Five of the best ... films

1 Star Wars: The Last Jedi (12A)

(Rian Johnson, 2017, US) 152 mins

The Force reawakens after a two-year hiatus and we are due some answers: who are Rey’s parents? Where has Luke Skywalker been? Who is/are the last Jedi? Where can you get a Porg? Picking up where the last movie left off, this has a lot of work to do explaining the past and possibly taking some characters for a walk on the Dark Side.

2 Better Watch Out (15)

(Chris Peckover, 2017, US) 89 mins

A comedy-horror putting intrusion, abduction, violence and twisted morals under the Christmas tree of an unsuspecting suburban household. A hormonal adolescent (Levi Miller) looks forward to a night alone with the out-of-his-league babysitter (Olivia DeJonge), but both get more than they bargained for.

3 Mountains May Depart (12A)

(Jia Zhangke, 2015, Chi/Fra/Jap) 121 mins

A tireless chronicler of China’s transformation, Jia takes an even broader view in this three-part melodrama, following an everywoman through the 21st century. Despite a few wobbles, it’s affecting and powerfully acted.

4 The Disaster Artist (15)

(James Franco, 2017, US) 103 mins

Franco pays loving tribute to the cult, so-bad-it’s-genius movie The Room, recreating with hilarious verisimilitude its bizarre star-creator Tommy Wiseau as he sets about making his Hollywood dream come true, undeterred by an evident lack of talent. A host of familiar faces (Dave Franco, Seth Rogen, Zac Efron, Jacki Weaver) come along for the car crash.

5 Human Flow (12A)

(Ai Weiwei, 2017, Ger) 140 mins

The Chinese artist provides a timely reminder that displaced people comprise a sizeable proportion of the global population, and that their experiences are invariably perilous and harrowing. It’s a comprehensive survey, visiting 23 countries and mixing personal testimony with unforgettable photography.

SR

Five of the best ... pop and rock gigs

1 Kate Rusby

This one-off concert sees Rusby bring her preternaturally blissed-out stylings to London, serving up a hearty helping of carols and traditional songs from her home county of Yorkshire. All of this alongside a brass quintet, too. Merry Christmas, folk fans!
London, 18 December; Nottingham, 19 December; Gateshead, 20 December

2 James Yorkston

Another gift for folkies, this time from the Scottish singer who also plays in the folk/jazz/Indian classical crossover trio Yorkston Thorne Khan. Yorkston is going solo for these Christmas shows, but that is unlikely to mean two-thirds less quality.
The Kitchen Cafe Garden, Birmingham, 18 December; Moth Club, E9, 19 December

3 Honeyblood

From Black Honey and Stereo Honey to Pale Waves’ single There’s a Honey, you just can’t move for sweet-sounding indie right now. Honeyblood are very much part of the hive, a female fuzz-pop duo from Glasgow who make music previously described by this newspaper as resembling Taylor Swift covering the Jesus and Mary Chain. Shouldn’t work, but it definitely does.
Bristol, 18 December; Nottingham, 19 December; Manchester, 20 December; Glasgow, 22 December

4 Walking on Cars

With a name that sounds like the sort of activity you might attempt after one too many shots, you might expect Walking on Cars to make risk-taking punk or ballsy rock. Rather, this Irish five-piece do Snow Patrol-ish indie pop, with more emphasis on the pop. For fans of the bit of the Venn diagram where Radios 1 and 2 meet, they’re sure to attract big home crowds.
INEC, Killarney, 21-22 December

5 Nilufer Yanya

This west London singer’s breakout single Baby Luv is, in short, a clutch of chords looped to within an inch of their life and a plaintive vocal. But despite its simple structure, Yanya makes a striking sound. Somewhere between R&B, soul and psychedelic indie, the rising 22-year-old – recently longlisted for the BBC’s Sound of 2018 – is making her own rules.
The Jazz Cafe, NW1, 16 December

HJD

Four of the best ... classical concerts

1 Glory to the Christ Child

Their 2017 Choral Pilgrimage may be done and dusted, but Harry Christophers and the Sixteen are on the road again with their Christmas programme. The selection mixes perennial favourites with less familiar carols across five centuries, from Palestrina to the present day.
Taunton, 16 December; London, 18-19 December; Reading, 21 December

2 The Age of Anxiety

The London Symphony Orchestra continues its centenary tribute to its former president, Leonard Bernstein. Simon Rattle conducts the concert version of the musical Wonderful Town alongside the Second Symphony, The Age of Anxiety. Based upon WH Auden’s epic poem of the same name, it’s a work for piano and orchestra, and the soloist is perhaps the greatest of all living pianists, Krystian Zimerman.
Barbican Hall, EC2, 16 December

3 Christmas Oratorios

The cycle of six cantatas that Bach composed for the season seem ubiquitous this year. Two of the London performances of the Christmas Oratorio promise contrasting approaches: John Butt and the Dunedin Consort (Wigmore Hall, W1, 16 December), who are performing four of the cantatas, favour a period-instrument approach; Vladimir Jurowski and the London Philharmonic (Royal Festival Hall, SE1, 16 December) promise something on a larger scale.

4 Kavakos and Wang

Two of the most exciting instrumentalists of our time join forces for a programme of violin and piano music. Three of the works that Leonidas Kavakos and Yuja Wang play – by Janáček, Debussy and Bartók – rank among the greatest violin sonatas of the 20th century, while the other piece is Schubert’s extraordinary Fantasy in C Major.
Wigmore Hall, W1, 19 December

AC

Five of the best ... exhibitions

1 From Life

Drawing from the nude model has been part of the tradition of the Royal Academy since it was founded in the 18th century. When Johan Zoffany portrayed the founding Academicians gathered round a male model in 1771-2 he had to show the only two women in the RA at the time as pictures on the wall so as not to offend propriety. This exhibition looks at the history and continuing relevance of life drawing, including the results of a life class at the Brooklyn Museum in 2016 when Jeremy Deller got Iggy Pop to pose naked.
Royal Academy of Arts, W1, to 11 March

2 Charles II: Art & Power

The restoration of the monarchy in 1660 came as a relief to a country crushed by the Puritan religious extremists of the Cromwellian age. Charles II, however, was not just more secular; he was a libertine whose court quickly became a byword for sexual intrigue. The paintings of Peter Lely preserve that mood. Yet Charles was also a supporter of science, and the art of his reign includes the compelling scientific drawings of Robert Hooke.
The Queen’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace, SW1, to 13 May

3 Waqas Khan

The magical art of Waqas Khan is perfect for the season, a winter wonder to warm your soul. Khan is fascinated by Sufist spirituality, which has a long history of inspiring trance-like music and art. He creates hypnotic landscapes and skyscapes of tiny marks, which accumulate in great waves and mountains that shimmer and vanish in your mind’s eye. This is truly sublime abstract art made with inner faith and intensity.
Manchester Art Gallery, to 25 February

4 Astronomy Photographer of the Year

There’s something Christmassy about astronomy: the three wise men did it, after all. You may not see any stars over Bethlehem in this exhibition of outstanding pictures taken by enthusiasts but you will see astonishingly crisp and colourful images of nebulae, galaxies and the moon’s surface.
Royal Observatory Greenwich, SE10, to 22 July

5 Scythians: Warriors of Ancient Siberia

Feeling cold? Spare a thought for the Scythian warriors who lived in ancient Siberia. The reason their grave goods are so miraculously well preserved is that they were locked in permanently frozen earth. Felt and fur clothing survive to show how these nomads endured their icy world. Heavy drinking also helped, as their wine cups reveal. If all else failed, they simply put their heads under a special tent filled with hemp smoke and got high until spring.
British Museum, WC1, to 14 January

JJ

Five of the best ... theatre shows

1 Sinners Club

This intimate curiosity arrives from Cardiff’s pub theatre, The Other Room, and takes us back to the 1950s and the story of Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be hanged in Britain. There have been plenty of Ellis shows but this is something more subtle as Lucy Rivers and an onstage band, the Bad Mothers, use torch songs to amplify the life and death of woman corseted by patriarchal stays and double standards.
Upstairs, Soho theatre, W1, to 30 December

2 The Open House

US writer Will Eno has the most distinctive of voices and his fractured plays are often wryly comic. But you would never describe them as suburban comedy. However, that’s what he’s written in this 2014 play, which features a bullying father – played by Greg Hicks in Michael Boyd’s zesty production – whose verbal vitriol starts to erase his unhappy family. Even the dog goes missing in a show that springs absurdist surprises.
Theatre Royal: Ustinov Studio, Bath, to 23 December

3 Network

This may be sold out, but it’s worth queuing for day seats for Ivo van Hove’s stage version of the 1976 film, whose starry cast includes Michelle Dockery and Douglas Henshall. The stand-out performance, though, comes from Bryan Cranston as the ageing news anchor in meltdown who declares he’s going to kill himself on air. Designer Jan Versweyveld transforms the Lyttelton into a cross between a TV studio and a restaurant in a play that satires corporate corruption and media manipulation.
National Theatre: Lyttelton, SE1, to 24 March

4 Thirty Christmases

Christmas is a time for family. But how do you celebrate if family is missing? In this show created by Jonny Donahoe, who was such an integral part of Every Brilliant Thing, Christmas has become a bummer for Jonny and Rachel ever since their dad disappeared one Christmas morning. Enjoyable adult comedy with a fragile heart.
The New Diorama theatre, NW1, to 23 December

5 The Girl With the Iron Claws

New takes on old tales are in fashion this year. Feminist theatre-maker RashDash puts adventurous women at the heart of Snow White & Rose Red at Battersea Arts Centre (SW11); Emma Rice and Joel Howard insert social comment into The Little Matchgirl and Other Happier Tales at Bristol Old Vic; and reconsiders Beauty and the Beast at Bristol’s Tobacco Factory. They are all terrific, but for a show with claws, The Wrong Crowd’s Nordic fairytale is a right little winter warmer.
Dartington Arts Centre, Totnes, to 30 December

LG

Three of the best ... dance shows

1 Royal Ballet: The Nutcracker

The most beguilingly traditional of all the Nutcrackers, with a superb roster of casts that includes Francesca Hayward alternating between Clara and the Sugar Plum Fairy.
Royal Opera House, WC2, to 10 January

2 2Faced Dance Company: What the Moon Saw

Director Tamsin Fitzgerald combines dance and aerial circus in her new version of the tale about a young boy’s encounters with dragons and chimney sweeps, with a friendly moon to inspire him.
The Place, WC1, 20-22 December

3 Scottish Ballet: The Nutcracker

Designs from the excellent Lez Brotherston bring wit, glamour and fantasy to Peter Darrell’s vintage production of the Tchaikovsky classic.
Edinburgh Festival theatre, to 30 December; touring to 3 February

JM