Going out: Cinema
Mean Girls
Out now
Would you like us to assign someone to butter your muffin? Tina Fey adapted her insanely quotable 2004 teen comedy into an eminently fetch Broadway musical in 2017, and it’s now come full circle with the musical version getting a sparky film adaptation. Get in loser, we’re going to the cinema.
The End We Start From
Out now
Jodie Comer is the star attraction in this downbeat dystopian tale directed by Mahalia Belo. A mother and her newborn baby must escape flooded north London and attempt to find safety after an ecological disaster.
The Holdovers
Out now
Reuniting director Alexander Payne and star Paul Giamatti for the first time since 2004’s Sideways, this bittersweet story, about a socially awkward schoolmaster tasked with spending his holidays looking after a small group of misfit students at an elite boarding school, is wintry perfection.
Werner Herzog: Radical Dreamer
Out now
Auteur, explorer, poet, internet legend, prophet … however you want to describe Werner Herzog, you’ve certainly got plenty of options. Folk lining up to discuss the work of one of the most unique voices in cinema in this new documentary include Joshua Oppenheimer, Robert Pattinson and Patti Smith. Catherine Bray
* * *
Going out: Gigs
Depeche Mode
22 January to 3 February; tour starts London
The Basildon electro-goths kick off the fourth leg of their world tour in support of 2023’s very good Memento Mori album, returning to arenas after last summer’s stadium shows. Expect a smattering of last year’s Memento Mori album, plus 80s and 90s classics such as Personal Jesus and I Feel You. Michael Cragg
Decades
Purcell Room, London, 24 January
The London Sinfonietta takes the 56th anniversary of its first concert as an opportunity for a programme looking forward and back. Geoffrey Paterson conducts music composed for the orchestra over six decades, including pieces by Knussen, Tansy Davies and Hannah Kendall. Andrew Clements
Ian Shaw & Friends
PizzaExpress Jazz Club Soho, London, 21 to 29 January
Lyricist Fran Landesman was wearying of her most famous song, Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most, until she heard subtly insightful UK jazz treasure Ian Shaw sing it. Shaw stars here in his acclaimed annual PizzaExpress season with a raft of illustrious guests. John Fordham
Haiku Hands
24 January to 3 February; tour starts Glasgow
Australia’s Technicolor odd-pop trio arrive in the UK. Recent second album Pleasure Beast, a Technicolor showcase for their overflowing ideas. Frantic recent single Cool for You Pleasure Beast – think Charli XCX meets Le Tigre – should go down a storm in a live setting. MC
* * *
Going out: Art
The Trembling Museum
Hunterian Art Gallery, Glasgow, to 19 May
The Hunterian’s collection of African art is freed from its stores and mixed in with its modern paintings and sculptures in this attempt to rethink how global art is shown and seen. The exhibition stresses what it calls the “trembling” of interconnections between places and people that creates art’s meanings.
Shuvinai Ashoona
The Perimeter, London, 24 January to 26 April
People sit at a table, chatting and eating. An ordinary enough scene, drawn in bold rangy lines and bright colours – except that monstrous animals and a horned being share the family space. Different realities intersect in Shuvinai Ashoona’s cartoon-like sketches as Inuit memory and myth inhabit her Canadian-Arctic everyday world.
Louise Bourgeois
The Burton at Bideford Art Gallery & Museum, Bideford, to 11 February
Indulge your fear of spiders or explore any other dark recesses of your desire in this exhibition of eerie, provocative and intimate works by the woman who single-handedly connected early 20th-century French modernism and 21st-century installation art. Bourgeois can hold you paralysed in her mind’s web.
Bloomberg New Contemporaries
Camden Art Centre, London, to 14 April
What’s new in art? Where is it heading in 2024? There could hardly be a sharper start to the year than the London showing of this ambitious selection of young artists, fresh from college. See if you can spot the Turner prize winners of the future among this talented company. Jonathan Jones
***
Going out: Stage
A Mirror
Trafalgar theatre, London, 22 January to 20 April
Sam Holcroft’s slippery drama transfers to the West End. Inspired by an eye-opening trip to North Korea, it’s a darkly enveloping exploration of free speech, starring Jonny Lee Miller, Tanya Reynolds and Samuel Adewunmi. Miriam Gillinson
The Frogs
The Royal & Derngate, Northampton, to 3 February
A silly and surreal whirl through Aristophanes’s Greek comedy. Written by Carl Grose and Spymonkey, this co-production with the Royal & Derngate combines a monster-filled Underworld with vaudeville and tap-dancing frogs. MG
La Strada
Sadler’s Wells, London, 25 to 28 January
The 1954 Fellini film gets a retelling in dance, with the superlative ballerina Alina Cojocaru as Gelsomina, a naive young woman taken on the road through post-second world war Italy by a brutish strongman. Cojocaru’s real-life husband Johan Kobborg dances the Fool, and choreography is by Natália Horečná. Lyndsey Winship
Miles Jupp
Bristol, 21 January; Stafford, 22 January; touring to 25 April
A few years ago, the comedian and actor – best known for his turns in Rev and The Thick of It – underwent surgery to remove a brain tumour. In his show On I Bang, Jupp relates this terrible tale with lashings of merry self-effacement and a generous dose of British stoicism. Rachel Aroesti
* * *
Staying in: Streaming
Masters of the Air
Apple TV+, 26 January
Since this series about second world war fighter pilots – which exists in the Band of Brothers universe – began filming in 2021, three of its stars have hit the big time. Austin Butler (Elvis), Barry Keoghan (Saltburn) and Ncuti Gatwa (Doctor Who) lead this sprawling, white-knuckle ride of a period piece.
Sexy Beast
Paramount+, 25 January
Director Jonathan Glazer is currently promoting his chilling Holocaust film The Zone of Interest just as his debut feature – the cult Spain-set gangster romp Sexy Beast – gets a TV prequel. Returning to the 90s, the show explores retired criminal Gal and his unhinged associate Don’s early entanglements in London. Stephen Moyer, James McArdle and Tamsin Greig star.
Griselda
Netflix, 25 January
Modern Family’s Sofia Vergara may be donning some striking facial prosthetics to play notorious 80s Colombian drug trafficker Griselda Blanco, but fans will be relieved to note her signature sense of high-octane glamour remains intact in this six-part series about the queenpin’s bloody rise and fall.
Expats
Prime Video, 26 January
This thriller from Lulu Wang (The Farewell) made headlines when star Nicole Kidman was granted exemption from Hong Kong’s Covid quarantine during filming. The pair will no doubt be hoping that the show itself – which follows the disturbing fates of a group of American expats – will drown out all previousthe controversy. RA
* * *
Staying in: Games
Tekken 8
Out 26 January, PC, PS5, XBox Series S/X
The now 30-year-old series of superlative scrap simulators returns with an eighth dollop of balletic, buttery-smooth face-punchery. Come for the surprisingly deep story mode, stay for the moreish schadenfreude of thumping the life out of your peers.
Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth
Out 26 January, PC, PS4/5, XBox One/Series S/X
The RPG franchise formally known as Yakuza decamps to Honolulu but keeps the daft quests (one boss fight sees the hero go toe to fin with a giant shark), minigames and affably overwrought melodrama of its much-loved forebears intact. Luke Holland
* * *
Staying in: Albums
Sleater-Kinney – Little Rope
Out now
The 11th album of piercing alt-rock from Carrie Brownstein and Corin Tucker arrives heavy with grief following the 2022 death of Brownstein’s mother and stepfather. Songs such as lead single Hell and follow-up Say It Like You Mean It are classic Sleater-Kinney, exploding eerie atmospherics with cathartic choruses.
Green Day – Saviors
Out now
Enduring pop-punk noise merchants Green Day return with their 14th studio album, their first with long-term producer Rob Cavallo in more than a decade. Song titles such as The American Dream is Killing Me, One Eyed Bastard and Look Ma, No Brains! tell you everything you need to know.
Glass Beach – Plastic Death
Out now
LA experimentalists Glass Beach make impressionistic rock, chucking elements of prog, jazz and punk at the wall to see what sticks. On this follow-up to 2019’s self-explanatory The First Glass Beach Album, they offer up Animal Collective-esque freakout The CIA and the juddering, shape-shifting Rare Animal.
Bad Gyal –La Joia
Out 26 January
Singer, songwriter, DJ and model Bad Gyal is already a huge star in her native Spain, with six Top 10 singles to her name. After years of teasing, her debut album finally arrives featuring recent reggaeton hit Mi Lova and 90s dance bop Sexy. Brazilian superstar Anitta and Dominican rapper Tokischa co-star. MC
* * *
Staying in: Brain food
Witness History
BBC World Service, 22 January, 8.50am
This series put first-hand accounts front and centre to bring history to life. This week’s stories include the first US woman to be convicted of treason and the controversial political career of a Hungarian footballer.
City Arts & Lectures
Podcast
Since 1980, San Francisco’s Sydney Goldstein Theater has been hosting talks from artists on their craft and careers. This audio series presents some of their most fascinating guests, including Pulitzer-winning author Viet Thanh Nguyen and cartoonist Roz Chast.
The Surprising Map of Plants
YouTube
This engaging 20-minute video tells you almost all you need to know about the lineage of our planet’s plants. Through colourful animation and precise narration, YouTuber Dominic Walliman’s insights cover everything from algae to fungi and sunflowers. Ammar Kalia
