Five of the best ... films
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (15)
(Joel and Ethan Coen, 2018, US) 132 mins
Although available on Netflix, this is still playing in selected cinemas, as befits a new Coens film. Quite how this could have been expanded to a TV series is bit of a mystery, as each of its six cowpoke tales appear exquisitely turned in their current format: bulking them up to episode length could have been a disaster. As it is, they are delightful.
Shoplifters (15)
(Hirokazu Kore-eda, 2018, Jap) 121 mins
Hirokazu Kore-eda is the Japanese director who has quietly become the master of a modernised version of the classical family drama: unconventional units abound in films such as Our Little Sister and Nobody Knows. Here it is a family of petty criminals, trying to scrape by, who discover an abandoned, abused kid and decide to adopt her.
Robin Hood (12A)
(Otto Bathurst, 2018, US) 116 mins
Having wrecked King Arthur last year with a franchise opener that failed to take off, Hollywood turns its beady eyes to another founding British myth. Taron Egerton steps up to a full action-movie lead after two Kingsmen pictures; his Marian is Eve Hewson, and Ben Mendelsohn is the big enemy figure, the Sheriff of Nottingham. Any reflections and insights into Brexit will be entirely coincidental.
Outlaw King (18)
(David Mackenzie, 2018, UK/US) 121 mins
Another Netflix release that should still be bothering real-world cinemas for a little while, even though it is live on the streaming platform. A boots-and-swords epic conceived in the hot flush of the Scottish independence debate, this eulogises handsome Robert the Bruce, unifier of squabbling clans and thrower-off of the hated English yoke.
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (12A)
(David Yates, 2018, US/UK) 134 mins
The second Wizarding World film has not been given the same rapturous welcome as the first: there’s a sense of gear-change, as presiding creator JK Rowling gets all her ducks in a row to sustain a five-film series. Still, Jude Law and Eddie Redmayne make a decent partnership, battling nasty Johnny Depp as dark wizard Grindelwald.
AP
Five of the best ... rock & pop
Years & Years
Olly Alexander and the other two head out on an arena tour in support of this summer’s high-concept Paolo Santo album. Expect the staging to mirror the fictional world of the album (something about androids yearning to feel emotion), as well as a cornucopia of featherlight electropop bangers.
Birmingham, Saturday 24; Glasgow Wednesday 28; Manchester, Thursday 29; Birmingham, Friday 30 November; touring to 5 December
Ms Lauryn Hill
While the world waits for the follow-up to The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, the newly monikered ex-Fugee is celebrating its 20th anniversary instead. Despite a slightly relaxed attitude to stage times, when Hill is on form she is basically untouchable, and you’d have to be a moron to turn down the chance to hear the exquisite Ex-Factor live.
Manchester, Monday 26; Birmingham, Tuesday, 27 November; touring to 17 December
Julia Jacklin
It wasn’t until she had to go on tour in support of her excellent debut, 2016’s Don’t Let the Kids Win, that Australian singer-songwriter Jacklin decided to quit her day job; its charming, country-tinged indie seemingly catching everyone by surprise. Things are more organised this time around; this tour previews February’s follow-up album, Crushing.
Omeara, SE1, Tuesday 27; YES, Manchester, Wednesday 28; The Glad Cafe, Glasgow, Thursday 29 November
Who We Be
Spotify’s hugely popular playlist Who We Be comes to life at this annual showcase for the best hip-hop, grime and R&B from around the world. Last year was dominated by Cardi B, and while this year’s lineup doesn’t quite offer anything to match her superstar appeal, it is still pretty impressive. Not3s, Ghetts and Raye represent the UK, while those racking up the air miles include Canadian rapper Tory Lanez and boohooMAN advocate French Montana.
Alexandra Palace, N22, Wednesday 28 November
MC
Makaya McCraven, Nubya Garcia
Chicago drummer-composer Makaya McCraven is inclined to call himself a “sonic collagist”, but it’s a fair description of this young innovator’s balance of rhythmic rigour and cut-and-pastes of hip-hop and free-jazz. Fast-rising London saxophonist Nubya Garcia and UK friends share this cutting-edge London jazz festival bill.
EartH, N16, Saturday 24 November
JF
Three of the best ... classical concerts
Carnaval
The final weekend of Huddersfield contemporary music festival is dominated by one of the greatest living European composers, Salvatore Sciarrino (pictured). Among the clutch of his works new to the UK, there’s a performance by Exaudi and the Explore Ensemble of his “concerted madrigals” for five voices, piano and ensemble, described by the composer as an “intimate space for the imagination”.
St Paul’s Hall, Huddersfield, Saturday 24 November
Weinberg Weekend
With Gidon Kremer as artist-in-residence, the CBSO join forces with the great violinist for a weekend devoted to a composer who has long been a Kremer speciality: the Polish-born Soviet Mieczysław Weinberg. Kremer’s chamber ensemble, Kremerata Baltica, include Weinberg’s Concertino in a morning programme that also features Desyatnikov and arrangements of Schubert and Bach, before Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla conducts the UK premiere of Weinberg’s 21st Symphony, a meditation on the Jewish prayer for the dead.
Various venues, Birmingham, Saturday 24 & Sunday 25 November
At Swim-Two-Birds
Hard on the heels of Music Theatre Wales’s exemplary staging of Pascal Dusapin’s 2008 opera Passion, the London Philharmonic present the UK premiere of his double concerto for violin and cello, composed for Viktoria Mullova and Matthew Barley. Flann O’Brien’s novel is the concerto’s starting point, although the composer stresses it is not an attempt at a narrative but a reflection of the book’s “formal and narrative elegance”, as well as the musical personalities of the two soloists.
Royal Festival Hall, SE1, Wednesday 28 November
AC
Five of the best ... exhibitions
Cast Courts
The Victorians cared so much about Europe’s art that they filled two enormous galleries with lifesize replicas of its masterpieces. Both courts are reopening after full restoration with Trajan’s Column, Viking church carvings and the tombs of the Templars on view again. Brexit Britain may be losing Europe but you don’t need a visa to see the V&A’s cast of David.
Victoria & Albert Museum, SW7, from 1 December
Rachel Maclean
Hilarity and unease bubble up as you enter this Scottish artist’s bizarre cinematic universe. There are monstrous prosthetic costumes reminiscent of Matthew Barney and Cindy Sherman, and lurid pop colours halfway between Jeff Koons and a music video. Her political edge, however, is pure Scottish. Hot stuff for the National Gallery.
The National Gallery, WC2, Thursday 29 November to 3 February
Haroon Mirza
Sampled sounds, found objects and abstract spaces fill Mirza’s art. He might bombard you with a recording of a street cook in Pakistan chopping vegetables, or lure you into a chamber that excludes all sound and light. A recurring theme in this survey is a fascination with translating the optical into the aural. In one of his works he transfigures Channa Horwitz’s graphic works into a sound-and-light installation.
Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, Friday 30 November to 24 February
Landseer’s The Monarch of the Glen
This archetypal expression of the 19th-century love of animals is at once a beloved image of Scottish landscape and a slightly comic icon of Victorian art. Yet it is not all it seems. Landseer established his sentimental style as an animal portraitist in the 1820s and is very much a child of the Romantic movement. The Monarch takes that Romanticism into lonely realms in a stern image of natural nobility.
The National Gallery, WC2, Thursday 29 November to 3 February
Martin Creed
The Whole World + The Work = The Whole World, as Creed puts it in his Work No 232. He has been exploring that minimal and modest conception of art since the 1990s in sculptures, performances, paintings and films, which range from Blu-Tack stuck to the wall to a series of vomiting movies. Here, his pursuit of art that is nothing more or less than a piece of the world includes toast spread with peanut butter.
Hauser & Wirth, W1, Friday 30 November to 9 February
JJ
Five of the best ... theatre shows
The Producers
One of the funniest musicals ever written, The Producers is based by Mel Brooks on his 1967 film of the same name (which became a movie again in 2005). Hilariously crossing boundaries of taste with its plot about a musical called Springtime for Hitler, it follows two Broadway charlatans hoping to cash in on a surefire flop. Raz Shaw directs this revival.
Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, Friday 30 November to 26 January
Aladdin
An old dame returns to this venue after a few years away. As Widow Twanky, Olivier award-winner Clive Rowe marks his 12th panto in Hackney. Also making a comeback after nine years is EastEnders’ Tameka Empson as the Empress. Gypsy star Gemma Sutton is in the title role for this 20th-anniversary production, written and directed by Susie McKenna.
Hackney Empire, E8, Saturday 24 to 6 January
The Worst Witch
Daisy Pulls It Off meets Harry Potter in this new adaptation by Emma Reeves of the popular books by Jill Murphy, which have already been made into films and TV series. A new tale featuring some well-known moments from the books sees the accident-prone Mildred Hubble, an ordinary girl who finds herself in a school for witches, leaving a trail of chaos as she fights for the school’s future against an old enemy.
Royal & Derngate: The Royal, Northampton, Tuesday 27 November to 30 December; touring 29 January to 1 June
The Night Before Christmas
Don’t expect yuletide cheer here: this is an alternative seasonal offering from the pen of Anthony Neilson, the man who gave us such dark fare as Stitching, The Censor and another festive show, Get Santa! for the Royal Court. A coked-up Scrooge, a prostitute and a deranged elf feature in this Christmas Eve-set tale of divorced dad Gary and his doomed attempts to find the true spirit of Christmas.
Southwark Playhouse, SE1, Wednesday 28 November to 29 December
The Box of Delights
After critical success and a sold-out world-premiere run last year, a return for Piers Torday’s adaptation of poet John Masefield’s 1935 story. Wilton’s Music Hall is a suitably atmospheric venue for this tale of a schoolboy’s encounter with a mysterious magician who gives him a box with unusual powers. The boy, Kay, and his friends then face a time-travelling battle against an arch-enemy for the box, and for Christmas itself.
Wilton’s Music Hall, E1, Friday 30 November to 5 January
MC
Three of the best ... dance shows
Gandini Juggling: Sigma
Possibly one of the few shows to combine classical dance with juggling, Sigma sees two female jugglers and two bharatanatyam dancers meet in an intricate quartet that plays with rhythm, tempo and complicated configurations of balls and limbs. A collaboration with choreographer Seeta Patel, it’s a playful and impressive experiment.
The Lowry, Salford, Tuesday 27; Deda, Derby, Thursday 29 November
English National Ballet: Swan Lake
Classic ballet thrills in Derek Deane’s production of Swan Lake, masterfully performed and with Tchaikovsky’s score played live by the ENB Philharmonic. The casts include new recruits Jeffrey Cirio, Francesco Gabriele Frola and Emma Hawes.
Liverpool, Saturday 24; Bristol, Tuesday 27 November to 1 December
Hansel & Gretel
Choreographer Vicki Igbokwe is known for her love of New York club dance. In this latest piece, Igbokwe reanimates the Grimm brothers’ fairytale in her signature style, incorporating house, waacking and voguing with contemporary and African dance.
Birmingham Hippodrome: Patrick Studio, Friday 30 November to 1 December
LW
