27 h. ago Pray that this outlandish new social policy will fail to take flight | Phillip Inman

Analysts trace a link between financial security and a troubling, increasingly devil-may-care, attitude to political risk Steve Coogan wants ­people to see his new film, The Penguin Lessons, and think about how they might be living in a wealthy cocoon, disengaged from the world.The film’s central character – a Briton teaching expat children in Argentina – rescues a penguin and tries to help local people persecuted by the rightwing government. Re-enacting a true story, Coogan is showing how it’s possible to be involved in local communities even when the protagonist is an outsider. Continue reading...

Events

27 h. ago It’s not poverty that’s breeding the new populism. It’s wealth | Phillip Inman

Analysts trace a link between financial security and a troubling, increasingly devil-may-care, attitude to political risk Steve Coogan wants ­people to see his new film, The Penguin Lessons, and think about how they might be living in a wealthy cocoon, disengaged from the world.The film’s central character – a Briton teaching expat children in Argentina – rescues a penguin and tries to help local people persecuted by the rightwing government. Re-enacting a true story, Coogan is showing how it’s possible to be involved in local communities even when the protagonist is an outsider. Continue reading...

Politics

3 d. ago Steve Coogan isn’t earnest enough for the dire political comedy The Penguin Lessons

Finally a film that asks ‘could an adorable flightless bird convince Alan Partridge to stand up to Argentina’s military dictatorship?’

Politics

3 d. ago Steve Coogan on his very unusual new comedy: ‘The penguin takes the edge off the fascism’

In ‘The Penguin Lessons’, the man behind Alan Partridge plays a school teacher in military-occupied Argentina who forms an unlikely bond with a seabird. Such tonal extremes required a delicate hand, he and his co-star Jonathan Pryce tell Annabel Nugent

Politics

4 d. ago The Penguin Lessons review – Steve Coogan seabird comedy drama tries to sell feelgood mood

Coogan does his best, but there’s a tonal mismatch here: the animal-teaches-lonely-human narrative jars with a depiction of lives in totalitarian ArgentinaHere is a well-meaning, awkward tonal jumble of a movie, based on the bestselling memoir by former teacher Tom Michell; it is a quirky true-story heart warmer, in which an adorable penguin is apparently supposed to redeem not merely the human hero’s personal heartbreak but maybe even the agony of Argentina during the 70s junta. It stars Steve Coogan, who has often in the past shown brilliant technique as a straight actor, and in Philomena with Judi Dench proved he is perfectly capable of carrying an un-ironised emotional story. But his performance here is bafflingly underpowered and opaque, as if he is slightly perplexed by the script he’s been given.Coogan plays Tom, who takes a job in Peronist Argentina in 1976, teaching English at a stuffy private school for the sons of wealthy expatriates, and is wary of the overbearing headte...

Events

5 d. ago Steve Coogan: ‘Art is what humanises us, and it can’t be measured on a spreadsheet’

Steve Coogan and the cast and crew behind charming new movie The Penguin Lessons share what they learned from being on set with a penguin.

Politics

5 d. ago Inside David Oyelowo's life from 'royal family' connection to tragic reason he changed his diet

David Oyelowo is set to star in the surreal new period comedy-drama Government Cheese on Apple TV+, but what do we know about the actor's life off the screen?

Events

5 d. ago Inside David Oyelowo’s life from devout faith to surprise ‘royal family’ connection

David Oyelowo is starring in an innovative new comedy-drama on Apple TV+ this week, so what do we know about his life away from the cameras?

Politics

5 d. ago ‘Charisma in abundance’: why Just Act Normal is the best showcase for new talent since Adolescence

Incredible newcomers! Chickens! Jamelia! The casting director of Stephen Graham’s Netflix smash hit has done it again with this hilariously bleak, utterly unique series. The cast open upOver the last few years, we have found ourselves inundated with sadcoms. Again and again, we’ve been deluged by ostensible comedies that are so concerned with grief and trauma that the laughs end up feeling like a distant afterthought. Striking the right balance between comedy and drama takes absurd levels of effort and craft at the best of times. Doing it with a premise as bleak as BBC Three’s new series Just Act Normal is almost impossible.My hands are tied with embargos, so I have to be vague about certain plot details, but Just Act Normal is a show about three young siblings who decide to struggle on as normal after their mother – a perennially unreliable woman with substance abuse issues – disappears. Their lives are suddenly spent trying to navigate the complex systems of the adult world while ...

Culture

6 d. ago Just Act Normal release date, cast and episode count as Hollyoaks star appears

Just Act Normal is a brand new comedy drama series which is coming soon to the BBC, with a release date now confirmed

Politics

8 d. ago Just Act Normal: the dark comedy drama that’s a TV feelgood joy

This talent-packed Birmingham-set series follows three children with a missing mother and their attempts to stay out of care. It's amazing how much silliness they wring out of such a chilling premiseIt’s just the usual teenage girl japes: smoking, drinking, teaming up with your best friend to steal a chicken from an irate local farmer. But the motive behind 17-year-old Tiana’s decision to pinch some poultry is about as far from ordinary as you can possibly get. I’m not sure what a normal reason for stealing a chicken might be, but trust me: this is most definitely not it.We get slightly more clarity on the situation once Tiana brings the chicken home: it’s for her younger brother Tionne, who is prone on the sofa with a duvet over his head. The pair’s nine-year-old sister Tanika wants him to get up and “act normal”, otherwise he’ll end up in a home and she will get adopted, because she’s “young and pretty”. The trio’s mum is missing and Tionne needs the chicken for an experiment...

Events

9 d. ago ‘A collective sigh of relief’: how Jesse Eisenberg’s A Real Pain went down in Poland

Eisenberg’s Holocaust-heritage comedy-drama was a big hit in the country where it is set – though some have questioned its lack of engagement with locals. Historians, critics and heritage tour guides give us their thoughtsA Real Pain, Jesse Eisenberg’s film about two cousins on a heritage tour of Holocaust-related sites in Poland, has been largely embraced by Polish audiences, who appreciated its understated humour and conspicuous good intentions. Within a month of its release, the film had grossed more than $1m at the Polish box office – no small feat for an indie production in Poland. “There was a collective sigh of relief,” says Vogue Poland film critic Anna Tatarska, “that here was a Hollywood Holocaust narrative that didn’t cast Poles as historical villains.”Poland’s fraught relationship with Holocaust narratives has made films touching on it into political battlegrounds for at least a decade. Since the nationalist backlash against films such as Aftermath (Pokłosie) in 2012, an...

Politics

9 d. ago Bereaved families CAN still pursue cases of underpaid state pension, an MP discovers

The DWP told Liberal Democrat Work and Pensions spokesman Steve Darling it could still review state pension awards despite deletion of old records.

Politics

1 week ago The Penguin Lessons is just the latest film that teaches us how animals rescue men from loneliness

The comedy, about a curmudgeon played by Steve Coogan and his waddling new friend, joins a subgenre of movies from King Kong to John Wick – in which men are emotionally and socially rescued by animalsThe penguin at the centre of The Penguin Lessons, a new movie by Peter Cattaneo, is nothing if not hard-working. The film, adapted from the 2015 memoir by Tom Michell, uses the political turmoil of Argentina in 1976 as a backdrop for the personal transformation of an English teacher at a boys’ school. Michell (Steve Coogan) is an idle curmudgeon when he rescues an oil-drenched Magellan penguin from a beach in Uruguay in an attempt to impress an attractive woman. She leaves, but he is stuck with the bird, whom he duly names Juan Salvador, and who thaws him out sufficiently to bond with students and colleagues, process past trauma and rekindle a political idealism.Naturally, there are hurdles for Juan Salvador to clear before the interspecies friendship spreads its wings. Michell tries a ...

Events

1 week ago The Penguin Lessons is the latest film to teach us animals rescue men from loneliness

The comedy, about a curmudgeon played by Steve Coogan and his waddling new friend, joins a subgenre of movies from King Kong to John Wick – in which men are emotionally and socially rescued by animalsThe penguin at the centre of The Penguin Lessons, a new movie by Peter Cattaneo, is nothing if not hard-working. The film, adapted from the 2015 memoir by Tom Michell, uses the political turmoil of Argentina in 1976 as a backdrop for the personal transformation of an English teacher at a boys’ school. Michell (Steve Coogan) is an idle curmudgeon when he rescues an oil-drenched Magellan penguin from a beach in Uruguay in an attempt to impress an attractive woman. She leaves, but he is stuck with the bird, whom he duly names Juan Salvador, and who thaws him out sufficiently to bond with students and colleagues, process past trauma and rekindle a political idealism.Naturally, there are hurdles for Juan Salvador to clear before the interspecies friendship spreads its wings. Michell tries a ...

Events

1 week ago Why new BBC comedy Just Act Normal should be your latest binge watch

A new comedy drama is set to leave BBC Three viewers in both stitches and tears. Featuring a stellar cast, emotional twists and a gripping story, Just Act Normal is a must-watch.

Politics

2 w. ago Netflix’s newest show has viewers claiming it’s 'better than Bridgerton'

Netflix’s latest release is making waves, with viewers hooked on the blend of period drama and romantic comedy in The Lady's Companion

Politics

2 w. ago Inside Disney+'s Dying For Sex cast including The Greatest Showman and It Ends With Us stars

Dying For Sex is an eight-part comedy drama debuting on Disney+ this week, starring some familiar faces.

Events

2 w. ago Steve Coogan greeted penguins every day of filming for The Penguin Lessons

The film follows the true story of an Englishman who rescues a penguin from an oil-slicked beach in a divided Argentina.

Politics

2 w. ago ‘Woodstock for elder millennials’: the Garden State soundtrack anniversary concert

The music from Zach Braff’s seminal comedy drama took centre stage for one special night bringing back artists from Imogen Heap to The ShinsIt’s been two decades since the release of Garden State, Zach Braff’s film about an alienated young actor’s struggle to find meaning in life. But while the movie itself became a cult classic, perhaps its biggest legacy is its soundtrack, which went platinum, won a Grammy and became a cultural touchstone among a certain subset of the American population.So it was no surprise that, when Braff announced a 20th-anniversary concert celebrating the album, at which each of its dozen or so artists would perform, tickets were going for hundreds of dollars. This was Woodstock for elder millennials – at least a certain swath of us who, when the soundtrack came out in 2004, found an outlet for our big teenage feelings in bands like the Shins, Frou Frou and Iron and Wine. All three were among the performers at Los Angeles’s Greek Theater on Saturday evening ...

Politics