Five of the best ... films
Hearts Beat Loud (12A)
(Brett Haley, 2018, US) 93 mins
A young girl indulges her widowed father’s dreams of late-blooming alt-pop stardom in this modest, affecting US indie drama. The gentrified Brooklyn setting isn’t exactly edgy, and neither are the songs, but Parks and Rec’s Nick Offerman puts his bearded melancholy to good use, while former Disney girl Kiersey Clemons steals the show as his daughter.
Ant-Man and the Wasp (12A)
(Peyton Reed, 2018, US) 118 mins
Paul Rudd returns in an entertaining sequel to the surprise superhero hit, reprising his role as petty crook Scott Lang. A lot of Marvel baggage clogs up a simple story, as scientist Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) enlists Lang’s help in rescuing his wife (Michelle Pfeiffer) from the Quantum Realm, where she has remained miniaturised for 30 years.
Sicilian Ghost Story (15)
(Fabio Grassadonia, Antonio Piazza, 2017, It/Fr/Swi) 118 mins
The Italian mob movie gets a poetic makeover in this poignant tale of loss and innocence. Based on the 1993 kidnapping of a 13-year-old boy, held by the mafia for 25 months in a bid to gag his informant father, the film invents an emotionally vulnerable classmate, Luna, whose crush on the missing child draws her into the woods to find him.
Apostasy (PG)
(Daniel Kokotajlo, 2017, UK) 95 mins
Despite its difficult subject, Daniel Kokotajlo’s arresting debut creates tense drama out of existential angst, telling the story of a north-eastern family of Jehovah’s Witnesses who are torn apart when one of their siblings begins to wander from the path. Prickly issues of faith are presented in a relatable setting, with superb performances and a vision that, at odds with the narrowness of its scope, is surprisingly cinematic.
Mission: Impossible – Fallout (12A)
(Christopher McQuarrie, 2018, US) 147 mins
The M:I movies used to be fun, breezy standalone affairs, but on McQuarrie’s watch they’re starting to swell with self-importance. The latest requires a cursory awareness of 2015’s Rogue Nation, but otherwise it’s another bombastic chase movie, with Tom Cruise on the lookout for some stolen plutonium that’s fallen into the wrong hands. The stunts are impressive, but at a cost of nearly $180m, they should be, shouldn’t they?
DW
Five of the best ... rock & pop
Prom 35: New York – Sound of a City
Dance music veterans Hercules & Love Affair, experimental R&B practitioner Serpentwithfeet (AKA Josiah Wise) and singer-songwriter Sharon Van Etten lend their voices to this exploration of the sounds of modern New York, featuring the Heritage Orchestra conducted by Jules Buckley. It’s a late one – starting at 10.15pm – so please plan your travel accordingly.
Royal Albert Hall, SW7, Wednesday 8 August
Eastern Electrics
Having morphed from a London warehouse rave into an underground dance festival, Eastern Electrics returns to Morden Park with a typically eclectic lineup. Saturday caters for house and techno heads, featuring Jamie Jones and Skream, while Sunday takes care of bass and garage. Highlights include rappers Ghetts and AJ Tracey.
Morden Park, Merton, Saturday 4 & Sunday 5 August
Visions festival
Have you ever wanted to help judge a dog show with one of Savages? You have? OK, weird. But, good news – you can do exactly that at this one-day festival, spread across numerous east London venues. As well as a pooch-related parade, Visions also offers live music from the likes of newcomers Sorry, poet/singer-songwriter Sampa the Great and Britpop-influenced folk exponent Marika Hackman.
Various venues, east London, Saturday 4 August
Bishop Nehru
21-year-old New York rapper Markel Scott (pictured, below) is practically a veteran, having started making jazz-inspired beats at the age of 13. Three years later he released his debut mixtape, subsequently coming to the attention of Kendrick Lamar. This year saw him release his sonically sprawling debut Elevators (Act I & II), produced by MF Doom and Kaytranada. Ludicrously talented, basically.
London, Saturday 4; Glasgow, Sunday 5; Bristol, Monday 6; Leeds, Tuesday 7; Brighton, Wednesday 8; Dublin, Thursday 9; Liverpool, Friday 10 August
MC
Roberto Fonseca Trio
Former Buena Vista piano star Roberto Fonseca took on Cuba’s rich musical history with his 2016 album ABUC. But since he freely shuffles American jazz, African music, electronics and rap as well as traditional Cuban dance forms, he and the exciting regular trio playing these UK gigs are always living in the here and now.
Saturday 4 & Sunday 5, Ronnie Scott’s, W1; Snape Maltings Concert Hall, Snape, Tuesday 7 August
JF
Four of the best ... classical concerts
Vanessa
The last show of the summer at Glyndebourne promises to be the most significant: the UK major-house premiere of Samuel Barber’s first opera. First performed in 1958, Vanessa is unashamedly a neo-romantic opera, full of lyrical set-pieces; Keith Warner directs, Jakub Hrůša conducts and Emma Bell appears in the title role.
Glyndebourne Opera House, Lewes, Sunday 5, Tuesday 7 & Friday 10; to 26 August
Brandenburg Concertos Project
Thomas Dausgaard and the Swedish Chamber Orchestra bring their Bach extravaganza to the Proms. Over two concerts, the six Brandenburg Concertos are interleaved with specially commissioned responses to them from Mark-Anthony Turnage, Anders Hillborg, Uri Caine, Brett Dean, Olga Neuwirth and Steven Mackey.
Royal Albert Hall, SW7, Sunday 5 August
Piotr Anderszewski
Piotr Anderszewski’s recital at the Barbican in March was a thrilling demonstration of how the Polish pianist’s fastidious art has matured and deepened. He’s repeating the programme in Edinburgh - a first half of Bach, followed by a work long associated with him, Beethoven’s monumental Diabelli Variations.
The Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh, Tuesday 7 August
Greek
It is 30 years since Mark-Anthony Turnage announced himself as a major new voice in British music with his first opera. Based on Steven Berkoff’s play, Greek’s stripped-down brand of music theatre delivered a blow to the solar plexus of British opera. Like the premiere, this production is directed by librettist Jonathan Moore.
Arcola Theatre, E8, Wednesday 8 to 18 August
AC
Five of the best ... exhibitions
Magic Realism: Art in Weimar Germany 1919-33
German art is the most imaginative and powerful of the modern age, from expressionism onwards. This exhibition looks at the brilliant years after the first world war when social and political crisis provoked scathing and sleazy genius in artists such as Otto Dix and George Grosz.
Tate Modern, SE1, to 14 July 2019
Lucy Skaer
This artist of the curious has a nice way of holding up natural and human things to be contemplated. When she was shortlisted for the Turner prize in 2009 she exhibited a sperm whale skeleton at Tate Britain. Here, she and invited fellow artists explore the meanings of objects she has selected from the collections of the University of Edinburgh.
Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh, to 6 October
Shilpa Gupta
The power and danger of poetry is the theme of this installation by Mumbai-based Gupta. She explores its subversive nature by documenting the many poets who have been imprisoned in all places and times. Fragments of 100 poems are played on 100 speakers while pages bearing verses are impaled on 100 metal poles. Languages from Azeri to Hindi to English are heard in this monument to the free word.
The Fire Station at Edinburgh College of Art, to 26 August
Canaletto & the Art of Venice
This recorder of the dream that was Venice is the greatest minor artist of all time. Canaletto has no great message but his calm, enduring depictions of the majestic architecture, grey-green canals and exquisite social life of Venice in the 18th century, which add up to an epic eyeful of history and beauty. He caught Venice in its lush decline, the city of Casanova where life was a constant carnival of the senses.
The Palace of Holyrood House, Edinburgh, to 21 October
250th Summer Exhibition
You won’t find a better portrait of art and its place in the world right at this moment. Grayson Perry has freed this spectacle from its suburban cliches and turned it into a riotous festival of the good, the bad and the silly. It’s exuberantly entertaining and filled with nuggets of wonder from Banksy and Michael Landy to Anselm Kiefer. It is also a powerful evisceration of the psyche of Brexit Britain.
Royal Academy of Arts, W1, to 19 August
JJ
Five of the best ... theatre shows
Allelujah!
Alan Bennett’s new play is about the beleaguered NHS and how we treat the elderly. Set in a Yorkshire hospital faced with closure, its geriatric ward is filled with game old birds singing away as darker forces gather. Lacking zip, it benefits from Bennett’s tart observations. As one character observes: “Don’t leave it too late to die.”
The Bridge Theatre, SE1, to 29 September
The Price
Jonathan Church continues a fine season at Bath with a 50th-anniversary production of Arthur Miller’s drama about family and sacrifice. It stars David Suchet as a wily used-furniture dealer intent on making a killing, and Downton Abbey’s Brendan Coyle as one of two brothers meeting in their childhood home after their father’s death.
Theatre Royal, Bath, Thursday 9 to 25 August
Nigel Slater’s Toast
The title alone conjures up nostalgic feelings of comfort food. This is another outing for the Lowry’s production based on the popular food writer’s bestselling autobiography (it was also made into a TV film), evoking his childhood in the 60s and the taste and smells he grew up with. This show comes with an allergen warning; not for theatrephobes, but because sweets are handed out.
Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, Tuesday 7 to 26 August
Once Seen on Blue Peter
This is the nostalgia mother lode since it encompasses so many British childhoods. Imagine a group of ex-Blue Peter presenters backstage at an awards ceremony where one of them will receive a lifetime award for the iconic TV programme (60 years in October). That’s the premise of a new play by Tim Whitnall and former presenter Tim Vincent that stars himself, Mark Curry, Janet Ellis, Peter Duncan and Peter Purves, all gently taking the mickey out of themselves.
Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh, Saturday 4 to 26 August
The One
Very mixed reviews for this, from the team behind the hit Fleabag. In Vicky Jones’s hour-long three-hander, English professor Harry (John Hopkins) and his ex-pupil Jo (Tuppence Middleton) indulge in a night of sexual role-playing, teasing and confrontation. The issues of power and control don’t have enough space to breathe here, and despite some humour these are not nice people.
Soho Theatre, W1, to 25 August
MC
Three of the best ... dance shows
Akademi: The Troth
Gary Clarke’s powerfully affecting fusion of film, contemporary dance and south-Asian music explores the little-known stories of Indian soldiers fighting in the trenches in the first world war. Inspired by Chandradhar Sharma Guleri’s 1915 short story Usne Kaha Tha, it moves from rural India to Belgium, with a cast including Vidya Patel.
Army @ the Fringe, Edinburgh, Friday 10 to 25 August
TitanicDance
The romantic but ill-fated maiden voyage of the Titanic is narrated through film and dance in this ambitious new Irish dance show. Music is played live by a six-piece band, and the cast features former world champion James Keegan and Lord of the Dance star Raymond Sweeney.
Belfast Waterfront, Thursday 9 to 19 August
Cold Blood
This fascinating collaboration between choreographer Michèle Anne De Mey and playwright Jaco Van Dormael features three dancers who, performing only with their hands, narrate the story of a dying woman as she looks back over a vivid, eccentric past.
King’s Theatre, Edinburgh, Saturday 4 to Monday 6 August
JM
Main composite by: Pål Hansen for the Observer; Paul Schiraldi/Gunpowder/Sky; Simon Richardson
