FILM
Need a feelgood film? Enjoyed The Full Monty, Brassed Off and Billy Elliot? Then Pride, an upbeat British film about a Welsh mining village and London's gay community becoming unlikely allies during the 1984 miners' strike, is the film for you this weekend. Bill Nighy, Imelda Staunton, Dominic West and Paddy Considine are the best known of an impressive cast. Based on a true story, it's a crowd-pleaser from noted theatre director Matthew Warchus, who is down for a film version of the musical Matilda next. GARRY MADDOX
MUSIC
It opened its doors in April 2011 as a pop-up venue on a 12-week lease that hoped to give a stage to the kind of exciting Australian acts its sister radio station has long supported. More than 1000 gigs later, the small but perfectly formed FBi Social on the second floor of the Kings Cross Hotel is passing on the live-music baton to a new venue in the same space, the Bandroom – but not before an aptly apocalyptic farewell party. Blow This Joint! will star such wonderful veterans of the FBi Social stage as World's End Press, as well as rising stars such as Mansionair. Raise your glasses, shake your asses. Saturday, 8pm, FBi Social, Kings Cross Hotel, fbisocial.com, $15. GEORGE PALATHINGAL
STAGE
Joanna Murray-Smith brings to life the literary giant responsible for Strangers on a Train and The Talented Mr Ripley in her new play, Switzerland. Writer Patricia Highsmith (played by Sarah Peirse) is racing to finish her latest thriller when a young man (Eamon Farren) claiming to represent her publisher knocks at her door. She tries to terrorise him into leaving. But in this story he has a dark chapter to write of his own. Tuesday, 8pm until December 20, the Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House, $50-$99, sydneytheatre.com.au.
Not feeling up to zombie-walking the neighbourhood for Halloween treats this time? This "chilling" operatic adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid might do the trick. Featuring an all-female, 25-strong cast, this immersive performance is very much for grown-ups. Tonight (9pm and midnight) and Saturday (10pm), ATYP Studio 1, Walsh Bay. Tickets $50 (includes a free cocktail), bookings midnighttheatre.iwannaticket.com.au. ELISSA BLAKE
ART
It's rare to find contemporary painters dealing with real world issues in their work, but Karen Black's Dust Over Aleppo (until November 8, Sullivan & Strumpf Fine Art, Zetland, Tuesday-Saturday 10am-5pm) takes on that most persistent of art's subjects – war. Across a suite of large-scale paintings, Black layers faces and bodies in fields of muted colour dotted with startling spots and splashes of red and blue. The treatment of the subject feels intuitive and emotionally raw, the images both obfuscated as if seen through storms of sand but also as if caught in the ghost memory of news media. Black's bold use of abstraction and figuration and the subtle treatment of the subject work in a way where most political art fails – the paintings remind the viewer of the inhumanity of the war. ANDREW FROST
DON'T MISS
It's a dress-up extravaganza this week with spooktacular Halloween celebrations tonight and some serious frock'n'rolling on Tuesday for Melbourne Cup Day. Head to retro chic hotspot SoCal in Neutral Bay tonight for a Halloween party from 9.30, with prizes for best dressed including a not-so-spooky surfboard and esky filled with beer. Luna Park is hosting a Halloscream party over two nights with Joel and Benji Madden providing the tunes on Saturday, a Day of the Dead light show, and lucha-libre wrestling (tickets $39.95 from lunaparksydney.com). And for the races, well, fingers crossed your luck comes in on the betting front as it's not a cheap day out. Making it worth the outlay are venues such as The Botanist in Kirribilli which has a $95 four-course deal with two-hour drinks packages on top (thebotanist.com.au), the Argyle in The Rocks offering packages from $99 (urbanpurveyor.com) and the Ivy Pool Club is hosting a party for Sydney's beautiful people at $130 a ticket (merivale.com.au). SARAH THOMAS
