Going out: Cinema
Kensuke’s Kingdom
Out now
This sweet family fable, based on the children’s book by Michael Morpurgo, and with voice work from Cillian Murphy and Sally Hawkins, aims to combine Studio Ghibli-style animation with traditional western storytelling, as a family and their dog set out on an ocean-going adventure.
Dìdi
Out now
Directed by Sean Wang, this coming-of-age drama set in a Taiwanese American household takes place in 2008 during the last month of summer before high school begins, as 13-year-old Chris (Izaac Wang) explores the brave new worlds of skating, flirting and trying to get along with his mum.
Harold and the Purple Crayon
Out now
Based very loosely on the 1955 children’s book, this family film mixes animation and live action, as a grownup version of Harold played by Zachary Levi (you may remember him from such films as Shazam!) learns all about real life. Also starring Lil Rel Howery, Zooey Deschanel and Jemaine Clement.
Let Cinema Go to Its Ruin: The Cinema of Marguerite Duras
ICA, London, to 25 August
Featuring many films never before screened in the UK, this complete Marguerite Duras retrospective at the Institute of Contemporary Arts is something special, with Duras’ complete filmography, plus films she wrote directed by Tony Richardson, Peter Brook and Jean-Luc Godard. Catherine Bray
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Going out: Gigs
Justin Timberlake
7 to 12 August; tour starts Birmingham
Despite being worried his arrest for alleged drink-driving would “ruin the tour”, Timberlake arrives in the UK regardless. Nominally in support of March’s already forgotten Everything I Thought I Was album, it’s the bangers – Cry Me a River, Mirrors, SexyBack, Rock Your Body – that keep people coming back. Michael Cragg
Boomtown festival
Matterley Estate, near Winchester, 7 to 11 August
With an unspooling narrative fleshed out on site via newspaper the Daily Rag, eight city districts and more than 50 hidden venues, Boomtown is all about the escapist potential of festivals. Musical genres explored include post-punk, reggae and disco, alongside jungle, techno and drum’n’bass. MC
Jonathan Gee Quartet/Denys Baptiste
Watermill Jazz, Dorking, 6 August
Singer-pianist Jonathan Gee’s Beatles Reimagined album recast the Fabs as contemporary jazz, and he brings new takes on Spandau Ballet, Kate Bush and Wayne Shorter with Coltrane-esque saxist Denys Baptiste. John Fordham
La Pasión Según San Marco
Usher Hall, Edinburgh, 3 August
Edinburgh festival rarely offers much for contemporary music lovers, but this year’s opening concert is devoted to a 21st-century work. Osvaldo Golijov’s St Mark Passion is Bach remodelled as Latin American street theatre, with a brass band and Brazilian capoeira dancers as well as soloists, chorus and orchestra. Andrew Clements
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Going out: Art
Louise Bourgeois
Compton Verney, Warwickshire, to 6 October
The surreal world of the artist who grew up in a Europe full of pre-modern severity, encountered famous French modernists, then brought the art of dreams and desire into a postmodern age gets a thorough airing. Drawings and installations in the house prepare you for spooky sculptures in the grounds.
Edinburgh art festival
Various venues, 9 to 25 August
As Edinburgh becomes the world’s most culturally exciting city for its festival season, there’s plenty of art spread through Old Town closes and New Town porticos to enjoy between all the theatre and standup. El Anatsui, Jan Vermeer, Christine Borland and Chris Ofili are among the eclectic stars.
Hockney and Piero
National Gallery, London, 8 to 27 October
David Hockney’s fascination with the Renaissance painter Piero della Francesca is explored in this intimate exhibition. Hockney’s My Parents, in which a postcard of Piero’s Baptism of Christ can be seen in a mirror between them, is exhibited beside the painting itself. Hockney emulates Piero’s contemplative mystery.
The Flooded Garden
Tate Modern, London, to 26 August
This participatory summer artwork devised by abstract painter Oscar Murillo for the Turbine Hall takes the form of an oval re-creation of the gallery in the Orangerie Museum, Paris, where Monet’s paintings of his water garden immerse you. But here adults and kids alike can add waves and splashes to a collectively created painting.
Jonathan Jones
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Going out: Stage
Rose Matafeo
Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh, 9 to 25 August
Despite the success of her BBC romcom Starstruck, New Zealander Matafeo is still expert at mining laughs from the miseries of the modern everywoman. She returns to the fringe with new show On and On and On. Rachel Aroesti
The Years
Almeida theatre, London, to 31 August
Annie Ernaux’s fragmentary memoir is your chicest friend’s favourite book. Spanning the years between 1941 and 2006, it’s an intense, splintered history of the writer’s life and the world events around her. Now Eline Arbo, Internationaal Theater Amsterdam’s new artistic director, adapts its shape-shifting text to the stage. Kate Wyver
Little Home
Home, Manchester, 3,4, 10 & 11 August
Keep the kids entertained this weekend and next. There’s walkabout entertainment with The Wonderous Funderstorm and crafts with Phoebe Foxtrot, while Nick Sharratt’s Shark in the Park books swim on to the stage, made by the team behind The Hairy Maclary Show. KW
Songs of the Bulbul
The Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh, 9 to 11 August
A world premiere from brilliant kathak dancer Aakash Odedra, who has been on a run of good form the last few years making highly atmospheric pieces. Here he explores the symbolism of the bulbul, a songbird that appears in Sufi myth where it sings a final exquisite song before its death. Lyndsey Winship
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Staying in: Streaming
On the Edge
Channel 4, 5 August, 10pm
This anthology format is to drama what the unfortunately named Blap is to comedy: a rare opportunity for promising writers and directors to make TV prototypes. The series features stories about fostering, mermaids and dementia, brought to life by stars including Iwan Rheon and Sex Education’s Tanya Reynolds and Downton’s Paul Copley.
Slip
ITVX, 8 August
Parallel universe TV is ubiquitous right now, but no show has a premise quite like Slip. Creator Zoe Lister-Jones stars as Mae, a bored museum curator who is “transported to other dimensions” each time she orgasms. Will flitting between increasingly wild and weird partners help her appreciate her old life?
Vienna Blood
BBC Two & iPlayer, 4 August, 9pm
Dutifully taking over The Turkish Detective’s Sunday slot, Vienna Blood returns for a fourth series to rejoin Max Liebermann, a fictional student of Freud, as he deploys his psychological nous in the service of investigating grisly crimes in the early 20th century.
The Corridors of Power
BBC Four & iPlayer, 6 August, 10pm
This graphic, heavy-going but meticulously insightful 2022 doc from Oscar-nominated Israeli director Dror Moreh examines the US’s outsized role in world affairs, enlisting the likes of Hillary Clinton, Henry Kissinger and Condoleezza Rice to explain how and why the country decides to entangles itself in global conflicts. RA
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Staying in: Games
Steamworld Heist II
All platforms, out 8 August
Take a gang of robot pirates on carefully executed heists, then run away with the loot in your custom submarine. You must plan every move carefully, but taking a robot’s hat off with a ricocheting bullet is chef’s kiss.
World of Goo 2
PC, Nintendo Switch, out now
A real unexpected sequel – World of Goo came out in 2008 – but welcome nonetheless. This puzzle game has you building unlikely structures out of lattices of goop, with a humorous aesthetic straight out of early-00s Flash animations. Keza MacDonald
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Staying in: Albums
Moses Sumney – Sophcore
Out now
Having recently dabbled in acting via roles in TV disaster The Idol and cult horror film MaXXXine, LA-based Sumney returns to music with this stopgap EP. The bubbling Gold Coast is hot and heavy R&B, while lead single Vintage is featherlight soul and showcases Sumney’s textured voice.
Tones and I – Beautifully Ordinary
Out now
How do you follow up a debut single that topped the charts in more than 30 countries and has 3bn-plus streams on Spotify alone? It’s what’s been troubling Toni Watson ever since Dance Monkey took on a life of its own in 2019. On this second album, she continues to create earworm dance-pop bangers in the hope lightning might strike twice.
Khalid – Sincere
Out now
It has been five long years since R&B singer-songwriter Khalid’s second album Free Spirit. Allowing him time to catch up on life – the 26-year-old’s turbo-charged success means he already has nine US Top 20 singles – Sincere is a more reflective album, anchored by the soft-focus soul of recent single Ground.
Chrystabell & David Lynch – Cellophane Memories
Out now
Director David Lynch and singer-songwriter Chrystabell (below) team up for 10 tracks of haunting mood music, having previously collaborated together on Lynch’s 2006 film Inland Empire and Twin Peaks: The Return. Cellophane Memories also features another Lynch’s collaborator, the late composer Angelo Badalamenti. MC
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Staying in: Brain food
The Lost Colony of Roanoke
PBS America, Monday, 7.50pm
This absorbing film investigates what happened to more than 100 British colonists who settled on Roanoke Island, near North Carolina, in 1587 and vanished three years later. Archaeologists and historians put forward their most convincing theories.
The Innocence Podcast
Podcast
The University of Manchester’s Innocence Project aims to overturn wrongful convictions in the UK; this insightful accompanying series highlights the human cost of these miscarriages of justice through speaking to those convicted and their families.
Library of Lost Books
Online
An immersive, artfully constructed archive, this website traces the fate of the books housed in Berlin’s Higher Institute for Jewish Studies before it was abolished by the Nazis in 1942. Featuring information on the texts and their owners. Ammar Kalia
