Five of the best ... films
If Beale Street Could Talk (15)
(Barry Jenkins, 2018, US) 119 mins
Barry Jenkins came away empty handed from the Baftas, and it may well be true that this heady romance does not have the same astonishment factor as his previous film, the Oscar winner Moonlight. But with this James Baldwin adaptation Jenkins proves he is a force to be reckoned with. Great performances from Kiki Layne and Stephan James – as lovers Tish and Fonny – anchor the drama.
Can You Ever Forgive Me? (15)
(Marielle Heller, 2018, US) 106 mins
Melissa McCarthy and Richard E Grant are probably resigned to a lack of statuette action in the next fortnight, but spare a thought for director Marielle Heller, who has been ignored by awards voters everywhere. Shame, as this is a pitch-perfect black comedy, with McCarthy’s failed author indulging in a little forgery on the side, with Grant’s help.
Notting Hill (15)
(Roger Michell, 1999, UK/US) 124 mins
Of Richard Curtis’s three romcom masterworks, this one has perhaps slipped a little back in the betting. No more, however; it is being revived for Valentine’s Day, and will give all you young lovers a chance to check out a (relatively) carefree Hugh Grant, Julia “biggest-star-in-the-world” Roberts, and Rhys Ifans’s first (and admittedly incredibly irritating) shot at fame. Ruthlessly effective film-making, from people who really knew what they were doing.
The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part (U)
(Mike Mitchell, 2019, Den/Nor/Aus/US) 106 mins
This second dose of brick-based animation pretty much replicates the first: in tone, look and gag speed. Having redefined what could be done with even the most prosaic of brand adaptations, the Lego movies have patented a hilariously self-referential, frenetically pop culture-obsessed format that has rapidly become ubiquitous. Plus it’s really, really funny.
The Lady Eve (U)
(Preston Sturges, US, 1941) 94 mins
Released as part of the Barbara Stanwyck season at the BFI, this may be hard to track down locally but is worth the search. Stanwyck plays the honey-trap element of a cruise-ship con team, but complicates things by actually falling in love with the rich-kid mark. Sturges, king of the fast-talking screwball style, keeps it racing along.
AP
Five of the best ... rock & pop
Post Malone
Texas-raised Austin Post, AKA rapper-singer-walking tattoo Post Malone, has rapidly become one of the planet’s biggest artists. As well as scoring three US chart-toppers, he is rivalling fellow professional sadsack Drake in the ongoing streaming wars. Expect to see a lot of grown men getting in their feelings while Biro-ing their faces.
Birmingham, Saturday 16; Glasgow, Sunday 17; Manchester, Tuesday 19 February; touring to 14 March
Tommy Genesis
Last year’s self-titled debut album found Vancouver rapper-singer Tommy Genesis embracing pop after becoming what she referred to as a “freakshow” following the release of 2017’s provocative Tommy single. As well as showcasing a softer singing style compared to her mixtapes, the album also features fellow pop experimentalist Charli XCX.
Oslo, E8, Wednesday 20 February
Clarence Clarity
As well as knocking out his own songs – think off-kilter pop and R&B, pushed through a wonky electronic filter as showcased on his recent album Think: Peace – producer Clarence Clarity has also collaborated with rising digi-pop star and 00s obsessive Rina Sawayama. Expect a similarly DIY approach to pop on a budget.
Electrowerkz: Upstairs, EC1, Thursday 19 February
Fatboy Slim
As well as DJing his own and other people’s songs in arenas around the country, TFI Friday incarnate Norman Cook will close this particular jaunt by performing in a fan’s living room (it’s something to do with food-delivery service Deliveroo, hence the moniker “Deliverave”). In fact, food has become a recurring theme for the big beat icon: the vinyl version of recent single Boom Fucking Boom came with an edible vanilla-flavoured insert.
SSE Arena, Wembley, Thursday 19; Arena Birmingham, Friday 22 February; touring to 2 March
MC
Jacob Collier
Multi-instrumental UK prodigy Jacob Collier began his dizzying rise with a huge agenda: mimicking full orchestras, soul singers and jazz-funk horns with just his own tweaked voice and a bedroom full of instruments, and now embraces even more of the world’s multifarious musics. This quartet tour showcases Collier’s genre-sweeping album Djesse (Vol 1).
Brighton, Monday 18; Bristol, Tuesday 19; Manchester, Wednesday 20; London, Friday 22 February
JF
Three of the best ... classical concerts
The Sea
In his native Lithuania, Mikalojus Konstaninas Čiurlionis is admired equally as a composer and a painter. His music is little known here, and the latest concert for Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla (pictured) and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra begins with the UK premiere of Čiurlionis’s symphonic poem The Sea, one of her compatriot’s most highly regarded scores, which she’ll pair with Grieg’s incidental music to Peer Gynt. The performance will be accompanied by images to be created on the spot by painter Norman Perryman.
Symphony Hall, Birmingham, Saturday 16 February
Lélio
The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra’s contribution to the widespread Berlioz tributes marking the 150th anniversary of his death is a rare performance of one of his most ambitious scores. Part melodrama, part cantata, with settings and readings of texts by Shakespeare and Goethe, Lélio, or The Return to Life, was designed as a sequel to the Fantastic Symphony. It is hard to pull off but the latest conductor to try is Pascal Rophé, with Samuel West as the narrator.
City Halls, Glasgow, Sunday 17 February
The Monstrous Child
The first opera to be staged in the Royal Opera House’s reshaped studio space is a collaboration between composer Gavin Higgins and the writer Francesca Simon. She has adapted the libretto of The Monstrous Child from her blackly comic novel for young adults about Hel, the daughter of the Norse god Loki, and her love for Baldr, the son of the king of the gods Odin. Timothy Sheader directs.
Royal Opera House: Linbury Theatre, WC2, Thursday 21 & Friday 22 February, to 3 March
AC
Five of the best ... exhibitions
Elizabethan Treasures
In the age of Shakespeare, a strange and beautiful art flourished. The miniature portrait could be worn as a pendant or carried in a purse. It was amorous and richly erotic. Tiny bejewelled portraits by Nicholas Hilliard and paintings by contemporaries such as Isaac Oliver bear witness to real-life love stories straight out of Shakespeare’s plays.
National Portrait Gallery, WC2, Thursday 21 February to 19 May
Franz West
The art of the late Austrian sculptor Franz West has a sprawling life and chaotic energy that makes it very engaging. West’s work looks as if it was made without a shred of pomposity or pretension. Works such as Epiphanie an Stühlen are throwaway in the best sense and capture the freedom and flow of modern cities.
Tate Modern, SE1, Wednesday 20 February to 2 June
Erwin Wurm
An aesthetic somewhere between Duchamp and Tintin makes Wurm’s art instantly appealing. His One Minute sculptures issue instructions to make a sculpture in 60 seconds. Other works make monuments out of sausages or turn the human body into a surreal set of appendages. This Vienna-based conceptualist has a lot in common with Tate Modern’s subversive of the week Franz West. Guaranteed to raise a smile.
Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, W1, Tuesday 19 February to 23 March
Game of Thrones Tapestry
Northern Ireland’s most ingenious take on traditional craft will be completed this summer when events in the final series of Game of Thrones are added. Meanwhile, you can see up to series seven. Like the Bayeux Tapestry on which it is based, it is bloody stuff. In fact, it is 18-rated. The TV series’ vision of medieval history features realistic details, from sieges to pies, in among the dragonfire. What better celebration than a Romanesque artwork?
Ulster Museum, Belfast, to 28 July
Don McCullin
In his 1964 photograph Cyprus, this great photojournalist captures a moment that seems preternaturally composed. The woman’s anguished face as she is being comforted captures suffering like a painting by Caravaggio. Yet you can see it’s absolutely spontaneous. McCullin has achieved such magic many times, documenting tragedies from Biafra to Syria. A British artist of whom we can be proud.
Tate Britain, SW1, to 6 May
JJ
Five of the best ... theatre shows
Come from Away
Sound the klaxon: it’s a contemporary, Tony award-winning feelgood musical! Come from Away is set in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks (no, really). With US airspace closed, 38 planes were diverted to a remote Canadian town. Overnight, Ganderland’s population nearly doubled, and rather than riots in the streets there was boundless generosity and good will instead.
Phoenix Theatre, WC2, to 14 September
Berberian Sound Studio
This could be seriously unsettling. Berberian Sound Studio is based on Peter Strickland’s 2012 horror film about a bumbling sound artist gradually drawn into the eerie world he has been tasked with creating. Joel Horwood adapts and designer Tom Scutt, who has such a talent for generating dramatic tension, directs Tom Brooke in the lead role.
Donmar Warehouse, WC2, to 30 March
As You Like It
For the first time, the RSC will tour three repertory shows – As You Like It, The Taming of the Shrew and Measure for Measure – to six regional venues. The casts have a 50/50 gender balance and, in artistic director Gregory Doran’s words, “reflect the nation in ways never done before” (ie they’re not all-white). As You Like It will star David Ajao as Orlando and Lucy Phelps as the rebellious Rosalind.
Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, to 31 August; touring to 4 April 2020
Equus
Wunder director Ned Bennett steers Peter Shaffer’s bold psychological thriller. Bennett has made his reputation by infusing contemporary plays with a restless theatricality. Now he tackles Shaffer’s classic, about a troubled teenager who blinds six horses, and the psychologist who must “cure” him. Bennett isn’t a fan of safe spaces in the theatre: this is bound to be thrilling stuff.
Theatre Royal Stratford East, E15, to 23 March. Touring the UK until 19 May.
SparkPlug
At a venue that is genuinely invested in nurturing local talent, SparkPlug is written by Manchester actor and writer David Judge. The play is inspired by Judge’s own childhood and is about a mixed-race boy with a white adoptive father. It is written as a pacey monologue and even the trailer is captivating. It’s produced by new-writing company Box of Tricks, whose past collaborators include Anna Jordan, Elinor Cook and Lizzie Nunnery. Impressive.
HOME, Manchester, to 23 February
MG
Three of the best ... dance shows
Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch: Bon Voyage, Bob
Only the second new work made for Pina Bausch’s company since her death. Norwegian choreographer Alan Lucien Øyen emulates Bausch’s approach to running times with a three-and-a-half-hour performance, Bon Voyage, Bob, exploring the human condition through text, dance and theatre.
Sadler’s Wells, EC1, Friday 22 to 25 February
Smack That (A Conversation)
Rhiannon Faith makes dance-theatre that is raw, real and rough around the edges. Smack That takes on domestic violence, not just as an “issue” but as a lived experience: the dancers are all women who have survived physical or psychological abuse.
Harlow Playhouse, Friday 22 to 23 February; touring to 4 June
Phoenix Dance Theatre
Haiti’s Jeanguy Saintus creates his first work for a UK company, promising a new take on Stravinsky’s mighty Rite of Spring, drawing on global issues. The show is a double bill with Puccini’s opera Gianni Schicchi.
Grand Theatre & Opera House, Leeds, Saturday 17 February to 2 March; touring to 22 March
LW
Main composite image: Marc Brenner; Foteini Christofilopoulou; Fox Searchlight; Xavi Torrent/Redferns
