Our weekend arts and culture picks, from P!nk to the Baftas
Our critics and editors pick the highlights of the weekend cultural calendar
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Your support makes all the difference.The third weekend of February brings some fascinating exhibitions, some left-field film releases... and yet another awards ceremony.
But that’s not all that features in this week’s Arts Agenda, The Independent’s guide to the best cultural activities each and every weekend. Our team of critics and editors have selected a range of options from across the different spheres of culture: art, books, film, music, stage and TV.
Among the highlights this week are a new exhibition at the Barbican showcasing the work of Alice Neel (if you’re after a more in-depth read about the groundbreaking American artist, Eloise Hendy has you covered). TV editor Ellie Harrison talks about the Baftas, and the unlikely Netflix film poised to be a major contender. Speaking of awards, Adam White sings the praises of the off-kilter Marcel the Shell with Shoes On, an animated film that might just take home an Oscar in a few weeks. Arts editor Jessie Thompson, meanwhile, enthuses about Richard Hawley’s new musical, and music editor Roisin O’Connor discusses an uneven but compelling new release from P!nk.
Alice Neel: Hot off the Griddle review – easy on the eye portraits from an artist with guts
What happened to melodies in today’s movie musicals?
‘There’s as much misogyny in a courtroom as anywhere else in society’: Sam Neill on new legal drama The Twelve and the ‘appalling’ treatment of Jacinda Ardern
Art
Alice Neel: Hot off the Griddle
The feisty New York portrait painter may have been ignored for much of her career, but Alice Neel (1900-84) is certainly having a moment now. Her vibrant images of Black activists, art world luvvies and street hustlers may verge at times on caricature, but they give a gossipy and highly entertaining sense of a time and place. Barbican Art Gallery, until 21 May
Peter Doig
This small but perfectly formed exhibition makes an excellent showcase for the qualities that have made the Canadian-raised Scottish painter one of the world’s most influential and expensive artists. Enigmatic to the point of baffling, bristling with cultural references and often visually sumptuous, Doig’s paintings are, at their best, intensely thought-provoking. Courtauld Gallery, until 29 May
Oliver Beer: Albion Waves
For this innovative exhibition, the 38-year-old artist and musician creates an “acoustic history of Britain over the past 2,000 years”, using visitors’ movements to “play” the ambient sounds of 28 historic pots as they move around the space. These vessels have created their own paintings, with their soundwaves shifting pigment across canvas. London Mithraeum Bloomberg SPACE, until 15 July
Mark Hudson, chief art critic
Books
The Garnett Girls by Georgina Moore
The first novel from book publicist extraordinaire turned debut author Georgina Moore has inspired comparisons with Mary Wesley, Rosamunde Pilcher and Elizabeth Jane Howard . A rompy family saga, it explores the aftermath of a passionate, doomed love affair – and the legacy its unravelling leaves on the couple’s children.
Pat in the City by Patricia Field
Patricia Field has partied with Andy Warhol, dressed Sarah Jessica Parker, and won an Oscar nomination for her costume designs on The Devil Wears Prada. The cherry red-haired fashion queen – who told Olivia Petter this week of her disdain for tracksuit bottoms – has finally written a memoir about her fascinating life, and it’s out in bookshops now.
Transitional by Munroe Bergdorf
The first book from model and trans activist Munroe Bergdorf is not just the story of her own gender transition. Part memoir, part philosophical manifesto, it also explores how transitioning is something that we all experience throughout our lives in different ways, whether it be through relationships or ageing. Expect it to be big – it was snapped up in a bidding war between 11 publishers.
Jessie Thompson, arts editor
Film
Marcel the Shell with Shoes On
Jenny Slate (Everything Everywhere All at Once and Parks and Recreation) voices a wincingly cute talking shell here, in an oddly life-affirming mockumentary that combines live action with stop-motion animation. It’s also the final one of this year’s Best Animated Feature Oscar nominees to be released in the UK – have they saved the best for last? In cinemas
Sharper
If you’re exhausted by TV shows that feel like two-hour movies painfully stretched out to five or six episodes, here’s a treat for you: a two-hour movie that probably should have been a TV show! Sharper even unfolds in chapters, each one devoted to a single character. Julianne Moore, Sebastian Stan and Justice Smith star, playing New Yorkers caught up in a twisty long con involving a Manhattan billionaire. Streaming on Apple TV Plus
The Strays
This eerie slice of British suburban horror stars Ashley Madekwe as a fancy upper-middle-class mother who is confronted by two mysterious figures from her past. Themes of racial “passing” seem to underpin it all, and there’s also a strong supporting turn from actor Bukky Bakray – whose sterling work in the coming-of-age drama Rocks won her the Bafta Rising Star award in 2021. Streaming on Netflix from Wednesday
Adam White, film editor
Music
Live music: Andrew Bird, Shepherd’s Bush Empire, London
In 2022, Grammy-nominated artist Andrew Bird released his latest album Inside Problems, a beautifully fragmented collection of late-night thoughts. It makes for an atmospheric listen, full of shuffling, shivery percussion and frenzied jabs of violin. Now, Bird is bringing those songs, along with his prolific back catalogue, to a standalone date in London before he scoots off for a string of gigs in Australia and North America. Sunday 19 February
Album: Pink – Trustfall
P!nk’s latest album is a real mixed bag, flitting between Scandi dance-pop anthems, folk ballads and throwbacks to her pop-rock heyday. There are a few gems on there, including the disco and funk-influenced “Never Gonna Not Dance Again”, which imagines her twirling around a dancefloor in pure ecstasy. Lush production melds a charismatic brass section with jubilant percussion, layered harmonies and a short but sweet sax solo. Fans should see the record as an eclectic preview of her carnivalesque live shows, due to resume with her tour of the UK and Europe this summer. Out now
Caity Baser – Thanks for Nothing, See You Never
Tipped on The Independent’s Ones to Watch list at the beginning of this year, Caity Baser has attitude to spare on her debut EP. The production is bright and sharp, going toe to toe with her sparkling lyrics and Gen-Z wit. Baser’s sound is a fascinating meeting point between Meghan Trainor’s bubblegum pop, Charli XCX’s DIY electronic style, and the fizzing sarcasm of a young Lily Allen. She scorns would-be suitors then kicks herself for falling for the wrong guy. “Here we go again,” she sighs on “Pretty Boys”. But nothing about this EP feels tired.
Roisin O’Connor, music editor
Stage
Standing at the Sky’s Edge, National Theatre
Who better to provide the songs for a musical about Sheffield than Richard Hawley, local legend? This acclaimed musical, about the famed Park Hill estate, opened in London this week after sold-out runs at Sheffield’s Crucible Theatre. “You’ve got the whole history of a post-war Britain in a f***ing musical,” Hawley recently explained in an interview with our music correspondent Megan Graye. National Theatre, until 25 March
Sylvia, Old Vic
After a beleaguered work-in-progress production in 2018, Kate Prince’s show about Emmeline Pankhurst’s indefatigable daughter Sylvia is now up and running at the Old Vic. Beverley Knight takes on the role of Emmeline, while Sharon Rose plays Sylvia. It’s been described as “the suffragettes meet Hamilton”, but whether it makes the same mark on the musical theatre landscape remains to be seen. Old Vic, until 8 April
Beginning, Manchester Royal Exchange
One for your belated Valentine’s celebrations: David Eldridge’s lovely romcom of a play gets a revival at the Royal Exchange in Manchester, courtesy of co-artistic director Bryony Shanahan. The gentle two-hander begins at the end of a house party, when two adrift singletons find themselves drawn to one another, and was a huge hit when it opened at the National Theatre in 2017. Royal Exchange, until 11 March
Jessie Thompson, arts editor
TV
British Academy Film Awards
The biggest stars in film will be gathering this weekend at the first Baftas ceremony to take place away from the Royal Albert Hall in seven years. This year, the red carpet will be rolled out at the Royal Festival Hall on London’s Southbank, with the extraordinary duo of Richard E Grant and Alison Hammond on hosting duties. Prince William and Princess Kate will be in attendance, and the biggest nominee of the night is war drama All Quiet on the Western Front, with a whopping 14 nods. On Sunday at 7pm on BBC One
Inside Our Autistic Minds
Wildlife presenter Chris Packham, who is autistic, fronts this lid-lifting new show in which he helps a group of people on the autism spectrum create short films that reveal to their loved ones what’s really going on inside their minds. At one point, the self-proclaimed “unsentimental” presenter struggles to hold back tears when hearing of one young man’s loneliness with the condition. This one will stay with you. On BBC iPlayer
Better
Leila Farzad, who viewers may recognise from her terrific turn as Billie Piper’s best friend-slash-agent in I Hate Suzie, takes on her first lead role in Better. The thriller sees her play a bent copper who wants to go clean after the near-loss of her son transforms her outlook on life. It’s no Happy Valley, but it’s very moreish. On BBC iPlayer
Ellie Harrison, TV editor
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