Welcome to the Weekend Combo, our weekly column that replaces screaming existential questions about the meaning of life at your Alexa.

Josh Hartnett is trapped
In the latest film from M. Night Shyamalan, Josh Hartnett plays a serial killer who discovers that the concert he is attending with his daughter has been staged entirely so the FBI can finally catch him. Apparently, when Shyamalan was originally pitching the film to producers he described it as The Silence of the Lambs set at a Taylor Swift concert. We’re not sure what else we can say, it sounds utterly bonkers.

Trap is out in cinemas now.

Next-gen
Buffer is back at Guts Gallery for the third year running, bringing together another group show consisting of recent graduates from arts universities across the UK. Curated to foster a new generation of artists and open up a constructive dialogue on how to navigate the contemporary art world; this year, KV Duong, Xinyu Han, Ruba Nadar, Charlie Russell and Georgina Stone are the five artists chosen to display their work at the East London gallery space.

Buffer runs at Guts Gallery until 30th August, more info here. 

One for the sickos
Back in 1979, Tinto Brass’ Caligula was released unto the world. Starring Malcolm McDowell, Helen Mirren and Peter O’Toole, the film was meant to be an epic historical drama charting the life of the controversial Roman emperor Caligula. Instead, the film’s main financier Bob Guccione, who was the founder of Penthouse magazine, infamously demanded that hardcore sex scenes be added to the film, changing the entire tone and resulting in Caligula being regarded as one of the worst films ever made.

Now, 40 years on, a brand new cut of Caligula is being released that claims to be the closest we’ve ever got to that original vision. Clocking in at almost exactly three hours long, Caligula: The Ultimate Cut is being screened in 35mm at selected theatres across London.

Shame at the Shack
As part of The Shacklewell Arms’ 20th-anniversary celebrations, South London’s finest, Shame, are taking things old school – and by ‘old school’ we mean, squished in, sweaty and joyfully silly. More used to playing venues such as Alexandra Palace and Glasto nowadays, Shame are playing a very special intimate show at the Shacklewell’s back room to celebrate the iconic East London venue’s heritage as a rite-of-passage for many London bands, and beyond. Tickets are sold out, obviously, but where there’s a will there’s a way.

Shame play at The Shacklewell Arms on Friday 9th August. 

Annie Ernaux’s blistering memoir on stage
Annie Ernaux’s 2008 memoir Les Années (The Years) was many people’s introduction to the Nobel Prize-winning French writer’s work when it was released in English by Fitzcarraldo Editions in 2018. A sort of narrated memoir in which Ernaux only ever referred to herself in the third person, it charted Ernaux’s life through a series of real photographs that were described, in detail, at the beginning of each chapter.

Now, The Years comes to the London stage in the form of Eline Arbo’s 2022 adaptation which won acclaim when it premiered in Dutch in The Hague. Starring Gina McKee, Deborah Findlay, Romola Garai, Anjli Mohindra and Harmony Rose-Bremner, the production has already gained controversy from audience members fainting during an abortion scene. Tickets are scarce so beg, borrow and steal!

The Years, adapted by Eline Arbo, from the book by Annie Ernaux, runs at the Almeida until August 31st. More info and tickets are available here. 

House of Bondage
South African photographer Ernest Cole is one of the most important chroniclers of Apartheid politics, documenting the nation under enforced racial segregation laws from 1948 to 1994. As a result, his ground-breaking project House of Bondage has become one of the most noteworthy photobooks of the twentieth century. Now on display at The Photographers Gallery, the exhibition features over 100 photographs and covers all fifteen thematic chapters into which Cole divided his seminal work.

Ernest Cole: House of Bondage runs at The Photographers Gallery until 22nd September, more info here. 

Purse-shaped sandwich
Over in West London, Common Breads are bringing the best of Lebanon’s traditional bakeries to the city. The debut location for co-founders and childhood friends, Abbas Fawaz, Abbas Zein, and Kamal El Zein, Common Breads showcases two of Lebanon’s most popular bakes: the purse-shaped Ka’ak, and Manouche flatbreads. Both are incredibly delicious, and both come with fillings including Lebanese makanek sausage with green tahini and chilli jam, mushroom shawarma with seven spice and pickles, and za’atar and akkawi cheese. If you like bread and like spice, this hits the spot.

Common Breads is located at 110 Buckingham Palace Rd, SW1W 9SA, more info here. 

Home comforts
Kolamba founders Eroshan and Aushi Meewella first opened the doors to their Soho restaurant in 2019, and now the duo have just set up a second joint in Shoreditch. Modern interpretations of Sri Lankan cuisine focus on bringing flavours from the pair’s childhoods spent in Colombo to the masses by reinventing recipes passed down for generations. The new venue is also home to a brand-new menu, featuring dishes such as heritage tomato Sambol, Idli with Sambar, Jaffna lamb shank and jackfruit string hopper biriyani.

Kolamba East is located at 12 Blossom Street, Norton Folgate, Shoreditch, E1 6PL, more info here.