Five of the best … films
Parasite (15)
(Bong Joon-ho, 2019, South Korea) 132 mins
After impressively breaking into (mostly) English-language pictures with Snowpiercer and Okja, Bong Joon-ho has returned home to South Korea with even more brilliant results. Parasite is both a satire on the haves and have-nots, and a suspenseful thriller about what happens when they all move in together. Amazingly, it has become a major force in awards season – and deservedly so.
The Lighthouse (15)
(Robert Eggers, 2019, Can/US) 109 mins
Robert Pattinson fully justifies his status as cinema’s coming man in this berserk horror-thriller, in which he is the equal of veteran scene-dominator Willem Dafoe. They play lighthouse keepers descending into a delusional nightmare in 19th-century New England, the black-and-white visuals perfectly complementing the bleak, shifting mood.
Mr Jones (15)
(Agnieszka Holland, Pol/UK/Ukraine, 2019) 116 mins
There is a Guardian connection to this account of the activities of courageous Welsh journalist Gareth Jones; the paper published Jones’s eyewitness reports of the horrific famine in Ukraine in the mid-1930s that led to more than 3 million deaths and was denied by the Soviet government. James Norton plays Jones, and veteran Polish director Agnieszka Holland orchestrates events with clarity and flair.
Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn (15)
(Cathy Yan, 2020, US) 109 mins
Enough people were presumably knocked out by Suicide Squad that a sequel is in the works; in the meantime here’s a spin-off containing arguably its most memorable character: Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn, inspiration for a thousand dubious Halloween costumes. Here, Harley has been ditched by Joker and is out to rescue fellow lawbreaker Cassandra Cain; it all leads to the start of the female vigilante squad of the title.
A Streetcar Named Desire (12A)
(Elia Kazan, US, 1951) 120 mins
In providing a great early role for Marlon Brando, as well as a much parodied showcase for Vivien Leigh as traumatised, faded belle Blanche DuBois, Elia Kazan’s Tennessee Williams adaptation has earned its place in film history. It might be a bit on the stagey side, but those performances pull it through.
AP
Five of the best … rock, pop & jazz
Angel Olsen
Last year’s fourth album, All Mirrors, propelled the Missouri alt-rock maven Angel Olsen into something approaching the big leagues. A Top 30 hit in the UK, it built on the success of the preceding My Woman by constantly keeping the listeners on their toes, showcased perfectly by its lead single Lark’s jet-black, string-drenched cacophony.
Bristol, Monday 10; London, Tuesday 11; Manchester, Thursday 13; Glasgow, Friday 14 February
Mae Muller
Everything you need to know about north London’s Mae Muller is neatly tied up in new single Therapist. Over a jazz-inflected, Frank-era Amy Winehouse backing, she calmly eviscerates some poor, no-mark boyfriend, lyrically channelling early Lily Allen. Expect an abundance of attitude during her biggest UK dates yet.
Dublin, Saturday 8; Glasgow, Sunday 9; Manchester, Tuesday 11; Birmingham, Wednesday 12; London, Thursday 13 February
Gengahr
Finding themselves without a manager or label, north London indie waifs Gengahr started the sessions for third album Sanctuary at a bit of a crisis point. Eventually settling on Bombay Bicycle Club’s Jack Steadman as producer, they came up with a record that adds some much-needed pop lightness to lyrics inspired by death and loss.
Manchester, Thursday 13; Leeds, Friday 14; touring to 21 February
Sigala
Norwich’s Bruce Fielder, AKA the DJ, producer and remixer Sigala, has been single-handedly keeping Capital FM going, clogging up its playlists with perfectly pitched Ibiza anthems. Since 2015 he has scored seven UK Top 10 singles, and worked with everyone from Nile Rodgers to Fuse ODG to Meghan Trainor. Would you recognise him if he passed you in the street? No you would not.
Glasgow, Sunday 9 & Monday 10; Dublin, Wednesday 12; Belfast, Thursday 13; touring to 22 February
MC
Julian Argüelles Quartet
Since his early-80s days making himself heard in the UK big band Loose Tubes, Julian Argüelles has made his signature sound as a sax improviser and composer – merging postbop, classical and Celtic and Spanish folk traditions – more distinctive with every passing year. Argüelles’s quartet on this rare British tour includes the powerful pianist Ivo Neame.
London, Tuesday 11; Wells-next-the-Sea, Wednesday 12; touring to 23 February
JF
Three of the best … classical concerts
2020 Vision
The London Philharmonic’s way of marking this year’s unavoidable Beethoven anniversary is more original than most. The 2020 series will bring together Beethoven’s symphonies with scores composed exactly 100 and 200 years after. The first concert, conducted by Vladimir Jurowski, juxtaposes his First Symphony from 1801 with Scriabin’s 1901 Symphony No 2 and Péter Eötvös’s Snatches of a Conversation from 2001. Later concerts include the second symphonies of both Sibelius and Beethoven, and the Eroica Symphony with Ravel’s Shéhérazade.
Royal Festival Hall, SE1, Saturday 8 February
Les Vêpres Siciliennes
It is a special week for Verdi fans, with productions of two of his more rarely seen mature works. Welsh National Opera’s staging of Les Vêpres Siciliennes is brand new, and follows La Forza del Destino and Un Ballo in Maschera to complete a Verdi trilogy directed by the company’s recently departed artistic director David Pountney and conducted by its former music director Carlo Rizzi; Jung Soo Yun as Henri and Anush Hovhannisyan as Hélène lead the cast.
Cardiff Millennium Centre: Donald Gordon Theatre, Saturday 8, 15 & 22 February; touring to 9 May
Luisa Miller
English National Opera’s production of Verdi’s Luisa Miller comes to the Coliseum from Wuppertal, where it was first seen in 2018. The updated staging marks the UK debut of director Barbora Horáková; Alexander Joel conducts and heading the cast are Elizabeth Llewellyn, Olafur Sigurdarson and David Junghoon Kim.
London Coliseum, WC2, Wednesday 12 February to 6 March
AC
Five of the best … exhibitions
Steve McQueen
Once he stood stock still as a house fell around him. The strength of character McQueen displayed in the film that won him the Turner prize in 1999 has enabled him to bust out of the art world and make real, Oscar-winning cinema. Now he brings it all back home in a major show among Tate Modern’s greats.
Tate Modern, SE1, Thursday 13 February to 11 May
James Turrell
No artist alive contemplates the cosmic as intently as this American visionary. Turrell can make colours congeal in space or send your head on a rocket trip to the stars. His installations are like walking into Rothko paintings. Turrell’s project to turn a giant Arizona crater into an astral artwork links all his mesmerising experiments.
Pace, W1, Tuesday 11 February to 27 March
Katherina Radeva
This Bulgaria-born, Scotland-based artist and designer shows drawings that explore the nature of performance and creativity. Radeva works with the theatre company Two Destination Language, and this exhibition came out of devising its latest performance, Fault Lines (which is touring to 15 Feb). Here are drawings to prompt the imagination, sketches that suggest characters and scenarios and provoke you to fill in the blanks.
Summerhall, Edinburgh, to 1 March
Cerith Wyn Evans
The oldest of the Young British Artists of the 1990s – he was born in 1958 – had a background in avant-garde cinema. It shows: his installations are Fellini-like spectacles of romantic desolation. When his art hits the spot, it is an operatic aria expressed in light and heat. He brings his pale fire to bear here in glowing and scorching artworks that should bring winter warmth to the gallery’s huge spaces.
White Cube Bermondsey, SE1, to 19 April
Isa Genzken
The spirit of dada lives in Genzken’s brilliantly throwaway installations. In 1919, dadaists in Germany used random stuff including tailor’s dummies and newsprint to make furiously satirical anti-art. She proves this can still be a potent method as she uses everything from fashion to – in this exhibition – airline seats to mock capitalism. And, as this show at a leading art dealer proves, the capitalists love her for it.
Hauser & Wirth, W1, to 2 May
JJ
Five of the best … theatre shows
Leopoldstadt
A new Tom Stoppard play is always Big Theatre News. Even better, Leopoldstadt doesn’t just showcase Stoppard’s wit, it is also deeply moving. Set in Vienna in the first half of the 20th century, the play follows one family over 50 years as they wrestle with their Jewish identity. Patrick Marber directs a cast of 24 actors, including Adrian Scarborough, Yasmin Paige and Alexis Zegerman.
Wyndham’s Theatre, WC2, to 13 June
The Visit
Some shows are almost dead-cert winners. This has got to be one of them, largely because it stars the extraordinary Lesley Manville. Here, she plays the world’s richest woman, intent on revenge. Tony Kushner has transported Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s visionary play into the mid-20th century in a production directed by Jeremy Herrin (People, Places and Things).
National Theatre: Olivier, SE1, to 13 May
The Whip
Former BBC journalist Juliet Gilkes Romero’s play is about the 1833 Slavery Abolition Act. As morality and corruption split parliament, two women fight for political influence. Meanwhile, a slave-owning home secretary endeavours to protect his own interests. Will the price of freedom turn out to be a multi-billion-pound payoff to the slave owners? A shockingly underexplored area of history is brought to life by director Kimberley Sykes.
Royal Shakespeare Theatre: Swan, Stratford-Upon-Avon, to 21 March
Far Away
Lyndsey Turner directs Caryl Churchill’s haunting play, 20 years after its premiere. In a cottage far away, a child wakes to the sound of screaming. What is really going on, and will these ugly memories haunt the child’s future? This startling 50-minute play touches on terror, trauma, responsibility and revolt – and endless other rumbling feelings and ideas. The cast features Jessica Hynes, Aisling Loftus and Simon Manyonda.
Donmar Warehouse, WC2, to 28 March
Lorca’s Blood Wedding
Lorca’s explosive tragedy set in Wiltshire? Why the heck not? With Barney Norris doing the adaptation, this should be interesting and truthful. In a small rural town, Rob and his fiancee Georgie are checking out the village hall for their wedding reception. Rob’s mum thinks they’re rushing into things, and when a figure from Georgie’s past turns up, the couple’s wedding plans – and lives – hang in the balance. Jeff Rawle and Teresa Banham star.
Salisbury Playhouse, to 22 February
MG
Three of the best … dance shows
Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch: Bluebeard
One of German dance-theatre pioneer Pina Bausch’s trailblazing early works, never before seen in the UK, gets a belated premiere 43 years after its creation. Its illustration of the violence, tenderness, fear and sexual obsession of one couple’s relationship is likely to be just as startling as it was in 1977.
Sadler’s Wells, EC1, Wednesday 12 to 15 February
Phoenix Dance Theatre: Black Waters
Phoenix’s Sharon Watson and Kolkata-based Shambik Ghose and Mitul Sengupta explore two shameful incidents from British colonial history: the massacre on the Zong slave ship in 1781 and abuses at the Kala Pani prison in early 20th-century India.
Leeds Playhouse, Wednesday 12 to 15 February; touring to 20 June
BLKDOG
Hip-hop choreographer Botis Seva won an Olivier award for the first incarnation of this piece, a dark, powerful work of oppression and depression. Now Seva has expanded it for a UK tour, inspired by his own struggles as a young artist confronting adulthood.
Warwick Arts Centre, Coventry, Tuesday 11 February; touring to 30 April
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