Five of the best ... films

1 All the Money in the World (15)

(Ridley Scott, 2017, US) 132 mins

Christopher Plummer’s substitution of Kevin Spacey is a blessing for this thriller: he is perfect for John Paul Getty, the miserly titan who won’t stump up when his grandson is kidnapped. It is left to JPG III’s mother (Michelle Williams) and Getty’s security man (Mark Wahlberg) to fix things. Based on a true incident, it’s a classy, if unsurprising, tale.

2 Molly’s Game (15)

(Aaron Sorkin, 2017, US/Chi) 140 mins

Insider knowledge and an unorthodox hero make for a real-world crime story, delivered with Sorkin’s customary snappiness. Jessica Chastain plays Molly Bloom, whose high-end poker circle attracts and exploits rich, powerful men, closely followed by a ruinous FBI investigation. Idris Elba’s lawyer might be able to help her out.

3 Star Wars: The Last Jedi (12A)

(Rian Johnson, 2017, US) 152 mins

The Star Wars saga careers into new territory, taking familiar characters to unexpected places. Central to proceedings are Daisy Ridley’s Rey and Adam Driver’s Kylo Ren, while the old guard of Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher get a chance to shine again.

4 Glory (12A)

(Kristina Grozeva, Petar Valchanov, 2016, Bul/Gre) 101 mins

This mordant satire feels as if it could be an update of a Tolstoy short story. It’s a face-off between a stammering, dishevelled linesman, who finds (and returns) a pile of cash on the railway track, and the sharp, harried transport ministry PR he deals with. Her contemptuous handling of him, in the midst of her fertility treatment, snowballs into crisis.

5 Pitch Perfect 3 (12A)

(Trish Sie, 2017, US) 93 mins

The a cappella series busts its own formula in a fun sequel, which throws in explosions, long-lost relatives and a whole lot more on its European tour, but papers over the cracks with tight choreography and a non-stop stream of smart gags. Anna Kendrick, Rebel Wilson, Hailee Steinfeld and co are all in key.

SR

Five of the best ... pop and rock gigs

1 The Cribs

While they returned to their heavier roots for 2017 album 24/7 Rock Star Shit, recorded with Steve Albini, the brothers Jarman punctuate their live shows with their poppier hits, too. Following on from their Cribsmas residencies across the country, they tour again this week.
Cambridge, 10 January; Reading, 11 January; Southampton, 12 January; touring to 27 January

2 Damo Suzuki

As frontman of German krautrockers Can, Suzuki was at the vanguard of a movement that would go on to inform much of modern rock and punk. Now 67, he continues to tour as a solo artist, but has a communal approach to live shows, using local acts as “sound carriers”, and performing sans setlist.
Komedia, Brighton, 10 January; The Jazz Cafe, NW1, 11 January; touring to 13 January

3 Liv Dawson

Nineteen-year-old Dawson is among the new breed of artists nailing a slick, R&B-inspired sound, and – much like early Jessie Ware – has found herself in the intersection between pop and electro, working with the likes of Disclosure and Years & Years’ Olly Alexander. She headlines day three of music site Line of Best Fit’s annual showcase series, the Five Day Forecast.
The Lexington, N1, 10 January

4 Paramore

The Tennessee band sprung back into life in 2017 with a banger of a comeback single, Hard Times. Under its dancey facade was a tale of avoiding “rock bottom”, something that the group have managed, in spite of some very public strife.
Motorpoint Arena, Cardiff, 11 January; The O2, SE10, 12 January; touring to 20 January

5 Mike Skinner

Didn’t get tickets for the Streets’ comeback tour in April? Dry your eyes, mate: this club night is the next best thing, as Mike Skinner takes to the stage with garage DJ-producer Zed Bias and Lux€ Boyz, from his own Tonga collective. Having launched another project, The Darker the Shadow the Brighter the Light, last year and dropped a new Streets tune, a mix of material new and old is likely.
XOYO, EC2, 6 January

HJD

Three of the best ... classical concerts

1 Elliott Carter

Elliott Carter became a composer to be reckoned with through a series of major works in the 1950s and 60s. Perhaps the greatest of them, described as a masterpiece by Stravinsky, is the Double Concerto for Piano and Harpsichord. It is a fiendishly difficult piece, and performances are rare, but the Double Concerto is the main element in an all-American programme by the Riot Ensemble. Adam Swayne and Goska Isphording are the soloists, and Aaron Holloway-Nahum conducts.
LSO St Luke’s, EC1, 12 January

2 The Return of Ulysses

Three years ago, the Royal Opera took over the Roundhouse for its first ever production of Monteverdi’s Orfeo. That sure-footed, in-the-round production was powerfully successful, and now the RO is hoping to repeat that success with a work from the opposite end of Monteverdi’s operatic career, The Return of Ulysses. Christian Curnyn conducts the Early Opera Company’s orchestra, while the director is John Fulljames; Roderick Williams is Ulysses and Christine Rice plays Penelope.
Roundhouse, NW1, 10-21 January

3 Huw Watkins Curates

Huw Watkins is the BBC National Orchestra of Wales’s composer-in-association, and as well as writing pieces for the orchestra he is also curating a series of concerts. The first of two this month is devoted to works by 20th-century composers for whom Watkins feels a particular affinity and who have influenced his music. Martyn Brabbins conducts a programme that begins with Tippett’s Suite for the Birthday of Prince Charles and ends with Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra, while the centrepiece is Britten’s Piano Concerto, with Watkins himself as the soloist.
Wales Millennium Centre: BBC Hoddinott Hall, Cardiff, 12 January

AC

Five of the best ... exhibitions

1 Revolt & Revolutions

The new year gets off to a radical start amid the rolling hills of Yorkshire Sculpture Park with a survey of protest and politics in art. What do you want to change in the world this year? How do you plan to achieve that transformation? The exhibits lent by the Arts Council Collection offer ideas aplenty, showing how artists are inspired by protest, while the sound of Susan Philipsz singing The Internationale will linger in the crisp cold air.
Yorkshire Sculpture Park, nr Wakefield, 6 January to 15 April

2 Charles II: Art and Power

Fascinations high and low, from paintings by Bruegel, Titian and Lorenzo Lotto to a broadsheet announcing the dates when Charles II was available to magically cure the “King’s Evil” make for an absorbing trip into history. Plague and fire ravaged the land in the later 17th century but Peter Lely’s portraits of royal mistresses show that it was plenty of fun to be royal. Meanwhile the Royal Society was inventing modern science; check out Robert Hooke’s magnified louse.
The Queen’s Gallery, SW1, to 13 May

3 Soutine’s Portraits

Moving and strange, the portraits of Chaïm Soutine will stick in your mind. This Jewish-Russian artist, who moved to Paris in 1913, ignored the modern art movements of the City of Lights and instead painted the life he observed with a childlike directness and emotional intensity. The portraits of waiters, bellboys and other workers in hotels and cafes are so full of manic vigour they seem to burst out of their servile uniforms. A monument to raw humanity.
The Courtauld Institute of Art, WC2, to 21 January

4 Rachel Whiteread

The poetry of the everyday is illuminated with unique simplicity and seriousness by this tremendous artist. Whiteread looks into the corners of our lives, under the stairs, in the empty room, below the floorboards. Her casts preserve those forgotten, redundant places. She makes entropy, the waste and chaos that accumulates in the universe, visible. Memory is frozen in its melancholy grandeur.
Tate Britain, SW1, to 21 January

5 Whales: Beneath the Surface

The dark depths of whale existence are plumbed by this exhibition, which covers everything from the evolution of the largest living animals to their startling levels of communication and even culture. Whales not only sing but seem to have pop songs that change each year. They look after their sick and disabled, too. If you enjoyed Blue Planet II, follow it up with this detailed and poetic scientific encounter.
Natural History Museum, SW7, to 28 February

JJ

Five of the best ... theatre shows

1 Amadeus

A big hit last year, Michael Longhurst’s ripe, lush and pitch-perfect revival of Peter Shaffer’s swaggering drama returns. It’s a show of big operatic emotions as composer Salieri – played by Lucian Msamati – discovers that there is a world of difference between being good and being a genius with the arrival of the precocious Mozart (Adam Gillen) at the court of Joseph II. Music theatre on a grand scale.
National Theatre: Olivier, SE1, 10 January to 24 April

2 Everybody’s Talking About Jamie

Ridiculously enjoyable but also a little bit heartbreaking, this is a real cracker of a British musical with music by the Feeling frontman Dan Gillespie Sells and book and lyrics by Tom MacRae. It charts the journey of teenager Jamie New, from the kid who doesn’t fit in to drag queen. This working-class story is fairytale stuff but it is delivered with real grit, and the show celebrates difference with a full-throttle joy.
Apollo theatre, W1, to 21 April

3 Guys and Dolls

Not just one of the best musicals ever written, but one of the best American plays ever written, Frank Loesser’s musical is relocated by Talawa Theatre Company from Broadway to Harlem. It works. The songs get jazz inflections and an all-black cast ensure that this 20th-century crowd-pleaser is showcased with real pizzazz and charm.
Royal Exchange theatre, Manchester, to 3 February

4 The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe

Transposing CS Lewis’s story of the land beyond the wardrobe from page to stage has often led to productions that are sturdy rather than magical, but Sally Cookson and her cast get the measure of it, with some help from designer Rae Smith. This White Witch is genuinely scary, rising above the stage and disappearing before you can say “Turkish Delight”. Wonder is woven around a story featuring thrilling battles, impressive choreography from Dan Canham, and an ensemble who know how to deliver a story touched by frosty magic.
West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds, to 27 January

5 Imperium

Mike Poulton adapted Wolf Hall for the RSC and now he turns his attention to Robert Harris’s Cicero trilogy, turning this meaty story of the Roman lawyer’s rise and fall into a two-part, seven-hour play that inevitably draws parallels with our own time. One for aficionados of event theatre, Gregory Doran’s production has speed and clarity, and boasts a terrific central performance from Richard McCabe.
Royal Shakespeare theatre: Swan theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, to 10 February

LG

Three of the best ... dance shows

1 Resolution

Annual showcase of all that’s new and hopeful in contemporary dance, including a new piece by Rambert dancer Edit Domoszlai, ella&co’s satire on millennials, and Jade Hackett’s dance-theatre piece about the slave trade.
The Place, WC1, Fri to 23 February

2 English National Ballet

Two radically different versions of Romanticism: Kenneth MacMillan’s sublime setting of Mahler’s Song of the Earth paired with the Bournonville’s fairytale La Sylphide.
London Coliseum, WC2, 9-13 January

3 Scottish Ballet: The Nutcracker

The festive season continues with SB’s tour of their cleverly traditional-looking Tchaikovsky classic.
Theatre Royal, Glasgow, to 13 January; touring to 3 February

JM