CULTURAL RADAR

The Housemaid
Directed by Paul Feig

If you enjoyed the recent campy, fashion-extravaganza, bloodfest that was Another Simple Favor and have 2011 Bridesmaids on your “Top 10” films list, then this should be right up your strasse. Based on the 2022 novel of the same name by Freida McFadden, it follows Millie, a struggling young woman who finds work as a housemaid for a wealthy couple, Nina and Andrew. As Millie delves deeper into their lives, she uncovers dangerous secrets about the family, secrets that may be more dangerous than her own. With woman-of-the-moment Sydney Sweeney signed on as Millie and Amanda Seyfried to play Nina, expect a wonderful twist-y slightly overcooked thriller that will be
the perfect antidote to the wholesomeness of Christmas.

Katabasis RF Kuang
£22, Harper Collins

Editor’s confession RF Kuang is on this list because said editor cannot get enough of her. At just 222 she published her first novel The Poppy Wars, a fantastical interpretation of the wars and collective trauma that is the 20th century Chinese experience. That trilogy was followed by Babel, a dark-academic book set in a comparative 19th century Oxford that is a critique on British racism and imperialism. Yellowface followed, a side-eyed look at who gets to tell whose stories when it comes to the diaspora. And finally, Katabasis, a fantasy about two magical PhD students as they travel to Hell “to rescue the soul of their adviser”. If her previous works are anything to go by this may well be a riff on the idea that academia is, indeed, hell.

The Death of Bunny Monroe
Sky Atlantic/Now

Based on the novel of the same name by Nick Cave, this promises to be an intriguing watch. As with the book, the series is about Bunny Munro, a middle-aged sex addict constant womanising and alcohol abuse comes to a head after his wife’s suicide. This travelling door-to-door beauty-product salesman goes, with his son, on an increasingly out-of-control road trip around Brighton, over which looms the shadow of a serial killer making his way towards Brighton. The novel is set in Brighton in 2003, around the time the West Pier was destroyed by fire. Matt Smith will play the titular Bunny with Rafael Mathé as his son. Release date is as yet unknown, but it looks like it could be worth the wait.

Tokyo Style by Kyoichi Tsuzuki
£77.59, Apartamento

First published in 1993 following the collapse of Japan’s bubble economy, photographer Kyoichi Tsuzuki’s book sought to debunk the aesthetic myth of life in one of the world’s most fetishised cities – Tokyo. He set off to document the real Tokyo by photographing apartment interiors. The book is a fascinating insight into the lived experience of Tokyo’s inhabitants, and so at odds with the Western perception of how Japanese people live. There’s a room stuffed from floor to ceiling with Peanuts characters plushies, another is a cluttered artist’ studio clothes left in a pile on a table and paintings on walls and ceiling. If minimalism is to be found it is in a room with only a bed and a kid’s trike used as a table for a four-pack of beer on which hangs a bag from the local konbini.

The Rest is Entertainment
Spotify/Apple Podcasts

If you want to go backstage on the entertainment business, then this is the pod for you. Marina Hyde, Guardian columnist and writing executive producer on recent HBO series The Franchise, partners author and producer Richard Osman are both ridiculously connected and seriously knowledgeable about what goes on behind the scenes in entertainment. Previous episodes have covered everything from the Beckham family feud to why ITV’s daytime schedule is in trouble and whether Trump is trying to kill Hollywood. With Q&As with the likes of Adolescence’s director Philip Barantin, and documentarian Adam Curtis as well as deep dives into Blake Lively’s lawsuit, it is a heady mix of high and low culture and an eye-opening look at what really happens after someone calls “cut”.

Albert Richards
Until December 2025, Williamson Art Gallery and Museum, Birkenhead

This March marked 80 years since the passing of Albert Richards, the youngest official war artist to be killed in action during WWII. The Williamson holds over two hundred of his works, spanning from his days at the Wallasey School of Art to the frontlines of France in 1944. These works show the incredible talent that Richards possessed, and his influences, from surrealism to Art Deco. As well as displaying works by artists that inspired him and worked alongside him, such as Stanley Spencer and George Jardine, this exhibition will commemorate his life as a soldier, in which he served a key role in the D-Day landings. This incredible personal narrative, mixed with his unique style of painting, makes him one of the biggest “what ifs?” in twentieth century British art.

HAAi HUMANiSE
October 10, Mute Records

Her sound has been described by The Guardian as “part rough-hewn and psychedelic, part London bass culture by osmosis, and part sleepless weekend in Berlin”. She has collaborated with the likes of Jon Hopkins, Fred Again. HAAi, whose real name is Teneil Throssell has followed up her stunning debut album Baby, We’re Ascending, with HUMANiSE. Singles that have come out prior to the release feature Throssell’s haunting voice set to a backdrop of thrumming electro beats that start gently before morphing into something darker, jittery, with that thrum becoming something harder. It’s something you’d expect to hear on the dancefloors of the Berghain. Expect a slew of remixes to follow.