Our critics’ guide to a summer of music, movies and culture
Guardian culture writers Alex Needham, Ellen E Jones and Michael Cragg make their picks of the best of this summer in arts and culture
With festival season about to begin, blockbusters scheduled for the big screen and newspapers filling up with lists of summer reading, the Guardian culture writers Alex Needham, Ellen E Jones and Michael Cragg take Nosheen Iqbal on a guided tour of the summer.
Films
The Meg 2: The Trench (Warner Bros Pictures). Release date: 4 August.
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (Lucasfilm). Release date: 30 June.
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part 1 (Paramount Pictures). Release date: 14 July.
Asteroid City (Focus Features). Release date: 23 June.
No Hard Feelings (Sony Pictures Entertainment). Release date: 23 June.
Sunlight (Wildcard Distribution). Release date: 16 June.
Pretty Red Dress (Protagonist Pictures). Release date: 16 June.
Music
Guns N’ Roses – Paradise City (Geffen, 1987).
Lana del Rey – Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd (Interscope/Polydor 2023).
Lil Nas X – Industry Baby (Columbia, 2021).
Calvin Harris, Ellie Goulding – Miracle (Sony, 2023).
Kim Petras, Nicki Minaj – Alone (Amigo/Republic, 2023).
The Dare – The Sex (Republic, 2023).
Blur – The Ballad of Darren (album). Release date: 21 July.
Ashnikko – Weedkiller (album). Release date: 25 August.
PJ Harvey – I Inside the Old Year Dying (album). Release date: 7 July.
Classical music
The Proms – 14 July to 9 September.
Edinburgh International Festival – 4-27 August.
Theatre
Dear England by James Graham. National Theatre, London – 10 June to 11 August.
Comedy
Lucy McCormick – Lucy and Friends. Edinburgh Fringe, Pleasance Courtyard – 2-23 August.
Dane Baptiste – Bapsquire. Edinburgh Fringe, Monkey Barrel Comedy (The Hive) – 14-27 August.
Art
National Portrait Gallery, London. Reopens 22 June.
Books
Season of the Witch: The Book of Goth by Cathi Unsworth (Bonnier Books Ltd).
The Art of Darkness: The History of Goth by John Robb (Manchester University Press ).
Curepedia: An A-Z of The Cure by Simon Price (White Rabbit). Published 9 November.
The Late Americans by Brandon Taylor (Jonathan Cape). Published 22 June.
Walking Through Clear Water in a Pool Painted Black by Cookie Mueller (Canongate Books).
Quietly Hostile by Samantha Irby (Vintage).
The Guardian is editorially independent. And we want to keep our journalism open and accessible to all. But we increasingly need our readers to fund our work.
Support The Guardian