FILM
The Wolfpack
Six New York brothers, raised in an apartment by a fearful father who restricted their access to the world, have one point of access to civilisation: movies. From Pulp Fiction to The Dark Knight, they transcribe the scripts then perform them in full costume. But they can’t stay indoors for ever, and Crystal Moselle’s documentary captures the moment they begin to taste freedom. There are more questions than answers, but there’s no denying the poignancy of seeing these gentle figures experience a life beyond their TV set. Ryan Gilbey
The rest of this week’s new films
MUSIC
Four Tet
(ICA, London, Tuesday)
A DJ, producer and enthusiast, Kieran Hebden’s reputation originally stemmed from the bucolic breaks that were called – as were those by Caribou – “folktronica”. But from a starting point in post-rock (there was a late 90s band, Fridge), his subsequent interest in jazz and techno have melded into some challenging third-stream works, such as his electronic free-jazz improvs with drummer Steve Reid. Throughout, an enduring quality in Hebden’s work as Four Tet has been a sense of scale. One of his first releases was a meandering 36-minute piece called Thirtysixtwentyfive, and the entrancing power of longform composition is dominant in his new album, Morning/Evening. The title reflects an interest in Indian raga (it makes entrancing use of work by the Indian singer Lata Mangeshkar) while channelling Terry Riley’s spiritual minimalism in a contemporary club vibe. John Robinson
The rest of this week’s live music
Read our interview with Four Tet
TALKS
Marvin Gaye Chetwynd
(Edinburgh art festival kiosk, Sunday)
In the early 2000s, the artist now known as Marvin Gaye Chetwynd (nee Alalia, formerly Spartacus) hosted nudist barbecues at her shared house in south London – ribald affairs that were half chaotic performance festival, half student party – and happily this sense of fun and anarchy has never left her work. Now with a Turner prize nomination to her name, the artist is the centrepiece of this year’s Edinburgh art festival. She is presenting an installation indebted to the scenography of Czech stage designer Josef Svoboda, and a daily performance by a cast of 10 non-professional actors that takes it cue from Mary Renault’s The King Must Die, the author’s 1958 literary romp through the Greek myth of Theseus. So, despite the bookish references, Chetwynd’s conversation with academic Neil Mulholland is sure to be a far from dry affair. Oliver Basciano
EXHIBITIONS
Josh Kline
(Modern Art Oxford, Saturday to 18 October)
When it premiered at the New Museum’s art triennial in New York earlier this year, Josh Kline’s video installation Freedom was an instant hit, used by countless critics to sum up that survey show’s dystopian post-internet vision. Now making its UK debut, it features Teletubbies dressed in riot gear, with actors reading social media feeds about torture on the screens in their bellies. The highlight, though, is a video in which President Obama’s features are mapped on to an actor’s to give a no-holds-barred speech that never actually happened. In place of smooth politicking he outwardly decries an America split by hatred. OK, Kline’s mix of real-world horrors versus disembodied digital life isn’t exactly subtle, but his commentary on soft power uses direct punches to get an urgent message across. Skye Sherwin
The rest of this week’s exhibitions
TV
Goodness Gracious Me
(Tuesday, BBC2, 10pm)
This one-off special is a reminder of how funny Goodness Gracious Me is. Meera Syal and Nina Wadia are the Competitive Goddesses, sitting on clouds totting up how many worshippers they have on their smartphones. Meanwhile, Captain Brownadder takes to the trenches, and Gandhi is reinvented in a Martin Scorsese film. One of the highlights sees the India Broadcast Company, home of “lavish new costume drama, Brownton Abbey”, deal with a new head of diversity who suggests an English season. Hannah Verdier
COMEDY
Nish Kumar: Long Word… Long Word… Blah Blah Blah… I’m So Clever
(Pleasance Courtyard, to 30 August)
In previous years, Nish Kumar has offered us fringe shows with self-consciously smug titles such as Ruminations On The Nature Of Subjectivity. The confidence with which he sends himself up in this year’s title is an indication of just how well his shtick – a mixture of self-deprecating humour and the comic exploration of Big Ideas – is going down. This time, he’s taking it upon himself to tackle the crisis of the left, looking at Ed Miliband’s electoral failure and asking why we all moan about the excesses of capitalism and yet allow it to flourish unchecked. In someone else’s hands, this could be a riotous call to action, but Kumar is a more pipe-and-slippers scholar, playing around with philosophical concepts and exposing nonsense logic. James Kettle
The rest of this week’s comedy
Nish Kumar and other comics on the topics they’d never joke about
FILM EVENT
FrightFest
(Vue West End, London, Thursday to 31 August)
It wouldn’t feel like the end of summer without FrightFest, the long weekend of horror previews known as the Woodstock of gore. Top of the pile this year is a new Frankenstein, in which the Monster is created by scientists on a 3D printer. Candyman director Bernard Rose should ensure this is classy as well as creepy. Other highlights include New Zealand comedy Deathgasm, about a metal band that inadvertently summons the ancient evil entity Aeloth The Blind One, and AAAAAAAAH!, the directorial debut of Sightseers star Steve Oram, who stars alongside The Mighty Boosh’s Julian Barratt in the anarchic tale of a suburb conversing in its own primal language. RG
The rest of this week’s film events
THEATRE
Lanark: A Life In Three Acts
(Lyceum, Edinburgh, Sunday to 31 August)
David Greig’s adaptation of Alasdair Gray’s 1981 novel will run to almost four hours in Graham Eatough’s production, but it’s unlikely to drag. That’s largely due to Gray’s singular vision: he drew on reality and the fantastical to create a gripping world that is both familiar and strange, something that led Anthony Burgess to call him the first major Scottish novelist since Walter Scott. Gray’s dystopian story is set in a world that in many ways resembles Glasgow, but which features lost memories, a sort-of hospital where the patients are eaten, horrible diseases, political chaos and economic strife. It’s rich material and Greig and Eatough should be the duo to crack it. Lyn Gardner
The rest of this week’s theatre
CLUBS
Reviveher
(The Jetty, London, Saturday)
Lying in the shadow of the Millennium Dome, the Emirates Air Line and other preposterous east London white elephants is the Jetty, a pop-up venue in the middle of the Thames which is playing host to this excellent daytime free party. It’s topped by Suzanne Kraft, AKA Los Angeleno bloke Diego Herrera, whose recent EP Talk From Home featured sparse, Junior Boys-style yacht rock ballads – but as his Dude Energy alter ego shows, he’s also well versed in sunstroked Italo disco. He’s supported by DJ Nature, who cropped up first in the early 90s with a jazzy flip on jacking house, went to ground, and then re-emerged 20 years later for another bout of lithe grooves. Assisted by a few cocktails and some milky sunshine, it’ll turn your Saturday into a bleary simulacrum of Mediterranean holidaying. Ben Beaumont-Thomas
DANCE
Ballett Zürich
(Playhouse, Edinburgh, Thursday to 29 August)
Christian Spuck is one of the most interesting theatrical voices in European ballet, displaying a distinctive combination of modern and classical style. As newly appointed director of Zürich he’s bringing that breadth of vision to the company’s repertory. For this double bill, Spuck presents his own Sonett – a narrative woven out of the romantic world of Shakespeare’s sonnets – and the UK premiere of Wayne McGregor’s Kairos. This special Zurich commission is set to Max Richter’s vivid re-imagining of Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons, which will also be performed live by violinist Daniel Hope and the BBC SSO on Monday. Judith Mackrell
