51 m. ago Nuns vs the Vatican: documentary alleges sexual abuse and misconduct in the Catholic church

Toronto film festival: a new film follows women who claim to have been abused by a former Jesuit priestA complicated stain on Pope Francis’s legacy is further explored in Nuns vs the Vatican, a sensitive and unsettling documentary following women whose sexual abuse allegations were long ignored by the Catholic church, and the broader system that protects and enables predators within.Nuns, which is directed by Emmy winner in Lorena Luciano and executive produced by Law & Order: Special Victims Unit star Mariska Hargitay and premiered at the Toronto film festival on Saturday, largely centres around Gloria Branciani and Mirjam Kovac, who are among dozens allegedly victimized by Marko Rupnik, a former Jesuit priest currently awaiting canonical trial for sexual, spiritual and physical abuse. Continue reading...

Events

68 m. ago From Ground Zero: Stories From Gaza review – scenes of ordinary life in extremis

This heartbreaking collection of short films mentions neither ‘Israel’ nor ‘Hamas’, instead offering a mosaic of everyday living under nonstop attackThis collection of short films from Gaza film-makers gives a mosaic of images, ideas and microvignettes of what life is like for civilians under nonstop attack, sometimes improvising semi-fictionalised scenes within the scenes of devastation. It is a humanitarian artistic project in which the words “Hamas” and “Israel” are not mentioned; instead we hear the voices of young and old, male and female, people for whom the violence and the grief have become part of the fabric of everyday life. Perhaps the simple fact of life going on there, with stoicism and often with humour, is a remarkable thing in itself.In Nidal Damo’s Everything Is Fine, a budding standup comedian wanders around, wondering how to ply his trade when all the venues are rubble; a class of schoolkids learn how to create stop-motion animation about their lives in Khamis Mas...

Politics

2 h. ago Sheila Hancock admits she’s overwhelmed with loneliness after husband John Thaw’s death

‘Who is there now to wipe my tears and make me laugh?’ actor asked

Events

2 h. ago São Paulo biennale review – chanting trees and hormonal humming create a cacophany of art

Ciccillo Matarazzo Pavilion, São PauloEverywhere you turn, there’s an installation making a total racket – but this overwhelming multi-artist sensory blowout comes to life when the images speak for themselvesMeditation and spiritual connection may be OK in small doses, but after three floors and 30,000 sq metres of darkened rooms, theatrical installations, altars and votive sculpture, more sound work than I’ve ever encountered in a single show, and a general encouragement to be moved, mesmerised and in touch with my spiritual side, my ears are ringing and I feel quite on edge.The São Paulo biennale, the second oldest art exhibition of its type in the world, takes the title Not All Travellers Walk Roads for its 36th edition, a line, which, with some irony, is from Of Calm and Silence, a poem by the Brazilian writer Conceição Evaristo. In Cameroonian curator Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung’s show of 120 artists, this translates as imagining alternative forms of consciousness, invariabl...

Politics

3 h. ago Stoats partners with Universal Products & Experiences to launch new Wicked: For Good inspired snack bars, launching exclusively in Tesco

Edinburgh-based snack bar manufacturer, Stoats, is partnering with Universal Products & Experiences (UP&E) to launch brand new spellbinding snack bars, in celebration of the upcoming theatrical release of Universal Pictures’ Wicked: For Good - the epic conclusion to the Broadway film adaptation, which has captivated audiences around the globe, in cinemas from November 21.

Politics

3 h. ago Fever la France as unforgettable UFC Paris show proves City of Light is City of Fight

UFC ULTIMATE INSIDER COLUMN: Paris pushes claims to be the combat sports capital as rabid home crowd help French fighters to go undefeated on memorable night for Nassourdine Imavov

Sport

6 h. ago The Christophers review – Ian McKellen and Michaela Coel spar in smart Soderbergh original

Toronto film festival: the actors play off each other beautifully in an intimate London-set comedy drama about art, commerce and the mess in-betweenIt seems like Steven Soderbergh might have developed a late case of anglophilia, the retirement-teasing director situating himself in London for three films within the last two years. The first was a needless, throwaway Magic Mike sequel, but then this spring he gave us the delicious spy caper Black Bag, a juicy riff on both John le Carré and Agatha Christie that dared to imagine a monogamous and supportive marriage as the epitome of sexiness. Unlike Woody Allen, who cursed us with a string of London-set clunkers after Match Point (Cassandra’s Dream, a film that cast Colin Farrell and Ewan McGregor as cockney brothers, easily the most heinous), Soderbergh seems to be sticking around for reasons other than a nice holiday, his second offering of 2025 also feeling notable. It’s a quieter project than his last, a delicate two-hander closer t...

Politics

7 h. ago The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai review – a dazzling epic

Longlisted for the Booker, this capacious story of love, work and family set between India and the US is both dizzyingly vast and insistently miniatureOn a trip to see his grandparents in the Indian city of Allahabad, journalist Sunny Bhatia flicks through the morning papers, and is immediately at sea: what can the convoluted sentences before him – “TTIM files complaint against MSL at JM Rastra. MP(LTTK) holds GL Mukti strike to blame for Vasudev debacle. BORS reverberates in KLM(U) case” – possibly mean? His bewilderment at an India he cannot decode is, equally problematically, mirrored by the incomprehension he experiences in New York, where he occupies a junior role at the Associated Press.Fortunately, there are other more readily accessible stories: a woman sold at a cattle fair in Rajasthan, and a retired railway clerk in Mysore who has grown his fingernails so long that they reach across the room and oblige his family to attend to his every physical need. They do not mind, the...

Politics

7 h. ago To Be Frank review – Fun Lovin’ Criminal drummer offers up life lessons from many irons in fire

Documentary portrait of musician’s varied career is engaging if a little too easy in its admiration for its subjectMusician Frank Benbini is most probably known best as the drummer from Fun Lovin’ Criminals and a latter incarnation of UB40, although as this documentary (which Benbini executive produced) reveals, he’s got a lot of different irons on the proverbial fire; these include a beat combo called Uncle Frank and a reggae group called Radio Riddler. There are other side projects as well, musical and music-adjacent – the occasional bit of barbering with an old friend from Leicester with whom he co-owns a salon, and DJing on BBC Radio Leicester.Clearly the man has a strong work ethic despite a hard partying image and songs about getting high. A few of his colleagues and employees dare to suggest that he can be a bit of hard taskmaster with a combustible temper. You can’t help wonder what sort of film might have emerged if this weren’t being directed by one of Benbini’s best frien...

Events

7 h. ago Brave the Dark review – delinquent teen drama comes off as if James Dean met Mr Chips

Warmly drawn melodrama based on a true story follows a delinquent teen taken under the wing of his kindly drama teacherHere is a sincere and traditional melodrama that opens with a brief sequence that slightly wrongfoots the audience: a small child running at night through a setting that calls to mind little Danny in the hedge maze in The Shining. But this is no horror movie; there is past trauma and tragedy a-plenty, but for the most part, this is a warm-hearted drama that plays out like a modern Mr Chips story.Based on the real life of the protagonist Nate (Nicholas Hamilton), a delinquent youth in 1980s America, the film’s focus is on his relationship with drama teacher Mr Deen (Jared Harris); Deen is a likable but lonely man whose tendency to generosity reaches its apogee when he takes on Nate as a personal project after a series of bad choices by the troubled teen. Deen reveals at one point that as a youngster he harboured acting ambitions, with James Dean a particular touchsto...

Events

8 h. ago Georgina Hayden’s epic crab, chilli and lime sarnie – recipe

Keep summer going that little bit longer with this seaside speciality – made in the comfort of your own kitchenThis time of year has to be one of my favourites for British produce – all the joys of late summer sweetness with early autumn favourites just around the corner. I’m happy to keep the summer party going, though, with tomato salads, crisp sundowners and crab sarnies. Despite never having visited Cornwall as a kid, there isn’t much better than sitting by the beach and devouring a Cornish crab sandwich. This is the slightly elevated version I make once the holidays are over to keep some sunshine in my life. Continue reading...

Politics

9 h. ago Only Murders in the Building review – does this show just need to die now?

There are still many things to love here, but the cracks are well and truly appearing. Too many moments feel laboured and Meryl Streep should be kept away from comedyIn the mid-90s, Bonnie and Terry Turner created a TV sitcom about a group of aliens (led by John Lithgow as their self-regarding High Commander) on a research mission to Earth. As they attempted to integrate into human life by posing as an ordinary family, gentle, charming hilarity ensued for six seasons – an unexpectedly long time, and 3rd Rock from the Sun became known as “the show they couldn’t cancel”. The fondness everyone felt for it endured past the show’s technical peak and kept it on our screens until the commercial inviability became too stark and/or the actors’ interest in participating waned. It was a rare pocket of sentimentality in the otherwise ruthless world of television programming.Only Murders in the Building is in all respects a much better show than 3rd Rock. It manages to fold in a cosy whodunnit, ...

Events

14 h. ago Dust to Dreams review – a baffling short film from director Idris Elba

Toronto film festival: The actor recruits Seal for a Lagos-set 19-minute misfire that inelegantly stuffs in far too muchOn the face of it, there’s a formidable aggregation of talent and media firepower on display in this lively but faintly baffling short film set in Lagos, with an original story credit for its producer, the Nigerian super-producer Mo Abudu; it is written and directed by Idris Elba and stars Seal. Within its 19-minute running time it appears to try summarising the action of an entire 90-minute feature film. There isn’t a moment to really relax and explore any relationship in any satisfying and plausible way; the line-readings are rushed and uncomfortable and, most bewilderingly, Seal doesn’t actually get to sing all that much, although as an actor he has a strong and confident address to the camera.The premise is that Millicent (played by Nse Ikpe-Etim) runs a vibrant and hugely successful club in Lagos, but she is very ill, and the question of who is to inherit this...

Politics

14 h. ago Dame Sheila Hancock, 92, admits she still talks to her late husband Inspector Morse star John Thaw

Dame Sheila Hancock has admitted she still talks to her late husband John Thaw when she is feeling lonely.

Politics

14 h. ago Sheila Hancock admits she's 'overwhelmed' with loneliness after 'gaping loss' of famous husband

Dame Sheila Hancock's husband, John Thaw, died in 2002, but the ex EastEnders actress finds a sense of comfort in still 'talking out loud' to him

Politics

15 h. ago BBC's Breakfast editor 'is cleared after bullying review' amid feud with Naga Munchetty

BBC Breakfast Editor Richard Frediani is said to have been cleared of bad behaviour by broadcaster bosses amid feud with 'furious' Naga Munchetty.

Politics

15 h. ago Task review – Mark Ruffalo’s druggy kidnap drama is so bleak it’s downright manipulative

This box-ticking exercise from the maker of the exceptional Mare of Easttown has bloody shootouts, bags of fentanyl and bodies – but very soon it becomes inescapably boringDo you feel it? There is a ripple in the firmament, a vibration in the foundations, a bracing of the cosmos yes, Mark Ruffalo is preparing to Act again. This time, he stars in crime drama Task, created by Mare of Easttown’s Brad Inglesby, as a former priest turned FBI agent nursing a great sorrow in the suitably grey environs of suburban Philadelphia. Tom Brandis ends every day in a drunken semi-stupor and begins every morning with prayer and a head-dunk into an ice-filled sink. Do you think we might be in for a meditation on guilt, sin and the possibility of redemption? Yes, I wearily agree.So. Brandis is taken off the desk duties he has been assigned since his great sorrow. This is evidently connected to the sentencing hearing for a third-degree murder conviction he is due to attend next week, where his daughter...

Events

16 h. ago ITV's golden girls Cat Deeley and Olivia Attwood dazzle for lavish party with their co

This Morning host Cat, who is newly single following the announcement of her split to husband Patrick Kielty , stunned in a minidress.

Politics

18 h. ago Paramount names former Trump appointee as ombudsman to review ‘complaints of bias’ at CBS News

Kenneth Weinstein was nominated by Trump to serve as ambassador to Japan in 2020.

Politics

20 h. ago Nuremberg review – Russell Crowe’s Göring vs Rami Malek’s psychiatrist in swish yet glib courtroom showdown

Crowe and Malek are hugely watchable but this ultimately fails to deliver an authentic version of eventsIf the Nuremberg trials were political theatre, writer and director James Vanderbilt leans into the spectacle of it. His new movie Nuremberg, about the show put on for the rest of the world to indict Nazi war criminals, is packaged like old-fashioned entertainment. There are movie stars (chiefly Rami Malek and Russell Crowe) with slicked-back hair, trading snappy barbs and self-important monologues in smokey rooms, meanwhile the gravity of the moment tends to be kept at bay. All the bureaucratic and legal speak around fine-tuning an unprecedented process, where one country prosecutes the high command of another, goes down easy in an Aaron Sorkin sort of way. It is riveting when its urgency is defended by an actor as great as Michael Shannon. It is all so watchable, to a fault, especially when dealing with the unspeakable.There’s some rhyme and reason to the director’s approach. Va...

Events