Going Out: Cinema
Thor: Love and Thunder
Out now
Director Taika Waititi returns with another chapter in the fish-out-of-water saga of Thor (Chris Hemsworth), the thunder god of Norse legend plonked unceremoniously into contemporary society to mine the consequent cultural dissonance for lols. Every new Marvel film offers an incremental tweak to formula: this time, Jane (Natalie Portman) from the first Thor adventure has more powers.
Persuasion
Out now
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a Jane Austen novel in possession of a well-drawn heroine must be in want of a contemporary adaptation. That’s regardless of how appropriate the heroine in question will be as a vehicle for Fleabag-style quips to camera. Dakota Johnson stars alongside Nikki Amuka-Bird.
Brian and Charles
Out now
The heartwarming winner of the audience favourite award at the recent Sundance London film festival, this is a crowd-pleasing little comedy drama about what happens when a lonely self-styled junk scavenger, hoarder, handyman, tinkerer and inventor builds himself a rather dapper bow-tied robot companion.
Futura
Out now
The Italian film-makers Pietro Marcello, Francesco Munzi and Alice Rohrwacher join forces for this candid and thoughtful documentary about young people. It focuses on their hopes and dreams – for the future, of the wider world and their own lives – seen from their perspective, at a time when the world has never seemed more terrifying. Catherine Bray
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Going Out: Gigs
Madeon
KOKO, London, 14 July
Dance music pioneer Hugo Leclercq, AKA Madeon, announced his arrival back in 2011, aged just 17, with his viral mashup Pop Culture. Since then he’s released two albums fusing EDM, nu-disco and French touch, while also and worked with the likes of Coldplay and Lady Gaga. Brace yourselves for an audiovisual delight.
Doune the Rabbit Hole
Cardross Estate, Stirlingshire, 14 to 17 July
Scotland’s answer to Glastonbury returns with another stellar lineup focusing on the best of local independent acts mixed with some international icons. Patti Smith headlines on Thursday, while the likes of Belle and Sebastian, Amy Macdonald, Camera Obscura and Teenage Fanclub keep the home flags flying through to Sunday. Michael Cragg
Antonio e Cleopatra
Pavilion Arts Centre, Buxton, 13 to 22 July
In the mid-18th century Johann Adolf Hasse was one of the most celebrated opera composers in Europe. Nowadays his works are very rarely performed, but Buxton festival is giving opera collectors the chance to add the seldom performed Johann Adolf Hasse to their lists with a staging of his 1725 two-hander, directed by Evangeline Cullingworth. Andrew Clements
Cécile McLorin Salvant
Ronnie Scott’s, London, 12 to 13 July
A decade ago, American singer Cécile McLorin Salvant (below) was being hailed as a rising jazz star, but her work since has revealed her to be much more. Salvant’s flawless pacing and subtle nuances can reinvent Kate Bush, Sting, or the standards, her own moody originals also stand out. John Fordham
Going Out: Art
Liquid Light: Painting in Watercolours
Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne, to 13 August
JMW Turner’s watercolours are the opposite of wishy-washy: their fire can be intense. Turner is a star of this survey of watercolour from the Romantic age to now, featuring 170 artists. Other highlights include Turner’s short-lived contemporary Thomas Girtin, plus Bridget Riley, Tracey Emin and Mawuena Kattah (work pictured, above).
Frank Bowling and Sculpture
Stephen Lawrence Gallery, London, 15 July to 3 September
The paintings of this great modern artist are soaked in powerful, poetic pigments that tell a story. They are rucked and ridged with collaged materials that add to their suggestiveness. This exhibition explores Bowling’s feel for the three-dimensional. You might equally well call it a feel for life.
Milton Avery
Royal Academy of Arts, London, from 15 July to 16 October
Was this 20th-century painter of calm summer days and blue seas the American Matisse? Avery started out in the era of F Scott Fitzgerald and lived into the age of Andy Warhol. His bold yet subtle colours and simplified forms have a pleasing, joyous grace. The grandfather of pop.
Temporary Atlas: Mapping the Self in the Art of Today
Mostyn Llandudno, to 25 September
Maps offer an apparently rational way to think about physical space. But they are a red rag for artists who can turn them into poetry, as Jasper Johns proved when he painted the US map. Here, Kiki Smith, Jeremy Deller, Walid Raad and more follow Johns by making inner maps. Jonathan Jones
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Going Out: Stage
Anything Goes
Barbican theatre, London, to 3 September
Cole Porter’s champagne-fizz of a musical, set aboard an ocean liner, returns to the Barbican with a thunderously entertaining cast, including Kerry Ellis, Denis Lawson and Simon Callow.
Bugsy Malone
Theatre Royal Bath, to 23 July then touring to 22 October
Sean Holmes revives his exuberant adaptation of Alan Parker’s award-winning film, about rival gangsters in prohibition-era New York. Starring a brilliant young ensemble cast and a truck-load of custard pies. Miriam Gillinson
Shobana Jeyasingh Dance: Clorinda Agonistes – Clorinda the Warrior
The Grange, Alresford, 13 to 14 July
Jeyasingh retells the story of Clorinda, a Muslim warrior in the Crusades, with an added second act that transports Clorinda into today’s Middle Eastern conflict where she gets to write herself a new story. Inspired by (and set to) Monteverdi’s Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda. Part of a mixed evening of dance. Lyndsey Winship
Sheeps
Battersea Arts Centre, SW11, 13 July
Although individual members have enjoyed sitcom success (see: Ladhood, Stath Lets Flats), the left-field, high-concept sketch comedy of this ex-Footlights trio is long overdue its day in the sun. Ten Years, Ten Laughs – which previews in London before an Edinburgh run – sees them celebrate 12 years of brilliance in typically contrarian style. Rachel Aroesti
Staying In: Streaming
Breeders
13 July, 9pm, Sky Comedy & Now TV
Starring Martin Freeman and Daisy Haggard as struggling middle-class parents, this breathtakingly candid – and often horrifyingly bleak – dramedy (above) could never be accused of sanitising family life. Series three sees dad Paul’s relationship with his teenage son deteriorate; yet the show always manages to packs in plenty of dark hilarity, too.
How to Change Your Mind
12 July, Netflix
This uplifting, horizon-broadening documentary series, based on Michael Pollan’s 2018 book of the same name, sees the influential science writer examine the benefits of psychedelic drugs – substances whose unsavoury reputation has impeded their potential to drastically improve mental health in patients with depression, addiction and PTSD.
Sneakerhead
13 July, 10pm, UKTV
Hugo Chegwin – AKA People Just Do Nothing’s nice-but-dim DJ Beats – stars in this new sitcom set in a Peterborough sports shop. Yet the real draw might well be the supporting cast: rapper turned presenter Big Zuu and internet comedy sensation Lucia Keskin play his subplot-generating colleagues.
Trom
9 July, 9pm, BBC4
The Faroe Islands haven’t traditionally been viewed as a hotbed of great TV, and with good reason – this crime thriller doubles as the nation’s first ever original drama series. Yet Trom will very much be maintaining Nordic noir tradition: the bleak premise sees a journalist (The New Pope’s Ulrich Thomsen) investigate the murder of his estranged daughter. RA
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Staying In: Games
Sonic Origins
Out now, PC, PS4/5, Xbox One/Series X/S, Switch
Reintroducing the first four – and best – Sonic games, including Sonic 1 and 2, Sonic & Knuckles and Sonic CD, this compilation (above) adds new modes and features to give fans something fresh to experience, and the visual updates are mostly sympathetic and accurate. The lack of a modern mid-game save system has bothered some reviewers, but heck, Sonic is meant to be hard.
Capcom Fighting Collection
Out now, PC, PS4, Xbox One, Switch
Ten titles from Capcom’s long history of innovative, visually arresting fighting games. Street Fighter is represented, naturally, but there are also five games from the lesser-known Darkstalkers series of horror-themed punch-ups, alongside a rarity: Red Earth, a fantasy combat game that’s never been released on a home console. Keith Stuart
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Staying In: Albums
Rae Morris – Rachel@Fairyland
Out now
Inspired by both the cinematic sweep of producer-musician Jon Brion and the intricate textures of Björk, the third album by Blackpool-born Morris (above) sees her push her graceful synthpop in new directions. Recent single Go Dancing, for example, moves from delicate filigree to a beat-laden, Hollywood-sized paean to going out.
Wu-Lu – Loggerhead
Out now
South London vocalist, multi-instrumentalist and producer Wu-Lu, AKA Miles Romans-Hopcraft, makes music for these troubled times (“It’s all shit!” hails recent single, Scrambled Tricks). Taking in icy post-punk, rumbling hip-hop and ragged metal, this debut album deftly creates an atmosphere of impending doom that somehow never suffocates.
Katy J Pearson – Sound of the Morning
Out now
In the two years since her debut, Return, Bristolian singer-songwriter Katy J Pearson spent some time “just chillaxing massively”. That well-earned R&R gave her time to formulate this confident follow-up, which expands on Return’s folk-rock via Alligator’s undulating bass shimmy and highlight Float’s delicious slice of American indie pop.
Viagra Boys – Cave World
Out now
On their third album, Sweden’s premier post-punk agitators (below) continue their penchant for undercutting musical heaviness with a side order of sarcasm and black humour. The pulverising Ain’t No Thief rails against notions of individualism via a tall tale involving a shrimp-emblazoned jacket, while Punk Rock Loser is a testament to low expectations.
MC
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Staying In : Brain food
The Art Mysteries
Now/Sky Arts
Waldemar Januszczak gets out his white gloves and magnifying glass to uncover the hidden meanings behind masterful paintings in this entertaining series. There is a look at Caravaggio, Gainsborough and, of course, the Mona Lisa.
Romance Road Test
Podcast
In their long-running podcast, By the Book, comic Jolenta Greenberg and critic Kristen Meinzer try to live by the rules of self-help books. In their new Audible Original podcast (above) they investigate romantic advice books with chaotic and often hilarious results.
Red Bull Music Academy
YouTube
Red Bull Music Academy spent a decade hosting in-depth, career-spanning interviews with global artists. Although no longer running, its YouTube contains a treasure trove of these rare encounters, from funkmaster George Clinton to Brazilian star Elza Soares. Ammar Kalia
