From Tony to Jungle: your complete entertainment guide to the week ahead
Dominic Sessa plays Anthony Bourdain in a fun biopic, and the ever-danceable UK funksters are back with a sun-dappled new album
Contents
Going out: Cinema
Tony
Out now
This comic biopic of Anthony Bourdain focuses on the celebrity chef and documentarian’s late adolescence, as he gets a summer job at a restaurant in Cape Cod at the age of 19. Dominic Sessa (The Holdovers) plays Bourdain, with Matt Johnson directing. Rich Sommer, Leo Woodall and Antonio Banderas also star.
The End of Oak Street
Out now
David Robert Mitchell (It Follows) is back, writing and directing a sci-fi mystery in which prehistoric creatures start to make appearances in suburbia. Anne Hathaway and Ewan McGregor play members of a family who find themselves trying to survive.
Sunny Dancer
Out now
Bella Ramsey, James Norton and Neil Patrick Harris, among many others, make up the ensemble cast of a breezy comedy about a decidedly unbreezy subject: a summer camp for kids suffering from cancer. George Jacques directs this UK indie.
Holy Days
Out now
The year is 1974. The country is New Zealand. Three nuns, played by three legends of stage and screen – Judy Davis, Miriam Margolyes and Jacki Weaver – are going on a road trip in order to save their convent, in a broad comedy from Nat Boltt based on the book by Joy Cowley. Catherine Bray
Going out: Gigs
ArcTanGent
Fernhill Farm, Bristol, 19 to 22 August
If you prefer your rock to come with a prefix, perhaps post-, or math-, or noise-, this Bristol festival is for you. Celebrating alternative music, this year’s lineup features funk-metal pioneers Primus, hotly tipped sludge purveyors Chat Pile and the distinctly gothic Chelsea Wolfe. Michael Cragg
Lenny Kravitz
Crystal Palace Park, London, 16 August
Sexy hitmaker and unfeasibly large scarf experimentalist Lenny Kravitz heads to south London to headline his own mini-festival (support comes from Leon Thomas and Joss Stone). Expect a smattering of recent singles, but hold out for Fly Away, It Ain’t Over ’Til It’s Over and Are You Gonna Go My Way. MC
Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra
St Paul’s Cathedral, London, 18 August
Formed by the Canadian-Ukrainian conductor Keri-Lynn Wilson in 2022 following Russia’s invasion, this remarkable ensemble continues its cultural fightback. The UK stop on its latest tour pairs new music by Ukrainian composer Bohdana Frolyak with Verdi’s Requiem. Heavyweight international soloists include Ailyn Pérez and Solomon Howard. Flora Willson
Coltrane and Hartman on Impulse! ft Marvin Muoneké and Mark Lockheart
Watermill Jazz, Dorking, 18 August
Gifted founder member of cutting-edge UK jazz bands Loose Tubes and Polar Bear performs with former Britain’s Got Talent vocal contestant? Saxophonist Mark Lockheart’s partnership with young singer Marvin Muoneké shows how illuminating that rare conjunction can be, as they sensitively celebrate John Coltrane’s classic 1963 album with jazz balladeer Johnny Hartman.John Fordham
Going out: Art
Hurvin Anderson
Tate Britain, London, to 23 August
From inner-city Birmingham to lush, tropical Trinidad, this British artist’s hazy, haunted take on barbershops and Caribbean landscapes features some of the best figurative painting you’ll see this year.
Edinburgh art festival
Various venues, to 30 August
The UK’s biggest annual art festival returns, taking over pretty much every space in the Scottish capital with a raft of diverse exhibitions. Among this year’s highlights are promising Japanese fetish paintings and queer images of Edinburgh’s graveyards.
Lawrence Abu Hamdan
The Common Guild, Glasgow, 20 August to 17 October
Lawrence Abu Hamdan’s work is based on the idea of “forensic listening”, which uses sonic recording techniques to investigate global injustices. Here, he combines sound, video and installation to look at the Israeli occupation of the Golan Heights.
David Hockney
Serpentine North, London, to 23 August
The world lost one of its great modern artists when David Hockney died this year, but not before he pulled together one last exhibition at the Serpentine, featuring a single vast digital painting of his beloved Normandy. Eddy Frankel
Going out: Stage
Ele McKenzie
Bunker at Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh, to 30 August
Having showcased her comic chops in the exceptional sitcom Funboys (she plays the eccentric, libidinous girlfriend of one of the leads), McKenzie brings her debut standup hour about constipation and moving back in with her parents to the fringe. Rachel Aroesti
How the Other Half Loves
The Old Vic, London, to 19 September
A comedy caper starring Roger Allam and Dorothy Atkinson. In Alan Ayckbourn’s domestic farce, an affair prompts cascading mayhem – played out amid a chaotic set. Miriam Gillinson
Mayflies
Brown’s of Leith Warehouse, Edinburgh, to 30 August
Andrew O’Hagan’s moving novel has been adapted for the fringe – and will be staged by Grid Iron Theatre Company in a former metalworks. It’s a story about mortality and middle age, as a group of teenagers embark on a riotous weekend. MG
360
General Gordon Square, London, 21 August
The opening of the Greenwich+Docklands international festival is a free outdoor spectacle from choreographer Mehdi Kerkouche, which turns a town square into a pumping dancefloor. Kerkouche’s YouTube videos went viral in lockdown; now he’s an energetic force in contemporary dance. Lyndsey Winship
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Staying in: Streaming
Ludwig
iPlayer & BBC One, 20 August, 9pm
Amateur detectives are middlebrow TV’s bread and butter, but few are as charmingly reluctant as David Mitchell’s reclusive puzzle-setter, who returns to resume the extraordinarily difficult search for his missing detective brother. Mark Bonnar and Sian Clifford join the cast for series two.
Sunny Nights
ITVX, 16 August
Will Forte (The Four Seasons) and D’Arcy Carden (The Good Place) are two squabbling siblings who travel down under to launch their spray-tan business in a new Australian series that soon descends into a gangland conspiracy thriller.
Lanterns
HBO Max, 17 August
This DC comics adaptation centres on an intergalactic peacekeeping cop and his protege, who investigate a murder while navigating alien forces. The tone is dark and the cast is decent: Kyle Chandler, Aaron Pierre, Kelly Macdonald and Laura Linney co-star.
Little Bird
Now & Sky Atlantic, 18 August, 9pm
It may have aired in Canada more than three years ago, but rave reviews mean this miniseries about a First Nations girl from Saskatchewan who is forcibly removed from her parents and adopted by a Jewish family in the 1960s is very much still worth a look. RA
Staying in: Games
Mortal Shell 2
PC, Xbox Series X/S, PS5, out 20 August
Action RPGs tend to blur into one another, but this sequel looks to be rather a step up from its predecessor. Expect deeper, more exciting combat, along with a more intricate, interconnected world. A weapons upgrade should excite the Soulslike fans.
The Sinking City 2
PC, Xbox Series X/S, PS5, out 18 August
Arriving seven years after the original, this Frogwares-developed sequel based on the work of HP Lovecraft again unfolds in a supernaturally flooded city. In this semi open-world game, you must discover what’s going on in the city of Arkham while defending yourself against monstrous enemies by using 1920s-era weapons.Tom Orry
Staying in: Albums
Jungle – Sunshine
Out now
More than a decade into their career, Jungle’s brand of sleek dance-pop recently hit a commercial peak. After the chart success of Volcano in 2023, the UK trio won a Brit award and upgraded their live shows to arenas. This fifth album, self-produced as ever, looks set to continue the hot streak, and will see them touring round the world into 2027.
Benny Blanco – Hermoso
Out now
Super-producer Benny Blanco, who’s worked with the likes of Justin Bieber, Rihanna and his wife, Selena Gomez, returns with his follow-up to his 2018 solo debut, Friends Keep Secrets. Hermoso is his celebration of Latin American and Spanish pop and features guest spots from Becky G and Bb Trickz.
Carly Simon – Comes in Waves
Out now
The much-loved singer-songwriter returns with her first album of new material since 2009’s Never Been Gone. On lead single Howl, Simon – who recently revealed she’s been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease – turns a quiet storm of anger into an ode to joy and forgiveness.
Phoebe Bridgers – Lost Weekend
Out now
After teasing the albumluential Bridgers finally releases this third album, her first since 2020. Collaborators assisting with Bridgers’ heart-lifting indie-folk this time around include Alex G, Jack Antonoff and Bo Burnham. MC
Staying in: Brain food
ECM Records
Podcast
Th revered European jazz label ECM publishes this fascinating audio series featuring its roster of artists discussing new releases and the nature of improvisation. Recent highlights include saxophonist Joe Lovano on the nature of creative trust.
The Bittman ProjectSubstackWriter Mark Bittman’s newsletter explores the social and political impacts of the modern food industry, from the recent US cyclospora outbreak, which caused shoppers to re-examine the
Saving Young Men from Murder: The Homeboy Story
Radio 4, 18 August, 8pm
Psychiatrist Dr Gwen Adshead has spent three decades working with perpetrators of violence. Visiting the gang rehabilitation programme Homeboy Industries in Los Angeles, she analyses how its psychological model could be applied to the UK. Ammar Kalia
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