Going out: Cinema
Rumours
Out now
Starring Cate Blanchett as Hilda Ortmann, the German chancellor, and Charles Dance as Edison Wolcott, the US president, plus a host of other acting talent as the rest of the G7, this black comedy sees a bunch of world leaders lost in the woods during a global crisis.
Unstoppable
Out now
Produced by Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, this sports biopic stars Jharrel Jerome as Anthony Robles, the wrestler who was born with one leg, and went on to win the 2011 NCAA individual wrestling national championship.
Nightbitch
Out now
Amy Adams is on feral form as a stay-at-home mum, who finds herself evolving, or maybe regressing, into a primal state as the relentless grind of her existence wears on her. And we’re not talking metaphorically: she begins to literally transform into a dog. Drama from Marielle Heller.
On Becoming a Guinea Fowl
Out now
Written and directed by Rungano Nyoni, this drama set in Zambia premiered at Cannes earlier this year where it won best director in the Un Certain Regard section. Probing the darkest secrets of a middle-class family, the death of an uncle leads to a reckoning about how the need to protect the image of abusive men comes above women’s wellbeing. Catherine Bray
* * *
Going out: Gigs
Jacob Collier
AO Arena, Manchester, 8 December; The O2, London, 9 December
has worked with everyone from SZA to Stormzy, hoovering up Grammy nominations in the process, including album of the year for February’s outlandish opus Djesse Vol 4. Expect an exuberant live performance including copious amounts of crowd interaction. Michael Cragg
London contemporary music festival
Hackney Church, London, 11 to 14 December
The venues may shift, but the character of this festival never changes. With a further event in January, the four days of concerts this month take in more than 30 premieres, from experimental to hard-line modernist, and often exploring areas of new music neglected through the rest of the year. Andrew Clements
Elina Duni and Rob Luft
Jazz at the Lescar, Sheffield, 11 December; Midlands Arts Centre, Birmingham, 12 December
Jazz-leaning singers are free to interpret revered materials any way they want, and Duni is one of Europe’s most delicate exponents. Her duo with the creative UK guitarist Rob Luft explores European, American, Kosovan, Albanian and original songs. John Fordham
Yannis and the Yaw
9 to 11 December; tour starts Manchester
Back in 2016, Foals frontman Yannis Philippakis recorded with the revered Afrobeat drummer Tony Allen. While their jam sessions were crafted into songs across two more sessions, Allen died in 2020 before they could be completed. Philippakis not only finished them via August’s Lagos Paris London EP, but he’s now bringing them to the stage. MC
* * *
Going out: Art
Bettina von Zwehl
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, to 11 May
Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum has its roots in the 17th century when it started as a “cabinet of curiosities”, a collection of wonders of all kinds, animal, vegetable and human. Von Zwehl has immersed herself in the surviving treasures from that primal museum and created a photographic homage to it.
Versailles
Science Museum, London, 12 December to 21 April
When you think of the palace built for Louis XIV outside Paris, what do you picture – classical architecture, Marie Antoinette playing shepherdess in the gardens, or the peace treaty signed there after the first world war? This exhibition reveals the less famous history of Versailles as a centre of early modern science.
Keeping Time
Wallace Collection, London, to 2 March
The Wallace Collection, probably the best place outside France to taste French art and design before the 1789 Revolution, takes a close look at the ornate clocks made by André-Charles Boulle in the 1600s and early 1700s, and relates them to paintings including Poussin’s A Dance to the Music of Time.
Apostolos Georgiou
Mostyn, Llandudno, to 25 January
This Greek painter has something in common with the German artist Georg Baselitz – even sometimes turning his paintings upside down. Which is to say, he’s an expressionist with a sense of irony. He depicts people sleeping, being woken from nightmares, attending sickbeds. Introspective, intriguing scenes. Jonathan Jones
* * *
Going out: Stage
Katie Norris
The Jesters, Bath, 7 December; Soho theatre, London, 11 to 14 December
As one half of sketch duo Norris and Parker, Katie Norris’s comedy has been characterised by a certain lurid darkness. Now she’s bringing the same sensibility to her debut solo standup show, which reflects on bad dates, gen Z flatmates and life as a childless cat-lady. Unlike Kamala and Taylor, however, this reclamation of the label involves an actual sexual fetish for felines. Rachel Aroesti
Nutcracker in Havana
Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, 10 to 15 December
Cuban ballet star Carlos Acosta stages a traditional Christmas ballet with a twist: instead of being set in snowy Mittel-Europe, this one transports us to sunny Havana. Performed by members of Acosta’s own Havana-based company, it transforms Tchaikovsky’s score with danceable Cuban rhythms to create some truly danceable music. Lyndsey Winship
Cyrano
Park theatre, London, 11 December to 11 January
She’s a charmer, but are the words her own? Virginia Gay’s big-hearted, gender-flipped retelling of Cyrano de Bergerac delighted the Edinburgh fringe. Now this tale of desire and deceit comes to north London, just in time for a feelgood Christmas treat. Kate Wyver
Robin Hood
The Egg, Bath, to 11 January
Can you hear that? It’s the sound of rebellion rumbling through the forest, as our hesitant hero Rob leads the fight for a better, brighter world. Daniel Bye’s adaptation celebrates bravery, adventure, and fairness above all. KW
* * *
Staying in: Streaming
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Netflix, 11 December
Literary great Gabriel García Márquez always believed his seminal 1967 novel was far too expansive for a Hollywood movie adaptation – but perhaps he would have approved of this bumper Netflix version. Filmed with a Colombian cast at the behest of his family, it boasts The Motorcycle Diaries’ José Rivera on writing duties.
Alan Bennett 90 Years On
BBC Two, 13 December, 9pm
National treasure doesn’t even begin to cover it: the beloved Yorkshire-born playwright has had a colossal influence over Britain’s cultural spirit during the past seven decades. This documentary from Emmy-winning film-maker Adam Low celebrates the man as he reflects on his work, his age and the UK’s changing attitudes to homosexuality.
Swiped: The School That Banned Smartphones
Channel 4, 11 December, 8pm
This is the kind of relevant and riveting social experiment that used to be Channel 4’s calling card: a group of year eight pupils from Colchester (plus hosts Emma and Matt Willis) give up their phones for 21 days, while experts study the impact on their brains and bodies.
No Good Deed
Netflix, 12 December
The plot of this property satire-slash-crime thriller about a couple selling their desirable (and potentially cursed) LA home is difficult to get a handle on. Then again, it does star Lisa Kudrow, Ray Romano, Luke Wilson, Abbi Jacobson and Linda Cardellini – who needs an elevator pitch when you have a cast that great? RA
* * *
Staying in: Games
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
Out 9 December; Xbox, PC
A whip-cracking archaeology simulator from Bethesda: see through Indy’s eyes on an Arctic adventure and live out your Nazi-punching fantasies.
Animal Crossing Pocket Camp Complete
Out now; smartphones
The mobile version of Nintendo’s huge Switch hit about starting a new life in a town full of chatty animals, now with everything unlocked for an upfront price. Keza MacDonald
* * *
Staying in: Albums
Rosé – Rosie
Out now
While her girl band Blackpink takes a break, Rosé has wasted no time establishing herself as a solo force. This debut album, the follow-up to 2021’s two-track single R, features the naggingly catchy Mars-assisted smash, APT, which somehow sounds both fresh and like the Ting Tings.
White Denim – 12
Out now
Twitchy and unpredictable on their first few offerings, Texas rockers White Denim seemed to mellow out by the end of the last decade. This 12th album finds frontman James Petralli channelling all their favoured genres – post-punk, soul, southern rock – into the band’s most dynamic record yet.
Lauren Mayberry – Vicious Creature
Out now
Lauren Mayberry’s career outside electropop trio Chvrches started last year via Are You Awake? That delicate piano ballad closes her debut solo album on which she reawakens her creative independence via the lopsided pop of Change Shapes and the experimental rumbling of Shame.
Angel Olsen – Cosmic Waves Volume 1
Out now
The latest release from singer-songwriter Olsen (below) is both a compilation and covers experiment. The first half features new songs from artists signed to her own Something Cosmic label, such as Poppy Jean Crawford and Coffin Prick, while on the second Olsen covers songs by these same artists. A rewarding showcase of new talent. MC
* * *
Staying in: Brain food
The Gibbes Distinguished Lecture Series Featuring Spike Lee
Online
Film-maker Spike Lee delivers a typically spirited and incisive 2024 keynote lecture for Charleston’s Gibbes Museum of Art about the influence of visual art on his directing and the importance of becoming an art collector himself.
That One Guitar
Podcast
Exploring the six-string in all its glory, host Keith Jopling’s insightful series talks to guitarists such as Mogwai’s Stuart Braithwaite and Thin Lizzy’s Scott Gorham about their playing career and the most cherished guitar they own.
Game of Throws: Inside Darts
7 December, 9pm, Sky Documentaries
Long gone are the days of darts greats downing pints on the oche. This entertaining three-part series takes us behind the scenes of the modern game through the eyes of its young players. Ammar Kalia
