8 h. ago #1 Happy Family USA review – a truly special comedy that’s packed with 00s nostalgia

Ramy Youssef’s surreal tale of a Muslim family in post-9/11 America is quietly subversive TV that’s full of laughter – and painfully realNot content with co-creating the brilliant (albeit frequently watch-through-your-fingers) dramedies Mo and Ramy, and starring in the latter, Ramy Youssef has turned his attention to a riotous animation for adults. Like the Egyptian-American comic’s previous work, #1 Happy Family USA is all about the modern Muslim experience, feeling adrift from the world, and the extent to which you should change yourself to fit in. And what better way to underscore this often excruciating, existential experience than to make our lead an insecure, hormone-plagued teen, coming of age in the wake of the September 11 attacks.For real Ramy heads, this show will almost certainly call to mind the flashback episode from the first season of his self-titled series, set during 9/11. There, we saw a young Ramy anxiously fight off accusations that he was a terrorist (“Egypt’s ...

Politics

53 h. ago Good American Family star reveals the harrowing scene that 'nearly killed him' to film while telling dark true tale of Ukrainian orphan Natalia Grace

Mark Duplass, who stars alongside Ellen Pompeo and British newcomer Imogen Faith Reid in the Disney+ drama has shared how shooting one agonizing scene with Imogen 'killed' him.

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3 d. ago The Balcony Movie review – funny/sad film that offers a view into strangers’ lives

Pawel Lozinski’s documentary collects conversations with passers-by he talks to from the window of his Warsaw flatPolish film-maker Pawel Lozinski has curated this amusing, cumulatively melancholy documentary which he has shot from the first-floor balcony in his flat in the Saska Kępa district of Warsaw. Over a number of years, and with a microphone discreetly attached to the chainlink fence at street level, he simply calls down to people going past and asks them to stop and talk about something, anything.There are a lot of dog-walkers and people with babies; most people smile or grimace politely and say they are not special enough to be featured in a film. A priest says he can’t talk because he is carrying the Holy Sacrament. Others obligingly talk: one woman sings a rather beautiful song, a man talks about being homeless, having just got out of prison. People confide their sadness at the loss of a loved one, though one woman sheepishly confesses her profound happiness that her abu...

Culture

6 d. ago No 1 Happy Family USA to Sloborn: the seven best shows to stream this week

Ramy Youssef’s warm, witty animated comedy follows the travails of a Muslim-American family who are determined to prove their loyalties to the US during a dark time for their communityAs the co-creator of the brilliant comedies Ramy and Mo, Ramy Youssef has been exploring the Muslim American experience with wit and precision for several years. His latest series is an adult animation about the Hussein family. It begins in 2001, which patriarch Rumi is confident will be a good year for the family – this optimism is misplaced. The series is a study in privilege and diasporic desperation, with a dark subtext: despite his best intentions, Rumi’s desire to fit in and prove himself and his family’s loyalty to the US is almost never rewarded. But, as ever, Youssef renders the Husseins’ travails with warmth, comedy and humanity. Prime Video, from Thursday 17 April Continue reading...

Politics

7 d. ago Chilling but true story behind Disney's Good American Family

Disney's Good American Family portrays the chilling story of orphan Natalia Grace, adopted by Kristine and Michael Barnett who later claimed she was an adult posing as a child

Politics

7 d. ago Natalia Grace's boyfriend who helped her escape from 'terrifying' adoptive family

Natalia Grace, the Ukrainian orphan whose story inspired new Hulu drama Good American Family, has shared how she fell in love with a man over Facebook, who helped her plot to escape her adoptive parents

Events

8 d. ago We are witnessing the destruction of science in America | Paul Darren Bieniasz

If we stay on this administration’s course, future life-saving medicines may never be inventedLike many scientists, I came to the US as a young adult, driven by idealism and ambition. I arrived with all my belongings contained in two suitcases, and just enough cash to cover the first month’s rent on a small apartment. But I also had something of greater value: an offer to work and train in one of America’s top biomedical research laboratories, a chance to participate in the revolution that is modern biological science.In the years that followed, I became an American scientist and raised an American family. Now, I lead a laboratory in one of the US’s great universities. I am a member of America’s National Academy of Sciences. From a scientist’s perspective, I have lived the American dream.Paul Darren Bieniasz is a British-American virologist whose main area of research is HIV/Aids. He is currently a professor of retrovirology at the Rockefeller University Continue reading...

Politics

8 d. ago Good American Family gets UK release date and it's good news for Grey's Anatomy fans

The stranger-than-fiction drama is now streaming in the UK

Politics

8 d. ago British actress, 27, playing Ukrainian dwarf Natalia Grace in new Disney+ drama reaveals the 'truth' she learned while portraying 6

The mysterious case of Natalia Grace - a Ukrainian orphan with dwarfism accused of lying about her age and 'tormenting' her adoptive parents - has baffled true crime fans for years. 

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8 d. ago American academic faces 15 years in jail for insulting royal family

Paul Chambers, a 58-year-old lecturer at Thailand's Naresuan University, was arrested last week following a complaint filed by the army.

Events

9 d. ago The dark true story behind Disney+ series Good American Family: Couple adopted a Ukrainian orphan

Natalia's unique story has now inspired Disney+ series Good American Family, which airs in the UK from Monday.

Politics

2 w. ago US bans government personnel in China from romantic or sexual relations with Chinese citizens

The U.S. government has banned American government personnel in China, as well as family members and contractors with security clearances, from any romantic or sexual relationships with Chinese citizens

Politics

2 w. ago The Strange Case of Jane O by Karen Thompson Walker review – an impossible tale

A New York librarian is discovered unconscious in a park with no memory, in a mystery that challenges consensual realityWe first meet Jane O in the consulting room of Henry Byrd, a New York psychiatrist. Jane, a 38-year-old librarian, is neat, quiet, outwardly unremarkable. She sits without saying anything, then gets up and leaves. Her visit has lasted just 14 minutes and Henry fears he will not see her again. He detects in her “a loneliness of the soul [like] a pine tree growing alone on a great, wide plain”.Their next encounter proves even stranger. Jane has been discovered unconscious in a public park with no memory of how she got there. A day of her life has gone missing and she is anxious about the welfare of her young son Caleb, who she failed to collect from nursery during her “blackout”. Terrified about how she might be judged for this memory lapse, she finally gives an account of the inexplicable event that brought her to Henry in the first place. Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago The Guardian view on Trump and reality: from promoting alternative facts to erasing truths | Editorial

The decision to put documents on the assassination of John F Kennedy into the public domain comes alongside a ‘digital book burning’ of dataWhat does the public need to know? The Trump White House boasts of being the most transparent administration in history – though commentators have suggested that the inadvertent leak of military plans to a journalist may have happened because senior figures were using messaging apps such as Signal to avoid oversight. Last week, it released thousands of pages of documents on John F Kennedy’s assassination. Donald Trump has declared that Kennedy’s family and the American people “deserve transparency and truth”.Strikingly, this stated commitment to sharing information comes as his administration defunds data collection and erases existing troves of knowledge from government websites. The main drivers appear to be the desire to remove “woke” content and global heating data, and the slashing of federal spending. Information resources are both the tar...

Politics

3 w. ago Ellen Pompeo Joins Mark Duplass & Imogen Faith Reid at ‘Good American Family’ Screening in London

Ellen Pompeo Joins Mark Duplass & Imogen Faith Reid at ‘Good American Family’ Screening in London  Just Jared

Politics

3 w. ago Misericordia review – waking dream of a movie is one of the strangest films of the year

A man moves in with his employer’s widow in this playful but dreamlike and inscrutable drama from Alain Guiraudie, the director of Stranger By the LakeWriter-director Alain Guiraudie must surely now be said to match Quentin Dupieux for the weirdest sense of humour in French cinema. But is comedy exactly what is happening here? Because this has to be one of the strangest films of the year – or the most deadpan of deadpan in-jokes. At one point, I thought I saw the performer playing a police officer almost laugh, but perhaps every single actor here was on the verge of cracking up throughout the shoot. It could be that every time Guiraudie yelled “Cut” everyone burst out laughing.You could also call Misericordia queer cinema, with the word “queer” also working in its non-sexual sense. Guiraudie made his international breakthrough with his 2013 film Stranger By the Lake, but it’s now clear that the seriousness and vehemence of that psychosexual drama are atypical of the director’s real ...

Culture

3 w. ago 'Addictively good' US drama receives rave reviews ahead of Disney premiere

Hulu drama Good American Family has received rave reviews from fans and critics alike, ahead of its UK premiere in May

Politics

3 w. ago Unsettling true story behind Good American Family as Natalia Grace causes divide

Good American Family is set to premiere in the UK on May 7, but social media sleuths have already got their hands on clips from the new hit drama that retells the horrifying story of Natalia Grace

Politics

3 w. ago Inside Natalia Grace's life now as new Ellen Pompeo series Good American Family airs 

Viewers are keen to know about the real-life case

Politics

3 w. ago Why Good American Family will grip you: Ellen Pompeo’s shocking true drama you need to watch

From Grey’s Anatomy to a harrowing true-life tale, Pompeo stars in this epic series exploring the controversial adoption of a girl with dwarfism. Here’s everything you need to know

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