The Independent Recommends

The Five Best Films

Out of Sight (15)

This tale of love on opposite sides of the law from director Steven Soderbergh manages to knock spots off every previous Elmore Leonard adaptation, and boasts in George Clooney (right) and Jennifer Lopez the most romantic pairing of the cinematic year.

Antz (PG)

Computer-animated comedy voiced by a stellar cast stars Woody Allen as a worker ant who becomes an unlikely opponent of the colony's totalitarian regime. Allen's best work in a while.

My Name is Joe (15)

All that one would expect from a Ken Loach film - humour, indignation, emotional sympathy - driven by Peter Mullan's scary, intense performance as a recovering alcoholic.

Ronin (15)

John Frankenheimer's action thriller is buttressed by a fine international cast (Robert De Niro, Jean Reno, Stellan Skarsgard), moody French locations and a clutch of supercharged car chases.

The Fountainhead (PG; Curzon Soho)

Gary Cooper plays a visionary architect who refuses to buckle under mob pressure in King Vidor's astonishing adaptation of the Ayn Rand novel. Patricia Neal smoulders opposite him.

Anthony Quinn

The Five Best Plays

Love Upon the Throne Comedy Theatre

The Charles and Diana story (well, up to the divorce) presented by the National Theatre of Brent. Hilarious and oddly touching. To 31 Jan

Angela Carter Cinderella Lyric, Hammersmith

A feast of inspired silliness and visual magic, this has lashings of drag and double entendres, plus the best mice on a West End stage. To 9 Jan

Martin Guerre West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds

Gifted young Irish director Conall Morrison stages a second reworking of the troubled Boubil/ Schonberg musical. Will it be third time lucky? To 13 Feb

The Boy Who Fell Into a Book Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough

Typically witty and ingenious concept from Alan Ayckbourn (right) - here wearing his children's dramatist hat. To 9 Jan

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford

Anthony Ward's splendid sets and Aslan are the stars of the RSC's Christmas spectacular. To 27 Feb

Paul Taylor

The Five Best Shows

Aubrey Beardsley Victoria & Albert Museum

Displaying the short, glittering life of the aesthete and illustrator, with his sinuous and florid line. Drawings, prints and posters. To 10 Jan

Rosemarie Trockel Whitechapel Gallery

Influential German artist; includes a sculpture of a seal called No one under the sun is more miserable than the man who has a fetish for a lady's shoe and must make do with the whole woman. To 7 Feb

Chris Ofili Whitworth Gallery, Manchester

This 1998 Turner Prize-winner is an upbeat original, his surfaces dense and decorative, with swirls of dots, eyes, Afros and black icons, and incorporating mutant balls of elephant dung. To 24 Jan

Goya: The Disparates Maidstone Museum & Art Gallery

Goya was deaf, ill and in his seventies when he produced his last series of etchings. Mysterious in intention, it is a void world: life is folly, men fly off on wings into darkness. To 23 Jan

Edward Burne-Jones Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery

Centenary exhibition (above) gathers together many favourites illustrating Burne-Jones's romantic and medievalist nether world. To 17 Jan

Tom Lubbock