9 d. ago ‘A different vibe’: New York welcomes the luxury private cinema experience

At the high-end Metro Private Cinema, a private screening room with a gourmet meal and drinks can reach $200 a person. Will people pay?On a recent trip to the cinema, I found myself annoyed. The person next to me kept sniffling loudly and, even worse, scrolling Instagram on their phone, dimly visible from the corner of my eye. The former is simply an occupational hazard of being around other people, a thing I usually love to be doing; the latter, though a violation of the theater’s no phone policy, still more preferable to the conflict-averse than confrontation. If only, one sometimes wonders, there was some middle ground between full cinema experience and the privacy of one’s couch.Enter Metro Private Cinemas, a new upscale theater in Manhattan that caters to cinephiles eager to privatize and glamorize the theatrical experience – for a price. For $50-100 a head, you can book a room at the 20-screen complex in Chelsea for a group sized anywhere between four and 20 people. Pick a fil...

Politics

1 week ago 'So brave, so proud': Harry Potter's Jason Isaacs supports screen son Tom Felton as they enjoy a Malfoy reunion at Broadway show

The actor has reprised his role as Draco Malfoy, 15 years after wrapping the film franchise and made his emotional debut at New York's Lyric Theatre last week

Politics

2 w. ago Bill Murray, Elle Fanning and Elvis Costello celebrate Sofia Coppola at MoMA benefit

Sofia Coppola has been honored at the Museum of Modern Art Film Benefit in New York for her filmmaking achievements

Economics

2 w. ago Celebrating literature is good – but I’m running out of patience with celebrity book clubs | Emma Brockes

Sarah Jessica Parker swept all before her at the Booker prize ceremony, but is fame the best way to encourage reading?In these turbulent times, we take small joys where we can find them. And this week we’ll take this: the spectacle of various literary people at the Booker prize award ceremony jamming themselves into photos alongside Sarah Jessica Parker. The actor – if you missed the long piece about it in the New York Times, or the many social media posts promoting Parker’s involvement – served as a judge for the Booker this year, a process that required her to read 153 books, some of them on the New York subway while being followed by a film crew. “Oh let me try!!!!” Parker had posted to Booker organisers last year, and for reasons that became obvious this week, they did.I know what you are going to say; that anything short of full-throated support for Parker’s adorable engagement with books in general and the Booker prize in particular is just unacceptable snobbery. There is noth...

Culture

2 w. ago Should I care what Sarah Jessica Parker thinks about books? | Emma Brockes

She swept all before her at the Booker prize ceremony, but I’m running out of patience with celebrity influence in publishingIn these turbulent times, we take small joys where we can find them. And this week we’ll take this: the spectacle of various literary people at the Booker prize award ceremony jamming themselves into photos alongside Sarah Jessica Parker. The actor – if you missed the long piece about it in the New York Times, or the many social media posts promoting Parker’s involvement – served as a judge for the Booker this year, a process that required her to read 153 books, some of them on the New York subway while being followed by a film crew. “Oh let me try!!!!” Parker had posted to Booker organisers last year, and for reasons that became obvious this week, they did.I know what you are going to say; that anything short of full-throated support for Parker’s adorable engagement with books in general and the Booker prize in particular is just unacceptable snobbery. There ...

Politics

3 w. ago Independent film festival in New York cancelled after China puts pressure on directors

Directors ask for their films not to be shown at IndieChina festival, which was due to launch this weekendAn independent film festival due to start in New York this weekend has been cancelled after several film-makers pulled out due to harassment from the Chinese authorities, raising concerns about transnational repression.The inaugural IndieChina film festival was planned to take place between 8 and 15 November. But on 5 November, the festival’s curator, Zhu Rikun, posted on Facebook that he had been forced to cancel 80% of the planned screenings because film-makers had pulled out. Continue reading...

Events

3 w. ago Screen beauty Sydney Sweeney stuns in a selection of racy outfits as she promotes new film in New York

ACTRESS Sydney Sweeney scores a hat-trick in a selection of outfits in one day. The 28-year-old was spotted switching up her style in New York City while promoting her boxing biopic Christy. As well as the three outfits pictured, Sydney changed into three more throughout the day for a total of six. Actress Sydney described...

Politics

3 w. ago The Zohran Mamdani method can work beyond New York. Take the fight to the right | Aditya Chakrabortty

For too long, the centre has been adopting the language of the right but deploying it with greater civility – to disastrous endsZohran Mamdani was forged in the era of Donald Trump. He came to socialism through watching Bernie Sanders run for the US presidency in 2016, in the contest that ultimately gave us Trump I. Last November, a few days after the election of Trump II, he asked voters why they’d backed that guy. The conversations prepared Mamdani in his battle for New York, and the film of them reveals so much about the politics of this era that it repays watching.Those of us schooled in the tactics of Bill Clinton and Tony Blair might roll our eyes at yet another “listening exercise”, starring a powerbroker and his retinue in some beautifully lit hall, but this is no such thing. Here stands an unknown on a street corner in the Bronx, waving a placard as doughtily as a Seventh-Day Adventist. Rather than read off a Rolodex of platitudes, this politician sees his public – some of ...

Politics

3 w. ago Will Ferrell’s Elf costume could fetch up to £200,000 at auction

The film about a man raised as one of Father Christmas’s elves is considered to be one of the top festive films of all time.

Economics

3 w. ago George Clooney says it was ‘mistake’ to replace Biden with Harris in US election

The Democrat also said he is ‘saddened’ by the ‘real attack’ on US institutions that ‘hold truth to power’.

Politics