From Christie to Neil Young: Your complete entertainment guide for next week | culture

Checkout: cinema

Christy
Out now
Based on the life of American boxer Christy Martin (alias: The Coal Miner’s Daughter), this sports drama sees Sydney Sweeney put aside her traditional American feminine aesthetic and don the mouthguard and gloves of a professional fighter.

Blue moon
Out now
Richard Linklater (“Before Sunrise”) reunites with one of his favorite actors, Ethan Hawke, in a film about Lorenz Hart, the songwriter who – in addition to My Funny Valentine and The Lady Is a Tramp – also wrote the lyrics to the classic lunar song that bears his name. Starring Andrew Scott and Margaret Qualley.

one billion
Out now
Harry Melling stars as Alexander Skarsgård’s naïve biker hero in this quirky romance based on the 1970s novel Box Hill by Adam Mars Jones, which has been updated here for a modern-day setting, and with some success: it won the Screenplay Prize in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes.

Big screen classics by Laura Mulvey
Throughout the month of December
Film theorist Laura Mulvey, a recent fellow of the British Film Institute, coined the term “male gaze” in an essay in 1975, thus transforming film criticism. She is now programming a season of films for the BFI, including Man With a Movie Camera, Pierrot le Fou and What Scoundrels Men Are. Catherine Bray

Checkout: Gigs

Sabaton
London, December 4; Manchester, December 5; Nottingham, 6 December
The silly, medieval music-obsessed Swedes have laid siege to the UK on this tour in support of last month’s Legends album (key track titles: Hordes of Khan, A Tiger Among Dragons and I, Emperor). Part assault on the eardrums and part history lesson, it’s unlikely to be boring. Michael Cragg

The dirty three
From November 29 to December 8; The tour begins in Glasgow
This week, Warren Ellis, Mick Turner and Jim White, the iconic Australian rock trio Dirty Three, tour the UK for the first time in 12 years. By mixing moments of transcendent beauty with big rock, this intense fusion should soar in the live scenario. MC

Leanne Carroll
Pizza Express Jazz Club, London, December 3-5
Liane Carroll is one of the most eloquent and innovative pianists and vocalists ever to hit the UK jazz scene, and she continues to enchant and move listeners wherever she goes. For these lunchtime parties, which are likely to reinvent Stevie Wonder or Tom Waits as the evergreen Hoagy Carmichael, they will be joined by a variety of guests. John Fordham

The last days
linebury Theater London, December 5 Until January 3
Since its premiere at the Linbury Theater three years ago, Oliver Leith’s first opera has made its way to the United States, and now receives a rare honor for a new opera: a revival from the company that presented it. Based on Gus Van Sant’s film of the same name, a fictionalized account of the events surrounding Kurt Cobain’s death in 1994, Last Days offers an unusual, cold, and beautiful experience. Andrew Clements

Checkout: art

Wildlife Photographer of the Year
Natural History Museum, London, until 12 July
The more we destroy nature, the more we love to photograph it. But that is a deeply cynical view of this hugely popular exhibition which contains revelatory and eerie photographs of the natural world by amateurs and professionals, including Alexei Kharitonov, and Wim van den Heever’s winning photograph of a ghostly hyena near an abandoned town.

Howardena Bendel
White Cube Bermondsey, London, until 18 January
Howardena Bindell’s exceptional, beautiful and angry art ranges from abstract paintings with the freedom of Pollock and the airs of Monet to graphic denunciations of racism in the United States. She paints and records the history of her time on video, while her long career bears witness to marginalization, courage, and resilience.

Stanley Spencer
Gainsborough House, Sudbury, until 22 March
This twentieth-century British artist’s ancient visions stand as testaments to modern suffering and timeless hope. Gloriously eccentric, Spenser mixes observation of his own life and surroundings with bouncy, playful comic versions of medieval Christianity and Renaissance perspective. This exhibition casts a keen eye on Suffolk.

Alfred Packham: daredevil photographer
Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh, until 19 April
This early 20th century photographer longed to become a landscape artist, but after realizing he would never paint like Turner, he took to the air as a Royal Navy pilot in World War I. He pioneered aerial photography with silvery composite shots of the glowing sky over Edinburgh and Forth Bridge. Jonathan Jones

Checkout: platform

All my children
Wyndham’s Theatre, London, until 7 March
He directed a devastating version of Arthur Miller’s A View from a Bridge; Now Ivo van Hove deals with All My Children. Bryan Cranston plays the self-deceived father and is joined by a stellar cast including Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Papa Essiedu and Hayley Squires. Miriam Gillinson

PFG
Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, until 7 February
This world premiere of Roald Dahl’s incredible story was written by Tom Wells, directed by Daniel Evans, with puppetry by War Horse’s Toby Ouellet. John Leder plays the gentle, dream-snatching giant who sets out on a brave adventure with young Sophie. mg

Mountains and Seas: Song of the Day
Omnibus Theatre, London, 2 Until December 6
An unclassifiable performance that combines dance, poetry, live painting, AI animation, music and film. The starting point for this presentation is the ancient Chinese text Classics of Mountains and Seas, a compendium of mythical places and creatures, reimagined by writer Daniel York Loh to address the global crises of climate and politics. Lindsey Winship

Kerry Godliman
new royal theatre, Portsmouth today; Birmingham, Wednesday
YOur last chance to watch the After Life Bandwidth star’s current offering, which sees her ditching a myriad of modern irritants, including tattoos, school WhatsApp groups and parental podcasts, with salt-of-the-earth exasperation. Rachel Aroesti