In a long-running franchise that has always relied on its male leads as the driver of its emotional narrative, Toy Story 5 provides a refreshing shift. The fifth film in the series is all about Jessie, who entered the story as a fairly flat romantic interest and now finally has her own emotional and narrative arc. The other main character, against whom Jessie fights valiantly, is Big Tech – with the film providing a surprisingly nuanced critique of the effect of devices on children’s development. Toy Story 4 went off the rails a bit, so my hopes for this one weren’t high, but in the end I absolutely loved it. Highly recommend.

Lucia Osborne-Crowley, Nerve writer

It’s the first time that all the floors of this influential gallery have been taken over by one show (plus there are the enormous prints hanging on the walls outside, around Soho’s Photography Quarter). This is a magnificent exhibition which puts Japanese female photographers whose work has often been overlooked and under-represented front and centre. Twenty-eight artists are included, from trailblazers like Tokiwa Toyoko (1930-2019), who shot working-class women as the country emerged from the second world war, to the saturated colour images of Ninagawa Mika (born 1972) and including the extraordinary self-portraits of Katayama Mari (born 1987) who, after being born with tibial hemimelia, decided at the age of nine to have her lower legs amputated. Note that the gallery is free on Fridays from 5pm.

Jane Ferguson, Nerve co-founder

Twelve years on from the death of the comedy disruptor, this well-researched and poignant documentary features interviews with Mayall’s collaborators, including Adrian Edmondson, Nigel Planer, Greg Davies and Ben Elton. His children describe the real man behind the persona, his difficult relationship with fame, and that punk spirit which could sometimes get him in terrible trouble. Remember the quad bike crash that almost killed him? 

The sometimes sad details of his inner life do not overshadow the achievements of his comic career, nor the place he holds in the hearts of so many. “We should mostly remember,” says a tearful Edmondson, “that he was a fucking genius.” At 11pm the same evening, Sky Arts will screen a selection of his lesser-known comic work, Rik Mayall’s Sketches: Rare and Unseen.

Julia Raeside, writer

Edinburgh artist Wendy McMurdo has spent over three decades experimenting with photography and digital media, her work frequently focusing on children and the ways in which their lives are shaped by rapidly evolving technology. This compelling exhibition brings together work from across her career: uncanny shots of children on computers, the devices digitally erased, leaving them staring into nothingness; entertaining images of school trips to museums around Edinburgh; a vast digital animation depicting silvery glyphs suspended in classrooms. There are also a few works by other artists that inspired McMurdo: most strikingly, her 2009 photo of a pink-leotarded ice-skater suspended in midair is displayed next to Henry Raeburn’s much-loved painting The Skating Minister. It is provocative stuff – and timely, too, considering the current debate around social media and the under-16s.

Fergus Morgan, writer

Orton shot to fame in the late 90s with her trip-hop-edged songs, but in recent years she’s settled on a more classic, Americana sound. Now firmly in the production saddle, she returns with her first album since 2022’s Weather Alive, blending that earthy twang with searching, improvisational, spiritual jazz textures. Orton has said this new music came partly from lucid dreaming – reflected in The Ground Above’s spectral soundscapes, like looking out over a prairie at dusk – and partly from the entanglement of grief, love and one’s “capacity for joy”. It’s an exceptionally atmospheric lone wolf of an album, padding along dusty paths at night in search of stars. An all-star cast of players including Portishead’s Adrian Utley, American singer-songwriter Nick Hakim and killer London trio Dave Okumu, Tom Herbert and the Smile’s Tom Skinner help to gild the gravitas.

Kate Hutchinson, Nerve music critic

"This is the world's greatest how-to video," Benedict Cumberbatch claims in the opening few minutes of How to Live on Earth. It's a bold statement, one John Wilson might take umbrage with. But it comes from a worthy place, as the actor narrates a journey around the world to show just how humanity can work with nature to reverse ecological decline. 

From the team behind David Attenborough's Planet Earth series, and with music from Hans Zimmer, the documentary is cinematic in scale, zoning in on activists, farmers and scientists from Mexico to Singapore, all striving to protect the land, its animals and communities from the climate crisis. They're not reinventing the wheel when it comes to the message, nor does the film really interrogate the complex effects of Big Tech on the planet. Yet it's inspiring, and funny at times too, so hopefully the right people in charge of the systems that are ravaging the Earth will see it and finally understand that conservation is a net positive for the world – and their bottom line as well.

Hanna Flint, writer

FILM
David Byrne’s American Utopia
(Cinemas across the UK and Ireland, 5 August)

For one night only in August, dozens of cinemas will broadcast Spike Lee’s concert film of the former Talking Heads frontman’s acclaimed Broadway show blending music, dance and spoken word alongside classic Talking Heads tracks.

ART
Ai Weiwei: Sewing a Button
(Aviva Studios, Manchester, 3-4 July)

Over a 24-hour period as part of his major show (Button Up!, running from 2 July to 6 September) Ai Weiwei will reenact his 81 days of detention in a single cell in China. Two-hour time slots are available to book.

THEATRE
The Traitors – Acts of Betrayal
(Gillian Lynne theatre, London WC2, from 11 May 2027)

This stage adaptation of the hit game show is written by John Finnemore (Cabin Pressure, Good Omens) and directed by Robert Hastie (Standing at the Sky’s Edge and Operation Mincemeat). Expect alternative endings each night as different players are chosen to wear the cloak.

THEATRE
Golden Boy
(Almeida theatre, London N1, 9 September-31 October)

Tickets go on sale to the general public at midday on 30 June for this staging of Clifford Odets’s 1937 American classic, starring man of the moment Josh O’Connor.