Going out: Cinema
Minions & Monsters
Out now
In this latest minions adventure, the yellow critters jump back in time to attempt to source some monsters so they can produce their own creature feature. As ever, the premise is largely an excuse to string a load of jokes together – and why not?
The Invite
Out now
Celeste and Jesse Forever writers, Will McCormack and Rashida Jones. re-team to script a remake of the Spanish film The People Upstairs. Arriving with rave reviews out of Sundance, Olivia Wilde directs and stars, alongside Seth Rogen, Edward Norton and Pénelope Cruz as two couples who have dinner together and end up exploring an explicit invitation from one pair to the other.
Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie
Out now
Canadian comedians Matt Johnson and Jay McCarrol bring their TV series (which originated as a cult web show) to the big screen with a time-travel plot that sees a band called Nirvanna the Band, comprising fictionalised versions of Johnson and McCarroll, attempting to play Toronto venue The Rivoli. As ever, much of the shooting is done without permits and features members of the public.
My Father’s Island
Out now
Swann Arlaud (Anatomy of a Fall) plays a father who takes his estranged 13-year-old son (Woody Norman) on a retreat in the wilderness, which turns out to be quite a bit rougher and tougher than anticipate, with various perils including bear attacks and extreme weatherd. The survival thriller is based on the novella by David Vann.
Catherine Bray
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Going out: Gigs
Outdoor Summer Season
Alexandra Palace Park, London, 9 to 18 July
With panoramic views and a lineup that includes Wet Leg (10 July), a returning Super Furry Animals (12 July) and the Streets (16 & 18 July), these shows offer the opportunity for a mosh and a nice sit down on a blanket. The Maccabees kick things off on Thursday. Michael Cragg
Love Supreme jazz festival
Glynde Place, nr Lewes, 4 & 5 July
A multi-stage extravaganza inspired by jazz’s inclusivity and spontaneity. Vocalist and virtuoso bassist Esperanza Spalding (4 July), sax stars Joe Lovano and Emma Rawicz (5 4 July), guitar visionary Bill Frisell (4 July) and dozens more join the festivities. John Fordham
Camilla Tilling and Paul Rivinius
Wigmore Hall, London, 6 July
In 2020, the Swedish soprano and her German pianist duo partner garnered rave reviews for an album of Jugendstil songs culminating in Mahler’s Rückert-Lieder. This lunchtime recital pairs another of Mahler’s celebrated cycles, Kindertotenlieder, with less familiar music from the same era by Tilling’s compatriots. Flora Willson
2000trees
8 to 11 July, Upcote Farm, nr Cheltenham
The UK’s biggest independent rock festival returns with another intriguing lineup that balances bigger names – the headliners are Alkaline Trio, Funeral for a Friend and Neck Deep – with more underground acts such as the fearsome Lambrini Girls and punk mavericks Ho99o9. MC
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Going out: Art
Gillian Ayres
The Box, Plymouth, 4 July to 4 October
Over a seven-decade career, Gillian Ayres became one of Britain’s most important painters. This show brings together some fine examples of her expressive, emotional, ultra-colourful take on abstraction.
Entangled and Woven
The Whitworth, Manchester, 10 July to 3 January
Textiles have been big in recent years, with major exhibitions dedicated to fabric-based art at loads of the UK’s art institutions. Now it’s the Whitworth’s turn, with a show of 400 years’ worth of textiles from India and South Korea, alongside new work by eight modern artists from those same countries.
Nicola Bealing
Exeter Phoenix Gallery, 4 July to 29 August
Cornwall-based artist Nicola Bealing is serving up a new suite of dreamlike and disturbingly dark paintings based on the seven deadly sins, filled with animals, humans and bizarre hybrid creatures cavorting and frolicking.
Tish Murtha
Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, 4 July to 4 April
A homecoming show for the work of this locally born documentary photographer, who died in 2013. She took some of the rawest, most honest photos of life on the margins in the UK, and this exhibition brings together four of her best-known series. Eddy Frankel
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Going out: Stage
Michelle Wolf
Oxford, 6 July; Farnham, 7 July; London, 8 & 9 July; touring to 16 September
She may have shot to fame with an excoriating critique of Trump at the 2018 White House correspondents’ dinner, but these days the US comic foregrounds the personal rather than the political. See: her new show Best Job in the World, which mines laughs from the relentless chaos of parenthood and the gender divide it highlights. Rachel Aroesti
Melissa Hamilton’s Night of Ballet
Grange Park Opera, West Horsley, 9 July
Royal Ballet principal Melissa Hamilton curates and stars in a gala night, featuring extracts from classic titles (Don Quixote, Sleeping Beauty, Giselle) and a new contemporary commission from PCK Dance. With guest dancers from English National Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet and New English Ballet Theatre. Lyndsey Winship
Oresteia
Bridge theatre, London, to 19 September
Simon Stone directs a modern take on Aeschylus’s clawing Greek tragedy, which sees a family sucked into a vortex of violence and haunted by their past. A stunning cast includes Tom Glynn-Carney, Mary-Louise Parker, David Morrissey and rising stage superstar Rosie Sheehy. Miriam Gillinson
Fun Home
Royal Exchange theatre, London, to 1 August
Jeanine Tesori’s Tony-winning musical is based on Alison Bechdel’s brilliant graphic memoir about her childhood growing up in a funeral home and discovering her sexuality. It’s a bitingly witty show, packed with detail and feeling, here directed by Sarah Frankcom and starring Jodie McNee and Nigel Harman. MG
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Staying in: Streaming
Little House on the Prairie
Netflix, 9 July
In the age of the tradwife, it was only a matter of time before Laura Ingalls Wilder’s novels about an American family living off the land in the late 19th century re-entered the zeitgeist. This new adaptation stars Alice Halsey as young Laura and is helmed by Rebecca Sonnenshine, writer of hit thriller The Housemaid.
Katie Price: Nothing to Hide
Now & Sky Documentaries, 8 July, 9pm
The former glamour model gets the prestige documentary treatment with this four-parter directed by Bafta-winner Paddy Wivell and helmed by Louis Theroux’s production company. The 48-year-old’s personal life is currently grabbing as many outlandish headlines as ever, but will this series find meaning amid the tabloid circus?
Miguel Ángel Blanco: The 48 Hours That Changed Spain
Netflix, 10 July
In July 1997, a 29-year-old local councillor was taken hostage by the Basque nationalist group Eta and subsequently murdered. Via the recollections of Blanco’s friends, journalists, political leaders and the king of Spain, this documentary relives a tragedy that united the public against the terrorist organisation.
Trying
Apple TV, 8 July
Andy Wolton’s adoption dramedy returns for a fifth series with some impressive guest stars. A reunion between her adoptive children and their birth mother (Charlotte Riley) unsettles Nikki, while Jason’s new career in social work involves visits to a hoarder (Celia Imrie). RA
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Staying in: Games
Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced
PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PC; out July 9
Ahoy, me hearties, Ubisoft’s popular “golden age of piracy” adventure returns from 2013, with a jolly visual overhaul and a reimagined single-player campaign that emphasises swashbuckling action over role-playing complexity.
Moonlight Peaks
Switch 2, Switch, PC, Android; out July 7
Imagine the popular rural-life sim Stardew Valley, but instead of a lovable farmer, you’re a lovable vampire. Grow ingredients, craft potions and fall in love with eligible local werewolves. If a cosy game can ever be goth, this is it. Keith Stuart
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Staying in: Albums
Madonna – Confessions II
Out now
Nearly 21 years on from her Grammy-winning, leotard-sporting opus Confessions on a Dance Floor, Madonna returns to the pull of the disco ball, and that album’s co-producer Stuart Price. The power of communion under the disco ball is showcased throughout, with throwback banger Danceteria a highlight.
Sienna Spiro – Visitor
Out now
Londoner Sienna Spiro first started posting videos on TikTok in 2021. Since then she has scored multiple US hits, made the Top 10 here and sung for David Attenborough at his 100th birthday. Expect her elegant retro-soul ballads to dominate this summer.
Mary in the Junkyard – Role Model Hermit
Out now
Asked to describe their music in 2024, this London-based trio called it “Sparse rock, like rock but balding”. That low-effort energy permeates this debut album, with New Muscles approaching alt-rock from even weirder angles, while Mouse is like a classic rock epic hobbled by a nasty cold.
Tom Rasmussen – Live at Union Chapel
Out on Wed
Recorded last November in a north London church, this live set by Rasmussen strips their gloriously queer, dance-focused pop to its bare bones. On the harp-assisted opener Body, Heart, Mind the minimalism creates something akin to a modern-day hymn, while Shugs (Live Wire) elevates love to the level of worship. MC
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Staying in: Brain food
The Surgeon of St Helena
Podcast
Blending investigative reporting with a social history of British overseas territories, this fascinating series tells the story of a surgeon on the remote Ssouth Atlantic island of St Helena whose unethical practices went unnoticed for years.
Sotheby’s
YouTube
London auction house Sotheby’s opens its archives and access to curatorial expertise in this detailed YouTube series. Highlights include an exploration into the late David Hockney’s love of LA and a look at Renoir’s impressionism.
Secrets of the Ant Trade
BBC World Service, 9 July, 2.32am
The topic of this documentary might seem minute but recent years have seen the global ant trade explode into a multimillion-dollar business and trafficking empire. We follow Kenyan authorities clamping down on the ant gangs. Ammar Kalia
