The Guardian: Escape into unseasonal culture Poor Things Out 12 January, nationwide Want to remove yourself from the stifling worlds of normality, rational behaviour and the patriarchy in general? Here is Yorgos Lanthimos’s toweringly mad Poor Things: an explicitly sexual retrofuturist freakout from the alt-Victorian age. Emma Stone gives the performance of a lifetime as Bella, brought back from the dead in a Frankensteinian experiment, who then escapes London for a world tour in the company of Mark Ruffalo’s florid cad. Peter Bradshaw L’Rain Touring 17 to 25 February; tour starts Dublin A venue as grand and individual as London’s Barbican Hall (21 February) demands an artist like L’Rain, AKA Taja Cheek, who builds beautiful, oddball alt-pop upon unpromising titles such as I Killed Your Dog. Each gig feels like an opportunity for Cheek to burrow deeper within the textures of her songcraft, allowing you to bear witness to the ride. Jenessa Williams Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth ut 26 January, PS4 & 5, PC, Xbox One & Series X/S How does Hawaii in January sound? Take a trip with Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, which follows a couple of Japanese gangsters to paradise, where they will beat up rival thugs and engage in delightful, bizarre activities from karaoke to recruiting mascots for an island resort. Keza MacDonald MGMT – Loss of Life Out 23 February Since 2007’s buoyant indie-dance breakthrough Oracular Spectacular made MGMT accidental stars, the pair have traded pop for acid-assisted psych-rock freakouts. This typically off-kilter fifth album – featuring the lead tracks Bubblegum Dog and Mother Nature – is another multi-layered, transcendent opus, ripe for extended exploration.