Darren Aronofsky's new film is a profoundly moving work in which Mickey Rourke plays Randy "The Ram" Robinson, a down-at-heel wrestler wringing the last desperate drops from a career that should have ended ten years ago. After a heart attack he must stop wrestling, though as a fighter, he determines to turn his life around, swapping the roar of the crowd for more hours at the local supermarket making him easy prey for sarcastic manager Wayne (Todd Barry). Can he, in this spirit of renewal mend the neglect-soured relationship with his daughter, a wonderfully raw and angry Evan Rachel Wood? Will he find love with an aging exotic dancer, a note-perfect Marisa Tomei, ready to hang up her g-string and begin afresh in a new town with her nine-year-old son? This unashamed genre film has a refreshingly linear narrative and features real wrestlers in the fights. Seeing them work out their moves together is fascinating and lends the movie even more credibility. Mostly shot on hand-held cameras, it is intimate and rewarding though painful and tragic. A great ensemble piece, The Wrestler is showcase for some five-star talent. This is American filmmaking at its best and Rourke is magnificent.

NB: The Wrestler is released in London on 16/01. Other films of note released on the same day are A Christmas Tale and Hitchcock's Notorious.

After stumbling on a winning formula of hype acts such as The Death Set and Thunderheist plus ace DJs like Boy 8-Bit and XXXchange, minus any door tax on a Friday night during the tail end of 2008, Cargo sensibly decide to run with a good thing. Booking agent bribes, little black book scouring and the calling in of favours have no doubt gone towards ensuring spending Friday night on Kingsland Road is a smart move. Headlining this edition are Runaway, perhaps the perfect embodiment of the disco not house sound that is currently so hot. Between them, Jacques Renault and Marcos Cabral have released music for the likes of DFA, RVNG, Rekids and Wurst and secured one of the better tracks of last year with "Brooklyn Club Jam". Performing live are Chik Budo and Transformer, both of whom trade in the sort of taut disco punk that would sit perfectly on the aforementioned DFA roster. Providing DJ support for Runaway are the ubiquitous Skull Juice, who have started to earn their production stripes with a remix for Phantasy Sound and Hot City, exponents of "funky", the latest Boomkat approved genre (keep up at the back there).

NB: next up at Cargo's Free Fridays are KF faves Aeroplane on 23/01, Max Tundra on 30/01 and Joakim on 13/02.

Having dipped their toes into everything from Chromatics and Studio to Aeroplane and Ame last year, the first instalment of a new residency for the Warm Agency folks promises to be, well, warm. And that's not purely because they're cramming it into the beautifully intimate boombox that is Plastic People. It's also the choice of French duo Chateau Flight and Innervisions' Marcus Worgull. Anyone who caught Gilb'r and I:Cube's live debut at East Village last year will attest to the fact that their patient beats and building hooks feel a hell of a lot bigger played in person. Having spent a lot of time building the rather excellent Versatile Records -- home to the anarchically experimentalist Joakim among many others -- Gilb'r's getting some much deserved time in the sun. Meanwhile Worgull's been turning his hand to beatifying some already lovely Balearic and deep house-inflected tracks from the likes of Woolfy and Juan MacLean. His light touch synths and minimalistic approach, typical of Innervisions, are helping bring some serious warmth back to the house scene.

"The INS (International Necronautical Society) is a group of rogue agents who have infiltrated the worlds of art, literary criticism and philosophy," writes Marcus Verhagen in a 2004 issue of Art Monthly. And you can probably guess, in the most basic sense, from the name/title of this group where the exponents might sit on the issue of "authenticity", which in the philosophy of art essentially separates the notion of a "true" artist from one influenced by the cultural flotsam. The faux-governmental ring of Chief INS Philosopher (Simon Critchley, chair and professor of Philosophy at the New School, NYC) and General Secretary (artist/writer Tom McCarthy) would suggest that they have little problem with assuming roles or borrowing ideas. Here, as part of the Tate Triennial season of talks, they will put forward a counter position -- "a practice of radical inauthenticity" -- a rousing acknowledgment, perhaps, of the fact that not all makers/thinkers are floundering in a sea of pre-owned gear. And with pretty much everything (well, the economy) in freefall, one can almost hear a collective sigh of relief at the idea of a couple of crusaders (especially fake ones) wading in to assume temporary janitorial responsibility for a very messy intellectual territory.

NB: Altermodern: Tate Triennial 2009 runs from 03/02 till 26/04.

London welcomes back the amazing Akhe "Russian Engineering Theatre" Group, now in their 20th year and always a favourite on the Mime Festival programme (so popular they're also showing another piece at Shunt on 14/01 and 15/01). Describing their onstage role as "operators", they craft "psychological play through dependence on elementary physical laws" -- an explosive theatre of materials where the dramatic energy is more often in the setting up of an image or trick than its actual accomplishment. Their work is often entirely concentrated on form, which is why we're so intrigued by Faust.2360 Words, their latest production, actually telling a story with words... though by the sound of it, the breathy, headphone-delivered simultaneous translation is treated as another layer of madness to throw yourself into, rather than any kind of logical buoyancy aid. Never has the idea of "allowing meaning to fall into place" been so literally applied. We can only hope "culturally urgent" ICA director Ekow Eshun will finally admit that of his Contemporary Arts, the live ones still matter and that sometimes, as here, they take in all the others.

NB runs till 21/01. This event is part of the Mime Festival 2009 (runs till 25/01).

With the imminent closure of The End still shrouded in rumour and hearsay and leaving London clubland mourning the passing of yet another venue, Bugged Out! kiss goodbye with a night representing all that is currently splendid in acid tinged danceteria. Whilst Justice may have ended 2008 dealing with the fallout from the amusing USBgate and a rather cringeworthy film, they remain leatherclad fag-toting figureheads of all things Gallic and distorted electro and their headline presence pretty much guarantees capacity attendance. Erol Alkan's status as a bespectacled deity among mere plimsoll wearing mortals grows by the day, with a ever expanding list of remix and production credits and boss of a revered label adding to his reputation as a must see DJ. Bugged Out! resident JoJo De Freq gets a last opportunity to flex her icy pout at The End, with London's DJ furniture represented in the form of Batty Bass enthusiast Hannah Holland and the genre flipping Skull Juice. A token nod to the du jour genre of disco is given with Severino, from Vauxhall institution Horse Meat Disco, breaking up the pounding electro with some trademark jolly disco and italo thump.

The experimental wizard of deep techno, John Tejada, descends on Charterhouse Street fresh from the release of his excellent contribution to Fabric's ever-popular mix series. Tejada is a DJ who likes to spin his own unique output so expect plenty of his slick, off-centre productions and the latest sonic artillery from his excellent Palette Recordings label. For the connoisseurs, the sharpest knife in this night's drawer will be a rare London appearance from Dublin's Donnacha Costello, who will be performing a live soundscape of his hypnotic strain of ambient techno. Room 1 DJ support comes in the form of Wagon Repair co-founder Konrad Black and Phonica's rising talent Hector. Purists who like their bleeps served up a little more on the urgent side will be able to find the techno lords of Sheffield The Black Dog executing the night's second live set, as they line-up in Room 2 with former label mate Luke Slater. Finally, Room 3 continues the leftfield vibe as Royksopp collaborator Bjorn Torske heads up a party of tripped-out house and disco stylings for the Nodisko crew's 5th Birthday. A varied night well worth checking.

Even after 63 years, this 1946 Hitchcock gem is still fresh and strikingly contemporary. Full of suspense, it is, according to the master "the story of a man in love with a girl who has to sleep with another man in the course of her official duties", and is a passionate film containing one of the longest screen kisses. It also plays with the darker themes of deceit, jealousy, problem drinking and sexual profligacy. In testament to Hitchcock's standing, this noir-de-noir movie is a roll call of top-flight Hollywood talent, starring Cary Grant and reuniting Claude Rains and Ingrid Bergman post Casablanca. It also boasts a crackling and edgy script by Ben Hecht and costumes by Edith Head. Fans of Hitchcock will enjoy picking out the familiar devices and plot strands he recycled shamelessly, but surely everyone will enjoy the sheer quality of one his greatest thrillers. It is films like this one that makes his name endure -- treat yourself and if you have someone you care for, treat them as well to Notorious on the big screen.

NB: Notorious screens at the BFI Southbank from 16/01 till 29/01 and is part of the BFI's Ingrid Bergman season which runs till 31/01. Also of note is the release of A Christmas Tale and The Wrestler (both on 16/01).

With the holidays barely over, some of us are still recovering from too much food and parental criticism, not to mention the odd unwelcome advances from drunk relatives at parties. Yet, most family Christmases, no matter how eccentric or disapproving your relatives might be, are unlikely to rival in strangeness with the Vuillard's reunion. Abel and Junon, an unlikely couple formed by Jean-Paul Roussillon and Catherine Deneuve, open their home to their children Elizabeth, Henri and Yvan for the holidays but not without an ulterior motive. Indeed, Junon is gravely ill and the possibility that one of her children might be able to provide relief unleashes a deluge of emotional turmoil the likes of which can only happen among people who genuinely hate and love each other in equal measure. Mathieu Amalric is memorable as Henri, the mentally unstable middle child who relishes chaos as much as the hatred he feels for his mother and sister. Director Arnaud Desplechin provides a twisted exploration of the depth of family ties, opting for a convoluted direction, rather than a heart warming traditional story of redemption. The result evokes a meaner, less contrived take on The Royal Tenenbaums rather than yet another version of The Sound Of Music.

NB: A Christmas Tale is released in London on 16/01. Other films of note released on the same day are The Wrestler and Hitchcock's Notorious.

It's becoming a mantra in these credit crunch times that the "age of parametricism" is over; that, "form-follows-press coverage" icons will soon yield to quieter, more thoughtful architectures. True perhaps, but there's a risk of equating "thoughtful" only with classical modernism, and regarding any building with three-dimensional curves as just showing off. Lars Spuybroek's designs have more curves than most; his work has been described, with others, as "non-standard architecture", and with good reason. Form often follows some esoteric interactive element (the wind, the movement of visitors, even human emotion), which has perhaps made him less appealing to Dubai property developers than some of his contemporaries. His projects are such an uncompromising fusion of continuous geometry and interactivity, it's not surprising (if a little frustrating) that Spuybroek's most ambitious projects remain on the CAD screen. Most notable perhaps was his contribution to the World Trade Centre competitions; to date the Maison Folie scheme is perhaps his largest built project. It seems more probable that posterity might regard him as someone whose influence extended much farther through the teaching of others than through physical buildings.

"Genius round the world runs hand in hand, and one shock of recognition runs the whole circle round." When Herman Melville made this observation, it's unlikely he was thinking along the then futuristic lines of the punk movement or the Beat Generation, but his hypothesis prevails. Not only do those who are best at what they do tend to recognise and look to each other, for unflinching criticism if nothing else, but what Melville described as a shock is precisely that. Pack leaders don't simply recognise one another in the mix. There is a moment when one is startled by the familiar genius of another. Malcolm McLaren and William Burroughs shared a great love of aggravating people while exceeding their expectations, and it's no surprise that a young McLaren looked to Burroughs as a tool for honing his soon to be infamous knack for transgression and sloganry. Shallow 1-21, McLaren's film about Burroughs, offers an acerbic and clinically sentimental vision of the literary stalwart through the eyes of one of Burroughs' many prodigious successors. If you're quick on the draw, you'll get to hear McLaren talk about William Burroughs as man and mentor.

NB: Shallow 1-21 screens at the RA till 19/01 and is part of the GSK Contemporary season which runs till 19/01. Also of note is the one-off sale of all items in the pop-up GSK restaurant, Flash (19/01, 3 - 10pm).

Henry Longfellow once described the human voice as the organ of the soul. We have a tendency to explore speech for its semantic meaning but fail to take into account how the rhythm, colour and texture of a voice can resonate and reveal as much. As part of This Is Tuesday, renowned Belgian record label Sub Rosa present an international celebration of the human voice, drawing from their luminous collection of aural documents, in tandem to a series of startling live performances. Historic recordings of Marcel Duchamp, James Joyce, William S Burroughs, Paul Bowles, Brion Gysin and others will buffer up against the existential avant-folk songs of Martyn Bates. Bates will briefly unite with his Eyeless In Gaza band partner Peter Becker, who back in the '80s produced an expansive catalogue of works that slipped between experimental mood pieces and psychic pop music. In addition Greek born Mikhail Karikis will perform works from his symphonic Orphica CD release as well as collaborate with folktronica musician Bobby Krlic; Linda Hirst will delight with her free jazz improvisations and Gabriel Severin will premiere Dada and Lettrist poems, amongst others. The night will resonate with the lyricism of the human voice in all its raw beauty.

2008 saw one of music's most unlikely comebacks as the legendary singer/actor/Parky botherer Grace Jones returned from a near two-decade sojourn in the wilderness to reclaim her crown as the queen of clubland. Arriving like a force of nature with one of the most anticipated shows at last year's Massive Attack curated Meltdown festival, Jones stamped her perilously heeled feet all over the competition unveiling new material from her then forthcoming album Hurricane. Thankfully despite the lengthy hiatus, Jones had lost none of her imperious personality and the album, when it finally was released in November, was a tour de force, and worthy of the praise heaped upon it by the critics. With the singles off the album handed over to the likes of Aeroplane and The Bug, a whole new generation had their ears opened to the disco diva's unique style and her three forthcoming shows at The Roundhouse, the first since the album's release, are nearly sold out with just a handful left for the 30th. Book now to avoid much bitter disappointment.

Keith Coventry is truly a student of history, both in art and life. His paintings and sculpture reflect a determination to bring together two types of seemingly antithetical art thinking: aesthetic and political -- or at least to put "under-erasure" certain aspects of modernist thinking or mythology. Popular for his white on white paintings, figurative genre scenes rendered entirely in white, which transform them into apparent abstractions, it really is his Estate Paintings that best encapsulate these ambitions -- or maybe we should say, "beliefs". These paintings, derived from familiar housing estate maps, are painted in the style of Suprematism. Hence, the language of a revolutionary abstraction turns a simple representation into a conceptual abstraction again, but in the process two notions of revolutionary thinking, one futuristic and artisic, the other the mundane social reality of our housing estates, crackle against each other. With crack pipes in the style of Morandi etchings, fragments from MacDonalds logos in Lichtenstein Benday, the relation between Greek gods and kebab shops, Coventry is both uniquely British and international. This first part brings provides a neat mini-retrospective of work between 1992-2002, while in September he will be exhibiting works since then.

NB: runs till 31/01. For another example of re-making culture, be sure to catch Tim Lee at The Hayward Project Space (runs till 08/02).

Creepy creaky corridors run around the edge of the large downstairs gallery at White Cube Mason's Yard. Its nasty to be pushed down a narrow track, not knowing what is round the next bend. Polish artist Miroslaw Balka's large plywood installation demonstrates the psychological power of manipulated space. There is a Germanic feel to the room; Thomas Demand and Gregor Schneider's mute, dreadful interiors seem to have seeped into the atmosphere. Hewn from the gravest of subjects, this exhibition of new work recreates the most depraved designs of the hellish Treblinka death camp, used by the Nazis to effect industrial scale murder of Polish Jews. Upstairs a steel frame and a bubbling tub of red wine echoes the shape of a "zoo" created for the guards' amusement, which contained closely caged foxes and doves. Downstairs again the ominous footsteps approaching around the corner turn out to be a friendly looking gallery attendant idly thumbing a copy of Derrida, transporting us back to the present with a momentary whoosh of relief.

NB: runs till 07/02.

A big seal lies in the middle of the Alison Jacques Gallery, a small pair of feet emerging from under its blubbery belly. It is surrounded by elephants, pigs, snakes and other creatures of an unidentifiable nature sitting on garden furniture and drinking beer. This would be an unusual sight if it wasn't a Jon Pylypchuk exhibition. Indeed, the sculptural installation just sit back and recount the violence of one year (2008) is a typical example of the Canadian artist's strange menagerie. His paintings and collages are populated by the same furry creatures who are given a voice via superimposed little strips of paper that say things one might not expect from world weary sock puppets, such as "just stand there like a moron". In paintings like don't worry it won't rain everyday (2008) and you are a mess and will continue to be so (2008), the narrative introduced by this device and the titles is often a brutal one, contrasting with the naive appearance of his characters. Who would expect to be to be lectured about hardship by a felt creature?

NB: runs till 21/02.

The website doesn't give a lot away, call 0754.131.3941 to make an appointment and visit David Osbaldeston's year-long exhibition. So when we rang the specially installed doorbell at my prearranged time, we didn't know what to expect. We were led into the gallery's main office to a cupboard, which upon opening revealed a series of framed monochrome etchings depicting invitations from exhibitions around the world. They are similar to those commissioned for his show at the ICA Nought To Sixty programme, however his installation at Matt's Gallery is of a different nature. Displayed amongst the gallery finance files, stationery and petty cash tin, this place is normally out-of-bounds to most gallery visitors. This "private" collection has a similar concept to the hidden cupboards at the eclectic Sir John Soane's Museum in Lincoln's Inn Fields where walls open out to reveal even more paintings beneath the already adorned walls. Similarly with Osbaldeston's by appointment only stipulation, to see this you have to know that it is there. In this intimate and humourous concept, Osbaldeston has cunningly turned the notion of the "private view" on its head. A must see, book your appointment now!

NB: runs till 30/09/09.

"Controversial" may be a little obvious to describe Spanish artist Santiago Sierra, but in light of works such as 250cm Line Tattooed on 6 Paid People or 10inch line shaved on the heads of two junkies who received a shot of heroin as payment, somehow nothing else hits the mark. Since the early '90s Sierra has been producing work at the limit of acceptability, exploring issues through happenings and installations which confront the viewer with a plethora of unpalatable questions -- going too far, at least for the art establishment, when he suggested to P.S.1 in New York a piece which would involve lining-up all staff by pay grade. Death Counter -- a digital counter showing the total number of lives lost worldwide since the beginning of the year -- runs for the whole of 2009 and has been loaned to insurers Hiscox in return for a year-long insurance policy on the artist's life. Less starkly confrontational than some of his other work perhaps, it is nonetheless a stark statement of lives lost, a proclamation of the importance of the artist, a celebration, unusually, of repeated costs to the sponsor and a clock counting up to our mortality.

NB: runs till 31/12.

Having already won a Golden Globe for his efforts, Mickey Rourke, is now heavily tipped for the Best Actor Oscar for his beautiful, heart-rending performance as 50-something has-been wrestler Randy "The Ram" Robinson. One of the finest onscreen performances we've ever seen, it tells of the disenfranchised, the lonely and the lost, and is simply astonishing. Of course Rourke's drift paralleled that of his subject. He was the biggest grooviest star in Hollywood during the '80s, could command millions for a role and cut the mustard with films like Diner, Rumble Fish, The Pope Of Greenwich Village, Angel Heart and Barfly. Then it all went to pot and he lost everything in a sea of over-excess and downright belligerence. Remarkably, his answer was to return to his first love, boxing. So in his mid-thirties he stepped back into the ring, turned professional and battled it out some 12 times, winning a million dollars for his troubles before retiring undefeated only eight fights away from a World Title shot.

NB: The Wrestler is released in London on 16/01.

To read the interview click here.

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