Film
Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami
This Sophie Fiennes-directed documentary offers a fascinating insight into the life of one of music’s most enduring icons. Built around a specially commissioned performance, the film moves through four cinematic layers – performance, family, artist and gypsy – to help deconstruct Jones’s mysterious allure. In selected cinemas from 27 October, the singer herself will appear at a special screening at the Barbican in London on 25 October, where she’ll be offering further insight while hopefully being effortlessly amazing.
Call Me By Your Name
Starring Armie Hammer and Homeland season one’s Timothée Chalamet, this gorgeously shot coming-of-age tale of blossoming love in 1980s Italy is being tipped for a bucketload of Oscars. There’s now a meme (“Armie dances to”), so it’s a winner already to be honest. Out 27 October.
Events
Gothic Manchester festival
Get your black trenchcoat, fingerless gloves and mascara out because this year’s Gothic Manchester festival is all about Gothic Style(s). As well as film screenings and conferences, there’s also a catwalk show devoted to extraordinary goths and steampunks.
Music
Little Dragon
Gothenburg outsiders Little Dragon have steadily grown their woozy, deliciously wonky pop over the course of five acclaimed albums. This year’s Season High saw them work with the likes of Arctic Monkeys producer James Ford and Robyn collaborator Patrik Berger for the first time, but their sound remains as idiosyncratic as ever. The band play Manchester Academy on 26 October.
Kelly Clarkson
Having taken on former label boss Clive Davis and former collaborator Dr Luke, Kelly Clarkson finally gets to release an album she says she’s always wanted to make in Meaning of Life, out 27 October. Unfortunately, the faux-Motown sheen of lead single Love So Soft seems to suggest she always wanted to be Meghan Trainor. Luckily, recent track, the old-school soul of Move You, shifts the focus to her powerhouse vocals, while regular collaborator Greg Kurstin’s involvement suggests there are some proper Clarkso classics.
Media
FKA twigs
Okay, brace yourselves for this one: occasional musician FKA twigs (still no second album, guys) has launched AVANTgarden, a “part magic, part memoir” “digizine” that will be distributed using Instagram’s slides feature (twigs has more than 1.4m followers, don’t you know). The first “issue”, out now, is entitled ROOTS. SHOCK. BEAUTY and is a visual exploration of braided hairstyles – hence her looking like a comb/human hybrid in that there picture.
Nancy
Best friends Kathy Tu and Tobin Low present this weekly podcast that focuses on “provocative stories and frank conversations about the LGBTQ experience”. Recent episodes – available on WNYC – have included interviews with musicians Tegan and Sara, a debate about the return of Will & Grace, and an hour-long documentary about decorated US Marine and Vietnam war veteran Oliver Sipple.
Exhibitions
Bomberg
Expelled from Slade School of Fine Art for being too radical, artist David Bomberg was pretty much neglected in his lifetime. His expulsion led to him travelling to Europe, where he met Pablo Picasso, before being influenced by the cubist, futurist and vorticist movements. See this career-spanning exhibition of more than 70 works in Chichester.
Pallant House Gallery, Chichester, 21 October to 4 February
Frogman
A supernatural, rites-of-passage story partially told using VR headsets and staged in Norwich. What more do you want from your theatre experience?
Norwich Arts Centre from 25 October
Human Landscapes
This is the first major UK retrospective of Polish artist Alina Szapocznikow, who died in 1973 aged just 46. As well as showcasing her figurative, transformative sculptures, her rarely seen drawings are also featured.
The Hepworth, Wakefield, until 28 January
