Going out: Cinema
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire
Out now
The fifth film in the franchise heads back to New York, as the original gang team up with the new Ghostbusters, in this sequel to Afterlife. This time, they face a new baddie who is building an army of ghosts. Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd and Ernie Hudson reprise their roles from the 1984 classic.
The Delinquents
Out now
Get-rich-quick schemes are for the birds: in this heist comedy Morán (Daniel Eliás) has developed a get-rich-slow scheme, whereby he will steal money from his employee, a Buenos Aires bank, confess, and serve his sentence, before emerging to enjoy his retirement, with the help of an accomplice who will hang on to the money in the meantime. Foolproof.
Robot Dreams
Out now
A runner up for best animated feature at the Oscars, this family film follows an enterprising dog who, fed up with living alone, builds himself a personable robot companion in 1980s New York. The pair enjoy the good life together in the city that never sleeps but, wouldn’t you know it, heartbreak lies ahead.
Cinema Made in Italy
Ciné Lumière, London, 23 & 24 March
Featuring a selection of the best contemporary Italian cinema, this short but sweet season at Ciné Lumière in west London includes 10 new releases and one classic film. Highlights include Alice Rohrwacher’s excellent La Chimera, starring Josh O’Connor, Alba Rohrwacher and Isabella Rossellini, which played to acclaim at Cannes last year. Catherine Bray
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Going out: Gigs
The Hives
27 March to 13 April; tour starts Leeds
The Swedish garage rock heroes’ comeback album, The Death of Randy Fitzsimmons, peaked at No 2 in the UK last year. Led by the Energizer Bunny in frontman form, Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist, they offer up a night of ludicrous excess and tightly wound anthems. Michael Cragg
Pendulum
24 to 31 March; tour starts Leeds
The nostalgia loop scoops up 00s D&B-meets-rock genre experimentalists Pendulum for this arena-sized comeback. There have been two recent-ish EPs, but it’s the older singles such as Watercolour that should go off with all the subtlety of a catherine wheel. MC
Colin Currie Group
Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, 28 March
Percussionist Colin Currie created his ensemble expressly to perform Steve Reich, and the music of the great founding father of minimalism remains its raison d’etre. This latest concert includes two early Reich pieces, Music for Pieces of Wood and the first part of Drumming. Andrew Clements
Andy Sheppard Trio
National Centre for Early Music, York, 23 March
Sheppard has been one of the most creative UK saxists for three decades, his quirky phrasing and signature sound embraced by bandleaders such as Gil Evans and Carla Bley. His classy European trio features Italian pianist Rita Marcotulli and French double bass luminary Michel Benita. John Fordham
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Going out: Art
Erwin Wurm
Thaddaeus Ropac, London, to 13 April
Bulbous and surreal distortions of human flesh are juxtaposed with ghostly statues of empty clothes in this comic sculptor’s work. The one thing Wurm never does is depict humans as we think we know ourselves. Instead, he questions what it is to be a person at all. Are we our costumes?
We Do Not Sleep
TKE Studios, Margate, to 19 May
How do you follow up a starry solo exhibition in New York? If you are Tracey Emin your next move is to participate in a feminist show in Margate with some of your far less famous friends. This exhibition includes Gabriela Max, Vanessa Raw, Mercedes Workman and more alongside Emin.
Guercino
Waddesdon Manor, nr Aylesbury, to 27 October
The 17th-century religious artist Guercino was such a fervent Catholic that when asked to visit the court of Charles I he refused to go near that “heretic” land, Protestant Britain. Here his monumental style, calculated to awe the congregation in vast baroque churches, is explored, including his King David.
Darren Almond
White Cube Mason’s Yard, London, to 4 May
An artist best known for his icily perfect photographs and installations reveals his efforts as a painter. If you are familiar with the contemplative stillness of Almond’s art it may not come as a surprise that his paintings are influenced by Japanese landscapes, with stylised willow patterns on abstract settings. Jonathan Jones
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Going out: Stage
Alasdair Beckett-King
27 March to 24 May; tour starts Birmingham
With his ethereal complexion and fiery locks, Beckett-King looks positively medieval – an aesthetic he plays with in his idiosyncratic standup, which fuses erudition and whimsy with newfangled tech (he’s also a successful YouTuber). Rachel Aroesti
Zog and the Flying Doctors
Watford, 23 March; Coventry, 26 to 28 March; Cardiff, 29 to 31 March; touring to 25 July
“I opened a book and in I strode,” wrote former children’s laureate Julia Donaldson. This touring production of the sequel to her hit book Zog allows kids to do the same. Accident-prone Zog encounters a princess and a sunburnt mermaid in this joyful Easter treat. Kate Wyver
Power of Sail
Menier Chocolate Factory, London, to 12 May
When does free speech turn into the platforming of hatred? An invitation to a white nationalist causes chaos at a symposium led by a Harvard professor in Paul Grellong’s moral thriller. The brilliant Giles Terera leads the cast, directed by the former artistic director of the Globe, Dominic Dromgoole. KW
Scottish Dance Theatre: The Life and Times
Dundee Rep and online, 29 & 30 March
A live performance that’s also livestreamed in the form of a single-shot film. On the subject of time, and set to a baroque soundtrack, this surreal piece is described by artistic director and choreographer Joan Clevillé as a hybrid between a music video and a silent movie. Lyndsey Winship
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Staying in: Streaming
Renegade Nell
Disney+, 29 March
Having bid farewell to Catherine Cawood, protagonist of Sally Wainwright’s flawless Yorkshire epic Happy Valley, it’s time to say hello to the writer’s newest heroine. Louisa Harland (spacey Orla in Derry Girls) is the 18th-century highwaywoman with seemingly supernatural powers; Joely Richardson and Adrian Lester round out the cast.
Big Mood
Channel 4, 28 March, 10pm
It’s a big week for the cast of Derry Girls with Nicola Coughlan joining forces with Lydia West (It’s a Sin) for this offbeat, bittersweet, Bechdel test-friendly caper about two women whose long, intensive friendship begins to sour and wane as they enter their 30s.
Ukraine: Enemy in the Woods
BBC Two & iPlayer, 25 March, 9pm
From the director of Escape from Kabul and Four Hours at the Capitol comes this chillingly immersive dispatch from the war in Ukraine. Inside a snowy forest, troops attempt to prevent the Russians advancing to the country’s second largest city. In-depth interviews and fighter-filmed footage make this an unusually intimate chronicle of war.
A Gentleman in Moscow
Paramount+, 29 March
Ewan McGregor stars opposite his real-life wife Mary Elizabeth Winstead in this adaptation of Amor Towles’s experimental 2016 novel about the fictional Count Alexander Rostov, who is put under Bolshevik house arrest in the servant quarters of a swish hotel – where he cultivates an eclectic circle of confidantes. RA
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Staying in: Games
Dragon’s Dogma 2
Out now, PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S
If you like your medieval fantasy RPGs a little weird, this one is for you: an outlandish playground of outrageous beasts and novel ways to defeat them awaits.
Open Roads
Out Thursday, all platforms
A single mother and her daughter head out on a road trip to uncover their family’s hidden history. A little like 2013’s brilliant Gone Home, it has you piece together the details of a family’s life from the ephemera left behind. Keza MacDonald
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Staying in: Albums
Tyla – Tyla
Out now
UK and US Top 10 single Water by Tyla is the perfect featherlight introduction to the South African’s debut. Full of fluttering melodies delivered in buttery vocals, it’s joined on the album by the slinky, house-adjacent Truth Or Dare and the gently unfurling slow jam On and On.
The Veronicas – Gothic Summer
Out now
Australian sisters Lisa and Jessica Origliasso – who’ve previously collaborated with everyone from Max Martin to Billy Corgan – return with the follow-up to 2021’s double-whammy of Godzilla and Human. Like those albums, Gothic Summer focuses on hook-laden, pogoing pop-rock.
Fletcher – In Search of the Antidote
Out now
On this second album. New Jersey singer-songwriter Cari Fletcher’s brand of emotionally exposed pop takes in rage-fuelled breakup anthems (Eras of Us) and expletive-laden odes to moving on (Doing Better). Lead Me On sits somewhere in between, desperate to feel something, even if it’s bad news.
Gossip – Real Power
Out now
Twelve years after their last album, the Xenomania-helmed curio A Joyful Noise, Beth Ditto and friends regroup for a sixth record. Recorded in Hawaii with Rick Rubin, it finds Ditto’s emotionally charged, paint-stripping voice in full flight, specifically on the unbridled howl of the title track. MC
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Staying in: Brain food
CUTI
Podcast
Verity de Cala’s incisive three-part series shines a spotlight on the neglected world of chronic UTIs in women’s health. Speaking to patients, doctors and researchers, De Cala examines how we treat women in pain.
Service95 Book Club
Online
Dua Lipa’s weekly newsletter has become an insightful roundup of cultural stories and her book club is no different, featuring monthly reads, interviews with authors such as Douglas Stuart, and recommended new titles.
Evian Christ: Lord of the Trance
YouTube
Finn Bourchier’s passionate documentary on DJ-producer Evian Christ takes a deep dive into the trance revival. Forensically researched and expertly edited, expect big beats and even bigger strobes. Ammar Kalia
