3 d. ago Magdalena, Woman of Joy review – sex, sin and saintliness with a tour de force host

Playhouse East, LondonLily Sinko rages, writhes, provokes and teases her way through the horrifying life story of her storyteller with cartoonish abandonMagdalena appears from the dark, perched on a bar stool, cigarettes and liquor by her side, an array of hanging lamps casting a sultry glow. Her first words set the tone – “You want to fuck me,” she says – and lead us into an uncompromising introduction, littered with sex, violence and sideways jokes.She is the creation of French-English actor and writer Lily Sinko, and as her character’s name suggests, we’re hurled through a life of saintliness and sin, despair and redemption, as Magdalena does the best with the hand she’s dealt. We travel to her childhood in Marseille with a hostile “Papa”, an airport abduction that sees her deposited at the Virgin Mary School for Bad Bad Girls (Cash Only), and a wild escape through the streets of France, finding fleeting refuge in a cathedral.At Playhouse East, London, until 28 June Continue read...

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7 d. ago James Bond fans believe Daniel Craig's replacement will be much younger star as new actor's name is thrown in the mix

James Bond fans are speculating over who will replace legendary Daniel Craig in the new 007 First Light game.

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9 d. ago Wes Anderson names actor he’s tried and failed to cast the most: ‘It used to be every movie’

Filmmaker says he once tried to secure the Oscar-winner ‘three movies in a row’

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9 d. ago ‘These guys are idiots’: Sean Penn and Dustin Lance Black call out government’s Harvey Milk erasure

Team behind Oscar-winning biopic of the groundbreaking gay politician hits back at decision to remove his nameSean Penn, the Oscar-winning actor of the 2008 Harvey Milk biopic Milk and Milk writer Dustin Lance Black have spoken out against US defense secretary Pete Hegseth’s decision to remove the gay rights icon’s name from a navy ship.“This is yet another move to distract and to fuel the culture wars that create division,” Black told the Hollywood Reporter in a phone call on Wednesday. “It’s meant to get us to react in ways that are self-centered so that we are further distanced from our brothers and sisters in equally important civil rights fights in this country. It’s divide and conquer.” Continue reading...

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2 w. ago Michael Cera and Wes Anderson were destined to make a movie together

When Michael Cera was announced as joining the cast of a Wes Anderson movie for the first time, the prevailing response was: Hadn’t he already been in a Wes Anderson movie

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3 w. ago Wes Anderson ranked, from The Phoenician Scheme to The Grand Budapest Hotel

As the man behind ‘The Royal Tenenbaums’ and ‘Asteroid City’ unveils his latest film, ‘The Phoenician Scheme’, Clarisse Loughrey ranks the output so far from one of modern cinema’s most aesthetically rich and emotionally astute filmmakers

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3 w. ago Cannes prepares to award the Palme d'Or, with Neon positioned to add to an unprecedented streak

Can Neon extend one of the most unprecedented streaks in movies

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3 w. ago Inside the obsessive, compulsive making of a Wes Anderson set

The celebrated filmmaker conjures up incredibly detailed jewellery box dioramas across his movies, from ‘The Royal Tenenbaums’ to this week’s ‘The Phoenician Scheme’. Clarisse Loughrey speaks to his longtime set decorator Anna Pinnock about bringing his meticulous dreamscapes to life

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3 w. ago BRIAN VINER in Cannes: Wes Anderson's The Phoenician Scheme: These superstars are having a riot... But it's no fun for us

The Cannes Film Festival closes this weekend and, unusually, two of the films that had the glitziest premieres there have already reached UK cinema screens.

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3 w. ago Wes Anderson isn’t in a rut, but he could do with another flop

As the celebrated auteur unveils another ornate wisp of a film in this week’s ‘The Phoenician Scheme’, Adam White asks if he has become too big to fail – and if the familiarity of his style is masking his recent evolution as a writer

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3 w. ago Wes Anderson makes fun of Donald Trump’s film tariff plan: ‘Can you hold up a movie in customs?’

American president has threatened to impose 100 per cent tariff on films made abroad

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3 w. ago ‘Cinema doesn’t ship that way’: Wes Anderson mocks Donald Trump’s film tariff plans in Cannes

While acknowledging he is ‘not an expert in that area of economics’, the director criticised Trump’s announcement of a 100% tariff on films ‘from foreign lands’American director Wes Anderson has mocked Donald Trump’s plan to impose severe tariffs on foreign-made films, suggesting it would mostly financially hit film-makers like him and be unworkable in practice.“Can you hold up the movie in customs?” the world’s chief auteur of cinematic whimsy asked at a press conference at the Cannes film festival. “I feel it doesn’t ship that way. I’m not sure I want to know the details so I’ll hold off on my official answer.” Continue reading...

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3 w. ago Benedict Cumberbatch and his wife Sophie Hunter put on loved

Sophie Hunter and Benedict Cumberbatch put on a loved-up display as they attended the screening of The Phoenician Scheme at Cannes. It is the latest film from Wes Anderson.

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3 w. ago The Phoenician Scheme review: Mia Threapleton shines in Wes Anderson’s muted new confection

Benicio Del Toro and Michael Cera are essentially wingmen to Kate Winslet’s daughter, making a breakthrough big screen turn in Anderson’s enjoyable yet airless ensemble rompWes Anderson has contrived another of his elegant, eccentric, rectilinear comedies - as ever, he is vulnerable to the charge of making films that stylistically resemble all his others, and yet no more, surely, than all those other directors making conventional films that resemble all the rest of their own conventional work. The Phoenician Scheme is enjoyable and executed with Anderson’s usual tremendous despatch, but it is somehow less visually detailed and inspired than some of his earlier work; there is less screwball sympathy for the characters, and it is disconcerting to see actors of the calibre of Tom Hanks, Willem Dafoe and Scarlett Johansson phoning in tiny, deadpan, almost immobile cameos. But there is a likeable lead turn from Mia Threapleton, an eerie visual and aural echo of her mother, Kate Winslet. ...

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3 w. ago The Phoenician Scheme is one of Wes Anderson’s most enrapturing films in years

Making the most of a stellar cast, this pictorial treat sees the director approach live-action drama as if he is making animation

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3 w. ago The Phoenician Scheme review: 'Wes Anderson's film just doesn't soar'

Screening in Cannes, Anderson’s newbie is led by Benicio Del Toro and Mia Threapleton, along with a string of A-List cameos, but can’t escape a certain flimsiness

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3 w. ago Wes Anderson reveals what Gene Hackman really thought of The Royal Tenenbaums after walking off set 'without saying goodbye'

After more than half a century on-screen it would be one of his last significant contributions to American cinema.

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3 w. ago Wes Anderson says Gene Hackman was ‘furious’ about his Royal Tenenbaums salary: ‘We had friction’

Director admitted he and the late actor had a tense relationship while filming the 2001 comedy drama

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3 w. ago Wes Anderson talks 'The Phoenician Scheme,' Gene Hackman and his Cannes bus

With remarkable regularity, Anderson has been crafting movies uniquely his own since his 1996 debut, “Bottle Rocket.”

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