The Guardian Culture

Bigmouth strums again: was Andy Burnham’s Smiths jam in Kyiv the perfect soundtrack to a Britain in freefall?

The UK prime minister clearly still adores the band. Perhaps he’s attracted to songs about sham justice and murderous meat factories, shot through with nihilism and exquisite despairAs an origin story, Andy Burnham: Smiths Fan has a lot going for it. It’s plainly authentic: he can name the time he saw them live (Salford University, Queen Is Dead tour, 1986). A cynical young man in a hurry might fake that now, but not back when he first said it, in 2013. Asked by Labour Uncut for his desert islan

entertainment  Aug 28, 2026

The Guardian Culture

Add to playlist: the spectral, fathoms-deep folksong of June McDoom and the week’s best new tracks

Rich harmonies mix with synth, harp and aquatic grace on the intriguing first single from the New York songwriter’s debut albumFrom New York, USARecommended if you like Jessica Pratt, Minnie Riperton, Cocteau TwinsUp next Debut LP Follow the Light released via Jagjaguwar on 16 OctoberIn Robert Silverberg’s 1973 sci-fi anthology New Dimensions 3, there’s a story by author Terry Carr called They Live on Levels. The simplest outline of this tale is that thanks to a technological breakthrough, human

entertainment  Aug 28, 2026

The Guardian Culture

Children’s books roundup – the best new picture books and novels

Poetry with wonder and wit; a heartwarming tale for horse lovers; a portal to the future; a brilliant YA wartime romance and moreSmall Monster, Big Monster by Allan Sanders, Phaidon, £7.95Refrigerator is EMPTY. Monster is FULL (of pizza!). An eye-wateringly bright board book, featuring splendidly zany, toddler-pleasing pairs of opposites.The Flying Machine of Dreams by Kate Wakeling, illustrated by Viviane Schwarz, Otter-Barry, £12.99A delectable picture-book collaboration that perfectly distils

entertainment  Aug 28, 2026

Variety

Who’s Afraid of Film Festivals? After Politics Rattled Berlin and Shook Up Cannes, Venice Braces for Impact

With wars still raging in the Middle East and Ukraine — and turbulence escalating globally — artists on the film festival circuit have been navigating political minefields.  At the Berlin Film Festival in February, jury president Wim Wenders came under fire for saying that film directors should “stay out of politics” as he fielded questions […]

entertainment  Aug 28, 2026

The Guardian Culture

BBCSSO/Runnicles review – resplendent recounting of Mahler’s fratricidal fairytale

Usher Hall, EdinburghColliding complex and contrasting moods, Mahler’s Das Klagende Lied was rendered with clarity and convictionWhen Sigmund Freud met Gustav Mahler in 1910, he suggested that, following a childhood trauma, “the conjunction of high tragedy and light amusement was inextricably fixed in Mahler’s mind”. Freud was famously uninterested in music, but had he known Das Klagende Lied, he would have found ample supporting evidence for his diagnosis. Composed in Mahler’s late teens and fu

entertainment  Aug 28, 2026

Variety

Gangland Action Thriller ‘Nozem’ From Director Scott Vickers to Star Buddy Boerkoel, Daniel Fathers (EXCLUSIVE)

Brit director Scott Vickers has lined up the cast for upcoming Amsterdam-set gangland thriller “Nozem,” which starts shooting in the Dutch capital next week. Led by the film’s writer Buddy Boerkoel, the film will also star Daniel Fathers (“House of the Dragon”), Francesca van Neuren (“Coked”) and Ibrahim Naji (“Gedachten aan de regen”). “Nozem” (which […]

entertainment  Aug 28, 2026

Variety

Nicola Coughlan, Matt Lucas, Hugh Bonneville and More Back Campaign Against AI Voice Cloning: ‘An Existential Threat to Our Entire Industry’

Nicola Coughlan, Matt Lucas and Hugh Bonneville are among the high-profile names backing a new campaign against AI voice cloning. Titled “Save Our Voices Now,” the initiative calls for greater protections against AI technology being used to replicate a person’s voice, according to The Guardian. The group of over 80 industry names — which also […]

entertainment  Aug 28, 2026

Variety

Joachim Trier’s ‘Sentimental Value’ Drives Arthouse Success From Taiwan to Romania as Distributors Reveal Nordic Playbook

Joachim Trier’s Cannes Grand Prix winner “Sentimental Value,” starring Renate Reinsve, Stellan Skarsgård and Elle Fanning, is providing independent distributors with a potent case study in how Nordic arthouse cinema can still break through internationally — when festival heat is matched with intensely local marketing. At a Europa Distribution panel held today during New Nordic […]

entertainment  Aug 28, 2026

Variety

Sabu Unpacks ‘Arrested Memory’ Ahead of Venice, Toronto Bows as Trailer Debuts (EXCLUSIVE)

Sabu, the Japanese director of Venice and Toronto-bound “Arrested Memory,” says the film’s nearly two-decade journey to the screen – after stalled attempts to shoot in Germany, Korea, the U.S. and Japan – left it with more tension and poignancy than the version he first wrote. Variety is unveiling the first trailer for the film. […]

entertainment  Aug 28, 2026

Variety

‘The Bothersome Man’ Director Jens Lien Tackles Automation Anxiety in ‘Joe’s Assignment’ (EXCLUSIVE)

Jens Lien, the Norwegian filmmaker behind cult dystopian comedy “The Bothersome Man” and HBO Nordic sci-fi satire “Beforeigners,” is returning to speculative territory with “Joe’s Assignment,” a near-future comedy starring Lilyhammer’s Trond Fausa Aurvåg and turning on work, automation and what happens when society no longer needs people to do very much at all. The […]

entertainment  Aug 28, 2026

The Guardian Culture

Help! I have disappeared down a rabbithole of horrible mobile gaming adverts | Dominik Diamond

Led by the nose from game to terrible game by increasingly disturbing and terrible adverts, I feel like I’m in the cinema scene from A Clockwork OrangeWe’re all escaping something when we play video games. Mostly it’s the drabness of real life, where we don’t get to command kingdoms using armies of dragons, win Champions League trophies with our local team, or inhabit the body of an improbably speedy hedgehog.Sometimes I play them because I want to escape from the version of me that gets paralys

entertainment  Aug 28, 2026

Variety

Txintxua Films Boards ‘This Is the Memory,’ a San Sebastián Forum Title From Berlin First Feature Winner Martínez Bucio (EXCLUSIVE)

Txintxua Films, producer of Netflix hit series “Intimacy,” has boarded Mexican filmmaker Ernesto Martínez Bucio’s second feature, “This Is the Memory I Would Like to Have of Mom” (“Éste es el recuerdo que me gustaría tener de mamá”). The Basque company joins Mexican production outfit Colectivo Colmena on the Spain-Mexico co-production, one of the 15 […]

entertainment  Aug 28, 2026

Variety

Cronenberg Meets Activism in Victor Di Marco and Márcio Picoli’s Queer BDSM Drama ‘London’

As they worked on their long-gestating first feature, “London,” Brazilian filmmakers ​Victor Di Marco and Márcio Picoli dove headfirst into cinematic portrayals of disability. What they found was frustrating: often infantilized and overreliant characters in condescending stories that looked at disability as “punishment” or something that “needed fixing.” Their Venice Critics’ Week character study sets […]

entertainment  Aug 28, 2026

Hollywood Reporter

Oldenburg Fest to Open With Wordless Elbe Island Doc ‘Strange Neighbors’

Mi Steinbach's feature, about the wildlife on 2 mile nature preserve in the middle of one of Europe's busiest waterways, will be the first documentary to open the German indie festival.

entertainment  Aug 28, 2026

The Guardian Culture

The Whisper Man review – Robert De Niro sleepwalks through silly Netflix potboiler

A father and son must team up to find a serial killer in a cheaply made and increasingly uninteresting thrillerIt’s not as if Robert De Niro’s choices have improved all that much since the nadir of the mid-2000s (last year did see him crop up in a Scott Eastwood-led actioner and The Alto Knights) but there’s something specifically rubbishy about his latest that transports us back to that particularly cursed time. The Whisper Man, a film as openly stupid as its title would suggest, could have bee

entertainment  Aug 28, 2026

The Guardian Culture

Fairytales pending: the fringe musicals hoping to live happily ever after

Edinburgh has given festival audiences a look at two long awaited musicals – Bliss and Disenchanted! – with both aiming to now scale up their spectacleThe Edinburgh fringe is mostly where new work is forged but that’s not the full picture. Amid all the hot-off-the-press shows are a number of familiar titles that have been around for years yet are only making their professional UK debut now. That’s the case with two fairytale musical productions hoping for a longer life whose festival run is a ch

entertainment  Aug 28, 2026

The Guardian Culture

‘It’s the story of what happens when the music stops’: bringing tormented jazz legend Bill Evans to life

Having directed documentaries about David Bowie, Radiohead and Joy Division, Grant Gee takes on a biopic of the turbulent and tragic American pianist In 1997, Grant Gee directed the video for Radiohead’s single No Surprises, a four-minute film that featured Thom Yorke miming the song inside a water-filled diver’s helmet, apparently almost drowning in the process. In the three decades since that promo, Gee has made a host of diverse feature-length films about artists: Radiohead, David Bowie, Joy

entertainment  Aug 28, 2026

Variety

Oscars: Ireland Selects Damian McCann’s Heist Thriller ‘Aontas’ for International Feature Race

“Aontas,” the Irish-language heist thriller from director Damian McCann, has been chosen as Ireland’s entry for the best international feature film category at the 2027 Academy Awards. The film was selected by the Irish Film & TV Academy (IFTA) and a committee including “Evil Dead Rise” director Lee Cronin, “Derry Girls” creator Lisa McGee, BAFTA-nominated […]

entertainment  Aug 28, 2026

Hollywood Reporter

Oscars: Ireland Picks ‘Aontas’ as Best International Feature Submission

Directed by Damian McCann, the heist thriller stars Carrie Crowley, known from 'The Quiet Girl,' which scored the country's first-ever nomination in the category.

entertainment  Aug 28, 2026

Variety

‘The Whisper Man’ Review: Diverting Netflix Serial Killer Chiller Doesn’t Demand Much of Robert De Niro

“The Whisper Man” is the first — and surely not the last — film to be adapted from the airport oeuvre of British crime novelist Steve Mosby, who since 2019 has written four books (including the source text here) under the pseudonym Alex North. If he didn’t choose that nom de plume to evoke Alex […]

entertainment  Aug 28, 2026