Going out: Cinema
Bigfoot Hunters
Out now
Harking back to the days when first-time directors would borrow a camcorder and make an essentially zero-budget debut, Zach Lamplugh’s amiable mockumentary is a low-fi antidote to big-budget spectacle, in which a team of would-be reporters attempt to track down Bigfoot for some online clout.
Dune
Out now
Where David Lynch’s 1984 attempt at adapting Frank Herbert’s tale of intergalactic empires and deadly sandworms stumbled, the Canadian director Denis Villeneuve has somehow succeeded, through the audacious high-risk strategy of playing it absolutely straight. This is a serious epic, in every possible sense.
The French Dispatch
Out now
A whimsical anthology set in and around the French offices of a US magazine, Wes Anderson’s latest is possibly his most Wes Andersonian film to date. Its high-calibre stars include Timothée Chalamet, Frances McDormand, Bill Murray, Tilda Swinton and Jeffrey Wright.
Fire Shut Up in My Bones – Metropolitan Opera
Selected cinemas, Sat
Terence Blanchard, jazz trumpeter and scorer of Spike Lee films, becomes the first Black person to score for the New York Met with this opera, featuring a libretto by the film-maker Kasi Lemmons (Eve’s Bayou). Catherine Bray
Going Out: Gigs
Joel Corry
Sat to 29 Oct; tour starts Glasgow
The ex-Geordie Shore contestant turned platinum-selling dance-pop producer continues his hot streak with these freshers’ week-adjacent dates. Last year’s chart-topper Head & Heart has since been joined by the David Guetta-assisted banger Bed, and the ludicrous Out Out featuring Charli XCX, so don’t bank on a ballad break.
Wet Leg
Sat to 26 Oct; tour starts Manchester
Over the course of two idiosyncratic indie pop singles, the Isle of Wight duo Rhian Teasdale and Hester Chambers, AKA Wet Leg, have bagged a coterie of famous fans including Iggy Pop and Florence Welch. Catch them while you still can on this tour of smaller venues. Michael Cragg
John Law’s Congregation
Wiltshire Music Centre, Bradford on Avon, Sat; Kings Place, N1, Wed
Crossover pianist Law has been known to release personal interpretations of Bach’s Goldberg Variations and knotty pieces for powerful jazz bands simultaneously. Witness his appetite for genre-bridging surprises with these gigs for his Congregation quartet. John Fordham
Alim Beisembayev
St George’s, Bristol, Fri
The Kazakh musician gives his first solo recital in Britain since his victory in the 2021 Leeds piano competition. Beisembayev’s programme spans five centuries, from sonatas by Scarlatti to studies by Ligeti, via Beethoven’s Sonata Op 111 and Stravinsky’s Firebird. Andrew Clements
Going out: Art
Anne Seymour Damer
Strawberry Hill House, Twickenham, to 3 Jan
This Georgian sculptor was the goddaughter of Horace Walpole, the art lover and writer of The Castle of Otranto, who built Strawberry Hill as his gothic sanctuary. Her brilliant neoclassical marble images are the focus of a special display.
The Divine Comedy
Bodleian Library, Oxford, to 14 Nov
The medieval masterpiece by Dante that takes you on a quest through Purgatory to Paradise has fascinated artists since it was written in the 1300s. This exhibition includes the oldest surviving manuscript as well as great illustrated editions, from Gustave Doré to a manga interpretation.
Hélène Binet
Royal Academy of Arts, W1, to 23 Jan
The camera loves architecture. It excels at seeing mystery in the hollows of great buildings. Binet is a leader in the field whose black-and‑white pictures turn reality into abstraction. Here, 90 of her works explore deconstructed forms from the likes of Le Corbusier and Zaha Hadid.
Laura Knight
MK Gallery, Milton Keynes, to 20 Feb
This British painter, who lived from the 1870s until 1970, witnessed an epoch of change, from votes for women to The Female Eunuch. She translates the era into realist paintings of women at work and play. Even if her style can be pedestrian, her depiction of history is important. Jonathan Jones
Going out: Stage
Department Story
Secret location, Belfast, to 31 Oct
Big Telly theatre company premieres its immersive hybrid production for the Belfast international arts festival. Set amid empty retail units, the show sends its audience on a killer shopping spree. Miriam Gillinson
Loyiso Gola
The Stand, Glasgow, Sat; The Stand, Edinburgh, Sun; Norden Farm Centre for the Arts, Maidenhead, Fri
The South African standup is going global, thanks to his Netflix special, Unlearning. Gola explores a cross-continental theme, examining how pop-cultural moments are digested differently across the world. Rachel Aroesti
Old Bridge
Bush Theatre, W12, to 20 Nov
This Papatango prize-winning play, written by the British-Bosnian playwright Igor Memic, is a contemporary love story that explores the impact of the Bosnian war on those who lived through it. Starring Saffron Coomber. MG
Scottish Dance Theatre
Dundee Rep, Fri to 30 Oct, touring to London and Leeds
A double bill including Botis Seva’s TuTuMucky and a premiere from the Glasgow-based Mele Broomes. Broomes makes rich sensory experiences drawing on stories of Black bodies. Lyndsey Winship
Staying in: Streaming
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Mon, 9pm, Sky Comedy and NowTV
“The world has changed. He hasn’t,” goes the tagline for the supremely meta sitcom’s 11th outing. Fittingly recent series have seen stubborn star Larry David delight in prodding at political correctness as well as plumbing ever deeper depths to avenge petty grievances.
Insecure
Tue, 9pm, Sky Comedy and NowTV
In its first season, Issa Rae’s groundbreaking dramedy followed its endearingly goofy protagonist as she battled a quarter-life crisis. Five years on, the end is nigh: this is the show’s final season, so savour her millennial-friendly angst while you still can.
Stath Lets Flats
Tue, 10.15pm, Channel 4; all episodes available on All 4
Jamie Demetriou’s hapless estate agent is doing his best to prop up the sitcom industry in this country right now. Expect more silliness in the show’s third series, plus cameos from Charlie Cooper and the great Julia Davis.
Colin in Black and White
All episodes available Fri, Netflix
In 2016, NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick took the knee for the first time: an act that would soon become synonymous with the Black Lives Matter movement. This deeply felt docu-drama, directed by Ava DuVernay, focuses on the American football player’s teen years, while spotting the seeds of his social activism. RA
Staying in: Albums
Agnes – Magic Still Exists
Out now
Hot on the heels of Agnetha, Björn, Benny and Anni-Frid returning from a 40-year hiatus, fellow Swede Agnes drops her own suite of dramatic high-grade pop. Her single Here Comes the Night is pure Abba gold, while the disco-tastic 24 Hours demands a light-up dancefloor.
Biffy Clyro – The Myth of the Happily Ever After
Out now
Originally billed as a collection of offcuts from 2020 chart-topper A Celebration of Endings, the Scottish rockers’ ninth album has since morphed into its own beast. Additional tracks were recorded quickly in the hope of capturing the frustration and turmoil of the last year.
Duran Duran – Future Past
Out now
Album 15 from Birmingham’s New Romantic pioneers comes laden with top-notch guests: Erol Alkan, Mark Ronson and Giorgio Moroder on production; Graham Coxon on guitar, and Lykke Li and Japanese rock band Chai on vocals. To the band’s credit, however, it all still sounds like Duran Duran.
Lonely Guest – Lonely Guest
Out now
Conceived and produced by Tricky over the past 18 months, this project is billed as a “meeting of musical mavericks”. The roll call of guests includes everyone from the late Lee “Scratch” Perry to Idles’s Joe Talbot, with the highlight being London rapper Kway prowling around the tense On a Move. MC
Staying in: Games
Guardians of the Galaxy
Out Tue
A new take on Marvel’s misfits from the Canadian developer Crystal Dynamics. Manage a squad of squabbling heroes on a galaxy-spanning misadventure.
Age of Empires IV
Out Thu
The return of the much-loved strategy series, which lets you rewrite history by ordering tiny armies around in the middle ages like a power-mad fantasist.
Riders Republic
Out Thu
Spare yourself the expense of an actual skiing holiday, and throw yourself down a virtual mountain instead – on skis or in a wingsuit. Keza MacDonald
Staying in: Brain food
The Impossible Map
YouTube
A cartographic curio: this recently uploaded 1947 short from the National Film Board of Canada uses stop-motion animation and a cut-up grapefruit to illustrate the limitations of any 2D map. A complex reflection on perspective, executed beautifully.
The Slowdown
Podcast
Poet Ada Limón takes over from Pulitzer winner Tracy K Smith as the host of this enriching podcast. Delivering one poem every weekday, listeners are immersed in inventive turns of phrase from new and established writers.
Driving While Black
Mon, 6.45pm, PBS America
Inspired by academic Gretchen Sorin’s 2020 study on how highways transformed African American life throughout the 20th century, this fascinating documentary chronicles how changing narratives of race in the US on the open road.
