, she sets out to prove wrong the naysayers wrong with 14 ludicrous, The Fame-era electropop bangers.
Sam Smith – Gloria
Out now
Launched with the beige ballad, Love Me More, Smith’s fourth album appeared set to be a return to their early MOR days, before lascivious banger Unholy – a UK and US No 1 – came along and tore up the playbook. That song’s playfulness is matched by the recent single Gimme, which features Jamaican star Koffee.
SG Lewis – AudioLust and HigherLove
Out now
Samuel George Lewis has already worked with the likes of Robyn, Jessie Ware and Dua Lipa. On this second album he utilises his bulging Rolodex of guests – Tove Lo, Ty Dolla $ign and Channel Tres all appear – while taking the mic on the sad-disco bop Lifetime.
Fucked Up – One Day
Out now
This sixth album from the Canadian punk experimentalists is built around a philosophical question: “What do you think you would do, or be able to accomplish, if you were just given one day?” While the lyrics carry a dose of self-reflection, and the music reaches beyond hardcore, Damian Abraham’s throat-shredding vocals are a constant. MC
Staying in: Brain food
Gunther’s Millions
2 February, Netflix
The Gunther at the centre of this strangely fascinating investigative series isn’t an oligarch but a German shepherd. Bequeathed a fortune from a countess, Gunther and his lucky offspring have since been implicated in an enormous tax-fraud scheme.
Smithsonian 3D Digitization
Online
The Smithsonian’s digital collection of 3D scans contains some of its most intriguing objects for viewers to pore over online. Items include a bust of Abraham Lincoln’s face, Neil Armstrong’s spacesuit and a century of women’s fashion.
Lights Out
Podcast
Radio 4’s close-listening documentary series delights in atmospheric accounts of unusual stories. Among the highlights are activists over the age of 60 recounting their lives of protest and a radio amateur’s transmissions from during the Ukraine invasion. Ammar Kalia