Apollo 11 – in cinemas now
If you really can’t stand the heat on Earth you can venture to the moon. This documentary recaptures all the glory of the historic space steps taken half a century ago. In Peter Bradshaw’s five-star review he said: “Somehow, it doesn’t look like something that happened 50 years ago – but rather an extraordinarily detailed futurist fantasy of what might happen in the years to come, if we could only evolve to some higher degree of verve and hope.”
There is a Light That Never Goes Out: Scenes from the Luddite Rebellion – at the Royal Exchange, Manchester, 25 July-10 August
Have you ever had the sudden urge to smash your computer and revert back to a calmer period before you felt like a cog in a machine? Theatre company Kandinsky explores this through the original Luddites, their impact on Manchester and their legacy.
In an interview with the Guardian, co-writer Lauren Mooney said that although the Luddites were defeated, their ideas are present today: “We didn’t have a revolution – but they wanted a limit on working hours in a day, they wanted some protections for workers’ rights, they wanted a minimum wage; all things we’ve got, at least for now.”
Olafur Eliasson: In Real Life – at Tate Modern, London, until 5 January
Expose yourself to the elements of rain and fog from the comfort of the indoors or cool off by the artist’s outdoor Waterfall installation. The Guardian’s art critic Adrian Searle said the Danish-Icelandic artist’s new show “wants to change the way we see our place in the world at a time of climate emergency”.
Eliasson last wowed audiences at the Tate Modern when he filled the Turbine Hall with a glowing sun which drew more than two million people.
Varda by Agnès – in cinemas now
The late French director Agnès Varda reflects on her life in her signature, idiosyncratic style. In his review, Peter Bradshaw said the 90-year-old auteur’s “energy seems undimmed, yet quite controlled and at ease, channelled into a tone of calm and beguiling wisdom: witty, equable, gentle. She is not grandmotherly, but godmotherly, granting wishes and making the business of film-making seem as magically straightforward as writing words on a page”.
If you want to dive deeper into Varda’s work the BFI Southbank in London is screening three of her classic films. You can also catch her last feature she made in collaboration with artist JR, Faces/Places, on Netflix.
Edinburgh art festival – various locations across Edinburgh, 25 July-25 August
Now in its 15th year, the month-long festival is Scotland’s largest annual visual arts festival. The majority of the festival is free and highlights this year include Grayson Perry’s first major solo exhibition in Scotland and a large-scale retrospective of Bridget Riley at the Royal Scottish Academy.
The festival director Sorcha Carey said: “The breadth and range of the programme opens up space for surprising connections across time, art form and the city of Edinburgh itself.”
BBC Proms – at the Royal Albert Hall, London, until 14 September
The 125th season of what they call the “greatest classical music festival on the planet” is in full swing.
The Proms got off to a progressive start with conductor Karina Canellakis being the first woman to lead the orchestra on opening night, premiering Zosha Di Castri’s Long Is the Journey, Short Is the Memory. In her four-star review our critic Erica Jeal said: “A woman conducting music by a woman on the first night, for the first time, feels like progress.”
The Royal Albert Hall was notorious for roasting temperatures but the organisers assure us that there are air chillers in the hall. The late-night Proms (starting at 10pm) often have seats available at the last minute.
Van Gogh and Britain – at Tate Britain, London, until 11 August
Reviews of this show were mixed, some saying the British influence on Van Gogh was overblown. The Guardian’s Jonathan Jones commented: “There’s a good show trapped within this flabby blockbuster, which suggests Britain’s peasoupers and smoky tube stations inspired Van Gogh’s light-filled hymns to life.”
Make up your own mind by catching the exhibition in its final weeks.
Kinky Boots – at the Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff, until 3 August
The Olivier award winning musical struts into Cardiff. In Michael Billington’s review he called the production a “gloriously rebooted musical that never drags”.
He praised the Harvey Fierstein/Cyndi Lauper update of the 2005 film for “the verve of its staging and its conviction, in its fetishistic worship of thigh-high boots, that there’s no business like shoe business.”
The Matrix: 20th Anniversary (4K restoration) – in cinemas now
What better way to escape the heat than taking the red pill and going down the rabbit hole? The classic sci-fi movie is back on the big screen for its 20th anniversary in a 4K restoration.
In his new review, the Guardian’s film critic Peter Bradshaw said the film “stands up as a fiercely exciting and discombobulating futurist drama, which pioneered breathtaking ‘bullet-time’ action sequences inspired by Asian martial arts”.
Keith Haring – at Tate Liverpool until 10 November
Adrian Searle called the first major UK show of the New York artist who died at 31 from Aids-related illness a “horribly prescient exhibition”.
He said: “For a gay man in the 80s, the end was all too present and personal. Through all this, Haring’s art – and it was art of a high order when seen in full – never lost its grip. Making work increasingly terrible and apocalyptic in its own visions, he somehow still manages to exhilarate us through it all.”
The Dead Don’t Die – in cinemas now
Cool off with the king of indie cool, Jim Jarmusch. The director’s latest, a zombie flick, boasts an all-star cast with Bill Murray, Adam Driver and Chloë Sevigny in the lead as cops hunting the undead. Peter Bradshaw thought the film was a mixed bag in his 3-star review but said: “There is much pleasure to be had looking at the impassive, knowing faces of Sevigny, Driver and especially Murray, who don’t need to say or do much to be extremely watchable and funny.”
In an interview with the Observer, Jarmusch said the film was a response to the growing climate crisis which left him feeling helpless. He said: “the looming environmental crisis just became more and more of a cloud. I was working on this film for two years, and during that time it was as if the planet was changing on an almost daily basis.”
The Lehman Trilogy – at the Piccadilly theatre, London, until 31 August and broadcast in cinemas nationwide on Thursday 25 July
The five-time Olivier award-nominated play first captivated audiences at the National Theatre last year, and then transferred to New York for a limited run. It is now back on our shores in the West End with Oscar winner Sam Mendes directing Simon Russell Beale, Adam Godley and Ben Miles who play the Lehman Brothers, their sons and grandsons.
Ben Power’s adaptation of Stefano Massini’s play tells the story of American capitalism through the 163-year history of the firm. The Guardian’s theatre critic Michael Billington gave the play five stars and said it “makes for a remarkable evening, which offers a kaleidoscopic social and political metaphor while reminding us that one of the reasons we go to the theatre is to watch superb acting”.
The Edge – in cinemas now
If you still haven’t come down from the high of England winning the Cricket World Cup, you can catch the perfectly timed documentary The Edge, about the reinvention of English cricket. In Mike McCahill’s review he said director Barney Douglas defies decades of film-making indifference and shows “cricket can be cinematic: at once widescreen and closeup in its duels between batsmen and bowlers”.
