72 m. ago EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert review – Baz Luhrmann’s electric yet avoidant documentary

Toronto film festival: the bombastic director’s second film about the music legend shows the singer at his most mesmerizing but the picture remains incompleteBaz Luhrmann now has two Elvis movies under his bedazzled belt. The first is his epic biopic starring Austin Butler and now he has unleashed another called EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert, remixing archival material with never-before-seen footage from the singer’s residency in Las Vegas. What’s remarkable about them both, apart from the director’s obvious affinity for his subject’s showmanship, is his refusal across so many hours of jiggling and swivelling to meaningfully hold Elvis to account.Luhrmann’s Oscar-nominated 2022 film acknowledged Elvis’s cultural appropriation: how his phenomenal success owed so much to the R&B, gospel and rock he grew up around and the racist institutions that put him on a pedestal while holding down the Black artists that birthed and gave that music its soul. The movie also painted Elvis as a ...

Culture

3 h. ago The only word Celtic statement needed to avoid PR 'disaster' as pundit tells board they're missing the point

Michael Stewart stripped the 1000 word opus back to basics as James McFadden got to the heart of the issue board has missed

Events

3 h. ago England beat South Africa by 342 runs for biggest winning margin in men’s ODI history – live

Updates from the match in Southampton (11am BST)You can email James | Report: South Africa seal seriesAn interesting chat between Nick Knight, Shaun Pollock and Mike Atherton. Athers says that England are trying to bring the ODI and Test teams together whilst treating the T20 side as a different entity. That’s sensible on paper, he says, but brings a “real challenge because of the amount and volume of Test cricket England play. They are going to have to be quite strong about where their players play franchise cricket.”South Africa: Aiden Markram, Ryan Rickelton (wk), Temba Bavuma (capt),Matthew Breetzke, Tristan Stubbs, Dewald Brevis, Wiann Mulder, Corbin Bosch, Keshav Maharaj, Codi Yusuf, Nandre Burger. Continue reading...

Politics

4 h. ago Good Fortune review – Aziz Ansari’s big comeback comedy struggles to find big laughs

Toronto film festival: The multi-hyphenate’s directorial debut has noble intentions in its timely class commentary but his brand of humour makes for an awkward fitThe absence of big-screen comedies, once an almost weekly occurrence, has become such a widely complained-about issue that the rare novelty of one actually being made has turned into a marketing tool. Last month’s remake of The Naked Gun employed a campaign that directly addressed this problem, with an ad that played like a PSA about such a lack and why supporting one was of societal importance (the plea only mildly worked, with the film finishing with decent, but not quite decent enough, box office). At the Toronto premiere of Aziz Ansari’s Good Fortune, festival chief Cameron Bailey made reference to the now unusual sensation of laughing with an audience, and the actor-writer-director himself has been impressing upon people his desire to make a theatrical comedy in the billion-dollar wake of Barbie. He believes in its im...

Politics

4 h. ago Can you spot the difference? Fashion model clones herself in bid to beat AI takeover

A world where digital ads use AI models instead of real people may not be too far away so Hannah James has decided to hop on the trend early to make sure she's still compensated for her work.

Culture

4 h. ago Watchdog fails wrongly convicted owing to lack of forensic expertise, experts say

Criminal Cases Review Commission faces criticism over its handling of several high-profile casesThe miscarriage of justice watchdog is failing prisoners appealing against wrongful convictions because it does not have forensic expertise and will not engage with third parties who do, experts have claimed.Advisers to Inside Justice, a miscarriage of justice charity, say that the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) relies on legal professionals without a proper understanding of the science that underpins many convictions and appeals. Continue reading...

Events

5 h. ago Daniel Craig looks completely unrecognisable after ditching James Bond appearance

Daniel Craig was last seen on-screen as James Bond, and now, the famous actor looks completely unrecognisable in a new look while promoting his next film

Politics

6 h. ago Chineke! Orchestra/Heyward review – kaleidoscopic concert combines energy and complexity

Royal Albert Hall, LondonThe ethnically diverse orchestra played with vigour and spirit in a varied programme that included Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Shostakovich and Valerie ColemanThis concert was to have been conducted by Simon Rattle – a mark of the esteem in which leading artists hold Chineke! Orchestra, the trailblazing British ensemble made up of a majority of Black and ethnically diverse musicians. In the event, Charleston-born Jonathon Heyward put his own indelible stamp on a varied yet satisfying program.Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s La Bamboula, a kaleidoscopic dance with roots in the West Indies, played to Chineke!’s strengths. The performed it with vigour and spirit, while Heyward kept its likable blend of late-Victorian tunefulness and proto-Hollywood glitz gossamer-light. You could see why Henry Wood programmed it at the Proms 16 times, making its subsequent 91-year absence inexplicable. Continue reading...

Events

6 h. ago White House's review of Smithsonian content could reach into classrooms nationwide

Some history teachers are concerned about what may come of a White House review of the Smithsonian's public-facing content

Events

6 h. ago California Schemin’ review – James McAvoy’s directorial debut is an unlikely rap tale

Toronto film festival: the actor makes for a hit-and-miss first time film-maker with the undeniably involving true story of Scottish rappers who pretended to be AmericanAt the start of the century, a struggling Scottish rap duo decided to overhaul their image in extreme fashion: they began posing as two Americans from California, and managed to secure themselves a record deal with a label in London. Eventually the hoax was revealed, and one of them released a memoir about the charade. That wild story has now been adapted into a film, California Schemin’, which marks the alternately confident and unsteady directorial debut of actor James McAvoy.McAvoy is a son of Scotland himself, and perhaps feels some kinship with rappers Gavin Bain and Billy Boyd, who found the cultural tastemakers of the south to be indifferent or even hostile to Scottish artists. Though McAvoy has fared just fine as an actor, Bain and Boyd – who would come to be known as Silibil N’ Brains – had a much tougher go...

Politics

7 h. ago Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery review – whodunnit threequel is murderously good fun

Toronto film festival: after Glass Onion underwhelmed, Rian Johnson’s self-aware, star-packed Benoit Blanc series makes a barnstorming return to formIf Glass Onion wasn’t quite the deserving follow-up to Knives Out that many of us had hoped it would be (it was more focused on the bigger rather than better), it was at the very least a deserved victory lap. Writer-director Rian Johnson’s 2019 whodunnit brought us back to the starry, slippery fun of the 70s and 80s, when films like this would be a dime a dozen and it was a surprise hit, making almost eight times its budget at the global box office. While Kenneth Branagh had seen commercial success already with his Poirot revival two years prior, his retreads felt too musty, and the actor-director too miscast, for the genre to truly feel like it was entering an exciting new period.Johnson’s threequel, Wake Up Dead Man, is the second as part of his Netflix deal (one that cost an estimated $450m) and arrives as the whodunnit genre has fou...

Events

7 h. ago How to get £15 Christmas tickets for England National Ballet Sleeping Beauty in Manchester

The renowned group will be performing The Sleeping Beauty classic fairy tale

Economics

9 h. ago Lewis Capaldi review – an emotional return to the spotlight for pop’s most heart

Utilita Arena, SheffieldThe singer announces he is thrilled to begin his first tour since taking time off for his mental health, but is visibly nervous and at one moment breaks into tearsLewis Capaldi is a pop star known for his patter. But tonight, he warns the crowd he is feeling too overwhelmed to perform his usual funnyman routine. “I probably won’t say lots this evening because I don’t know what to say,” he says. “I’m just genuinely thrilled that this is still a possibility for me.”The 28-year-old being lost for words tonight is understandable. In 2023, Capaldi announced he was taking a hiatus from touring, after sharing his struggles with his mental health and his diagnosis in 2022 of Tourette syndrome. Having disappeared from the spotlight for the better part of two years, he made a triumphant return at Glastonbury earlier this summer for an unannounced and emotional set on the Pyramid stage. Tonight’s Sheffield show, however, marks the Scottish singer’s first headline perfor...

Politics

10 h. ago King & Conqueror cast: who is in BBC show with James Norton? Full list

King & Conqueror is set to up the action this weekend - but who is in the cast? 👀📺

Politics

11 h. ago Liverpool sent new Alexander Isak fitness update as debut approaches

Striker is currently on international duty with Sweden after sealing £125m British record transfer from Newcastle to Anfield on Deadline Day

Politics

11 h. ago Elliot Anderson eyes World Cup place after making England debut against Andorra

The Nottingham Forest midfielder stood out on his senior bow.

Politics

11 h. ago Woman reveals incredible way she survived serial killer in the desert after he took chunks out of her neck

Jennifer Asbenson was only 19 years old and working as a carer in Palm Springs, California , when 'kind stranger' Andrew Urdiales offered to drive her to work.

Events

11 h. ago I CHEATED my way onto Countdown but it seriously backfired when I arrived on the Channel 4 set

Surrey-based James Belshaw, 46, has been applying for TV quizzes since 2010, and has appeared on Pointless, Weakest Link, Tipping Point and Lingo.

Events

12 h. ago Rangers defender taking pointers from James Tavernier into Hamilton Accies loan spell

Zander Hutton has joined Accies on a season-long loan

Politics

12 h. ago Nani sends 'special' Manchester United message as proud admission made after 'debut'

Manchester United icon Nani featured for the Reds once again on Saturday as he played in the legends fixture against Celtic at Parkhead

Events