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Articles about Culture | The Guardian
Beth Orton review – battered optimism from an artist making the best music of her career
Concorde 2, Brighton Drawing almost entirely from her last two albums, and backed by a band rooted in jazz and experimentation, Orton performed her emotionally fraught songs to a rapturous crowd The audience at Brighton’s Concorde 2 largely look old enough to have first encountered Beth Orton’s music three decades ago, as it wafted around a smoke-filled living room in the post-club small hours.
Ian McKellen to star in UK premiere of ‘mixed reality’ play – but not in person
Audiences in Manchester will be asked to wear smart glasses for An Ark, which debuted in New York this year Ian McKellen will star in a groundbreaking new play that gets its UK premiere in Manchester next spring. But the veteran actor will not set foot on stage. The Lord of the Rings star is taking part in An Ark, a “mixed reality” play that had its debut in New York earlier this year. Theatregoers are asked to wear smart glasses, which project the actors into the room. Continue reading
Devil in the detail: 100 years on, FW Murnau’s Faust scrapbook reveals the secrets of his silent masterpiece
A rediscovered collection of drawings and on-set photos finally reveals the intricate on-set mysteries of one of early cinema’s most gifted and secretive pioneers
‘Girls aren’t supposed to be cocky’: Sophia Stel on the pressure of writing The Greatest Album Of All Time
Raised as one of 11, the Vancouver artist (and model) is now signed by A24. She talks about her ultra-religious childhood and how – despite her album title – she still suffers from imposter syndrome
Forever Is Now review – political study of former Irish Green leader is like The Thick of It but with morals
Eamon Ryan is shown to be principled, likable and hard working in a glowing portrait, filmed while serving in the country’s coalition government
The Social Reckoning isn’t as angry or as potent as a Facebook drama should be
Aaron Sorkin’s attempt to return to the success of The Social Network is a strangely dated and incomplete look at a world that needs a sharper eye
Generation Maybe by Camilla Cavendish review – what’s really behind the fertility gap?
An evidenced-based account of the difficult choices facing couples across the world – from America to Iran
It’s My Time review – Michelle Yeoh excels in Rocky-style quest to be Rubik’s Cube champ
True story about a former maths teacher who became a puzzle champion in retirement is squeezed into predictable sports-movie formula
Tyson review – deeply icky … and that’s before Trump shows up
This peculiar – some would say truly irresponsible – hagiography of boxing superstar Mike Tyson veers from psychedelics and sobbing to the inadvisable face tattoo via a cameo from the US president
Home is where the jellyfish glows: Finland finally warms to nature-loving modernist Alvar Aalto
His egalitarian homeland used to harbour reservation against the architecture star. But with 13 new Unesco listings and a new exhibition in Helsinki, Aalto’s work is finally getting the recognition it deserves
Peck & Peck by Bonnie Garmus review – the zany follow-up to Lessons in Chemistry
This offbeat tale of machinations at an eccentric poetry magazine in 80s New York is laugh-out-loud funny – and a paean to the power of poetry
Fight the power! Protest and rebellion in America – in pictures
French photographer Jean-Pierre Laffont spent two decades capturing demos, clashes and countercultural gatherings in America. ‘They dreamed of living in a better world,’ he says Continue reading
TV tonight: the advice columnist who sued Donald Trump twice – and won
A riveting documentary about the journalist who took the US president to the cleaners. Plus: John Simpson celebrates 60 years at the Beeb. Here’s what to watch this evening
‘I knew I was being followed’: Keira Knightley on her hacking nightmare – and new Stasi spy play The Lives of Others
As the Oscar-winning Stasi surveillance film hits the stage, Knightley and co-star Luke Thompson talk about the paranoia at its heart, the cost of theatre tickets nowadays – and their fury at ringtones in the stalls
RJ Mitte, actor best known for Breaking Bad, dies aged 34
Mitte, who played Walter White Jr on acclaimed show, had cerebral palsy and advocated for disability representation The Breaking Bad actor RJ Mitte died on Monday aged 34, his representatives confirmed. Mitte died in Brownsville, Texas. No cause of death was given. Continue reading
Being Muslim After 9/11 review – other journalists wouldn’t dare to air this
Mobeen Azhar isn’t afraid to tackle hard topics in a brilliant documentary about the rise of Islamophobia – even when it involves hearing criticism about his own decisions
Selma Blair arrested at JFK after she allegedly attacked flight attendants
Actor, who allegedly punched one Delta attendant, bit another and tried to open plane door, was charged for two separate assaults after the plane landed
BBC to stop recording The Archers in Birmingham for first time in its 75-year history
Plans for a new theatre for world’s longest-running soap in Digbeth scrapped as part of cost-cutting measures The BBC is set to stop recording The Archers in Birmingham for the first time in the show’s 75-year history, after scrapping plans for a radio drama theatre that was to be the new home of the world’s longest-running soap opera. A pledge to move recordings to the so-called Tea Factory, the BBC’s new Birmingham hub in Digbeth, has become the latest victim of the corporation’s £500m cuts plan. Continue reading
Nina review – a riveting series of horribly invasive auditions for The Seagull
Battersea Arts Centre, London Women up for a role as Chekhov’s aspiring actor navigate their meetings with a needling director in a tense show Smile. Introduce yourself. Say you’re such a big fan. Now do whatever he tells you. These are the unspoken rules the women follow as they take turns auditioning in Caroline Williams’ discomforting, rage-fuelled production about men and power and rotting winged roadkill.
Atlantic Requiem review – Önaç gives historical slavery documents howling raging life
LSO St Luke’s, London From syncopated funk to the Latin requiem mass, Gregorian chant to bureaucratic recitative, the score to David Önaç new oratorio, premiered by the London Symphony Orchestra, is serious and beautiful How do you put a value on a human life? If you’re an insurance underwriter that’s not a philosophical question, it’s a practical one. The answer, incidentally, as calculated by Lloyds of London in 1779 was £45: the figure placed on each enslaved person transported across the Atlantic alongside corn, fish and other cargo.
Tarek Atoui’s Turbine Hall review – hallelujah, it’s raining musical instruments!
Tate Modern, London The Lebanese artist has turned trumpets, drums, cones and voices into an ingenious, interconnected sonic beast with funny, sad and mystical results. Prepare to feel the earth move! On the floor of the Turbine Hall, there are wide water basins and huge flattish rough-hewn rocks you might see on moorland or in a desert. You can sit or stand or climb on them. But if you look up, you won’t be able to stop looking up – because it’s raining musical instruments.
Celebrity Traitors’ Julie Hesmondhalgh: theatres should be 100% faithful to ‘local stories’
As she leaves the Traitors castle to star in The Pelicot Trial and receive a lifetime achievement award, the actor has highlighted ‘a loss of regional identity’ caused by funding pressures on UK theatres
Alex Gibney says Universal ‘wavered’ over releasing Elon Musk documentary
The revelation comes after the four-hour film’s Venice premiere drew a string of criticisms and insults from the founder of SpaceXAI
‘When it went double platinum, Andy Burnham gave us the award’: how Courteeners made Not Nineteen Forever
‘In nightclubs, I’d be the dude scribbling lyrics in the corner while everyone else was dancing or copping off’
The Girl from Arles review – Bizet’s music for forgotten rustic tragedy has punch and poetry
Queen Elizabeth Hall, London Bizet’s incidental music for Daudet’s 1872 play The Girl from Arles was given its first UK complete performance by Sir Mark Elder, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and strong soloists in Jeremy Sams’ staging ‘The prettiest music in the world” was how the playwright Alphonse Daudet described the incidental music Bizet composed for his 1872 play The Girl from Arles – which is a bit like describing Carmen, the opera Bizet would compose less than three years later, as a charming little love story.
The Influencer Project review – ick-inducing thriller exploits overexposed tropes
When influencer/singer/content creator Chiara King visits Copenhagen all the trips to trendy shops and fancy restaurants soon take a turn for the worse
The missed opportunity of Jay-Z’s documentary series
Jay-Z in 8, the rap mogul’s HBO docuseries, covers his life and career in effort to mend his image – with no pushback. Why is he so fixated on the court of public opinion?
Sindhu Vee: Swanky review – from the perils of parenting to the glories of self-pleasure
Reading Town Hall The standup’s new tour covers cross-cultural identity, Hollywood mix-ups and exactly how honest to be about your children’s arts and crafts output How British is Sindhu Vee? And how Indian? That’s what her new standup show Swanky addresses in a wonderfully self-possessed opening that sees her give account of herself to an old duffer at a party.
‘A rare indulgence’: why Black Swan is my feelgood movie
The latest in our series of writers explaining their go-to comfort films is a tribute to Darren Aronofsky’s dark and unusually satisfying ballet nightmare
A Fidai Film review – Palestinian collage film transforms suppressed footage into works of art
Using archive material of destroyed houses, terrorised children and dead bodies, Kamal Aljafari adds humanity to the reels by overlaying poems by Palestinian authors
The Weight of Angels by John Boyne review – what if Oscar Wilde had lived?
The great Irish writer died, a broken man, at only 46. Imagining a second act for him is a great idea – but the results are sentimental and unconvincing
Deadline review – shocking threat sends tremors through authoritarian school
Set in a dystopian private academy rife with surveillance and cut-throat competition, Kiwi Chow’s gripping drama cements his status as an important film-maker
Fontaines DC: Dopamine Chamber review – gloomy, gorgeous and a gargantuan triumph
(XL) This is a beguiling, endlessly inventive and frequently astonishing fifth LP from a group at increasing ease with being the best band of their generation Fifteen centuries ago, the Byzantine archbishop Theophilus of Adana did first-hand business with the devil for his own superficial betterment. Today, we just blindly tick a little box marked “accept terms and conditions” or let high-street snake oil merchants inject poison into our faces.
‘We’re in a brotherhood now’: the Bill Pickett rodeo – photo essay
For several years, Chloe Kerleroux has been photographing African American cowboy communities in the southern US. Her work has mainly focused on trail rides: large gatherings where horses, music, dancing, family and community life come together. This year, she explored rodeo culture including at the Bill Pickett invitational in Atlanta
Kerry Washington takes A-listers back to the streets they grew up on: best podcasts of the week
The Scandal star talks to Ben Affleck about his childhood in Massachusetts. Plus, the Eras strand returns with the story of 90s pop phenomenon the Spice Girls Continue reading
Treasure Island review – this TV stinker does its best to ruin a literary classic
Did Robert Louis Stevenson’s timeless swashbuckling tale need the addition of a superpower? Is it better for reducing its young hero to an afterthought? Nope
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie review – Muriel Spark’s extraordinary heroine made more extraordinary still
Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh Gayle Rankin is funny, sharp-tongued and sexually forthright as Vicky Featherstone’s production ditches 1930s starchiness for the bohemian avant garde Jean Brodie has entered the classroom of Mr Lowther (Brian Ferguson). She tells the music teacher she will not be a distraction. “Proceed as if I wasn’t here,” she says. Yeah, right. Nothing can proceed as if Jean Brodie was not there. Played by Gayle Rankin in a drape-sleeved top and figure-hugging leather skirt, she is impossible to ignore.
‘The crime fiction I’m interested in is political’: Ian Rankin on his new novel about the super-rich
The bestselling writer talks about leaving Edinburgh for London in his latest mystery, and what the future holds for Rebus
‘We look like soft, made-up blokes, but we’re really tough’: Duran Duran on 80s excess, tabloid scrutiny and their Halloween glow-up
They spent their heyday on yachts, then rolled up their sleeves in the wilderness years. Ahead of a Halloween show at the O2, pop’s great survivors explain their staying power
‘Jelliness is my life motto’: jackpot theatre prize winner Jaha Koo on kimchi, K-pop and his robotic eel
Feted for cooking up shows that can be mouthwatering as well as thought-provoking, the artist discusses his fusion of South Korean and European culture
Blood of My Blood review – gripping ghost story is a reckoning with slavery
Royal Court theatre, London A Black British woman traces her family’s enslaved past in Joy Nesbitt’s supernaturally charged play Joy Nesbitt’s fantastically chilling play is both a ghost story and a reckoning with the undocumented history of enslaved people. It takes us from present-day America into the past, towards the exact moment when slavery was abolished. A white couple has turned their South Carolina plantation into a holiday rental. People come for celebrations and weddings, we hear.
‘People forgot I existed’: Audrey Niffenegger on taking 14 years to write a sequel to The Time Traveler’s Wife
Her debut made her a global star. Now she has finally written a follow-up – and this time, it’s political. She talks about impostor syndrome, screen adaptations and becoming radicalised
‘Sometimes she publishes notes she’s scribbled on her hand’: Édouard Louis on 10 reasons to love Anne Carson
The French author discovered Carson on a bus while stranded in a snowstorm and has been enthralled by her fearless imagination ever since
Post your questions for Richard Thompson
Ahead of new album Hippies, Thugs and Heroes, the British folk music legend will join us to answer your questions
‘I’m lovingly making fun of everyone I’ve ever met’: on the set of Leo Reich’s gen Z sitcom
The comedy wunderkind shot to fame with his show Literally, Who Cares?! and a role in Lena Dunham’s Too Much. Now he’s bringing his take on self-involved zoomers to the TV screen. Just don’t call him the voice of a generation
The new Darth Vader: how tech execs became the film villains of our age
Jeremy Strong’s portrayal of Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Reckoning shows how public opinion has changed around billionaire CEOs since The Social Network’s release When The Social Network came out, Mark Zuckerberg organised a staff viewing of a film he described as “fun”. A group corporate outing to the sequel is unlikely. Continue reading
Branford Marsalis Quartet and Dianne Reeves: Dedicated to You review – eloquent Coltrane tribute
(Blue Note) This elegant contemporary reinvention of 1963 album John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman pairs Marsalis’s post-bop sax with Reeves’ agile vocals, to time-stopping effect In the early 1960s, the Impulse! label tried to steer its star saxophonist John Coltrane away from increasingly uncompromising and experimental music that it feared might be scaring its customers.
‘It gave me a superpower – question everything’: as punk turns 50, bands from China to Greenland explain how it fires up their lives
Whether on the frontline in Ukraine or skate parks in Soweto, the genre is still a vital outlet for disaffected people everywhere. Here, musicians explain how they rage against the machine
‘Me and the lads would not survive a day in here’: inside TV’s utterly stunning, Bafta-winning prison drama
The third series of Jimmy McGovern’s breathtaking series Time stars David Tennant – and might just be its best ever. We go behind the scenes
‘He punched a polar bear on the nose!’ Ninety glorious years of Brian Blessed – by Emma Thompson, Adrian Lester and more
Peeing in the sink he shared with Derek Jacobi, making a badger video with Brian May, climbing Everest with Alan Hinkes … as the great actor blasts into his 90s, stars celebrate his ‘loudness and madness’ Emma Thompson Continue reading
Choral evensong has been on our airwaves for 100 years today. Long may this vibrant, thriving art form continue | Jonathan Davies
One hundred years since the BBC first broadcast choral evensong, MP and former chorister Jonathan Davies hymns a beautiful and empowering collective experience that we should praise – and protect
‘Men are a scam!’ The trials of Danielle Ponder, the lawyer turned singer rooting for a better world
After representing society’s dispossessed, Ponder started a music career in her 40s – then faced miscarriage, anxiety and more. She explains her survival instinct
24 Hour Party People review – daring metatextual paean to the Manchester music scene
Michael Winterbottom’s freewheeling 2002 film about Tony Wilson, champion of post-punk bands, couldn’t have starred anyone but Steve Coogan
The west has a blinkered view of African music – and it’s hurting the whole continent’s culture
The term Afrobeats is applied to all sorts of genres, flattening them into one. Artists, media and the music industry must do better at showing off the richness of African pop
Hamlet’s goodbye, the last of Leigh, Birmingham blues and a vampire in Vienna: 12 great films at the London film festival
Our critic picks out some of the most outstanding cinema screening at the UK’s most prestigious film event in 2026
‘We got that bad guy and took him down!’ Jaclyn Smith on the fun, friendship and frustration of Charlie’s Angels
It’s 50 years since Smith joined TV’s bikini-clad crime fighters alongside Farrah Fawcett and Kate Jackson. She talks about the love she found on set, the harassment she endured off it and the drug-taking she did her best to ignore
Celibidache was a musical visionary, an uncompromising perfectionist – and my father
The legendary conductor was acclaimed for his dazzling music-making, and infamous for his hatred of recordings. His son, writer of a new film about him, remembers a loving yet intransigent and demanding father
Holding Lightning by Emily Lordi review – an intimate portrait of Whitney Houston
An empathetic biography of the the singer recasts her tumultuous later career as a triumph of self-expression
A medieval manuscript has confounded scholars for centuries. Have they been reading it wrong all this time?
Researchers argue incorrect binding of Voynich manuscript radically changes ideas about its drawings and indecipherable text
Partita By Barbara Kingsolver review – a quieter follow-up to Demon Copperhead
The sex writing threatens to throw the novel off-kilter, but there are rich rewards in this tale of music and middle-aged compromises
Metallica review – metal titans on fine form in spectacular rarities-focused show
Sphere, Las Vegas The first night of a new residency is an immersive plunge into the band’s visual world that showcases the depth of their catalog Las Vegas’s Sphere takes on the characteristics of whatever it’s advertising on its exterior. Depending on when you look, you might see Orbi, the Sphere mascot, winking at you, or an ad for one of their Wizard of Oz showings, or maybe a roiling mass of red flames and shocks of lightning announcing the arrival of Metallica for their residency Life Burns Faster.
Suffragette cities: blazing Sylvia Pankhurst musical hits the road – in pictures
Sylvia: A Musical Revolution, the hit show about the Pankhursts and the suffrage movement, is going on a tour of England and Scotland. We took a first look at Leicester’s Curve theatre Continue reading
‘My hips can’t help but move’: readers on the songs that always get them dancing
From Northern soul and 90s bangers to disco classics and indie anthems, readers share the floorfillers that never fail to start the party
‘It’s radical to release a film called Girls Like Girls in this climate’: hitmaker turned director Hayley Kiyoko on sexuality, safety and becoming ‘Lesbian Jesus’
The singer’s hit 2015 single Girls Like Girls was her breakthrough moment and also the first time she felt confident in her sexuality. Now she has directed a film based on the song – a love letter to her 17-year-old self
Trá Pháidín: Cloch’s Claí review – giddy Galway gang burst the boundaries of folk music
(World of Echo) With musical ideas spanning mariachi and motorik beats, and lyrics with Kneecap-grade rage, this brilliant collective evolve tradition with stinging, joyful songs Quicksilver and giddy in its exploration of Irish music, language and identity, Trá Pháidín’s second album bursts open the idea of a 21st-century traditional folk record.
Kill Jackie review – Catherine Zeta-Jones’ assassin thriller is like Killing Eve … minus good characters or plot
This preposterous nonsense probably had high intentions – and then realised it’s easier to replace credible writing with gunfights, car chases and ear-bitings
‘These early friendships are huge romances’: Extra Geography’s lessons in teenage love
Rose Tremain, along with the cast and crew of the new film updating her 1950s story to the early 00s, remember the intensity of these relationships and explain why its story has not dated
What we’re reading: China Miéville, Sebastian Barry, Derek Owusu and Guardian readers on the books they enjoyed in September
Writers and Guardian readers discuss the titles they have read over the last month. Join the conversation in the comments
Extra Geography review – a wickedly funny lesson in sex, class and female friendship
A boarding-school escapade becomes a wonderfully acted coming-of-age comedy, as two best friends find their world threatened by desire and adulthood
Meshell Ndegeocello: Synonym review – vivid all-star reinventions of everyone from Bob Dylan to J-Lo
(Blue Note) In the jazz-soul singer’s ‘expression of queer liberation’, stars from Chaka Khan to Bill Callahan to Cynthia Erivo duet on equally varied songs from Cher to the Human League and beyond It’s fair to say that Meshell Ndegeocello has made a career out of declining to stay in one place too long. Since helping spark the neo soul genre with her 1993 debut album, Plantation Lullabies, she has variously worked in the fields of jazz, R&B, alternative rock, reggae, fusion and gospel.
‘We wanted it to be a battlecry’: how Republica made 90s anthem Ready to Go
‘The day Saff came into the studio with red hair, I said, “We’re gonna be massive!” It was the missing link’
‘Richly rewarding’: why Netflix’s A Different World is the only TV reboot worth watching this year
With zany twists and lovable new faces, reboot of the Black sitcom is a worthy sequel to the trailblazing 1980s original
‘We could have had good fun a few decades ago’: Christine Baranski and Richard E Grant on sex scenes, parties and theatre
The actors are working together for the first time ever, in Noël Coward’s comedy Hay Fever. Backstage, there’s no stopping their tales of skinny-dipping, fat-shaming and warring co-stars
‘Eminem’s Lose Yourself is my anthem for getting the kids out of the house’: Kimberly Wyatt’s honest playlist
The Pussycat Doll went roller skating to the Beach Boys and is ‘completely over’ Gangnam Style. But what song makes her cry every time?
Godzilla Minus Zero review – spectacular Japanese action continues franchise’s winning streak
New York film festival: The follow-up to 2023’s Oscar-winning Godzilla Minus One dazzles with smart social commentary and jaw-dropping effects
Raye’s I Know You’re Hurting urged me to confront a lifetime of depression
I had always ignored my anguished mental state or tried to push it aside, and CBT didn’t work for me – then one song seemed to articulate my pain
‘I’d strip for £100!’ Dominic West and Sienna Miller on nudity, narcissism and their juicy new show War
The stars are no strangers to public scrutiny of their most intimate relationships – but they’ve never experienced anything like this. They talk about playing a famous divorcing couple, and how money makes things revolting
‘Everyone can relate to pain and struggle. So I’m sharing mine’: Michael Kiwanuka on life after his devastating stroke
The Mercury prize winner hasn’t been able to go home since falling ill last summer. In his only interview, he opens up about the ‘poignancy’ of finally releasing the new album his stroke shelved
‘I get lost going to the bathroom’: John Hannah on world travel, stealing props and being ‘the Scottish Eminem’
The Four Weddings and a Funeral actor answers your questions on being confused with James Nesbitt, his own Sliding Doors moment and a new perspective since turning 60
Gilla Band: Pugnello review – furious originality fuelled by cathartic aggression and absurdist confessions
(Rough Trade) Your favourite band’s favourite band unleash a thrilling and relentless 42 minutes of monstrous noise whose precise instrumental source always remains discomfitingly unclear Gilla Band have attracted some impressive plaudits since announcing their fourth album this summer. A feature in Pitchfork heralding its arrival described them as “Ireland’s most influential band since My Bloody Valentine”.
Post your questions for Zach Braff
Known to many as JD in Scrubs, Zach Braff has forged a path as a successful writer and director since the release of his acclaimed 2004 indie film Garden State. Now’s your chance to ask him your burning questions
‘This gap opens up of doubt and scepticism about everything’: Jess and Morgs confront the politics of deepfakes
In the choreographers’ new work, virtuosic movement and some green-screen magic unfurl the theatricality of high-stakes television interviews
‘My first screen kiss was in a cowshed!’ Lesley Manville on her greatest roles – and why sex scenes for over-50s are booming
In the last 15 years, she has gone from respected actor to stratospheric, garlanded star. Now she is back on TV as a chic sleuth in a racy car – despite being terrible at guessing whodunnit
The Real Rooneys review – at least Wayne and Coleen’s reality show proves they can laugh at themselves
This trip into the celeb couple’s Cheshire mansion is nowhere as real as they’d like you to believe. But their self-deprecation is hard not to enjoy
A blood-splattered surgeon after an emergency horse op: Andrea Modica’s best photograph
‘You’d have to be out of your mind not to want to photograph this incredible woman. And it was only afterwards that I realised she looks like a medieval statue, a madonna’
Brothers review – Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey’s super-fun sitcom about the chance they’re related
The actors co-star in a lightly fictionalised meta-comedy about their real-life bromance – and possible sharing of parents. It’s a tasty little treat
The Great British Bake Off review – Nigella is wise, generous … and perfect for this national treasure of a show
The newest judge on the culinary competition is a soothing presence who is the ideal complement to Paul Hollywood. Long may the show continue with her on it
‘We didn’t set out to make a show for animals!’ The Netflix seal cartoon that’s a huge hit … with pets
Videos of cats and dogs transfixed by Netflix kids’ show Sealook – or pawing at its characters – are everywhere. We tried to find out why … and asked a goldendoodle for its verdict
Fancy a pint … at Lidl? The bizarre battle over Northern Ireland’s stifled nightlife
The country’s licensing laws mean the supermarket has opened a pub so it can sell alcohol, while campaigners are fighting to help other venues open and get people dancing
Youth review – Sharon Horgan is back … and she’s better than ever
This brutal, hilarious new show about life as a fiftysomething is full of all the heart and humour of human life. At points it’s mesmerisingly perfect
Rising Up at Night review – community spirit shines bright in Kinshasa’s shadows
Religion and collective resilience are beacons of hope in an electricity-deprived DRC in this otherworldly documentary debut
Ed Sheeran says situation in Gaza ‘unjustifiable’ in first show since tour plunged into turmoil
Pop star has faced boycott calls since rapper Macklemore was removed from tour after shouting ‘free Palestine’ at concert
Ms Rachel, the controversial queen of toddler TV: ‘My goal isn’t to be the most liked. It’s to help kids and speak the truth’
Her catchy videos have racked up billions of views, but Rachel Accurso’s statements on everything from Gaza to LGBTQ rights have caused a stir. She talks about screen time, song fatigue and speculation she might enter politics
Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky review – the bell tolls for Patrick Hamilton’s lost Londoners
Southwark Playhouse Borough, London The sequence of richly atmospheric novels about lonely souls in the capital is condensed into an engrossing play that could be more unsettling Patrick Hamilton’s 1929 novel The Midnight Bell unfolds over a series of weeks but has the air of one winding night on the tiles in London. The waiter Bob starts out flush, with £80 to his name, as he opens up the eponymous Euston Road pub for business alongside barmaid Ella.
‘Eating is my superpower’: Nigella turns up the heat on Bake Off
The domestic goddess is about to be let loose in the Bake Off tent. Nigella Lawson and Paul Hollywood spill the beans about bonding over dirty martinis, ‘Professor Precision’ – and why they call themselves the Salty Gang
‘It was a mess. I had to do something’: the personal struggle that inspired rap star Giggs to start a special needs school
After a battle to get his autistic children properly assessed, the London MC has co-founded a specialist centre in Kent to help neurodivergent kids realise their potential
‘The damage was much worse than I had imagined’: the shocking inside story of Salman Rushdie’s survival
After the writer was stabbed in a horrific attack, his wife started making a video diary of his recovery. The clips are featured in a new film from Alex Gibney, who drew on Dennis Potter to create a powerful portrait of Rushdie’s tumultuous life
‘I thank God for killing me and bringing me back’: Nicolas Winding Refn on the heart surgery that inspired his new sci-fi horror
Notorious for ultra-violent movies like Drive and The Neon Demon, the Dane had lost the will to direct until ‘the Tom Cruise of surgeons’ saved his life – and triggered an astonishing creative rebirth
Your mission, Tom Cruise, is to improve at interviews. And please keep sending the cakes
He risks his life for entertainment, but getting an anecdote out of him is a trickier matter. Happily, Cruise is no stranger to knuckling down and pulling off the impossible
‘I’m fearless. I was in a boys’ rugby team’: Slow Horses’ Aimee-Ffion Edwards on playing a cocaine-snorting spy
She has played rugby for Wales, is putting a Welsh spin on Princess Leia and is returning to TV screens as Shirley, the explosive, traumatised MI5 agent. Why is Edwards so drawn to liars, crooks and sneaks?
The Debut review – Julianne Moore is a thrill in Jesse Eisenberg’s oddball comedy
Toronto film festival: riotous lead performance holds together third movie from actor turned film-maker, about a housewife who joins a local musical
Elsinore review – Andrew Scott is astonishing as Ian Charleson in devastating Aids drama
Toronto film festival: the actor gives his greatest screen performance to date as the Chariots of Fire star who spends his final months playing Hamlet on stage
‘A double entendre in every crevice’: what, beyond near-naked tennis, is Sydney Sweeney’s game?
With her new, semi-nude advert for sports site Novig, the actor cements her reputation as the anti-woke poster girl. But is it real – or just provocation with a soft porn gaze?
Beck: Ride Lonesome review – stunning end to the heartache trilogy of Sea Change and Morning Phase
(Iliad/Capitol) On his first album in seven years, Beck keeps the quality control extremely high as he surveys mid-50s malaise in the wake of divorce The last time Beck released an album it was 2019 and the singer-songwriter found himself in a strange and unenviable position. In some quarters, the arrival of Hyperspace was eagerly anticipated precisely because his personal life was in turmoil.
‘I never pass up a rewatch’: why Valley Girl is my feelgood movie
The latest in our series of writers explaining their most rewatched comfort films brings us back to 1980s LA
End Times Fascism by Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor review – the fightback starts here
A sharp analysis of the damage wrought by the reckless super-rich, and a progressive toolkit for repairing it
‘I’ve never been more terrified!’ Carly Rae Jepsen on motherhood, stardom and her horniest album ever
Call Me Maybe made the singer-songwriter famous – but also confused. Who was she? Who was her music for? Fourteen years later, about to release the double album Day and Night, she finally has some answers
Apocalypse review – the stupidity of these people will make you scream yourself hoarse
This ‘radical social experiment’, in which 14 strangers have to see if they could survive the end times, will make you fear for the future of both TV and humanity
Frances Stonor Saunders obituary
Author and documentary-maker best known for her 1999 book about CIA-funded cultural espionage Who Paid the Piper? The 1999 book Who Paid the Piper?, Frances Stonor Saunders’s exposé of CIA-funded cultural espionage during the cold war, “single-handedly established a new branch of sub-history”, according to the novelist Ian McEwan. Translated into 17 languages, the book established Frances, then in her early 30s, as one of the most exciting nonfiction writers of her generation. Continue reading
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