The Independent Recommends

The Five Best Films

East Is East (15) A stage-to-screen triumph for Ayub Khan-Din's Anglo-Asian comedy. The scene is the terraced home of the culture-clash Khans; the plot, a turbulent series of domestic storms.

Ride with the Devil (15) Loitering on the Mason-Dixon line, Ang Lee's Civil War epic unfolds in a series of volatile battle scenes and intimate interludes. Tobey Maguire plays the virginal soldier who falls for Jewel's pursed-lipped war widow.

Bowfinger (12) Renaissance-man Steve Martin (right) scripts and stars in this frequently hilarious Hollywood send-up about a no-talent producer, a bimbo starlet (Heather Graham) and a jittery megastar (Eddie Murphy).

Tarzan (U) Farmed through the Disney dream factory, the Ape Man emerges as the sinewy centrepiece of a fast and flashy cartoon excursion. State-of-the-art visuals prop up a lightweight, but likeable, plotline.

The Sixth Sense (15)

A startlingly good Bruce Willis smoulders at the heart of this slow-burning horror movie. A virtuoso twist-in-the-tale ending spins the whole film on its head.

Xan Brooks

The Five Best Plays

Summerfolk (Olivier, National Theatre, London)

A seasoned company of 20-odd actors (right) brings Gorky's anxious, turn-of-the-century Russians to richly complex life. To 23 Nov

Spend, Spend, Spend (Piccadilly Theatre, London)

This irresistible new musical captures the survivor spirit of Viv Nicholson, the Yorkshire housewife who won, and blew, a Pools fortune. To 29 Jan

The Jew of Malta (Almeida, London)

Ian McDiarmid dazzles as the diabolically engaging villain in Michael Grandage's incisive revival of Marlowe's cynical, pitch-black farce. To 13 Nov

Sunday in the Park with George (Haymarket, Leicester)

This daring musical about Georges Seurat is directed by Paul Kerryson, and should become a pilgrimage for Sondheim fans. To 13 Nov

Macbeth (West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds)

Starring the excellent Patrick O'Kane, Jude Kelly's exhaustively rethought interpretation features some bizarre water sculpture, particularly useful for the hand-washing scene. To 4 Dec

David Benedict and Paul Taylor

The Five Best Shows

Lucio Fontana (Hayward Gallery, London)

Show marking the centenary of this sculptor-painter, hole-puncher and canvas-slasher, at the forefront of the Italian avant-garde 1940-60. To 9 Jan

Ana Maria Pacheco (National Gallery, London)

The Brazilian sculptor and in-house artist presents a Catholic tableau (right) of painted-wood effigies surrounding a fearsome Sebastian shot with arrows. To 9 Jan

Gino Severini (Estorick Collection, London)

Paintings and drawings by the Italian Futurist illustrate one decade - from 1910 to 1920 - through world-smashing war works, whirly-gig abstracts and cool, Cubist still lifes. To 9 Jan

Michelangelo Pistoletto (MoMA, Oxford)

The sage of the Arte Povera movement is best known for his mirror paintings, where painted figures mingle with our reflections; here shown with new sculpture, silkscreens and photos. To 30 Dec

Callum Innes (Abbott Hall Art Gallery, Kendal)

The Scottish minimalist painter, who works with colour and its eradication, balancing austere blocks of vivid stain against almost bare canvas. To 24 Dec

Tom Lubbock