2 weeks ago
15
Going out: Cinema
The Last Showgirl
Out now
Pamela Anderson plays Shelly, a veteran performer in Las Vegas whose show is set to close after 30 years, replaced by one with younger dancers. Also starring Jamie Lee Curtis, Dave Bautista and Kiernan Shipka – but let’s be real, Pammy is the reason people are showing up for this one.
Glasgow film festival
To 9 March
Glasgow’s annual celebration of film once more brings premieres, talks and special guests, including Ed Harris, Jessica Lange and Formula One world champion Damon Hill to Scotland for the festival’s 21st edition.
Attack on Titan: The Last Attack
Out now
For a century, humanity lived behind massive walls, erected to protect us from the Titans – until an attack shattered that peace and left Eren Jeager without a mother. Venturing beyond the walls, Eren plots the Rumbling. A theatrical release for the final two instalments of the long-running anime series, probably mainly of interest if you’re already au fait with the story so far.
The Summer With Carmen
Out now
Celebrating gay friendships and first-time film-making, this meta queer drama sees two best friends, Demos and Nikitas, basking in the sun on an Athens beach while attempting to come up with ideas for a screenplay based on recent events in which Demos broke up with his lover and acquired a dog called Carmen. Catherine Bray
Going out: Gigs
Chloe Qisha
Deaf Institute, Manchester, 4 March; Omeara, London, 6 March
Malaysia-born, UK-based pop newbie Chloe Qisha may only have one EP under her belt – last year’s self-titled opus, which included the electrifying I Lied, I’m Sorry – but these shows have the feel of “catch her in a small venue while you can” about them. Michael Cragg
Gracie Abrams
3 to 12 March; tour starts Nottingham
After supporting Taylor Swift on her Eras tour, soft-pop practitioner Abrams has enjoyed Swiftian levels of success, topping the charts in the UK with both her second album, The Secret of Us, and single, That’s So True. Expect a crowd singalong of the latter. MC
Dunedin Consort
Milton Court, London, 6 March; Greyfriars Kirk, Edinburgh, 7 March
Alongside their usual fare – cantatas by Telemann and Bach, together with Zelenka’s Lamentations – the outstanding baroque specialists give the first performances of David Fennessy’s Bog Cantata, setting texts from the Faddan More Psalter, found in an Irish bog in 2006. Andrew Clements
Sam Braysher
Peggy’s Skylight, Nottingham, 1 March
Plenty of young jazz musicians learn their trade reinterpreting time-honoured works, but UK saxophonist Sam Braysher has created an evocative horn sound of his own through his reinventions of the music of the past. He explores the songs of Kurt Weill with a fine band here. John Fordham
Going out: Art
Alison Watt
Pitzhanger Manor, London, 5 March to 15 June
This hugely skilled painter updates the still life. She paints cool, precise yet poetic images of everyday things from flowers to fabrics. Far from simply realist, the results are often spatially mysterious. Here she responds to the legacy of Sir John Soane, the Georgian architect obsessed with light and shadow.
Marshmallow Laser Feast
Compton Verney, Warwickshire, to 6 April
Fancy a trip to the Amazon? Eco-art collective Marshmallow Laser Feast offer one within the confines of a Warwickshire country house, with an immersive installation dedicated to just one tree. By uncovering the ecosystem around the capinuri tree in the Colombian Amazon, they reveal the preciousness of this threatened world.
Jerwood Survey III
Collective Gallery, Edinburgh, to 4 May
Ten artists who recently began their careers are showcased in this touring survey, taking on today’s world in a variety of media. Ebun Sodipo, Philippa Brown, Aqsa Arif, MV Brown, Alliyah Enyo, Sam Keelan, Paul Nataraj, Kandace Siobhan Walker, Ciarán Ó Dochartaigh and Che Applewhaite are the featured future stars.
Barbara Hepworth
Piano Nobile, London, to 2 May
You often seem to hear the music of nature, or the spheres, in this great British abstract artist’s work. This show focuses on the element in her sculptures that most explicitly suggests sound – the taut strings she liked to stretch inside the holes and caves within her curvy, smooth carvings. Jonathan Jones
Going out: Stage
Jamali Maddix
5 March to 5 June; tour starts Brighton
There are myriad ways comedians can break through in the modern media landscape – Maddix did it by chatting to extremists. Since his hit Vice docuseries Hate Thy Neighbour, the Londoner has continued to make edgy TV while refining his brand of bracingly unfiltered standup. Rachel Aroesti
The Intrusion
Leeds Playhouse, 1 to 8 March, then touring
Two clowning companies join forces to examine extinction. Bric à Brac Theatre and Told By an Idiot collaborate on this dark comedy considering the end of the world and ask who gets to survive when it’s all over. Kate Wyver
Alterations
National Theatre: Lyttelton, London, to 5 April
Lynette Linton always makes magic on stage. Now she directs the first major revival of Guyanese writer Michael Abbensetts’ 1978 story of a talented tailor with big dreams. Arinzé Kene stars in his National Theatre debut. KW
Inside Giovanni’s Room
Leeds Playhouse, 6 to 8 March
A premiere from Phoenix Dance Theatre and artistic director Marcus Jarrell Willis. Inspired by James Baldwin’s 1956 novel Giovanni’s Room, set in 1950s Paris, the story follows an American man in the midst of a crisis of sexual identity. Lyndsey Winship
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Staying in: Streaming
Towards Zero
BBC One/iPlayer, 2 March, 9pm
This new Agatha Christie adaptation may have just missed the winter comfort viewing window, but its tale of dysfunctional poshos being offed at the country home of Lady Tressilian still has the potential to delight and dazzle. Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Anjelica Huston and Matthew Rhys star.
Fear
Prime Video, 4 March
Line of Duty’s Martin Compston plays Martyn, who relocates his family to Glasgow only to find his new house comes with an extremely creepy basement-dweller. Cue a terrifying surveillance-and-smear campaign that forces him to fight for his sanity and his life. Anjli Mohindra co-stars.
With Love, Meghan
Netflix, 4 March
The Sussexes’ reported $100m Netflix deal finally bears some high-profile fruit as the duchess gives back by showing viewers how to replicate her dreamy Californian lifestyle at home. But will it be a basic, saccharine cringe-fest or a reputation-restoring triumph for the one-time royal?
Daredevil: Born Again
Disney+, 5 March
A TV show from the first wave of Marvel-mania gets a reboot, with British actor Charlie Cox reprising his role as the titular blind lawyer who moonlights as a masked vigilante with superhuman senses. His mission? To tackle the corruption in his native Hell’s Kitchen and fight back against criminal mayoral candidate Kingpin. RA
Staying in: Games
Monster Hunter Wilds
PC, PS5, Xbox, out now
Millions of players come together to defeat awe-inspiringly fearsome creatures with giant weapons in a volatile environment where a lightning storm might also bring a lightning dragon with it to mess up your expedition. One of the best action games around.
Two Point Museum
PC, PS5, Xbox, out 4 March
A delightfully cartoonish museum-management simulation game in which you build, curate and run everything from a marine life centre to a natural history institution to a collection of supernatural objects. Keza MacDonald
Staying in: Albums
Doves – Constellations for the Lonely
Out now
After cancelling a tour in support of 2020’s chart-topping The Universal Want due to frontman Jimi Goodwin’s mental health, the trio return with a darker, rawer collection of undulating indie. Lead single Renegade also adds a dose of their anthemic flair in its rousing chorus.
Lisa – Alter Ego
Out now
Rapper and singer Lisa – who you can also catch in the new series of The White Lotus – unleashes her debut solo album following the hiatus of her K-pop girlband Blackpink. Alter Ego features production by Max Martin and Ryan Tedder, plus guest spots from Raye, Doja Cat and Rosalía.
Everything Is Recorded – Temporary
Out now
Label boss and producer Richard Russell brings together another intriguing collection of artists, including Sampha, Florence Welch, Kamasi Washington and Berwyn, for the third iteration of his Everything Is Recorded experiment. The lilting, folksy Porcupine Tattoo pairs Bill Callahan with Noah Cyrus.
Panda Bear – Sinister Grift
Out now
Noah Lennox, AKA one quarter of psych-pop experimentalists Animal Collective, follows up 2022’s Reset with more gloopy, elegantly loopy journeys into his psyche. The 10-track album features help from his bandmates, his daughter, plus, on guitar-heavy closer Defense, Cindy Lee. MC
Staying in: Brain food
Future Ecologies
Podcast
Looking at the natural world through a leftfield and often microscopic lens, this fascinating series combines artful sound design with documentary reporting on everything from sea gardening to the majesty of monarch butterflies.
RobWords
YouTube
Linguist Rob Watts’s YouTube channel is aninvaluable resource for grammarians and interested newcomers alike, with video essay tackling topics as varied as the history of the English language to investigating Shakespearean inventions and analysing alternative alphabets.
The Covid Queue at Pavilion 6
BBC Four, 6 March, 10pm
Marking five years since the beginning of the pandemic, this surprisingly sweet and funny film follows the changing faces and often outsized personalities making up the queue for a Covid vaccination centre in Croatia. Ammar Kalia
