Arts Calendar: Happenings for the Week of August 6

Film

• “The Last Voyage of Demeter” (Aug. 11): If sailors thought scurvy was the scariest threat they’d face at sea they’d be wrong—at least if they had Dracula on board as an unwelcome stowaway. The new film from André Øvredal (“The Autopsy of Jane Doe”), based on a chapter of Bram Stoker’s classic horror novel, stars Corey Hawkins, Aisling Franciosi, Liam Cunningham, David Dastmalchian and Javier Botet in a tale of nautical haunting.

• “Jules” (Aug. 11): An elderly man enjoys a quiet if boring life in a small Pennsylvania town until a UFO crashes into his backyard. Ben Kingsley plays the startled protagonist in the latest from Marc Turtletaub.

• “Medusa Deluxe” (Aug. 11): When a participant in a hairdressing contest turns up dead, split ends become the least of the competitors’ worries in this murder mystery. Thomas Hardiman makes his feature directorial debut, leading a cast that includes Clare Perkins, Kae Alexander, Darrell D’Silva and Luke Pasqualino.

• “Aurora’s Sunrise” (Aug. 11): Inna Sahakyan’s animated documentary, Armenia’s entry to the 2023 Oscars, tells the story of Aurora Mardiganian, a survivor of the Armenian Genocide who was sent on death marches, sold into slavery, and eventually escaped and made her way to New York. There she became an actress and writer, playing herself in a 1919 silent film about the atrocities.

• “Between Two Worlds” (Aug. 11): As recounted in Florence Aubenas’s much-lauded book “The Night Cleaner,” the journalist went undercover as an unskilled laborer and found precarious work during a recession. Now, a French drama directed by Emmanuel Carrère (“The Adversary”) draws from that work, with Juliette Binoche in the role of a journo-turned-janitor.

• “The Eternal Memory” (Aug. 11): Winner of a Grand Jury Prize at Sundance, this documentary from Maite Alberdi (whose “The Mole Agent” got an Oscar nom for Best Documentary) follows the relationship between Chilean journalist Augusto Góngora and actress Paulina Urrutia, who have been together for over two decades, as Augusto slips further into Alzheimer’s and Paulina cares for him. 

• “King Coal” (Aug. 11): Coal is a heated subject, both literally and figuratively, touching on America’s culture, economy, life and politics in ways few other topics can. Documentarian Elaine McMillion Sheldon looks at the place of coal in our collective history through the tale of a miner’s daughter in modern Appalachia. 

• “Love Life” (Aug. 11): After winning praise on the festival circuit, Koji Fukada’s drama arrives in U.S. theaters. A happy Japanese couple has their life upended when the father of the wife’s son shows up in their life in a tragic fashion.

• “The Pod Generation” (Aug. 11): There’s so much stuff that goes into preparing for a birth: the books, the crib, the clothes, the artificial robot womb. That last one might not be on baby registries yet, but in the futuristic New York of Sophie Barthes’s sci-fi rom-com, it’s par for the pregnancy course. Emilia Clarke and Chiwetel Ejiofor star as the tech-beholden parents at the center of the story. 

TV

• “Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty,” season 2 (HBO, Aug. 6): The Adam McKay -produced drama about the ascendance of the seemingly unstoppable 1980s Lakers—see: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, Michael Cooper,

• “Hard Knocks” (HBO, Aug. 8): HBO is happy to tell sports stories across the spectrum. This latest installment in its longrunning NFL documentary series goes behind the scenes with the New York Jets—the team’s second appearance in the show—as they look to improve on last year’s 7-10 season with the newly traded (but aging) Aaron Rodgers under center.  

• “Only Murders in the Building,” season 3 (Hulu, Aug. 8): Paul Rudd joins the cast of the hit comedy/mystery series as an actor starring in a play directed by Martin Short’s character. Other additions to the cast include Ashley Park, Meryl Streep and Jesse Williams, while Steve Martin, Selena Gomez and other familiar faces are among the returning talent. 

• “Strange Planet” (Apple TV+, Aug. 9): With the help of “Rick & Morty” co-creator Dan Harmon, Nathan W. Pyle gives the TV treatment to his webcomic about blue aliens who are amazed by activities that the Earth-bound would find quotidian. TV on the Radio frontman Tunde Adebimpe joins Danny Pudi (“Community”) and Lori Tan Chinn in voicing the easily amused extraterrestrials.

• “Painkiller” (Netflix, Aug. 10): Peter Berg (“Friday Night Lights”) directs this six-part drama, based on the book of the same name by Barry Meier and Patrick Radden Keefe’s New Yorker story about the Sackler family, that tells the saga of America’s opiate-addiction crisis. Uzo Aduba, Matthew Broderick, Sam Anderson and

• “Heart of Stone” (Netflix, Aug. 11): Gal Gadot hangs up her golden lasso for a moment to embark on a different kind of adventure, this one more covert than her gig as Wonder Woman. An international agent with the usual deadly and dexterous résumé, her Rachel Stone is tasked with making sure a secret weapon doesn’t fall into the wrong hands. Jamie Dornan co-stars in the film directed by “Peaky Blinders” alum Tom Harper.

• “Red, White & Royal Blue” (Prime Video, Aug. 11): The enemies-become-lovers setup gets an international-relations twist when the son of the U.S. president and the Prince of Wales are thrown together to make nice after a public spat only to discover a new side to the transatlantic “special relationship.” Based on Casey McQuiston’s bestseller and directed by Matthew López (the Tony-winning writer of “The Inheritance”), the film stars Taylor Zakhar Perez, Nicholas Galitzine, Uma Thurman and Stephen Fry.

Theater

• “The Shark Is Broken” (John Golden Theatre, New York, opens Aug. 10): We’re gonna need a bigger boat—or at least a prop that works. After successful runs at the Edinburgh Fringe and in London, this comedy dives into the making of “Jaws” and the technical—and personal—difficulties that had to be overcome to create the summer classic. 

Music

• Lincoln Center Celebrates the 50th Anniversary of Hip-Hop (Various Locations, New York, Aug. 9-12): We live in a world that’s impossible to imagine without hip-hop, so wide has its influence been—not just on music, but art, fashion, film, sports and beyond. But there was a time, not all that long ago, when it was far from ubiquitous. Born in the Bronx in the summer of ’73, the movement now celebrates its Golden Jubilee and Lincoln Center is throwing it a party—or rather a series of parties. Dancing, musical performances, improvisation and other events pop up across the city in this series whose participants include Arthur Verocai, Rakim and more.

• Johnathan Blake, “Passage” (Aug. 11): The second Blue Note album from the jazz drummer, composer and bandleader is a labor of love dedicated to and honoring his late father. It again features his electrifying group, Pentad, which comprises Immanuel Wilkins on alto saxophone, Joel Ross on vibraphone, David Virelles on piano and Dezron Douglas on bass.

• Bonnie “Prince” Billy, “Keeping Secrets Will Destroy You” (Aug. 11): The singer-songwriter Will Oldham, who now performs as Bonnie “Prince” Billy, returns with the latest addition to his very deep catalog, a record that finds the 53-year-old operating in a slightly lower register than before while still experimenting with sound and lyrics in the way that has earned him a loyal following. 

• Neil Young, “Chrome Dreams” (Aug. 11): True Neil Young fans might have already heard a version of his latest record—his 44th. Compiled in 1977 but never released, a bootleg version has been circulating for decades. Now fans of the folk-country mainstay will be able to get their hands on an authorized version.

Art

• “James Brooks: A Painting Is a Real Thing” (Parrish Art Museum, Water Mill, N.Y., Aug. 6–Oct. 15):  The first major retrospective in 35 years of the artist who dedicated himself to painting throughout his career, this show contains over 100 objects, revealing the stunning breadth of styles Brooks embraced in his practice, from experiments in Abstract Expressionism to impressionism-influenced vistas to realist draftsmanship.

• “Jammie Holmes: Make the Revolution Irresistible” (Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas, Aug. 11–Nov. 26): The first solo museum show of the contemporary realist’s works, this exhibition explores the Dallas-based artist’s treatments of race, masculinity and mourning with a particular eye to the context of the American South. With some 15 paintings spanning his career, MAMFW examines how the Louisiana-born Holmes has grappled with his place—socially, culturally, artistically—within the region and how art can be used as a vehicle for both self-affirmation and vulnerability. 

• “Jegi: Korean Ritual Objects” (The Met Fifth Avenue, New York, Aug. 6-Oct. 15): Ritual continues to play an important role across our lives—birthdays, weddings, funerals—and it was no different during Korea’s lengthy Joseon dynasty (1392-1910), with rituals we’re intimately familiar with today in the West, as well as more culturally unique celebrations: remembrances of deceased ancestors many generations on, the Lunar New Year, Chuseok (the Harvest Moon Festival). A show at the Met highlights the items that held offerings of food and drink, as well as accessories that have been an integral part of these ceremonies across the centuries.

• “LA Art Book Fair” (The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, Los Angeles, Aug. 10-13): Now 10 years old, Printed Matter’s LA Art Book Fair—the first since 2019, after a lengthy Covid-imposed hiatus—features publishers ranging from the hyper-indie to the institutional who offer the most engaging artists’ books on the market along with a series of book releases, talks, performances and more. 

Last Call

• “Georgia O’Keeffe: To See Takes Time” (Museum of Modern Art, New York, through Aug. 12): This exhibition of some 120 works on paper, made in series, explores O’Keeffe’s creative process and crafts an argument for her as an intimate abstractionist. The museum’s first solo show dedicated to her in decades, it reveals how, in the words of our critic, “at her best, O’Keeffe distills the world into essences.”

• “Jaune Quick-to-See Smith: Memory Map” (Whitney Museum, New York, through Aug. 13): Ms. Smith, a member of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, receives her first New York retrospective. Collecting drawings, prints, paintings and sculptures by the 83-year-old, the exhibition reveals her far-flung art-historical influences, from Pop to neo-expressionism, filtered through her unique perspectives as a Native American artist.

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