Going out: Cinema
One Battle After Another
Out now
Clocking in at nearly three hours, this loose adaptation of Thomas Pynchon’s Vineland from director Paul Thomas Anderson (Phantom Thread, There Will Be Blood) stars Leonardo DiCaprio, and sees a former revolutionary on a quest to rescue his daughter from the hands of an old enemy.
Ellis Park
Out now
Musician and composer Warren Ellis is known for his collaborations with Nick Cave in bands and on film scores, but this film, the first documentary from film-maker Justin Kurzel (Snowtown, Nitram) focuses on a Cave-free passion project: a wildlife sanctuary in the forests of Sumatra co-founded by Ellis.
Visions of Ukraine
Barbican, London, 29 September to 2 October
Ranging from the silent cinema era to modern movie-making, this short season at the Barbican of Ukrainian film includes Mikhail Kaufman’s In Spring (1929), and the UK premiere of new archival documentary Fragments of Ice (2024), as well as short films dedicated to the Ukrainian queer community during the current war.
The Strangers: Chapter 2
Out now
Don’t be fooled by “Chapter 2” – this is in fact the fourth film in the Strangers home-invasion horror franchise, which claims to be based on a true story but, erm, isn’t – unless “some murders happen in a house” is close enough. Renny Harlin (Deep Blue Sea) directs the stabbing and slashing. Catherine Bray
Going out: Gigs
Flo
28 September to 2 October; tour starts London
British R&B girl band Flo tour in support of last year’s buttery soft debut LP Access All Areas. They’ve been in the studio since – check out recent Kaytranada collaboration The Mood – so expect new songs, too. Michael Cragg
Polish jazz festival London
Kings Place, London, 27 September; Pizza Express Jazz Soho, London, 28 September
The ever-innovative Polish jazz scene’s 2025 festival London festival showcases both established and rising stars. Trumpet virtuoso Piotr Wojtasik with vocalist-pianist Anna Maria Jopek (27 September), and UK-based vocalist-violinist Alice Zawadzki and singer Aga Zaryan (28 September; the latter the first Polish artist to record for Blue Note), are among the highlights. John Fordham
Celebrating Shostakovich
Brangwyn Hall, Swansea, 3 October
The BBC National Orchestra of Wales marks the 50th anniversary of the death of Shostakovich with a performance of his most massive symphony, No 7 in C, the Leningrad. Ryan Bancroft conducts, and prefaces it with Shostakovich’s first violin concerto. Andrew Clements
The Magnetic Fields
26 September to 6 October; tour starts Bristol
Released in 1999, the Magnetic Fields’ sixth album 69 Love Songs has rightly taken up classic status. Packed full of pin-sharp vignettes couched in country, synthpop, folk and jazz, it will be played in full across two nights, in three cities. MC
Going out: Art
Howard Hodgkin
Pitzhanger Manor & Gallery, London, 1 October to 8 March
This artist of memory made prints that are almost as lush as his paintings. Hodgkin’s works on paper get a lavish showing here, in an exhibition that is also a chance to ponder his legacy. Intimate and evocative, private yet highly accessible, he was one of Britain’s few great abstractionists.
Turner prize 2025
Cartwright Hall Art Gallery, Bradford, 27 September to 22 February
Is the Turner prize still relevant? Can it start national conversations? Head for Bradford, this year’s UK city of culture, to find out as the shortlisted artists strut their stuff. Photographer Rene Matić and painter Mohammed Sami stand out for their striking work. Zadie Xa and Nnena Kalu also compete.
Marie Antoinette Style
V&A South Kensington, London, to 22 March
The French queen whose life ended brutally is revived here as a style icon. Echoes of the ancien régime’s rococo fashions in modern pop culture are juxtaposed with 18th-century paintings and objects in a show that brings together the historical and contemporary – or does it trivialise a tragic past?
Yuki Kihara
Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester, 3 October to 1 March
Two white male icons are deconstructed in a show that combines Paradise Camp, an installation inspired by Gauguin’s paintings of Tahiti, with a video entitled Darwin Drag. Gauguin’s images of the Pacific are mocked and reclaimed by this queer, indigenous artist who also gives the theory of evolution a twist. Jonathan Jones
Going out: Stage
Stevie Martin
2 October to 6 December; tour starts Manchester
For the modern standup, in-person performance is only half the job – making popular social media content is now non-negotiable. In Clout, Martin, who pivoted from live sketch to viral videos in lockdown, (she has since appeared on Taskmaster and in Mitchell and Webb Are Not Helping) – entertainingly deconstructs the demands of online and IRL comedy. Rachel Aroesti
Bacchae
National Theatre: Olivier, London, to 1 November
Heartstopper actor Nima Taleghani’s very first play premieres on the Olivier stage. It’s a modern take on Euripides’s The Bacchae, infused with spoken word, music and dance and helmed by the National’s new director Indhu Rubasingham. Miriam Gillinson
Syncopated
Liverpool Playhouse, to 4 October
The real-life story of an African American jazz band who toured the UK in 1919, set against the Liverpool docks and rippling with memories and music. From leading Black British theatre company Talawa and Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse. MG
Dance Umbrella
Various venues, London, and online, 2 to 31 October
The annual contemporary dance fest makes a point of presenting artists from around the world who aren’t well known (yet) to UK audiences. This year there’s cutting-edge performance from Colombia, Sweden, Senegal and more. You can also buy a digital pass to watch a specially selected programme of dance films online. Lyndsey Winship
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Staying in: Streaming
How Are You? It’s Alan (Partridge)
BBC One & iPlayer, 3 October, 9.30pm
An appearance from Norfolk’s finest is always a gift from the comedy gods, but this new series, in which Alan addresses the nation’s mental health, crisis feels especially promising. Steve Coogan returns to satirise yet another era of British telly.
Chad Powers
Disney+, Tuesday
This new series isn’t quite the direction you’d expect an ascending Hollywood leading man to go in, but Glen Powell proves he doesn’t take himself remotely seriously with an Adam Sandler-esque comedy about a disgraced college quarterback who dons prosthetics in the hope of scoring a second chance at American football stardom.
Taylor
Channel 4, 30 September, 9.15pm
She’s the biggest pop star on the planet, but Taylor Swift is yet to get the rigorous, academic-adjacent documentary treatment. This new series is here to change that: directed by Guy King (Our Falklands War), it enlists cultural commentators, industry insiders and fans to discuss a career that has transformed the music business.
Blue Lights
BBC One & iPlayer, 29 September, 9pm
The excellent Northern Irish cop drama moves beyond the mean streets of Belfast and into a more superficially middle-class milieu for its third series – but our officers are in as much mortal danger as ever. Siân Brooke and Martin McCann return, with Michael Smiley joining the cast as intelligence officer Colly. RA
Staying in: Games
Ghost of Yōtei
PlayStation 5; out 2 October
The hugely anticipated follow-up to 2020’s open-world samurai epic is set more than 300 years after the original. You play a wandering, and extremely cross, mercenary who enacts painful vengeance upon the outlaws who left you for dead.
Train Sim World 6
PC, PlayStation, XBox; out 30 September
Or for something completely different, bask in the magnificence of some of the planet’s most Instagrammable choo-choos as you pilot them along routes both famous and pretty. If you’re wondering: “Does does that include the Riviera route between Exeter and Paignton?”, you can relax – it does. Luke Holland
Staying in: Albums
Mariah Carey – Here for It All
Out now
Keen to prove she doesn’t just emerge from hibernation for Christmas, Mariah Carey releases her 16th album, and first in seven years. Home to the Eric B & Rakim-sampling throwback Type Dangerous and the dancehall-tinged Sugar Sweet, the album features assists from Kehlani and Anderson .Paak.
Olivia Dean – The Art of Loving
Out now
A song on the recent Bridget Jones soundtrack, a Sam Fender support, and a handful of excellent soul-pop bops have shifted the London singer-songwriter into the big leagues. This second album is already home to two Top 10 singles, while next year’s arena tour is basically sold out.
Geese – Getting Killed
Out now
This follow-up to the New York noise merchants’ 2023 opus 3D Country arrives in the wake of frontman Cameron Winter’s critically adored 2024 solo album, Heavy Metal. Back to his day job, Winter’s penetrating growl rips through the jazz-meets-post-rock Trinidad, before smoothing out on plucky lead single Taxes.
Zara Larsson – Midnight Sun
Out now
On her fifth album, Swedish pop star Larsson bottles her sun-kissed emotional exuberance into a tight 30 minutes. The title track is a Jersey Club banger by way of Scandinavia, the rowdy, chant-heavy Pretty Ugly is a glorious headache, while Crush fuses EDM with lustful lyrics. MC
Staying in: Brain food
States of Independence
Podcast
Music journalist Rob Fitzpatrick’s series about the history of influential independent music labels begins with a deep dive into Beggars Banquet. He traces its development from platforming punks to signing Gary Numan and building an indie empire.
Lost in Time
YouTube
Mixing remastered archival footage with lively explainers, Lost in Time’s videos deliver engaging insights into the past, from turn-of-the-20th-century colourised cityscapes of New York and London to analysis of the Roman empire’s technological developments.
Death in Dubai
BBC Sounds, out now
Journalist Runako Celina’s two-year investigation into the death of Ugandan 23-year-old Mona Kizz explores not only the circumstances surrounding her fall from a Dubai tower block but the double standards of the city’s high society. Ammar Kalia