7 h. ago ‘I charge upwards of £100k’: What it’s really like to be a millionaire matchmaker

Celine Song’s new romcom ‘Materialists’ follows Dakota Johnson as a high-flying matchmaker. Lydia Spencer-Elliott chats to real-life professional cupid Inga Verbeeck about how she finds love for the rich and famous

Economics

21 h. ago Materialists review – Dakota Johnson and Pedro Pascal in a movie that can’t decide if it’s a romcom, a farce, or a dark drama

Celine Song’s follow-up to ‘Past Lives’ has divided audiences in the US, but its wavering tone might also be the point

Politics

50 h. ago Materialists review – Dakota Johnson torn between Pedro Pascal and Chris Evans in charming romcom

Johnson plays a matchmaker who has to choose between wealthy new suitor Pascal and broke ex Evans, but the outcome feels a little undramaticSay you are a single woman in New York and you are, in the words of the song, torn between two lovers: two handsome, intelligent, nice guys – one very poor and one very rich. All things being equal, who do you go for? The answer in real life is very different, in fact diametrically opposed, to the answer in a film. Few movie heroines have the candour of Jane Austen’s Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice, who admitted to falling in love with Mr Darcy on seeing his beautiful grounds at Pemberley.But this is the choice, which never quite ascends to the state of a dilemma, in this charming and watchable – yet for me somehow anticlimactic – romantic comedy-drama from South Korean-Canadian film-maker Celine Song: a love-triangle confection to follow the much realer, truer love triangle of Song’s much acclaimed debut Past Lives. When the decision is...

Politics

4 d. ago Dakota Johnson’s biggest problem? Movies not as strange and funny as she is

The star of ‘Madame Web’ and ‘Materialists’ has proven she’s a droll, eccentric, and inscrutable presence off screen, writes Louis Chilton. Why does Hollywood seem unable to bottle that?

Politics

7 d. ago ‘Nobody believes in the future any more’: Adam Curtis and Ari Aster on how to wake up from the post

Paranoia is exploited to control us. Movies are groomed to flatter us. And trauma has been twisted to make us blame ourselves. How can we make sense of our lives? The two film-makers try to navigate the chaosAri Aster’s new movie, Eddington, pits Joaquin Phoenix against Pedro Pascal as men with conflicting takes on how to get their small town through the crisis of Covid. It’s also a film about the contemporary political crisis in the US and the influence of technology on our lives.Adam Curtis’s latest documentary series, Shifty, covers similar themes but through the lens of British life in the Thatcher years of the late 1970s to early 1990s. This era, he argues, put in place a substantial shift in power away from the individual and the nation state, changes that are still playing out today. Continue reading...

Politics

8 d. ago Materialists review: All the beautiful people, none of the feeling

The central love triangle between Dakota Johnson, Pedro Pascal and Chris Evans could have been romcom catnip — instead, it ends up feeling firmly two-dimensional

Politics

9 d. ago Miner Glencore decides against moving stock market listing from London to US

Miner Glencore decides against moving stock market listing from London to US  The Guardian

Economics

9 d. ago Director reveals why Pedro Pascal dropped out of major role in film with 100% Rotten Tomatoes rating

Mystery horror releases in theatres on 8 August

Politics

1 week ago Top South Dakota official apologizes for releasing voter data

South Dakota secretary of state Monae Johnson is apologizing for accidentally revealing sensitive voter registration data about thousands of residents last month

Politics

1 week ago ‘Everybody’s starved of affection’: Past Lives director Celine Song on the brutal dating scene and her realistic new romcom

The writer-director’s debut film earned critical acclaim and Oscar nods for its portrayal of loves lost and rekindled. Her follow-up stars Dakota Johnson, Pedro Pascal and Chris Evans in a romance about dating across the class divide‘Our financial literacy is so fucked,” says Celine Song. We’re having breakfast in Manhattan on a sunny Saturday in early July, a few weeks after her new film, Materialists, has opened in New York City. She’s wearing a charmingly ironic outfit: a T-shirt that says “HOWDY” and a baseball cap that says “Big” (she’s petite, 5ft 4in, for the record) – but she speaks with almost disarming earnestness.She’s frustrated, she tells me, that people have described one of the characters in her film, a private equity manager with a $12m apartment, as a “billionaire”. “If you’re a billionaire, your big apartment is not $12m!” she exclaims. “The average income of an American adult is $35,000. What that means is half of America makes less than $35,000. Three times that ...

Culture

1 week ago The moment I knew: moving so far and so fast wasn’t in my character but it just felt right

When Anne Wijdeveld met Ben on New Year’s Eve they began what she thought was a holiday romance. Within weeks she was moving across the globe to be with himFind more stories from The moment I knew seriesIn December 2024 I arrived in Sydney ready for an adventure. A friend was getting married in Australia and I had originally booked the trip with my ex, but when he dropped out after our breakup I decided to go ahead. I was considering quitting my job and moving back to the Netherlands so, even though I didn’t know what my future would look like, I was ready for a holiday. I planned a week with friends in Sydney and Newcastle, a week with a friend travelling up the east coast and a final week on my own.On New Year’s Eve I’d been at an all-day boat party on Sydney Harbour when a friend said she was off to meet an old flame of hers at a fireworks event in Bondi. I remember her telling me he had a nice single brother called Ben and showing me a photo: he had a moustache, was wearing a ta...

Politics

3 w. ago CHRISTOPHER STEVENS reviews Karen Pirie: With plots as deep and dark as a coal mine shaft, this is no ordinary Karen

Based on the superb books by Val McDermid, this returning drama has plots as deep and dark as a coal mine shaft.

Politics

3 w. ago Whiteboard warrior: Marvel is priming Mister Fantastic to be the new leader of the Avengers

The guy who treats collapsing timelines like a crossword puzzle has one extra superpower this time around: he’s played by Pedro PascalThe Avengers need a new leader, and given how many potential candidates for the gig have either died, retired, or turned evil, they need it soon. The multiverse is collapsing, timelines are unravelling, box office numbers are wobbling, the Kang plan is in tatters and Blade is on its ninth script. So, naturally, Marvel’s answer is to hand the reins to a stretchy man in sensible shoes who once broke the entire multiverse.Yes, according to The Fantastic Four: First Steps director Matt Shakman, the awesome foursome’s Reed Richards is being lined up as the new leader of Earth’s mightiest heroes. Or at least, he is (at times) in the comics, and it looks increasingly like he might be the only reality-straddling, buttoned up polymathable to take on this job on the big screen. Continue reading...

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