Going out: Cinema
Lightyear
Out now
You’ll already know Buzz Lightyear from the Toy Story films. Ever wondered where the idea for that toy came from, within the Toy Story universe? If so, this is the film for you, as it explores the origin story of the astronaut the toy was based on. Chris Evans leads a stellar voice cast.
Good Luck to You, Leo Grande
Out now
In this sex-positive comedy about sex work, the eponymous Leo Grande is a young man engaged by a retired widow to provide her with some erotic adventures, to hopefully make up for a lifetime of no orgasms. A typically on-form Emma Thompson and relative newcomer Daryl McCormack star as the pair in question.
Everything Went Fine
Out now
French director François Ozon often serves lighter, sexier fare than this thoughtful, chewy piece about dying with dignity, a topic that nobody likes to think about much until they suddenly need to. Sophie Marceau and André Dussollier give heartfelt performances as the daughter and father navigating the complex bureaucracy of euthanasia.
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
Out now
It may be hard to believe, but the best of the original big-screen voyages of the Starship Enterprise is turning 40, prompting this rerelease of one of Kirk, Spock and the gang’s most well-regarded adventures. Catherine Bray
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Going out: Gigs
Alanis Morissette
19 to 29 June; tour starts Glasgow
Delayed from November, this seven-date arena tour celebrates 25 years of the Canadian singer-songwriter’s classic album, Jagged Little Pill. If all that emotional purging and angst-based healing raises your blood pressure, then fear not because this week Morissette also releases The Storm Before the Calm, her debut meditation album.
Elton John
British Summertime festival, Hyde Park, London, 24 June
Sir Elton Hercules John brings his never-ending Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour – launched in September 2018 and due to finish in July 2023 – to London for this one-day festival engagement. Support comes from Rina Sawayama, Let’s Eat Grandma and rising LA trio Gabriels. Michael Cragg
London jazz festival – summer series
Barbican Hall, London, 22 to 25 June
The London jazz festival, one of Europe’s finest, celebrates its 30th birthday this year. A spectacular taster for November’s extravaganza brings keyboard icons Herbie Hancock and Brad Mehldau and Brazilian vocal star Marisa Monte to the Barbican this week, plus the classy SFJAZZ Collective on 25 June. John Fordham
Penarth chamber music festival
Various venues, 23 to 26 June
Highlights at this very special South Wales festival include Schoenberg’s first Chamber Symphony, late-night readings and fairytale-inspired pieces, soprano Rebecca Evans singing Strauss’s Four Last Songs, Cardiff Symphonic Brass playing Glenn Miller and James Bond themes, and an Italian Serenade, complete with tea and cake. Andrew Clements
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Going out: Art
Feminine Power: The Divine to the Demonic
British Museum, London, to 25 September
Goddesses rule and witches get their day in this exploration of the feminine in religion and myth across time and space. Kali, the Hindu deity who triumphs over her enemies and sticks out her tongue at mankind, features along with supernatural beings from cultures including Tibet, Hawaii, Japan and China.
Summer Exhibition 2022
Royal Academy, 21 June to 21 August
How can art adequately represent, or protest, the natural crisis facing the Earth? This year’s edition of the Royal Academy’s venerable and sprawling annual artistic free-for-all may suggest an answer or two. Selected by the sculptor Alison Wilding, with a room curated by Grayson Perry, it takes climate as its theme.
Ruth Asawa: Citizen of the Universe
Modern Art Oxford, to 21 August
This radical Californian artist was interned for her Japanese heritage during the second world war. She learned to draw in the internment camps, partly from Disney animators, and became a visionary teacher as well as artist, advocating a spiritual, climate-conscious approach to art. Her suspended wire sculptures cast rich shadows.
A Life in Art: Lucy Wertheim, Patron, Collector, Gallerist
Towner, Eastbourne, to 25 September
This art collector and gallerist played a big part in British modernism in the early 20th century – she opened the Wertheim Gallery in London in 1930 and was a friend and patron to artists including Christopher Wood, Alfred Wallis and Henry Moore. There’s plenty of their work in this celebration. Jonathan Jones
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Going out: Stage
The Fellowship
Hampstead theatre, London, to 23 July
Roy Williams’s new play tells the story of two sisters, both children of the Windrush generation, forced back into each other’s lives after a family illness.
Rock/Paper/Scissors
Crucible, Lyceum & Crucible Studio, Sheffield, to 2 July
Chris Bush’s trilogy runs simultaneously across three stages – and will see one cast scramble between theatres as they perform interlocking Sheffield-based stories. Miriam Gillinson
Birmingham international dance festival
Various venues, Birmingham, to 3 July
The headline show here is On Your Marks!, a triple bill from Birmingham Royal Ballet featuring UK and world premieres, plus dancers from Carlos Acosta’s Cuban company Acosta Danza. But there’s also lots of free outdoor performance including international circus, a deaf rave, a hip-hop and folk-dance mashup, and mass tap-dancing. Lyndsey Winship
Gina Yashere
Leicester Square theatre, London, 21 & 23 June; Hackney Empire, London, 24 & 25 June
Once a stalwart of this country’s comedy scene, Yashere’s career really took off when she moved to the US in the late 00s. Now the London-born standup is back for a victory lap, mining Brit-friendly laughs from the US-UK culture gap. Rachel Aroesti
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Staying in: Streaming
Loot
24 June, Apple TV+
Maya Rudolph (SNL, Bridesmaids) stars as a billionaire who goes off the rails after the collapse of her marriage in this new dramedy . Cue a cynical, reputation-restoring sidestep into philanthropy – which soon becomes a genuine passion. Watch out Ted Lasso, Loot may be coming for your Nice Comedy crown.
Ellie and Natasia
21 June, BBC Three & iPlayer
From grotesquely hygienic mums to delusional eastern European beauticians, Ellie White and Natasia Demetriou make character comedy that’s 80% manic silliness and 20% thrilling transgression. This extremely enjoyable sketch series cements their position as a 21st-century French and Saunders.
Scouting for Girls: Fashion’s Darkest Secret
24 June, Sky Documentaries & Now
Based on an investigation by the Guardian’s Lucy Osborne, this shocking three-part docuseries examines the grooming, trafficking and rape that once pervaded the modelling industry – a culture of abuse fostered by powerful agents including Jean-Luc Brunel, an associate of Jeffrey Epstein.
The First Lady
22 June, Paramount+
Debuting on new streaming service Paramount+ – available in the UK from this week – alongside a host of recently-aired, much-hyped US shows is this inordinately starry drama linking together the lives of presidential wives, featuring Viola Davies as Michelle Obama, Michelle Pfeiffer as Betty Ford and Gillian Anderson as Eleanor Roosevelt. Rachel Aroesti
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Staying in: Games
Redout 2
Out now, PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, PC
This slick tribute to the super-fast, banging futuristic racing games of the 90s will delight anyone with fond memories of Wipeout and F-Zero.
Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection
Out 20 June, PC
Nathan Drake’s collected adventures are now available on PC, reminding us why these beloved action games are regarded as video gaming’s equivalent of the Indiana Jones movies. Keza MacDonald
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Staying in: Albums
Foals – Life Is Yours
Out now
Streamlined to a trio following the departure of bassist Walter Gervers in 2018 and keyboardist Edwin Congreave in 2021, Oxford art-rockers Foals return with a lithe seventh album. Smoothing some of theirmore jagged edges, songs such as the airy disco belter 2001 and hip-waggling single Wake Me Up showcase a lighter touch.
Bartees Strange – Farm to Table
Out now
Like his 2020 debut album Live Forever, this second album from the UK-born, US-raised Bartees Cox Jr flits between genres and themes with breathtaking ease. Here he takes on punk, R&B, emo, indie and hip-hop, writing eloquently about fleeting love affairs (Heavy Heart) and, on the gorgeous Hold the Line, the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder.
Perfume Genius – Ugly Season
Out now
For Michael Hadreas’s sixth album as Perfume Geniushe returns to the music he made for 2019’s dance project The Sun Still Burns Here. To be clear, that’s dance as in the art form, rather than the musical genre, with this slow-burn, sprawling and largely instrumental album resolutely eschewing “in da club” BPMs.
Alice Merton – S.I.D.E.S.
Out now
A huge hit around Europe in 2018, German-born, English-Canadian singer-songwriter Merton’s single No Roots aimed to anchor her after years of moving around the world as a child. Asimilar restlessness also permeates this second album of high-gloss indie rock, with that unsteady feeling of post-break-up malaise explored on singles Blindside and Loveback. MC
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Staying in: Brain food
Civil: Ben Crump
From 19 June, Netflix
Two years on from the murder of George Floyd, this necessary film profiles civil rights attorney Ben Crump as he embarks on the long journey to justice for Floyd’s family, as well as Breonna Taylor’s relatives.
Basic!
Podcast
TV podcasts are proliferating, from recap series to viewing recommendations, but this fascinating podcast takes a historical tack, investigating the top shows from 00s cable TV in America. Stars such as Jimmy Kimmel and Amy Schumer explain their part in the once-dominant medium.
Closet Picks
Criterion Channel & YouTube
A must-watch for film buffs, this web series asks some of independent cinema’s biggest names to choose their favourite movies from Criterion’s well-stocked closet. Discover Joanna Hogg’s love of musicals and Charlotte Gainsbourg’s taste for cinematic nostalgia. Ammar Kalia
