Going out: Cinema
How to Have Sex
Out now
The continental coming-of-age holiday is a rite for British teens every bit as sacred and messy as US colleges’ spring break road trips to Tijuana. In Molly Manning Walker’s award-winning feature debut, a trio of teen girls experience the light and dark sides of drinking, clubbing and hooking up in Malia.
Fingernails
Out now
Taking the idea of love being based on chemistry to its logical endpoint, this drama takes place in a world where attraction and compatibility are literally calculated. Jessie Buckley and Jeremy Allen White are a long-term “certified” couple, with Riz Ahmed as the attractive curveball who might just prove the scientists wrong.
London Korean film festival
Various venues, to 16 November
The biggest programme of Korean cinema outside of Korea returns with more than 25 feature films and three nights of shorts, including the critically acclaimed Riceboy Sleeps by Anthony Shim, about a Korean mother raising her child in 1990s Canada, and mystery thriller Dr Cheon and the Lost Talisman, based on the Korean webtoon Possessed.
On the Adamant
Out now
Awarded the Golden Bear by a jury presided over by Kristen Stewart at the Berlin film festival, this stately documentary from the French film director and actor Nicolas Philibert follows various patients and caregivers at a psychiatric centre with a difference: the entire thing is floating in the middle of the River Seine in Paris. Catherine Bray
Going out: Gigs
London jazz festival
The “father of Ethio-jazz” Mulatu Astatke is a fittingly open-minded curtain-raiser for the 31st London jazz festival, which spans genres, generations and cultures. There are more than 30 gigs, including funk icons the Headhunters, on the opening night alone. John Fordham
50 Cent
9 November to 21 November; tour starts Glasgow
What Up Gangsta hitmaker Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson III brings his the Final Lap tour to the UK. Celebrating the 20th anniversary of his game-changing debut, Get Rich or Die Tryin’, expect a litany of hits, some chest-beating machismo and a wide selection of caps. Support comes from Busta Rhymes. Michael Cragg
Little Simz
5 to 11 November; tour starts Manchester
More than a decade into her career, 29-year-old Brit award-winning rapper, singer and actor Little Simz heads out on her biggest headline tour to date. Surprise-released at the end of last year, fifth album No Thank You found the north Londoner exploring mental health and the music industry. MC
The Nutcracker & Iolanta
Royal Albert Hall, London, 8 November
The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra recreates the premieres of Tchaikovsky’s final ballet score and final opera, first given as a double bill in St Petersburg in 1892. Vasily Petrenko conducts the second act of The Nutcracker before a semi-staging of Iolanta, with Maria Motolygina in the title role of the blind princess. Andrew Clements
Going out: Art
RB Kitaj
Piano Nobile, London, to 26 January
This painter who was part of – and helped come up with the idea for – the “school of London” was a contemporary of David Hockney, Leon Kossoff and Frank Auerbach. His paintings ambitiously mix contemporary settings, pop immediacy and history. Is he ripe for rediscovery, 16 years after his death?
Women in Revolt!
Tate Britain, London, 8 November to 7 April
This historical survey of feminist art in Britain from the 1970s to 1990 shows how conceptualism interfolded with activism in the era of Greenham Common. Artists include Ingrid Pollard, Mary Kelly and Lubaina Himid. It was an era when dangerous thinking produced brilliant work by Helen Chadwick and Mona Hatoum among others.
Artes Mundi 10
Various venues, Wales, to 25 February
The exhibition for the biennial Welsh international contemporary art prize takes place across galleries the length and breadth of Wales from Mostyn in Llandudno to Cardiff’s National Museum. Artists include Mounira Al Solh, Rushdi Anwar, Alia Farid, Nguyễn Trinh Thi, Taloi Havini, Carolina Caycedo and Naomi Rincón Gallardo.
John Craxton
Pallant House Gallery, Chichester, to 21 April
Idyllic paintings of Greece by an Englishman abroad. Craxton was a talented postwar figurative painter who had an intimate relationship with the young Lucian Freud. But he found artistic happiness and inspiration in the sun-kissed islands of Greece where he painted young sailors, fishermen and sunsets. You can’t blame him. Jonathan Jones
Going out: Stage
BalletBoyz: England on Fire
Sadler’s Wells, London, 8 to 11 November
Inspired by the book of the same name by Stephen Ellcock and Mat Osman, BalletBoyz amasses creative talent in a cross-genre snapshot of British culture from folk to punk to jazz. More than 40 artists are involved, including choreographers Russell Maliphant and Holly Blakey and musicians Kami Thompson and Cassie Kinoshi. Lyndsey Winship
Paddy Young
Soho theatre, London, 9 to 11 November; 15 to 20 January
Young had a stonking Edinburgh thanks to the success of his debut show Hungry, Horny, Scared, which milked laughs from his Scarborough upbringing and “that there” London’s ridiculous rental market – catnip for anyone who spent their 20s in a freezing hovel with only an overheating laptop for company. Rachel Aroesti
Manic Street Creature
Southwark Playhouse, London, to 11 November
The Olivier-nominated Maimuna Memon brings her semi-autobiographical mix of theatre and gig to London after an award-winning Edinburgh run last year. Memon plays Ria, a musician trying to finish an album that charts the rise and fall of a troubled relationship. Beautiful and brutal in equal measure. MC
Beowulf
Starts Byram Arcade, Huddersfield, 8 to 11 November
A promenade adaptation of Beowulf, adapted by five Yorkshire-based poets. Created by Proper Job Theatre Company, the show encompasses a 60-strong community choir and a Viking procession. Miriam Gillinson
Staying in: Streaming
Culprits
Disney+, 8 November
Of all the phenomena film and TV are determined to overrepresent, the heist has to be up there. This new series from director J Blakeson (I Care A Lot) is set post-robbery, as the top criminal crew responsible find themselves pursued by an assassin. Gemma Arterton, Eddie Izzard star.
The Buccaneers
Apple TV+, 8 November
Anyone who found the rollicking Bridgerton too staid will be all over this new YA-vibed period drama about a group of American teens invited to 1870s London for the match-making “season”. It’s an adaptation of Edith Wharton’s unfinished final novel by comedian Katherine Jakeways.
Shakespeare: Rise of A Genius
BBC One & iPlayer, 8 November, 9pm
It’s been 400 years, but we’re still not bored of the Bard. This three-part documentary – the “centrepiece” of the Beeb’s celebration of Shakespeare’s first folio – aims to unearth new insights into his life and times with input from actors (Helen Mirren, Brian Cox) and academics (James Shapiro, Ewan Fernie).
Hullraisers
Channel 4, 9 November, 10pm
A second series for this (you guessed it!) Hull-set sitcom, which was originally developed by the city’s No 1 comic ambassador, Lucy Beaumont. Now left in the hands of Caroline Moran (Henpocalypse!) and Anne-Marie O’Connor, it continues to chronicle the uproariously messy entanglements of besties Toni, Rana and Paula. RA
Staying in: Games
Fashion Dreamer
Out now, Nintendo Switch
This Shibuya fashion simulator is like a safe non-toxic version of FashionTok for style-conscious kids and teens (and, let’s be honest, also adults seeking refuge from IRL judgment).
Football Manager 2024
Out 6 November, PlayStation 5, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, Mac, PC, iOS, Android
Carry your addiction over from the previous season or start afresh with this long-standing king of football-management simulators. Keza MacDonald
Staying in: Albums
Kevin Abstract – Blanket
Out now
The erstwhile Brockhampton frontman releases his new solo album, the first since 2019’s Arizona Baby. Sidestepping the hip-hop sound of his former band, the scratchier, more guitar-leaning, Blanket recalls Sunny Day Real Estate, Nirvana and Modest Mouse, scene-setting lead single Blanket being a two-minute blast of alt-rock.
Bar Italia – The Twits
Out now
Feted London-based trio Bar Italia, AKA Nina Cristante, Sam Fenton and Jezmi Tarik Fehmi, return with their second album of 2023. As with May’s Tracey Denim, The Twits is a heady mix of post-punk, shoegaze, 90s alt-rock and grunge, delivered with interplaying vocals from all three.
Jungkook – Golden
Out now
With his K-pop boyband juggernaut BTS on hiatus, vocalist Jungkook unleashes this debut solo album, featuring production input from Diplo and BloodPop. While recent Top 5 single 3D channels Justified-era Justin Timberlake, this summer’s UK garage-aping Seven updates Craig David’s sex-rota anthem, 7 Days.
Tkay Maidza – Sweet Justice
Out now
Australian singer and rapper Maidza adds 14 more DayGlo slabs of top-tier R&B and hip-hop to her discography via this pulsating second album. Recent single Out of Luck, featuring Amber Mark and Lolo Zouaï, is all featherlight disco ball shimmers, while the Flume-assisted Silent Assassin is a playful yet bowel-rupturing banger. MC
Staying in: Brain food
Escaping Twin Flames
Netflix, 8 November
Following their series on the NXIVM cult, film-makers Cecilia Peck and Inbal B Lessner investigate another worrying organisation: Twin Flames Universe. It is promoted as a community of singles looking for unique soulmates, but here former members recount their indoctrination.
Ordinary Unhappiness
Podcast
Academics Abby Kluchin and Patrick Blanchfield host this fascinating series, viewing culture through psychoanalysis. For those looking for more in-depth theory, start with their episode on writing the “trauma plot”.
Great Books Explained
YouTube
The host of Great Art Explained, James Payne, presents his new channel analysing the world’s greatest works of literature in 15 minutes or less. We begin with the labyrinthine story and controversial afterlife of James Joyce’s Ulysses. Ammar Kalia