Five of the best ... films

Have a Nice Day (15)

(Jian Liu, 2017, Chi) 78 mins

Somewhere between Pulp Fiction, Takeshi Kitano and Daniel Clowes, this deadpan, lo-fi crime caper almost feels like an authentic snapshot of modern-day China, despite the fact it’s animated (rather beautifully). Centred on a stolen bag of cash, the entertainingly tangled plot takes in gangsters, chancers, cosmetic surgery and even some corrupt Buddhist monks.

The Square (15)

(Ruben Östlund, 2017, Swe/Ger/Fra/Den) 151 mins

The absurdity of the art world is fully embraced in this Elisabeth Moss-starring satire, whose exhibits include annoying installations, pretentious marketing gurus and an ape impersonator. Claes Bang plays the Stockholm gallery director supposedly in control of all this, but who struggles to separate the sublime from the ridiculous.

You Were Never Really Here (15)

(Lynne Ramsay, 2017, UK/Fra/US) 95 mins

This superbly controlled thriller takes us into the mind of a troubled loner (Joaquin Phoenix) who is sucked into a political conspiracy on his mission to retrieve an abducted girl. The details are only vaguely sketched out; it’s more of a fragmented collection of moments (many of them brutal, a few darkly comical), but it all adds up to an unforgettably intense experience.

Sweet Country (15)

(Warwick Thornton, 2017, Aus) 113 mins

A panoramic western and a powerful history of 1920s Australia – a time when racism went unchecked and an Indigenous Australian farmhand (Hamilton Morris) and his wife could expect no justice for having killed an abusive white settler. On the run across the stark wilderness of the Northern Territory, with Bryan Brown’s posse in pursuit, their story becomes almost a biblical parable, told with breathtaking cinematography.

The Third Murder (15)

(Hirokazu Kore-eda, 2017, Jap) 125 mins

An original take for a murder-mystery: the only thing we can be certain of is the killer’s identity. A strange man (veteran actor Kôji Yasuko) confesses to killing his factory boss, but his story keeps changing. Is he even the killer? It’s down to his defence lawyer (Masaharu Fukuyama) to investigate. This thriller’s spiritual as well as criminal.

SR

Five of the best ... rock & pop gigs

Ms Banks

The 23-year-old London rapper Ms Banks (her real name is Tyra, hence the moniker) got a massive boost last November when Nicki Minaj declared herself a fan via the medium of Twitter. This one-off gig will showcase her forthcoming EP, The Coldest Winter Ever, as well as her ever-growing list of dexterous guest verses and mixtape deep cuts.
Omeara, SE1 Wednesday 28 March

The Aces

Do you enjoy Haim’s fusion of sun-dappled melodies, 70s nostalgia and immaculate hair but wish they had better songs? Same. Good news, though, because Utah quartet the Aces are pretty good at the songcraft bit, with recent single Lovin’ Is Bible a big, unselfconscious slab of glittery guitar pop. Expect more on their debut album, When My Heart Felt Volcanic.
Thousand Island, N5, Tuesday 27 March

Amber Mark

Raised across Europe and Asia before eventually settling in New York, newcomer Amber Mark’s pillow-soft, slow-burn output reflects this sense of restlessness. She’s into storytelling and concepts too, with last year’s self-produced 3:33am EP detailing grief, while next month’s Conexão EP focuses on creating a new love. Expect to be a bit overwhelmed by it all.
The Camden Assembly, NW1, Friday 30 March

Friendly Fires

Dig out that old Hawaiian shirt and practise your wobbly indie dance moves – everyone’s second-favourite sixth-on-the-festival-bill trio are back, back, back after a six-year hiatus. Those hoping to just bask in the warm glow of nostalgia be warned: in a recent interview they said their new music is “long and expansive and drawn-out”. Plan your toilet breaks accordingly.
Leeds Beckett University SU, Thursday 29; The Waterfront, Norwich, Friday 30 March; touring to 5 April

MC

Zhenya Strigalev

European and US jazz clubs, the adopted homes of exciting St Petersburg-born saxophonist Zhenya Strigalev (pictured) for a decade, have been steadily nourishing his bebop-to-Ornette-Coleman sound and quirky composing skills. This gig launches Strigalev’s jazz and electronics fusion album Blues for Maggie, with like-minded expat Russian pianist Boris Netsvetaev in a powerful lineup.
The Vortex, N16, Wednesday 28 March

JF

Four of the best ... classical concerts

Holy Week festival

Nigel Short curates this year’s traditional pre-Easter week of choral music. Short’s own group Tenebrae give one of the concerts, joining up with the Aurora Orchestra for Arvo Pärt’s Passio (Wednesday 28 March), and there are also appearances by Ex Cathedra, the Gesualdo Six, the Tallis Scholars, Polyphony and the Gabrieli Consort.
St John’s Smith Square, SW1 Monday 26 March to 1 April

Tombeau de Debussy

The second weekend of concerts marking the 100th anniversary of the death of Debussy includes Birmingham Contemporary Music Group’s specially commissioned programme of tributes. New pieces by Jungeun Park, Sinta Wullur, Frédéric Pattar and Julian Anderson are interleaved with Dukas, Bartók, Satie, Ravel and Goossens.
Symphony Hall, Birmingham, Sunday 25 March

The Royal Opera: Coraline

Mark-Anthony Turnage’s new opera is adapted from Neil Gaiman’s fantasy novella for children, about a girl who opens a mysterious door in her house to discover the Other World. Mary Bevan is Coraline in Aletta Collins’s production, with Kitty Whately and Alexander Robin Baker as her parents.
Barbican Theatre, EC2, Thursday 29 March to 7 April

Contemporary Evenings

The BBC National Orchestra of Wales continues its 90th birthday celebrations, with a programme conducted by Jac van Steen that mixes new works with pieces previously premiered by the NOW. The premieres come from Mark D Boden and Guto Puw, the revivals from Alun Hoddinott, Michael Berkeley and Sarah Lianne Lewis.
BBC Hoddinott Hall, Cardiff, Wednesday 28 March

AC

Five of the best ... exhibitions

Damien Hirst

Still painting dots after all these years, Hirst shows his latest canvases, plus several sculptures, in the sublime setting of Houghton Hall. It was built for Sir Robert Walpole, Britain’s first – and most corrupt – prime minister. Walpole might have found Hirst’s art bewildering but would admire his wealth. Rich man’s art in a rich man’s house.
Houghton Hall, nr King’s Lynn Sunday 25 March to 15 July

The House of Fame

Punk artist Linder is not one to do anything by the book: instead of staging a retrospective, she has “convened” this show in which her work is juxtaposed with favourites from the 1600s to today. Inspired partly by a residency at Chatsworth, her choices range from Jacobean architect Inigo Jones to pieces by Mike Kelley and Heidi Bucher.
Nottingham Contemporary, Saturday 24 March to 24 June

Ken’s Show

Ken Simons is an art handler, which means he is professionally qualified to touch and move works of art. I saw his team do great work once, when an artist demanded her entire exhibition be rehung in hours. But Simons has seen it all in his 30 years at Tate Liverpool and gets to choose the artists that have meant the most to him, Turner and Rothko (pictured) among them. Good for him: let’s have more real people choosing real art for our galleries.
Tate Liverpool, Friday 30 March to 17 June

All Too Human: Bacon, Freud and a Century of Painting Life

Some of the greatest British art of the 20th century is brought together in this treasury of perception, paint and feeling. It is not a head-to-head comparison of Bacon and Freud. The show is nearly stolen by another formidable duo: Frank Auerbach and Leon Kossoff. Everyone should see their fierce, paint-laden visions of the streets of London. They’ll show you something that will make you change your mind.
Tate Britain, SW1, to 27 August

NOW

Jenny Saville gets a mini-retrospective as part of this survey of Scottish art. Saville is a pungent painter of the human body and should perhaps be considered in a Scottish context. A graduate of Glasgow School of Art, her expressive realism has a lot in common with older Glasgow painters such as Peter Howson and Ken Currie, making up in passion for what it lacks in subtlety.
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Saturday 24 to 16 September

JJ

Five of the best ... theatre shows

Minefield

Memory is a minefield in this remarkable show, made by Argentinian artist Lola Arias with veterans from both sides of the Falklands war. These are men who would once have tried to kill each other but now stand on stage and hug. It’s a moving, delicate piece that uses individual lives as a historical document.
Northern Stage, Newcastle upon Tyne Saturday 24; York Theatre Royal Wednesday 28 to 31 March; touring to 14 April

Buggy Baby

Innovation is synonymous with The Yard, which has proved itself one of the most risk-taking and invaluable theatres over the last few years. Josh Azouz’s bold, hallucinogenic play about two refugees and a baby trying to survive in a space without hope is another cracker, director Ned Bennett mixing horror and comedy to brilliant effect.
The Yard, E9, to 31 March

Summer and Smoke

Anyone who has seen Patsy Ferran on stage will know that she is a talent to be reckoned with, but she announces herself as a bona fide star in this rare revival of Tennessee Williams’s sizzling boy-meets-girl drama. In Rebecca Frecknall’s deceptively simple production, she is mesmerising as the buttoned-up young woman who discovers erotic desire, playing the drama’s constant tug between body and soul, flesh and spirit with exquisite control.
Almeida Theatre, N1, to 7 April

Love from a Stranger

Who would have thought an Agatha Christie could be such fun? But this one is, in Lucy Bailey’s atmospheric production which doesn’t entirely disguise the creaks but more than makes up for that in the way it builds tension. The show taps into the current paperback vogue for psychological domestic thrillers in which a woman chooses a man who is not to be trusted, throws in a dash of Peeping Tom and then springs a few subversive surprises of its own.
Oxford, Saturday 24; Guildford, Tuesday 27 to 31 March; touring to 21 July

The Little Matchgirl and Other Happier Tales

Arriving back at the theatre where it began and that fits it like a glove, Emma Rice and Joel Horwood’s reworking of Hans Christian Andersen’s tear-jerker is a real treat. There is nothing mawkish about these reworkings of well-known tales, often given a contemporary spin to remind us that we still live in a world where the lives of the poor can be snuffed out like a match.
Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, SE1, Tuesday 27 March to 21 April

LG

Three of the best ... dance shows

Sutra

One of the great dance-theatre creations of the early 21st century, Sutra is a playful, witty and humane exploration of the rituals and philosophy of the Shaolin monks. It is choreographed by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and performed by the monks themselves, perfectly framed by Antony Gormley’s designs.
New Theatre, Oxford Saturday 24; Sadler’s Wells, EC1 Monday 26 to Wednesday 28 March

Ballet Lorent: Rumpelstiltskin

This is the third collaboration between choreographer Liv Lorent and poet Carol Ann Duffy, an updating of the fairy story that explores the forces of greed and love, and the experience of being an outcast in a regimented society. The music is by Murray Gold.
Pitlochry, Saturday 24; London, Friday 30 & 31 Mar; touring to 29 September

Joan Clevillé Dance: Plan B for Utopia

Joan Clevillé utilises the vividly contrasting, charismatic talents of Solène Weinachter and John Kendall in this playful meditation about the nature of utopia, how we communicate our hopes and how we imagine a better world.
Skipton, Saturday 24; Bournemouth, Thursday 29, Totnes, Friday 30 & 31 March

JM