Going out: Cinema
M3gan 2.0
Out now
Hitting the sweet spot between camp value and genuine entertainment that’s often surprisingly hard to manage in horror, the first M3ganGAN film saw a sassy artificially intelligent doll slay in both senses of the word. Now she’s back for a sequel, facing off against Amelia, a new doll created by the military, who have clearly not learned the lessons of the first film.
From Hilde, With Love
Out now
Based on the lives of real members of the Red Orchestra anti-Nazi group, this harrowing but moving German drama follows a group of young people determined to do their bit to resist Hitler in wartime Germany. The focus is on Hilde and Hans Coppi, a young married couple, who are both arrested, with Hilde having to give birth to their baby in a Gestapo-run prison.
F1: the Movie
Out now
A gifted professional comes out of retirement to mentor a promising young rookie: a tale as old as time, it’s the classic sports film recipe. This time around, Brad Pitt plays the mentor and Damson Idris his protege, with Formula One racing taking the star role of the sport in question. Directed by Joseph Kosinski (Top Gun: Maverick).
Sudan, Remember Us
Out now
In this observational documentary, film-maker Hind Meddeb follows a group of young activists in Sudan, beginning in 2019 with a sit-in protest at the army’s headquarters in Khartoum and bearing witness to the subsequent turbulence of the current civil war that would displace at least 12 million people breaks out. Catherine Bray
Going out: Gigs
Radar festival
O2 Victoria Warehouse, Manchester, 4 to 6 July
A showcase for “progressive music”, which in this context means rock but louder and more experimental, Radar festival returns to Manchester with a particularly stacked lineup. Headliners include genre-pushing punk duo Bob Vylan and US rockers Underøath, while extracurriculars include video game stations and masterclasses. Michael Cragg
Yazz Ahmed
Turner Sims, Southampton, 29 June
British-Bahraini trumpeter Yazz Ahmed’s mix of north African phrasing and American bebop jazz lines, electronica and funk has built her a unique contemporary global-musician’s palette. She explores her autobiographical album A Paradise in the Hold and more with an A-list band including reeds star Tim Garland and vibraphonist Ralph Wyld. John Fordham
Zach Bryan
Hyde Park, London, 28 & 29 June
Since releasing his debut album in 2019, US military man turned country music superstar Zach Bryan has become one of the genre’s biggest exports. These two outdoor shows, featuring support from the likes of Dermot Kennedy and Mt Joy, follow a recent run of singles trailing Bryan’s forthcoming sixth album. MC
Les Indes Galantes
The Grange, Alton, Hampshire, 30 June, 1 & 2 July
The Grange festival saves by far the most interesting of this summer’s three staged operas until last, as French baroque collides with hip-hop in a travelling production of Rameau’s best known ballet héroique. It’s conceived by director-choreographer and hip-hop pioneer Bintou Dembélé and conductor Leonardo García-Alarcón, for their respective ensembles. Andrew Clements
Going out: Art
Kiefer/Van Gogh
Royal Academy of Art, London, 28 June to 26 October
Anselm Kiefer is renowned for his grave, grand paintings and installations that refuse to let Germany forget its troubled history. His art of memory is even more urgent now as populist parties spread amnesia alongside nationalism. Here he explores his fascination with Van Gogh, with choice masterpieces by his hero.
William Kentridge
Yorkshire Sculpture Park, nr Wakefield, 28 June to 19 April
Not many artists today have the wit or seriousness of this multifaceted South African film-maker, installationist, draughtsperson and, in this show, sculptor. Political commentary and historical vision interact in his work with an enthusiastic embrace of modern aesthetic traditions, from music to cinema, to create multilayered, moving art.
Richard Rogers
Sir John Soane Museum, London, to 21 September
Imaginative, unexpected British architecture is on show here – and that’s before you even reach this celebration of Rogers, master of the external escalator and ventilation shaft. The Soane Museum, all mirrors, crypts and dramatic lightwells, is the perfect setting for Rogers’s work on the Pompidou Centre, Lloyd’s building and more.
Movements for Staying Alive
Modern Art Oxford, 28 June to 7 September
Radical body art from the 1960s onwards, by Yvonne Rainer, Ana Mendieta, Harold Offeh and more, can be seen in this exhibition but if you go to galleries just to “see” and think about art, forget it. The curators want you to interact with it, and physically experience the show. Jonathan Jones
Going out: Stage
Sara Pascoe
Worthing, 28 June; Stevenage, 3 July; touring to 29 March
Finally, a clever and highly relatable comedian really gets her teeth into the miserable drudgery of motherhood. In her new show, I Am a Strange Gloop, wrenches hilarity from sleep deprivation, bodily changes, endless housework and the learned helplessness of her husband. Expect catharsis, solidarity and a droll dissection of maternal sacrifice. Rachel Aroesti
Evita
The London Palladium, to 6 September
Rachel Zegler makes her West End debut as Argentina’s Eva Perón in director Jamie Lloyd’s latest theatrical extravaganza. Zegler recently hit the headlines around her promotion of the film Snow White – here’s a chance to let her performance do the talking. Miriam Gillinson
Jesus Christ Superstar
Watermill theatre, Bangor, Newbury, to 21 September
Watermill’s summer musicals have become an institution, spilling out into the theatre’s idyllic grounds. Artistic director Paul Hart takes on Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s explosive rock musical – with the actor-musician cast working their customary magic. MG
Ballet Nights
Glasgow Theatre Royal, 4 July
Dancer turned impresario Jamiel Devernay-Laurence has been running regular gala-style shows in London under the Ballet Nights banner. Now he goes on the road with an eclectic lineup including a star turn from Royal Ballet principal Steven McRae, the clubby stylings of new duo Ekleido and a dance from the Prime Video series Étoile. Lyndsey Winship
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Staying in: Streaming
The Sandman
Netflix, 3 July
The recent allegations made against graphic novelist Neil Gaiman, which he denies, mean this will likely be among the last adaptations of his work to reach the screen. If you can separate the art from the artist, prepare to luxuriate in the second series of the dark, dazzling fantasy, which revolves around Dream (Tom Sturridge) rebuilding his realm.
Such Brave Girls
BBC Three & iPlayer, 3 July, 10pm
Kat Sadler’s wickedly funny and never remotely heartwarming sitcom returns for a second series, with Sadler’s Josie and sister Billie (played by her real-life sibling Lizzie Davidson) still tiptoeing around their vituperative mother Deb (Louise Brealey) while desperately trying to source self-worth from unreciprocated love interests.
Storyville: The Srebrenica Tape
BBC Four & iPlayer, 1 July, 10pm
A single VHS lies at the heart of this film about the genocidal attack on Srebrenica during the Bosnian war. Made by an amateur film-maker who was eventually murdered alongside 8,000 other Muslims, the four-hour video was a record of local life addressed to his daughter, who here returns to the town to rediscover her early childhood.
7/7: Homegrown Terror
Sky Documentaries & Now, 29 June, 9pm
It is 20 years since 52 were killed and 770 injured in the London terror attacks that refashioned the nation’s psyche for ever. This documentary combines details of the day itself with testimony from those who knew the perpetrators in an attempt to shed light on why four Brits decided to bomb their homeland. RA
Staying in: Games
Tamagotchi Plaza
Out now; Nintendo Switch
The famous keychain virtual pets return once more in a sugar-coated shopping mall sim, where you run a range of shops while solving the problems of your cutesy customers. Apparently, there are more than 100 different tamagotchi to service, assist and even perform dentistry on.
Mecha Break
Out 1 July; PC, PS5, Xbox
On an apocalyptic future Earth, teams of players face off against each other in various hyperstylish robot suits. Beta tests have proved hugely popular and the visuals are dazzling, but it’s a free game with microtransactions, so all depends on how subtly (or otherwise) the monetisation is implemented. Keith Stuart
Staying in: Albums
Lorde – Virgin
Out now
Following 2021’s confounding, Zen-like comedown Solar Power, Lorde returns to knotty bangers with this fourth album. Co-created alongside Jim-E-Stack (Charli xcx, Haim) and Dan Nigro (Chappell Roan), Virgin picks over heartbreak with typical lyrical precision, as on pulsating lead single What Was That.
Katseye – Beautiful Chaos
Out now
Put together via interactive reality show Dream Academy, six-piece girlband Katseye fuse the best bits of K-pop’s gonzo style with 00s western pop, creating bonkers bangers such as viral hit Gnarly. That single appears on this new EP, the follow-up to last year’s SIS (Soft Is Strong).
Kevin Abstract – Blush
Out now
After calling time on his band Brockhampton in 2022, Abstract releases his fifth solo album, and first on his new label. Recorded in a house in Texas, complete with rooms packed with talent including the likes of Danny Brown, Sekou and Jpegmafia, it features the Dominic Fike-assisted, Beck-like Geezer.
Isabella Lovestory – Vanity
Out now
The Honduran reggaeton practitioner continues her quest to forge a new kind of pop on this follow-up to 2022’s debut, Amor Hardcore. On the luxe Gorgeous she channels glossy Y2K R&B, while the shape-shifting Putita Boutique seems to beam in from a club in space. MC
Staying in: Brain food
Liberty Lost
Podcast
Journalist TJ Raphael’s engrossing series speaks to previous residents of the Godparent Home at the Christian Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, where unwed teen mothers are encouraged to give up their children for adoption to wealthy Christian families.
My Mum Loved This Song
Substack
Music writer Katie Thomas’s joyous and deeply moving series sees fellow writers and artists explore the music that reminds them of their late loved ones, inspired by Katie’s own mum, Jill, who died in 2020.
Bill Walton’s The Grateful Team
BBC World Service, 28 June, 6.30pm
Examining national identity in the wake of the fall of the Soviet Union, this charming series tells the improbable tale of how psych band the Grateful Dead helped Lithuania’s basketball team compete in the 1992 Olympics. Ammar Kalia
