The familiar Almodóvar tropes are here: the primary colours, grief, love, even a small role for his muse Rossy de Palma. For this, his 24th feature, the Spanish auteur has made a Russian doll of a film with one storyline running parallel to the other. We see the script that screenwriter Raúl is struggling to finish – set in 2004 and centred on Elsa, a cult director now making underwear adverts and dealing with migraines and bereavement – interwoven with scenes of his life in the present day. At its heart is the dilemma of what material is fair game for a writer to mine. “It’s autofiction,” snaps Raúl when challenged. Multi-layered and compelling.

Jane Ferguson, Nerve co-founder

One of my all-time favourite artists has returned with their fifth studio album and it perfectly showcases all of their superpowers – stunning vocals, emotional lyrics that pull at every heartstring with devastating precision, and the pulled-back acoustic sound of the I’m Not the Only One days. After a fun foray into hyperpop and dance vibes in 2023, the return to a raw sound is unexpected and an extremely pleasant surprise (not that I didn’t love Gloria – I did!). But this album is their best yet; revealing an artist at the height of their powers. 

Lucia Osborne-Crowley, Nerve writer

The new Colin from Accounts, anyone? Bark twice for yes. UKTV’s streaming service U is totally free – just register and you can start watching – and it’s a neglected treasure trove of televisual delights. The latest is Dog Park, a cute Australian dramedy about misanthropic miseryguts Roland (co-creator Leon Ford) who’s reluctantly saddled with an adorable white poodle named Beattie. Spiky, sarky Roland gradually finds redemption, friendship and maybe more with the eccentric community of dogwalkers down at his local park. Bonus: one of Beattie’s pooch pals is called “Farty Marty”. 

Michael Hogan, writer

Gregg Araki, the cool Californian director of cult 90s films The Doom Generation and Nowhere, is feeling concerned – or should that be smugly superior? – about the reported sex drought among young people these days. Either way, he’s made a raunchy, riotous, rainbow-hued film about it, starring Cooper Hoffman as Elliot, a 23-year-old slacker turned submissive sex muse, who is whipped into shape by his older employer, the contemporary artist Erika (Olivia Wilde, playing a very different character from her recent turn in The Invite).

Ellen E Jones, Nerve film critic

If you, like me, were not one of the thousands who listened to this award-winning nine-parter when it launched in late 2019, it makes the perfect tribute to the recently departed, much-loved musician.  

Built around interviews conducted with Queen Dolly in 2019, the series is the non-fiction podcast form at its best: free-ranging, intimate, brainy but accessible. There are episodes on her reluctance to describe herself a feminist, or take a political point of view. Another tells the story of Jolene, and there’s a brilliant deep dive into the roots of Dolly’s native Appalachian country music. The presenter, Radiolab’s Jad Abumrad, came to the project because his dad, Naji Abumrad, a Lebanese-American surgeon, befriended Dolly after treating her following an accident (it was in Naji’s honour that Dolly donated $1m to Covid vaccine development). Jad and producer Shima Oliaee deftly weave interviews from musicologists, biographers and friends and family around his discussions with Dolly. Heart-warming and thought-provoking. 

Sarah Donaldson, Nerve co-founder

The last time I saw Busta Rhymes, it was Glastonbury 2025 and he was blaring through a whiplash party megamix as some low-grade AI visuals pixelated onscreen behind. With Dillagence II, the rapper returns to more thoughtful roots. The late producer J Dilla was foundational in Rhymes’s early career; Rhymes paid tribute to his friend a year after his death with the first Dillagence mixtape in 2007. This follow-up unearths some of a further 300-odd unreleased Dilla productions that Rhymes has been keeping safe, with a raft of solid guests including neo-soul great Common, Lil Wayne, T3 of Rhymes’s old collaborators Slum Village, 21-year-old La Reezy, Grammy-winning jazzer Jon Batiste, blues-rap chap CS Armstrong and the recently departed D’Angelo, creating a cross-collaboration from beyond the grave. Moving quickly past a track called “Spazzz” (someone page Rhymes and tell him it’s 2026, please), this has got enough conscious jazz- and soul-tinged boppers to keep old-school hip-hop heads happy while subtly tipping its cap to the next generation.

Kate Hutchinson, Nerve music critic

THEATRE
Pride
(Bridge theatre, London SE1, from 12 November)

A big hit this summer at the National, the musical version of director Matthew Warchus’s 2014 film about a group of gay and lesbian activists joining the miners’ strike of 1984 is now getting a West End run at the Bridge theatre from November. Our writer Michaela Makusha called it “funny, uplifting and also poignant … In a world that constantly seeks to divide, Pride reminds us of the importance of community and solidarity.” Tickets go on sale from tomorrow.  

MUSIC
Summer 2027 festivals

As music festival season for 2026 draws to a close (with a brilliant line up at End of the Road this coming weekend), early bird tickets for several of next year’s events have been announced. For We Out Here (19-22 August 2027) early bird tickets will be available to those signed up here from 10am UK time on Tuesday 8 September. For Latitude (22-25 July 2027), you can buy tickets here, and for Camp Bestival in Dorset early bird ticket availability closes at 10am tomorrow and then tier 1 tickets will open. For Shambala you need to wait until 15 September to book; for Green Man it’s 26 September; and the exact date that Glastonbury tickets will go on sale is still under wraps but it will be some time this autumn.

POETRY
Lemn Sissay: Let the Light Pour In
(20 September-9 November; various venues from Chester to Dublin)

The poet, activist and all-round joyful human Lemn Sissay tours the UK and Ireland with his acclaimed live show, sharing the stories behind the poems in his bestselling book Let the Light Pour In.

PHOTOGRAPHY
Sunil Gupta: Life with a Camera, 1970-now
(Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge, 19 September-31 January; free entry but booking required)

More than 130 works, from street photography to portraiture, by the Indian-born, London-based photographer who has spent much of his five-decade career focusing on LGBTQ+ life and the right to live and love as you choose.