13 h. ago Above the Knee review – man struggles with body integrity dysmorphia in gory amputation horror

A man grapples with an overwhelming desire to remove his leg in a lingering psychological interrogation from Norwegian film-maker Viljar BøeNorwegian director Viljar Bøe has been hacking out an interesting niche for himself in the horror genre, specialising in a variety grounded more in psychology than supernatural jiggery pokery. For example, Good Boy from 2022 revolved around a man and his “dog” (who is obviously a guy in a dog costume) acting like a mutt at all times. Similarly, his new feature features a character called Amir (Freddy Singh) with a psychological fixation that’s so unusual he feels he must keep it a secret from his girlfriend and all acquaintances: he has body integrity dysphoria (BID), which in his case means he has an overwhelming desire to amputate his left leg even though there’s nothing physically wrong with it.Amir lives with his super-nice, cheerful girlfriend Kim (Julie Abrahamsen) in hyper-tolerant, Scandi-socialist quasi-utopia Norway, so when he drunken...

Events

15 h. ago Sanatorium review – Ukraine health resort guests seek sanctuary amid shelling

Poignant documentary by Irish director Gar O’Rourke peers into a faded Soviet-era institution where visitors search for relief while war grinds on outsideThere is something ever so slightly Martin Parr-like about this documentary, filmed inside a shabby rundown health resort near Odesa, in Ukraine. It’s not the colour palette, which is Soviet-era pale beige, but the images of holidaymakers: elderly men strutting about in thongs and playing ping pong in their vests; retirees of both sexes glad-ragged at the disco. Like Parr’s photos, the images are funny but not unkind; everyone retains their dignity. The director is Irish film-maker Gar O’Rourke, who planned Sanatorium before the war, but filmed it after Russia invaded Ukraine, which adds a layer of melancholy to the guests’ search for health and happiness.The huge Kuyalnik sanatorium is a time warp with its brutalist architecture and institutional interiors. Back in its glory days, people must have come here in their thousands. Now...

Politics

34 h. ago Benidorm fans say 'he's all grown up' as cast reunites sparking new series speculation

Benidorm fans were thrilled as Tony Maudsley shared a sweet cast reunion snap sparking excitement and fuelling rumours that the hit comedy could be making a comeback

Politics

61 h. ago Harry Potter director rules out Cursed Child film with original cast for one reason

Harry Potter director Chris Columbus has revealed that a film adaptation of the play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child will "never" happen - and he's blamed JK Rowling for it

Politics

4 d. ago Kevin Spacey attends Venice Film Festival with directorial comeback

You might consider it bad form - even rude - to gatecrash your second film festival in a year.

Culture

4 d. ago Julia Roberts says humanity ‘losing art of conversation’ in defence of new #MeToo

After the Hunt, directed by Luca Guadagnino, centres on an accusation of sexual assault at a universityJulia Roberts has defended her new #MeToo-themed film, After the Hunt, from accusations that it revives anti-feminist arguments, saying humanity was at risk of “losing the art of conversation”.The Oscar-winning actor is making her Venice film festival debut with the psychological thriller from the Italian director Luca Guadagnino. It premieres out of competition on the Lido on Friday evening. Continue reading...

Politics

4 d. ago What Thursday Murder Club's second film could include as director speaks out on future

The Thursday Murder Club film is only based on Richard Osman's first book.

Events

5 d. ago Sam Mendes’ wife Alison Balsom says director took her to Quentin Tarantino film on first date

Classical musician called the film ‘violent’ but described the director as ‘unique’

Politics

5 d. ago From John Wick to Happy Gilmore: Boban Marjanovic wants to be America’s next big action hero

The NBA star has Hollywood dreams. He also DJs

Politics

5 d. ago Vice Is Broke review – epic levels of hubris on show in downfall of millennial media darling

Documentary about the rise and fall of a publishing empire, from edgy magazine to billionaire-backing to bankruptcy has a ‘you had to be there’ vibe‘Coolness is not a renewable resource,” says a contributor to this documentary about Vice magazine’s rise and fall. In the late 2000s and 2010s Vice grew from a punk magazine into a digital media empire by telling the world what was cool (more specifically by telling millennials, then in their cool-seeking prime). By 2017, it was valued at nearly $6bn; in 2023, Vice filed for bankruptcy. A man who saw it from the inside is TV chef Eddie Huang, the director and frontman of this film. He had a long-running show on the Viceland TV channel and says he’s still owed hundreds of thousands of dollars in royalties.Huang is also an advert for the best of Vice: fast, funny and authentic. The film begins with plenty of “you had to be there” stories about Brooklyn before gentrification, and interviews with early staff. This isn’t meant unkindly, but ...

Politics

6 d. ago Mother review – Noomi Rapace is a fanatical Mother Teresa full of fury

Rapace plays the canonised Kolkata nun with hard-bitten intensity in a complex, lurid story that veers between faithful telling and bouts of funThe convent is a pressure cooker in this fevered, energetic account of a pivotal week in the life of the young Mother Teresa, which jump-starts the Orizzonti sidebar at this year’s Venice film festival. Macedonian writer-director Teona Strugar Mitevska ticks down the days from seven to one and wrings a performance of flayed, hard-bitten intensity from Noomi Rapace, who marches down the corridors with a face full of fury. Rapace is a long way from her breakout role in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo; tonally, though, not so much. If Mother Teresa never goes so far as to set about the sisters with an axe, the sense that she might injects Mitevska’s film with a pleasing dose of danger.It is 1948, we’re in the broiling heart of Kolkata and Sister Teresa has tired of her teaching role at the Loreto Entally convent. “I’m a woman in a system run by...

Politics

6 d. ago The Thursday Murder Club director's 'biggest regret' about film

The Thursday Murder Club is set to be released on Netflix this week and the film's director has opened up about his 'biggest regret'

Events

6 d. ago Thursday Murder Club's director admits 'biggest regret' creating film

The Thursday Murder Club is based on Richard Osman's novel of the same name.

Events

6 d. ago Clooney summer camp! Amal, George and their twins Ella and Alexander welcome a host of stars to $100m Lake Como villa

George, 64, Amal, 47, and their eight-year-old twins Ella and Alexander joined a mixed group of friends including Happy Gilmore star Adam Sandler on Lake Como

Politics

7 d. ago Netflix shares first look at 'gripping' political thriller with The Night Agent and Luther stars

The film comes from Academy Award winning director Kathryn Bigelow.

Politics

7 d. ago From Happy Gilmore 2 to action star: Boban Marjanovic's Hollywood dreams

Boban Marjanovic wants to be America’s next big action hero

Politics

7 d. ago Thursday Murder Club director unveils 'beautiful' extra film featuring cut scene

The Thursday Murder Club film does not feature all of the book's plot points - but one 'beautiful' moment has been saved.

Events

7 d. ago Woody Allen responds after Ukraine slams director for appearing at Russian film festival: ‘Disgrace and insult’

Filmmaker says he ‘always liked Russian cinema’ and would like to make a movie in the country

Sport

8 d. ago ‘The 90s were remarkable – we weren’t all living in existential terror!’ Darren Aronofsky on Caught Stealing, his love letter to New York

Famed for intense dramas like Black Swan, the director’s latest film is a riotous retro crime caper. He explains why he’s battling TikTok – but embracing AIDarren Aronofsky’s new film is a blast from the past; a half-cut retro tour of late-1990s New York. Beetling around the tatty East Village, casually framing the twin towers downtown, it lifts the lid on a time that has been and gone: when the city was a melting pot of miscreants and misfits, when lowly bar staff could still afford Gotham rents,, and when every car came equipped with a cigarette lighter. “Don’t they have those any more?” says Aronofksy, frowning at his untouched cup of herbal tea. “I don’t know, maybe not. It’s been many years since I smoked a cigarette.”Caught Stealing, he says, could almost be his parallel-universe first movie, given that it’s set in 1998, around the time he was shooting his actual first film, Pi, on the same East Side streets. He was in his late 20s back then, subsisting on pizza and living in ...

Events

1 week ago If your husband’s having an affair, this woman will get rid of her: the gripping film about China’s ‘mistress dispellers’

Available for hire, professional persuaders deceive their way into the lives of cheating men – and see off the extra lover. We meet the maker of a jaw-dropping documentary about a growing phenomenonNot long into Mistress Dispeller, a quietly jaw-dropping new documentary from director Elizabeth Lo, the film’s eponymous character lays out her thesis for ridding marriages of troublesome extra lovers. “When someone becomes a mistress,” she says, “it’s because they feel they don’t deserve complete love. She’s the one who needs our help the most.”Wang Zhenxi, a mistress dispeller based in north-central China’s Henan province, is one of a growing number of self-styled professionals who earn a living by intervening in people’s marriages – to “dispel” them of intruders. “I was looking for a love story set in China,” says Lo, speaking from Hong Kong. “I thought it would be really interesting to [explore] the peripheral gaze of a mistress.” Continue reading...

Culture