42 h. ago ‘I laugh out loud’: why Johnny Stecchino is my feelgood movie

The latest in our ongoing series of writers remembering their go-to comfort picks is a tribute to Roberto Benigni’s Italian comedy farceI’ve never been drawn to humour built on exaggerated mishaps. Roberto Benigni’s Italian comedy Johnny Stecchino is the exception. Yes, it’s farce, but it’s also sly social commentary, ridiculing the mafia without sanctifying its opposition, and playing with the gap between how things are and how they appear.Six years before his Oscar-winning role in Life is Beautiful introduced him to a global audience, Benigni wrote, directed and starred in this 1991 box office hit that instantly became a national classic. Stecchino is Italian for toothpick, and mafia boss Johnny Stecchino always has one between his lips, a prop that defines his swaggering persona. Continue reading...

Politics

8 d. ago ‘The energy is infectious’: why Bride and Prejudice is my feelgood movie

The latest in our series of writers highlighting their go-to comfort films is an ode to Gurinder Chadha’s 2004 spin on the Austen classicWe’ve never been short of Jane Austen film adaptations. In fact, it seems a new one arrives every decade – two were announced recently, including Netflix’s spin on Pride & Prejudice. Yet, one adaptation has been shamefully overlooked: Gurinder Chadha’s Bride & Prejudice.A cross-cultural, British-and-Bollywood-meets-Hollywood take on Austen’s most famous novel, the film is pure joy – a riot of original musical numbers, colourful costumes, chaos, culture clashes and, of course, romance. Continue reading...

Science

2 w. ago ‘Visceral, sensual wonders’: why The Talented Mr Ripley is my feelgood movie

The latest in our series of writers detailing their most rewatched comfort films is a reminder of Anthony Minghella’s starry, sad and sinister 1999 thrillerSixteen is a great age to see a movie, there on a threshold between wide-eyed wonder and something like maturity. That’s how old I was when I first laid eyes on The Talented Mr Ripley, Anthony Minghella’s ravishing, exquisitely grim 1999 adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s flinty 1955 novel. I’d been a movie fan for years at that point, but something about its elegant menace, its beauty flecked with blood, grabbed ahold of me like little had previously. It is by no means a feelgood film, this story of queer longing and loneliness giving way to murderous deed. But watching it now (as I do perhaps embarrassingly often) still evokes the primal thrill of art cracking open a young mind.Minghella, who died in 2008, was a master of style, crafting wholly credible visions of the past. His prowess is perhaps best on display in Ripley, whic...

Politics

2 w. ago 'I bought worst rated Too Good To Go bag and contents inside left me in stitches'

A woman decided to test out the app popular Too Good To Go by buying a bag from the lowest rated store in her area, and the contents made her laugh out loud

Politics

3 w. ago The Roses review – dieback blights Colman and Cumberbatch remake

Both British actors are let down by the overly glossy, romcom-y sheen of this update of Warren Adler’s 1980s novel about a spectacularly toxic marriageOlivia Colman and Benedict Cumberbatch, the two most prestigious English screen actors in the world, resoundingly butt heads in this feel-bad movie; it is oddly, but not uninterestingly, composed throughout in feelgood romcom style. In casting terms, this is a Borg-McEnroe 10-set tie-break leading to play being suspended even as the leads bring every microlitre of their technique to the game.They play Ivy and Theo, two high-achieving professionals whose marriage becomes a black-comic Chornobyl of toxic hate; it is adapted from the 1981 novel The War of the Roses by Warren Adler, which was previously filmed in 1989 with Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas. Tony McNamara writes this new version and the director is Jay Roach, known for Austin Powers and Meet the Parents. Colman and Cumberbatch are acting black-belts and they are never an...

Events

4 w. ago ‘I luxuriate in the weird details’: why Highlander is my feelgood movie

The latest in our series of writers paying tribute to their favourite comfort watches is a journey back to the unusual sci-fi antics of 1986With all due respect to Flash Gordon, there is only room in my heart for one maximalist 1980s movie blending science fiction, fantasy and romance with a banging Queen soundtrack. That film is Highlander, the stylised but strangely lofty 1986 wannabe blockbuster with a premise so ridiculous – immortals tussle throughout human history in a beheading battle royale – it is often deployed as a pop culture punchline. (In the Nascar comedy Talladega Nights: the Ballad of Ricky Bobby, Will Ferrell’s blowhard racer confidently asserts that Highlander won the Academy Award for “best movie ever made”.)Even Highlander’s production history sounds like a mistranslated joke about national stereotypes walking into a bar. Australian director Russell Mulcahy chose French-American actor Christopher Lambert to embody the titular mythic Scottish hero, then cast actu...

Politics