The Guardian Culture

Flo: Therapy at the Club review – skirting the dancefloor and overly sweating the small stuff

(EMI)The British R&B girl group’s follow up to 2024’s Access All Areas is lyrically spicy and musically diverse but lacks the hedonism the title suggestsWhen Flo burst out in 2022, the trio were hailed as the second coming of the R&B girl group, and even paid homage to their harmonising forebears Destiny’s Child, Sugababes and SWV in the intro to debut album Access All Areas. They didn’t quite hit as expected – only one single scraped the Top 40 – but they sound undeterred on a vibey sec

entertainment  Aug 7, 2026

Hollywood Reporter

‘At Night’ Features “Stories Women Share Together But Rarely to an Audience” (Exclusive Locarno Clip)

Beatrice Gibson's full-length feature debut, premiering in Locarno's Filmmakers of the Present Competition, blends autofiction and poetry into what she calls "a love letter to friendships."

entertainment  Aug 7, 2026

Variety

Thomas Heise’s Final Documentary ‘Übergang,’ a Potential Locarno Highlight, Reflects on Time and Transience  

Thomas Heise’s final film, “Übergang,” arrives at the Locarno Film Festival as both a portrait of one of Germany’s most influential documentary filmmakers and the completion of a project left unfinished by his death. Premiering in the festival’s out of competition section, the film traces Heise’s life through newly shot footage, archival material and photographs, […]

entertainment  Aug 7, 2026

The Guardian Culture

Arun Sood and Angeline Morrison: Donn/Dubh review – British folk giants startlingly transform sacred histories

(Real World)Leaning on their Hebridean heritage, the duo meld 10th-century Celtic cantos with distortion, dream-pop and post-rock, with shades of Twin Peaks and Boards of CanadaTwo of Britain’s most exciting folk musicians, both of Hebridean heritage, are behind Donn/Dubh (Black/Brown), an album inspired by Saltair na Rann, a 10th-century Celtic collection of cantos in which sacred history is foretold, and winds are given colours. Angeline Morrison and Arun Sood expand its spectrum of northerly

entertainment  Aug 7, 2026

Variety

Vishal Bhardwaj Sets ‘Rashomon’-Style Film on Tarun Tejpal Rape Case After Bombay High Court Conviction (EXCLUSIVE)

Indian auteur Vishal Bhardwaj is developing a film based on the Tarun Tejpal rape case, the director confirmed with Variety, hours after the Bombay High Court overturned a Goa sessions court acquittal and convicted the former Tehelka editor of rape, sentencing him to 10 years’ rigorous imprisonment. Bhardwaj, whose adaptations of Shakespeare – “Maqbool,” “Omkara,” […]

entertainment  Aug 7, 2026

The Guardian Culture

Alley Cats review – the genital jokes in Ricky Gervais’s sweary cartoon are just exhausting

There are glimmers of potential in this comedy about a potty-mouthed feline gang. But not even the great voice cast or a cute kitten can save it from being lazy, crude and boringI suppose the question is really: what do you do after redefining comedy for your era? After The Office, that exquisitely observed, agonising, heartbreaking, hilarious examination of the human condition co-created with Stephen Merchant, Ricky Gervais managed Extras – off-peak but still great – and then continued a downw

entertainment  Aug 7, 2026

The Guardian Culture

The Last House review – post-Covid apocalyptic lockdown thriller is a solid night in

Oscar nominee Wagner Moura and Greta Lee lead Netflix’s sci-fi tale of a family trapped in their house as something sinister arrivesMost of us aren’t truly ready for films that directly cover the recent horrors of Covid and, well, why would we be? There was a need back in 2021 for something strict and journalistic like Matthew Heineman’s excellent documentary The First Wave and there have been other variously illuminating docs since, but it’s been tough for narrative storytellers to address and

entertainment  Aug 7, 2026

Variety

Ricky Gervais’ Netflix Animated Comedy ‘Alley Cats’ Is Surprisingly Bittersweet: TV Review

To kick off the third episode of the Netflix animated comedy “Alley Cats,” protagonist Gus — an overweight orange tabby voiced by writer, creator and frequent director Ricky Gervais (think Garfield with a distinctly working class British accent) — describes his plan for the day. It starts with an achievable goal. Then: “Get distracted immediately. Do […]

entertainment  Aug 7, 2026

Hollywood Reporter

Meet Nicolaas Schmidt, the German Filmmaker Who Thinks “Plain Banality Is Stimulating as F***”

Ahead of the Locarno premiere of his debut feature 'September Afternoon,' the young creative who loves "dead time" discusses his unique film language and resisting uniformity.

entertainment  Aug 7, 2026

Hollywood Reporter

‘Alley Cats’ Review: Ricky Gervais’ Half-Crass, Half-Sappy, Mostly Unmemorable Netflix Cartoon

Gervais also leads the voice cast of the animated comedy, following a group of feral strays who take in a lost kitten searching for her former home.

entertainment  Aug 7, 2026

The Guardian Culture

‘There is an alternative to capitalism’: after addiction and losing a home to LA wildfires, indie rockers Diiv start again

No stranger to rebuilding after disaster, the US band’s frontman Zachary Cole Smith now sees the entire capitalist project as ripe for reinvention, on a surprisingly upbeat new AG Cook-produced albumZachary Cole Smith used to be a miserable interviewee. He had plenty to say – always generous, always voluble – but spoke with grim introspection, chastising himself and cataloguing his misdeeds with a fervour that engulfed him like his oversized T-shirts. A decade later, the Diiv frontman who materi

entertainment  Aug 7, 2026

Variety

‘The Last House’ Review: Wagner Moura and Greta Lee Bring Conviction to a Suitably Stifling Stay-at-Home Thriller

A decade or so ago, the premise of apocalyptic thriller “The Last House” might have sounded a little more out there than it does now: A middle-class Seattle family wakes up one morning to find themselves sealed inside their house with no means of escape, a mysterious enforced house arrest that turns out to be […]

entertainment  Aug 7, 2026

Hollywood Reporter

‘The Last House’ Review: Greta Lee and Wagner Moura in a Claustrophobic Netflix Thriller Most Effective While the Threat Remains Unknown

Louis Leterrier directs this hybrid of sci-fi, horror, mystery and domestic psychological drama in which both physical and mental survival are tested.

entertainment  Aug 7, 2026

Variety

‘La Koreana,’ a Banner New Talent Title From Spain, Brought to Market at Locarno by Producers Lazona Zinema and Estibaliz Urresola’s Sirimiri (EXCLUSIVE) 

Sirimiri Films, founded by Estibaliz Urresola, director of Berlinale winner “20,000 Species of Bees,” is teaming with Lazona Zinema, the Basque division of Lazona (“Spanish Affair,” “Gigantes,” “No Rest for the Wicked”) to produce “La Koreana,” one of Spain’s banner new talent titles. The projected feature debut of Basque writer-director Joana Moya, “La Koreana” leapt […]

entertainment  Aug 7, 2026

Variety

Locarno’s Alliance 4 Development Welcomes Queer Musical, Eco Body Horror and Bruce LaBruce’s Melodrama with Monica Bellucci and Béatrice Dalle

Alliance 4 Development, Locarno’s co-development platform for film projects from Austria, France, Germany and Switzerland, has presented this year’s projects.  The line-up includes Bruce LaBruce’s first French-led feature, “Third Take.” It’s a “female melodrama” starring Monica Bellucci and Béatrice Dalle as two actresses who reunite for a film shoot destined to “become the epiphany of […]

entertainment  Aug 7, 2026

Variety

‘The Traitors’ India Season 2 Unveils Trailer With Karan Johar and 21-Celebrity Cast (EXCLUSIVE)

Prime Video India has unveiled the trailer for the second season of “The Traitors,” the unscripted celebrity competition series hosted by Karan Johar, set to debut exclusively on the platform on Aug. 13. New episodes will drop every Thursday. Filmed against the backdrop of Suryagarh Palace in Jaisalmer, Season 2 features 21 celebrity contestants drawn […]

entertainment  Aug 7, 2026

The Guardian Culture

What Happened to Liberal Democracy? by Daron Acemoğlu review – how to fix the system

The Nobel-winning economist takes aim at elites for no longer meeting the needs of the massesIn 2009, the tech billionaire Peter Thiel published an essay with the portentous title The Education of a Libertarian, in which he announced: “I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible.” Since the 1920s, he wrote, “the vast increase in welfare beneficiaries and the extension of the franchise to women” had rendered the notion of “capitalist democracy” an oxymoron. To be fair,

entertainment  Aug 7, 2026

Variety

Aymar Esse, Director of Open Doors World Premiere ‘My Father’s Kora,’ Discusses Challenges of Queer Cinema in Senegal

“My Father’s Kora” (“La Kora de Mon Père”), a Benin-Switzerland-Germany production, will have its world premiere Aug. 9 at Locarno’s Open Doors section, which has focused on 42 countries of the African continent since 2025. The film follows Souleymane Everston Adowo Freudenreich, an Afro-German trans man who travels to Dakar, Senegal, to repair his father’s […]

entertainment  Aug 7, 2026

The Guardian Culture

TV tonight: Jon Hamm’s offbeat adult animation lands in the UK

The star voices a maverick cop in new cartoon Grimsburg. Plus: the finale of Scottish crime drama Granite Harbour. Here’s what to watch this evening10.15pm, Sky OneA triple bill of this adult cartoon starring Jon Hamm, which quietly debuted in the UK last week. Hamm plays police detective Marvin Flute, who has moved back to his home town to reconnect with his family and continue solving bizarre crimes. This time, there are easy laughs to be had as he finds himself accused of murdering a judge an

entertainment  Aug 7, 2026

Hollywood Reporter

What Is It Like to Portray Nazi Heinrich Himmler? Martin Müller Shares His Experience on ‘I Is Another’

The film, starring Claes Bang and Valerie Pachner, debuts at Locarno, and director Felix Randau heard concerns that he may give a platform to a villain, but says: "If you ignore evil, it will grow in the dark."

entertainment  Aug 7, 2026