ENTERTAINMENT

Toronto film festival: Erin Doherty plays a happily single mother in a downbeat town courted by an enigmatic James McAvoy in this expertly taut drama Erin Doherty and James McAvoy both bring their A-game in this startling, involving movie from British writer-director Paul Andrew Williams, whose…

Toronto film festival: strong performances from two experienced scream queens and some surprisingly thoughtful direction can’t elevate yet another stalk-by-numbers horror It would be unwise and unfair to expect that Toronto’s genre-led Midnight Madness strand would open with quite the same jolt as…

Toronto film festival: the chilling true story of a woman who tried to hide from her wartime crimes gets turned into a strangely inert misfire The first scene of the 60s-set drama The Housewife is a closeup of a whistling kettle, an early “wink, wink” sign that we’re watching a story where tensions…

Rachel Szor and Yuval Abraham collected the testimony of 24 insiders who helped remotely target Gazans’ homes. They explain how they got these self-professed ‘small cogs’ to talk about the killing On a darkened rooftop in Tel Aviv, Israeli intelligence officers outline the details of their work.…

What started as a school project about plucky fictional kids in animal masks sparked an obsessive fanbase and a major label deal. Now the artist behind it all – known as Yaelokre – is ready to reveal themself Harpy Hare by Yaelokre is the kind of song you might expect to have gone viral in the…

Late-night hosts discussed Trump’s ‘promise’ to send $5,000 to every US adult should the Republicans win Late-night hosts recapped the second day of Donald Trump’s underattended and unusual “midterm convention” in which he promised $5,000 for every adult US citizen if the Republicans win. Continue…

Fans from around the world gather for star’s long-awaited performances after break because of neurological condition More than 30,000 Céline Dion fans have gathered in Paris for the Canadian singer’s long-awaited return to performing on Saturday night, four years after she revealed her diagnosis of…

The written forum allows members of the public to vent their fury at the movies they’ve seen – and the festival organisers In an industry that is reliant on the fickle vagaries of taste, film festivals exist to establish facts. The reason why film-makers still go through the rigmarole of ferrying…

(Reprise) The 80-year-old continues his tireless output, delving into the past for inspiration to variable results – though two lengthy brand-new songs are real showstoppers You can’t fault Neil Young for his industry. Second Song is his second new album of 2026: the first, a double live set called…

The sax star turned his back on fame to embrace free jazz. Caught on a tape machine hidden in an overcoat, newly revealed recordings show how he did it In August 1965, at the height of his fame, saxophonist John Coltrane headlined the DownBeat jazz festival in Chicago. Taking to the stage with a…

Film premieres at Venice as researchers question who took famous Spanish civil war shot of ‘falling soldier’, credited to the pair’s Robert Capa alias She was one of the most fearless female photojournalists of the 20th century, and the first known to have been killed while covering a war. But in…

Toronto film festival: the rousing story of Judith Heumann makes for obvious dramatic fodder and at times this biopic finds a rebellious groove but too much feels cut-and-paste On my way to Toronto, I wheeled my suitcase toward the taxi that would take me to the airport, finding the curb cut in the…

Before the release of a joyful film on the history of the Sheffield band, frontman Cocker and director Garth Jennings talk dark times, taking inspiration from Abba – and why there could yet be another record When the director Garth Jennings first moved to Paris, Jarvis Cocker, who was living there,…

Eileen and Keen Umbehr were convinced the wrong person was convicted for double-homicide. After sending Pulitzer-winning journalist Joe Sexton 2,714 emails about it, he agreed to investigate – and it led to a messy entanglement HBO is no stranger to true crime, though its offerings tend to be more…

An American Chinese student studies Mandarin in Taiwan, in this heartfelt journey of self-discovery and family secrets What is Taiwan? A former Japanese colony? A centre of the semiconductor industry? A democracy overseen by American imperialism? China’s next military target? An island of…

Le Poisson Rouge, New York The brilliantly strange experimental band’s live show is a must-see spectacle powered by glorious noise and wild flair Their masks light up now. To the extent there was a hard news event from Wednesday’s exhilarating sold-out New York debut of Angine de Poitrine , that…

Venice film festival: Under the cover of night, anonymous personnel discuss AI, error rates and problematic intelligence units in a documentary produced by the Guardian Here is a disquieting documentary about what Israel’s military chiefs in Gaza reputedly call “Naza”, meaning civilian collateral…

The Bill & Ted actor answers your questions about working with Keanu Reeves, whether there will be a fourth instalment and nights out in Brixton with the Death Wish director You were born in London but grew up in America . When do you feel most British? DonarudoToranpu The UK is still my second…

Tech mogul calls director Alex Gibney a ‘bitter old man’ who has ‘zero integrity’ in series of posts on X Elon Musk has issued an angry tirade at the film-maker behind a four-hour documentary about his life and influence, labelling the director, Alex Gibney, a “bitter old man” who has “zero…

A film about sisterhood with fifty- and sixtysomething female leads is something to cheer – but would it have been made if its stars had aged like mere mortals since the 1998 original? Would Hollywood have brought Practical Magic back from the dead if the intervening 28 years looked more visible on…

The Wild Horse Nine actor had been due to appear on stage in The Music Critic in Tel Aviv – but pulled out over PR firm’s ‘unacceptable and untenable’ attribution of statement John Malkovich has cancelled a planned trip to Israel next year to appear on stage after a PR firm hired by the show…

Pie Aerts’s striking images of horsemen who live an extremely solitary existence reveal hidden stories of loneliness, alcoholism and a fading heritage Continue reading...