Five of the best … films

Blinded By the Light (12A)

(Gurinder Chadha, 2019, UK) 117 mins

Bruce Springsteen might not be to everyone’s taste, but Gurinder Chadha’s cheerfully uncool jukebox romcom makes a good case for his fandom. Newcomer Viveik Kalra steals the show as budding journalist Javed, whose discovery of the Boss in grey late-1980s Luton unleashes his inner poet and gives him the courage to fight back against his domineering father.

Good Boys (15)

(Gene Stupnitsky, 2019, US) 90 mins

Films like this used to dominate the summer, so it is almost a nostalgic treat to see pre-teens swearing and behaving borderline-inappropriately in a wafer-thin plot involving an older kid’s party, a missing drone and a bag of MDMA. The new Superbad it isn’t, but Jacob Tremblay shows a precocious flair for deadpan timing to rival producer Seth Rogen.

Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood (18)

(Quentin Tarantino, 2019, UK/US/Chi) 161 mins

Tarantino’s latest is a Californian dream, in which TV cowboy Rick (Leonardo DiCaprio), his stunt double Cliff (Brad Pitt) and their starlet neighbour Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie) compete for screen time as they potter about in 1969 LA. It ends in carnage, but that’s really a postscript to a freewheeling study of Hollywood hierarchy.

JT LeRoy (15)

(Justin Kelly, 2018, UK/Can/US) 104 mins

After the comprehensive documentary Author, does the world really need another take on the story of JT LeRoy, the street hustler-turned-literary sensation who turned out to be a fraud? This slightly more sympathetic Kristen Stewart vehicle may not be essential, but it does flip this tall tale to show it from another angle – that of Savannah Koop, the girl roped in to create LeRoy.

Leto (15)

(Kirill Serebrennikov, 2018, Rus/Fr) 128 mins

Russian rock lyrics, which read like Bolshevik poetry, don’t really translate well to subtitles, which is why this sincere, somewhat
(but not entirely) factual black-and-white portrait of then-Leningrad’s flowering 80s music scene doesn’t fly by. That said, there are some wonderfully surreal moments that punctuate the central love triangle between a rocker, his protege and his wife.

DW

Five of the best ... rock & pop

Ariana Grande

In the time between announcing and starting this world tour in support of fourth album Sweetener, high-ponytail enthusiast Grande went and released another one in the shape of February’s Thank U, Next. The result is a setlist that crams in 29 songs, 14 proper hits and more glorious, high-pitched whistle notes than a Mariah Carey vocal warm-up.
The O2, SE10, Saturday 17, Monday 19 & Tuesday 20 August; touring to 25 September

Lil Baby

Like most modern-day rappers with ridiculous monikers, Atlanta’s Lil Baby understands the benefits of collaboration. His biggest hits so far have involved Drake (Yes Indeed) and Gunna (Drip Too Hard), while last month he cropped up on a remix by sad-bop expert Lykke Li. Expect some mates at these UK shows.
O2 Academy Brixton, SW9, Wednesday 21; Reading & Leeds festival, Friday 23 to 25 August

Lion Babe

New York duo Lion Babe, AKA songwriter-vocalist Jillian Hervey and producer Lucas Goodman, may only be two albums into their career but they have been making high-definition R&B since 2012, with Hervey in particular surrounded by all things showbiz since birth (she is the daughter of singer, actor and model Vanessa Williams). Pharrell is a fan, which possibly doesn’t mean as much as it used to, but don’t let that put you off.
Oslo, E8, Thursday 22 August

Creamfields

Dance music’s biggest blowout returns with a stellar lineup mixing glowstick-ready chart-botherers – Calvin Harris, Martin Garrix and Afrojack – with the genre’s more experimental pioneers such as Black Madonna and Peggy Gou. For older shoe-shufflers there is also nostalgia courtesy of Fatboy Slim, the Chemical Brothers and, of course, a Faithless DJ set.
Daresbury Estate, nr Warrington, Thursday 22 to 25 August

MC

Beware of the Bear

From mutations of New York postbop to crossovers with classical artists, plus fresh angles on hip-hop, electronica or the hard-rocking fusions of Donny McCaslin, the work of prize-winning UK saxist-composer Phil Meadows keeps on growing, and blithely bypassing generic frontiers. This is his latest adventure, featuring innovative guitarist Michael De Souza.
PizzaExpress Jazz Club, W1, Monday 19 August

JF

Three of the best ... classical concerts

Breaking the Waves

Missy Mazzoli’s opera, adapted from Lars von Trier’s controversial 1996 movie, was greeted with enormous enthusiasm when it received its premiere in Philadelphia in 2016. Breaking the Waves now comes to Europe in a co-production between Opera Ventures and Scottish Opera. The new staging is directed by Tom Morris and conducted by Stuart Stratford. Sydney Mancasola stars as strict Scottish Calvinist Bess, whose Norwegian husband Jan, sung by Duncan Rock, is injured on an oil rig and encourages his wife to take lovers and tell him about her liaisons.
King’s Theatre, Edinburgh, Wednesday 21 to 24 August

Les Bandar-Log

Simon Rattle’s Prom with the London Symphony Orchestra ends with a choral favourite, Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast. But the first half is much more adventurous. There is the original version of Edgard Varèse’s Amériques as well as a rare chance to hear Charles Koechlin’s Les Bandar-Log, part of a cycle of symphonic poems based upon Kipling’s The Jungle Book. It is an exhilarating demonstration of the French composer’s virtuosity, featuring parodies of modernist styles including the 12-tone method.
Royal Albert Hall, SW7, Tuesday 20 August

The Hunger

Based upon a first-person account of the 1840s Irish famine, Donnacha Dennehy’s music-theatre piece, a “docu-cantata”, receives its first staged performances in Tom Creed’s production. The score incorporates traditional Irish songs alongside his own music, with soprano Katherine Manley and sean-nós singer Iarla Ó Lionáird as the soloists, plus Dennehy’s own Crash Ensemble.
Abbey Theatre: Abbey Stage, Dublin, Monday 19 to 24 August

AC

Five of the best ... exhibitions

The Moon

It was at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich that early astronomers such as Halley studied the moon. So it’s a great location for this blockbuster that marks the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11. When Armstrong made that step, he was standing on the shoulders of so many dreamers with telescopes.
National Maritime Museum, SE10 to 5 January

Lee Krasner

In the 1940s, American art burst out of provincialism as Manhattan became the home of the new. The abstract expressionists painted with a freedom and scale that suited New York. Lee Krasner splashed paint about with the best of them but subordinated her success to that of her husband Jackson Pollock. Here she gets her due.
Barbican Art Gallery, EC2, to 1 September

Dóra Maurer

This Hungarian conceptual artist was part of a dissident art scene under communist one-party rule in the 1970s and 80s. She used found materials, photography and film to create quirkily individualist pieces that rejected the conformism of official art and life. But this career survey is not just a history lesson. Today, Maurer makes dazzling paintings whose abstract exploration of order and disorder is taking her life’s work to another level.
Tate Modern, SE1, to 5 July

Wild and Majestic

The image of Scotland was reinvented in the Romantic age, when the novels of Walter Scott popularised its history and painters including JMW Turner trekked to such spectacular locations as Fingal’s Cave in search of natural grandeur. This exhibition looks at the rise of Highland tourism, the cult of tartan and other aspects of an age that still shapes how Scotland is imagined.
National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh, to 10 November

Bridget Riley

This is a scintillating retrospective of Britain’s most uplifting modern artist. Riley’s intelligence and passion leaves you in ecstasies. Her black-and-white optical paintings of the 1960s create a magical mystery tour through unreal spaces that warp and wave before your eyes – or rather in the mind. Her colour paintings take you still further into realms of bliss. Unmissable.
Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh, to 22 September

JJ

Five of the best ... theatre shows

Roots

Theatre company 1927 doesn’t do many shows but when it does they dazzle (see The Animals and Children Took to the Streets and Golem). Roots is its fourth stage show and is based on thousands of little-known and undoubtedly quirky folk tales. Expect beautifully crafted animation that somehow manages to feel both slick and old school. There is also a live musical score involving, um, donkeys’ jaws, musical saws and Peruvian prayer boxes.
Church Hill Theatre, Edinburgh, to 25 August

Fleabag

After two TV series and a New York run, Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s smash-hit play returns to the West End for a final victory lap. She has said this is the last time she’ll play the role, largely because she’s a fair bit older than her memorable twentysomething creation. So this is your final chance to catch Waller-Bridge in the sexually charged, sharp-tongued role that set her career soaring.
Wyndham’s Theatre, WC2, Tuesday 20 August to 14 September

Torch Song

Another month, another new theatre in London. The Turbine Theatre is part of the Battersea Power Station redevelopment and will open with a revival of Harvey Fierstein’s Tony award-winning musical. Star choreographer Drew McOnie directs and Matthew Needham (Summer and Smoke) will star as Arnold, a Jewish drag queen in 70s/80s New York.
The Turbine Theatre, SW11, Thursday 22 August to 13 October

Appropriate

US playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins is finally becoming a household name over here and it is about time: he is such an exciting talent. Appropriate is a fierce and haunting drama set in an old plantation home in Mississippi, where a family gather after their dad’s death and unearth some chilling home truths. The director is Ola Ince, responsible for the Royal Court’s Poet in da Corner.
Donmar Warehouse, WC2, to 5 October

Roundabout @ Summerhall

Paines Plough’s Roundabout plays are always packed with class and creativity, each as distinctive as the next. Highlights include Charley Miles’s Daughterhood, about two sisters who reunite after 10 years chasing very different dreams. Islander is a Scottish folk-infused musical from Stewart Melton and Finn Anderson, and Tim Cowbury’s new play, The Claim, is a probing response to the stories of those seeking refuge in the UK.
Summerhall, Edinburgh, to 25 August

MG

Three of the best ... dance shows

Hard to Be Soft: A Belfast Prayer

DJ and film composer David Holmes provides the soundtrack for this dance piece from a really intriguing and original young artist, Oona Doherty, who also stars in it. The show finds inspiration in Doherty’s (and Holmes’s) home city of Belfast, lifting the lid on the macho veneers of its hardened men and the women who are just as tough.
Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, Wednesday 21 to 24 August

Dane Hurst: Falling Man

The superlative former Rambert dancer Hurst is carving out a new career as a choreographer. His latest work, Falling Man, looks at male mental health and suicide and is created in collaboration with composer and visual artist Tom Rowland.
Wilton’s Music Hall, E1, Monday 19 & Tuesday 20 August

Born to Manifest & Like Honey

The fringe is the place to discover new talent, so try this double bill from Joseph Toonga and Becky Namgauds, respectively. They both fuse hip-hop and contemporary dance to address issues from black male identity to menstruation.
Dance Base, Edinburgh, Thursday 22 to 25 August

LW

Main composite image: Tristram Kenton/The Guardian; © Bridget Riley; Kevin Mazur; Kobal/Rex/Shutterstock