FILM
45 years
This insightful drama charts the gradual disintegration of an apparently happy couple. Kate (Charlotte Rampling) and Geoff (Tom Courtenay) are preparing for their 45th anniversary when they receive startling news: the body of Geoff’s former lover, who died more than 50 years earlier, has been found. The two leads give the performances of their lives as they grapple with buried secrets and dashed hopes. Ryan Gilbey
MUSIC
Sufjan Stevens
(Edinburgh, Manchester, London, Brighton)
A dreamer of concepts (you will recall his “50 states” project, in which he aimed to write an album for each of the US territories), Sufjan Stevens can sometimes let his mind distract from the heart of his music. As adept as he is at working with an orchestra, or electronica, or rocking out with the National, what’s most appealing about his current album Carrie & Lowell is the way he uses these talents in the service of some mightily touching songs, whose melodic directness recall the best work of Elliott Smith. Moving, but with their introversion mitigated by wit, it displays the strength at the heart of the best delicate music, and is a great return to form. John Robinson
The rest of this week’s live music
TV
Boy Meets Girl
(Thursday, 9.30pm, BBC2)
A game-changing new sitcom, mixing a sherbet-sweet, Gavin & Stacey-style plot with not-so-typical leads: transgender woman Judy (Rebecca Root) and her younger suitor Leo (Harry Hepple). In this opening episode, the first hurdle for the new pairing isn’t gender-related – rather, it’s that Leo’s mum is fuming at their 14-year age gap. After E4’s LGBT anthology Banana featured a transgender character humiliated by her ex, it’s refreshing to see a more positive trans-themed story on TV, and an adorable one at that. Hannah J Davies
COMEDY
Joseph Morpurgo: Soothing Sounds For Baby
(Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh, to Monday)
There’s only a couple of days left at the fringe, which means just a few more opportunities to catch this standout show – an eclectic mix of character comedy, sonic trickery and coups de théâtre. The central conceit is pretty straightforward – Morpurgo makes himself a castaway on Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs and receives a grilling from Kirsty Young – but what ensues is anything but, as each record he chooses prompts an inspired vignette drawn from the performer’s rich comic imagination, including an extraordinary piano lesson, a rap about golf that puts all other hip-hop spoofs to shame, and a remarkably disturbing reinterpretation of the works of AA Milne. Where many character and sketch acts rely on energy and enthusiasm to power them through the hour, Morpurgo gives a proper acting performance that’s as impressive as any you’ll see on the fringe – and the result is a show that as well as being gloriously silly is also oddly moving. James Kettle
The rest of this week’s comedy
FILM EVENTS
John Waters season
(BFI Southbank, London, Tuesday to 6 October)
Long before he achieved respectability – or at least the nearest he was ever going to get – John Waters’s reputation as a purveyor of cheerfully disreputable filth was assured. The director’s 1972 cult favourite Pink Flamingos sealed the deal: his regular star Divine plays Babs Johnson, a contender for the title of filthiest person alive, and what she does to get it is the sort of thing nobody should try at home, at least not without brushing their teeth immediately after. This retrospective, from early shorts such as Hag In A Black Leather Jacket to deliriously trashy features such as Female Trouble, plus an onstage interview with Waters himself, promises to be a hoot. RG
The rest of this week’s film events
THEATRE
Brave New World
(Royal & Derngate, Northampton, 4 to 26 September)
Taking its title from Miranda’s famous speech in The Tempest, given when she encounters strangers for the first time, Aldous Huxley’s 1932 satire is set in a future world, a “negative utopia” where individual freedom has been sacrificed for the stability of the world and a genetically engineered class system keeps everyone in their place. There is an abundance of consumer items and no war, but neither is there any freedom of thought. Even spending time on one’s own is frowned upon. Sophie Ward stars in the world premiere of an adaptation by Dawn King, whose slippery dramas include Foxfinder at the Finborough and Ciphers at the Bush. James Dacre directs and These New Puritans supply the original music. Lyn Gardner
The rest of the week’s theatre
TALKS
Festival No 6
(Portmeirion, Thursday to 6 September)
A trip to the wonderfully odd town of Portmeirion has become a late highlight of the festival season. As you might expect from a gathering that has a knack for attracting a particular kind of mature, bookish yet radical culture warrior, there’s as much talking as musical action. An early highlight is a rare appearance on the Friday from Deborah Curtis, who’ll be discussing her late husband Ian’s lyrics with noted rock critic Jon Savage and Joy Division drummer Stephen Morris. After that, look out for a talk from Maxine Peake, Irvine Welsh, who’ll be reading new work and speaking to Justin Robertson, and Steve Coogan, who will hopefully offer his thoughts on the spectacular late flowering of Alan Partridge’s pitches to Tony Hayers. And that’s just the tip of the festival’s verbal iceberg. Phil Harrison
HOME ENTERTAINMENT
Top Five
Top Five swiftly proves dazzlingly smart, even as it reveals itself as little more than a 100-minute sociological thesis read aloud by Rock and Rosario Dawson. It gleefully lambasts simplistic attitudes to race, fame and the media but, like the stand-up routines that made its star a household name, it falls back on tired cliches when removed from its comfort zone. The effect is jarring: the film is so sharp on its specialist subjects that its mile-wide blind spots – mainly centred on gender and sexuality – feel actively malicious. Charlie Lyne
Read the full review of Top Five
CLUBS
Notting Hill carnival
(Various venues, London, Saturday to Monday)
Dust off the jewelled brassieres and perform hypnosis on your bladder: it’s the Notting Hill carnival, west London’s annual orgy of soundsystem culture. Norman Jay’s Good Times has gone east and Sancho Panza is no more, but returning regulars include Saxon Sound, Rampage and Channel One. Brave the inevitable roadblocks at Rinse and Shy FX’s stages: the former has grime from Meridian Dan and Novelist alongside London A-listers Katy B and Tinie Tempah, while the latter hosts Sean Paul, Skrillex, Craig David and Rudimental. Afterwards, there are the usual walking-distance picks: Numbers’ Spencer plays the Good Ship, while Paradise, W10, has takeovers from Eton Messy and Benji B’s Deviation. Good carnivalesque options further afield include Swamp81’s traditional Heaven party; Mungo’s Hi Fi at Dingwalls; Don Letts, Daddy G and Fabio at Big Chill House, N1; and the Prince Of Wales, SW9, hosting MJ Cole, Gilles Peterson and Norman Jay. Ben Beaumont-Thomas
DANCE
National Youth Dance Company
(Sadler’s Wells, London, 4 & 5 September)
Anyone expecting the cute or the amateur will get a pleasant shock from Apex Rising, a new festival showcasing the range of NYDC’s dancers and repertory. The opening performance brings together works choreographed by Jasmin Vardimon, Akram Khan and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui – a rare chance to see three such different choreographers in a single night. The second programme brings together individual youth companies from England, Scotland, Wales and France, in works by Wayne McGregor, Hofesh Shechter, Anna Kenrick and Kerry Nicholls. Judith Mackrell
