The Guardian Culture

Calendar Girls: The Musical review – heartfelt and hilarious, with nimbly handled nudity

Stephen Joseph theatre, Scarborough This celebratory show by Tim Firth and Gary Barlow delivers emotional openness alongside cracking jokesOne of the great qualities of Calendar Girls is its ordinariness. It takes place in a landscape of Morrisons supermarkets, hospital waiting rooms and traffic jams. The year is marked by carol concerts and cake competitions. Only here, in the fictional Yorkshire Dales village of Knapely, would Cheshire seem snooty and crazy paving seem outre.Another great qual

entertainment  Jul 2, 2026

Variety

Award-Winning Independent Factual Producer Proper Content Shutters Citing Market Conditions: ‘There Simply Isn’t the Commissioning Risk’

Award-winning factual producer Proper Content is set to shutter amid tough market conditions. Founder David DeHaney, who set up the company in 2016, announced the decision to cease trading and appoint an administrator on Thursday. “This has been a very difficult decision,” says DeHaney. “We have had nearly 10 years of making some of the […]

entertainment  Jul 2, 2026

The Guardian Culture

Long Wave By Daisy Johnson review – a sublime novel of motherhood and loss

Covering three generations, this tangled story of secrets, childhood, abandonment and care might be her best work yetIn 2018 Daisy Johnson was the youngest writer ever to be shortlisted for the Booker prize, for her debut novel Everything Under, a gender-fluid reimagining of the Oedipus myth involving canal boat communities and their complex family dynamics, plus a strange monster lurking in the depths. Before that, her short‑story collection Fen, with its blend of the uncanny and the worka

entertainment  Jul 2, 2026

Variety

Korea’s Lotte Cinema-Megabox Merger Collapses as JoongAng Group’s Financial Crisis Deepens

The proposed merger between Lotte Cinema and Megabox, which would have created South Korea’s largest theatrical exhibitor, has officially collapsed after roughly 14 months of negotiations, with the deal ultimately undone by a financial crisis engulfing Megabox’s parent company, JoongAng Group. Lotte Shopping and Contentree JoongAng disclosed Wednesday that the memorandum of understanding governing the […]

entertainment  Jul 2, 2026

The Guardian Culture

Alabama Shakes review – US rockers’ first UK gig in a decade is suffused with hope for the future

Millennium Square, LeedsAs they tee up a long-awaited third album, the deep south band are variously slick and raw as they ruminate on overcoming tough times‘Long time, no see,” declares Brittany Howard, stepping on stage to a rapturous welcome, as Alabama Shakes return from a hiatus. It’s been 10 years since the multiple Grammy-winning blues-soul-rock outfit from the deep south last played in the UK and 11 since their most recent album – though a third is being teed up for later in the year.If

entertainment  Jul 2, 2026

Hollywood Reporter

Edinburgh’s Paul Ridd on Robert Redford’s Legacy, Hollywood’s Festival Sit-Out, and the ‘Obsession’ Phenomenon: “I Did Not See That Coming”

The film festival director is more confident than ever in Edinburgh's mission to spotlight emerging voices — but it helps getting Ewan McGregor, Gregg Araki, and Kenneth Branagh up to the Scottish capital, too.

entertainment  Jul 2, 2026

Hollywood Reporter

Vincent Lindon and Tahar Rahim Storm the Barricades (Without Singing!) in ‘Les Misérables’ Trailer

Fred Cavayé’s new action-packed take on the Victor Hugo classic, hits theaters this fall.

entertainment  Jul 2, 2026

Hollywood Reporter

‘Paris Paris’ Director on Her Fiction Feature Debut That Is “Very Political, But Not in Your Face”

Belgian documentary maker Isabelle Tollenaere discusses how she changed tack for her cinematic allegory for displacement and meditation on home that premieres in Karlovy Vary's Proxima competition.

entertainment  Jul 2, 2026

Hollywood Reporter

Locarno Kids Screenings Unveiled as Swiss Fest Launches Competition and Kids’ Jury

"We aimed to create a journey that is both surprising and accessible even to the youngest viewers, without shying away from the complexities of the contemporary world," says programmer Daniela Persico.

entertainment  Jul 2, 2026

The Guardian Culture

Rhythm Paradise Groove review – exhilarating bitesize beats test your reflexes

Nintendo/TNX; Nintendo SwitchA joyful collection of vibrant rhythm games includes catching veggies in mid-air, practising dance choreographies and speaking to an alienIt has been a strange decade for the rhythm game genre. The legendary progenitors Rock Band and Guitar Hero are seemingly gone, yet companies are manufacturing plastic guitars again. Tango Gameworks, a studio best known for delivering survival horror hauntings, made Hi-Fi Rush and it ruled, but Microsoft sold the studio. Indie titl

entertainment  Jul 2, 2026

The Guardian Culture

Marilyn Stafford FotoReportage award 2026 – in pictures

Johanna Alarcón won the prize given annually to female photographers addressing social issues with a focus on positivity. Her work is presented alongside the shortlisted photographers Continue reading...

entertainment  Jul 2, 2026

The Guardian Culture

‘It opened my eyes to the city’: the artist drawing every single pub in London

Lydia Wood began drawing the capital’s pubs after losing her job. Now, after her sketches went viral, she is on a mission to illustrate all the city’s watering holes – before some are closedOn the pavement outside a London pub, 32-year-old Lydia Wood is sitting in the sunshine at her easel, peering up at the building and sketching with a pencil. Passersby pause to catch glimpses of her work, but what they might not know is that for the artist, this isn’t just a nice day out, but part of years-lo

entertainment  Jul 2, 2026

The Guardian Culture

Madonna: Confessions II review – nostalgic dancefloor trip sparks her most vital album in two decades

(Warner)After years spent chasing trends like trap and Latin pop, Madonna settles back​ nicely into​ old-school dance music to tell vivid vignettes of life in 80s New York‘Ask yourself this – what are you doing it for? / Is it for you? Is it for them?” ponders Madonna during Bring Your Love, a collaboration with Sabrina Carpenter from Confessions II. It’s a question you could ask of her decision to release a follow-up to 2005’s Confessions on a Dance Floor 21 years on.The official line is, of co

entertainment  Jul 2, 2026

The Guardian Culture

‘Hugging is forbidden’: women jailed for life – in pictures

Former public defender Sara Bennett spent 13 years photographing women convicted of homicide. She traces their lives in prison – and what happens as they re-enter the outside world Continue reading...

entertainment  Jul 2, 2026

The Guardian Culture

Birds of War review – war journalists find love among the ruins

This documentary tells the story of the long-distance relationship between a BBC correspondent in London and a photographer on the ground in Syria with charm and humanityPolitics is to some degree set aside here in favour of matters of the heart; this is a story of romantic love among the ruins. London-based Lebanese journalist Janay Boulos, while working for the BBC’s Arabic service, fell in love from afar in 2016 with Syrian activist and photojournalist Abd Alkader Habak. He, during the Assad

entertainment  Jul 2, 2026

Hollywood Reporter

‘Petty Thieves’ Explores “Gestures of Solidarity Among People With Little Power” (Exclusive Trailer)

Croatian filmmaker Mate Ugrin's feature directorial debut, which premieres in Karlovy Vary's Proxima competition, also explores whether you can feel at home in a tourist destination that seems mainly designed for visitors.

entertainment  Jul 2, 2026

Variety

Nagraj Manjule’s ‘Khashaba’ Unveils Teaser, Worldwide Release Date From Jio Studios (EXCLUSIVE)

Jio Studios and Aatpat Productions have unveiled a teaser and worldwide release date for Indian filmmaker Nagraj Manjule’s “Khashaba.” The Marathi-language biographical sports drama tells the story of Indian Olympic wrestler Khashaba Dadasaheb Jadhav. The film marks Manjule’s return to Marathi-language cinema following his Indian National Film Award-winning “Fandry” and his 2016 hit “Sairat.” It […]

entertainment  Jul 2, 2026

The Guardian Culture

TV tonight: inside the life of one of cinema’s most enigmatic stars

Documentary traces the career of the shape-shifting Tilda Swinton. Plus: a grimly absorbing day on the crime frontline. Here’s what to watch this evening9pm, Sky ArtsTilda Swinton is endlessly versatile, as this engaging deep dive into her career shows. The tone is set by an astonishingly self-possessed early interview in which she is scornful towards career progression for its own sake: “What I am working towards is what I’m doing now.” What follows, from her work with Derek Jarman to her more

entertainment  Jul 2, 2026

The Guardian Culture

From Mrs Merton to Scorchio! It’s Caroline Aherne’s 10 best moments

She radiated love as the narrator of Gogglebox, created one of the most emotional sitcom moments of all time and asked Debbie McGee a question she’ll never forget. Ten years on from her untimely death, we remember the TV legendIt’s 10 years since the tragic loss of TV genius Caroline Aherne. The brilliant but too brief career of the actor, comedian, writer and director was cut heartbreakingly short on 2 July 2016 when she died at 52 from lung cancer.A decade on, we pay tribute by selecting 10 Ah

entertainment  Jul 2, 2026

The Guardian Culture

‘Techno in a monastery – are you ready?’ The Greek priest whose doom metal album is the year’s hippest record

His church thinks electric guitars are the devil’s work. But Father Tabakis is on a mission to change that – with Paradise Metal, a religious dubstep album that outdid Daft Punk and Aphex Twin‘The guitar was made by God,” says Father Dionysios Tabakis, sitting in the living room of his flat in Nafplio, a city on Greece’s Peloponnesian coast, surrounded by a huge assortment of musical instruments and religious icons. Dressed in long black robes and sporting a fine grey wispy beard, Tabakis sounds

entertainment  Jul 2, 2026