96 m. ago Christy review – Sydney Sweeney fights a losing battle in cliched boxing biopic

Toronto film festival: The rising star makes for a convincing boxer inside the ring in David Michôd’s by-the-numbers drama but flounders when outsideEven before Sydney Sweeney became better known for being in the centre of an increasingly absurd culture war, the unavoidable campaign to make her Hollywood’s Next Big Thing was showing signs of fatigue. The Euphoria grad, who gave a resonant performance in Reality, scored a sleeper hit with glossed up romcom Anyone But You but audiences were more impressed than critics, including myself (I found her performance strangely stilted). There was little interest from either side in her nun horror Immaculate, and earlier this summer her incredulously plotted Apple movie Echo Valley went the way of many Apple movies (no one knows it exists).Post-thinkpieces, two of her festival duds (Eden and Americana) disappeared at the box office and she now arrives at Toronto in need of a win. And what better way to achieve that by going for an old-fashion...

Sport

1 hour ago Steve review – Cillian Murphy is outstanding in ferocious reform school drama

Toronto film festival: adapted by Max Porter from his novella Shy and co-starring Little Simz, Emily Watson and Tracey Ullman this brutal but ultimately hopeful story is fiercely affectingProducer-star Cillian Murphy and director Tim Mielants last collaborated on a superlative adaptation of Claire Keegan’s Small Things Like These, and their new project together could hardly be more different: a drama suffused with gonzo energy and the death-metal chaos of emotional pain, cut with slashes of bizarre black humour. Max Porter has adapted his own 2023 novella Shy for the screen and Murphy himself gives one of his most uninhibited and demonstrative performances.Murphy is Steve, a stressed, troubled but passionately committed headteacher with a secret alcohol and substance abuse problem, in charge of a residential reform school for delinquent teenage boys some time in the mid-90s. With his staff – deputy (Tracey Ullman), therapist-counsellor (Emily Watson) and a new teacher (Little Simz) ...

Events

1 hour ago Steve review – Cillian Murphy drama exposes the perils of novel

Max Porter takes his novella ‘Shy’ and plants its protagonist into the background for this Netflix drama – it’s a puzzling decision, despite the strong performances from newcomer Jay Lycurgo and the rapper Little Simz

Events

2 h. ago The Choral review – Ralph Fiennes makes pleasant music in low

Toronto film festival: the actor is a reliably committed presence in this gentle Alan Bennett-scripted first world war tale which might have worked better on stageThere are simple Sunday afternoon pleasures to be had in the gentle comedy drama The Choral, the latest collaboration for Nicholas Hytner and Alan Bennett. Their last was 2015’s The Lady in the Van, a slight, mostly unmemorable film blessed by a spiky Maggie Smith performance but cursed with an uneven tone. Unlike that, and their previous two works together on screen, this wasn’t based on a play but it often feels like it and, at too many points, that it also maybe should have been one instead. There are moments of creaky comedy and some bluntly emotional dialogue that one can more easily picture in front of a specifically catered-to live audience.On a big screen, The Choral is a little out of place, its only moments of pure cinema courtesy of the spectacular Yorkshire scenery. Well, that and those when star Ralph Fiennes ...

Politics

3 h. ago Victoria police announce $1m reward for information on Porepunkah fugitive Dezi Freeman

State’s largest reward ever offered for arrest as alpine hunt for alleged killer of two police enters 12th dayGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastVictoria police have announced a million-dollar reward for information leading to the arrest of fugitive Dezi Freeman, after the alleged murder of two police officers in Porepunkah last month.The reward of “up to $1m” is the largest ever offered in Victoria for an arrest, said Det Insp Dean Thomas from the homicide squad. Continue reading...

Events

3 h. ago Message to UK holidaymakers as Ryanair urges passengers to lodge official complaints

Ryanair has set up a website called Air Traffic Control Ruined Your Flight

Society

4 h. ago UK households urged to spray peppermint on curtains in September

UK households are being encouraged to spray their curtains with peppermint this month for this one specific reason.

Politics

4 h. ago Mitchell and Webb Are Not Helping on Channel 4 review: not quite numberwang

The comedy duo are back with a mix of zingers and clangers

Politics

4 h. ago Stevie Nicks and Lindsay Buckingham fuel new reunion speculation with cryptic post

Former bandmates and lovers announced rerelease of their 1973 album in July

Politics

5 h. ago The Paper review – this spinoff of the US Office is dated, mediocre TV

Domhnall Gleeson stars as a clueless local newspaper editor in the mockumentary comedy’s latest creation. His talents can’t outdo the one-note dialogue and lack of hilarityTwo years after the British version concluded with a second brilliantly mortifying Christmas special in 2003, American viewers got their own take on The Office. Set at the Dunder Mifflin paper company in Scranton, Pennsylvania, it was very much in the spirit of the original, at least initially: a deadpan mockumentary centred on a megalomaniac manager (Steve Carrell’s Michael Scott), who like Ricky Gervais’s David Brent before him was “a friend first, and a boss second and probably an entertainer third”. The Office: An American Workplace ran for nine seasons, setting aside some of the original’s cringe comedy aspects in favour of something with a little more heart. By the time it ended in 2013, it was an award-winning sitcom juggernaut in its own right – hugely popular but bearing little resemblance to its Slough-b...

Politics

5 h. ago UK weather maps reveal monster rainstorm will drench cities with one area spared

Brits are bracing for more unsettled weather this month as forecasters warn heavy showers will hit several towns and cities across the UK, with thunderstorms and hail also possible

Events

5 h. ago MOVIE REVIEW: We decide if we should keep our distance from body horror 'Together'

Icky effects mix with cutting barbs for an uncomfortable exploration of a troubled relationship.

Events

6 h. ago Sabrina Carpenter leaves UK artist's fuming as album shatters impressive record

Pop icon Sabrina Carpenter released her seventh studio album Man's Best Friend this week and the US singer has beaten several UK artists to the top of the charts

Culture

6 h. ago Rome review: indulging in hotel luxury and seeing the sights during 24 hours in The Eternal City

When in Rome... as they say! But what do you do if you only have 24 hours to spare? Is it enough time to see all of The Eternal City? Probably not. But for the cultural romantics among us, it's certainly long enough to fall hopelessly in love.

Politics

7 h. ago From Pop to Pleasing: I tried the Harry Styles sex toy the internet can't stop talking about

We got our hands on Harry Styles’ new Pleasing toy — and yes, it is as fun as it sounds. Catriona Innes rates Pleasing’s adults-only debut

Politics

8 h. ago Sabrina Carpenter secures biggest opening week of 2025 for an international artist with Man's Best Friend after she hit back at the 'older generation' for criticising her 'over

Man's Best Friend - which eclipses the year's previous best - even tops the Official Vinyl Albums Chart, the most popular record of the week on wax, shifting 85,500 units in its first seven days.

Events

8 h. ago Lost Boys and Fairies and Until I Kill You among Bafta Cymru nominations

The coveted event honouring the best of TV and film in Wales is back next month

Events

9 h. ago Met Police spends £10m on Palestine Action protests and other events in just one month

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Ade Adelekan said 62,829 officer shifts have been extracted from local communities since June

Economics

9 h. ago Kennedy Center ticket sales take a nosedive after Trump takeover

Prestigious Stuttgart Ballet likely to face 80% empty seats at DC’s premier arts venue as audiences ‘vote with their feet’Ticket sales at the Kennedy Center have continued to plummet following Donald Trump’s takeover of Washington DC’s premier performing arts venue, with the prestigious Stuttgart Ballet expected to dance next month to houses less than 20% full.Audiences are “voting with their feet to skip out” on shows that would once have been packed, in protest at the US president inserting himself into the center’s management and operations as its new chairman, amid discussions around the notion of renaming it after Trump, according to an analysis by the Washingtonian magazine. Continue reading...

Politics

9 h. ago More than a million Gen Z Brits admit they have chips for BREAKFAST six times a week

A survey of UK adults conducted last month found that nine per cent of Gen Zers, or more than a million of them, are eating fried spuds first thing in the morning most of the week.

Politics