Ryan Coogler’s ambitious box office hit combines genres to come up with something wholly original and fascinatingly complex

• This article contains spoilers for Sinners

Ryan Coogler’s Sinners just notched the biggest opening weekend for an original movie since the start of the pandemic , which means the Michael B Jordan-starring, period-set vampire movie will be seen and talked about for weeks (and more) to come. Here are some absolutely spoiler-packed discussion points (seriously, multiple endings are spoiled!) for the film’s variety of layers, genres and readings.

Continue reading...

Autistic and with ADHD, the chart-topping musician always felt out of step – and then she had to face terrible grief. She explains how her new album helped her survive

In her living room in south London, Emma-Jean Thackray triumphantly opens the gatefold sleeve of her new album, Weirdo , to reveal the liner notes inside. It’s a dizzying index containing the brass the UK jazz star is known for – trumpet, as well as flugelhorn, trombone and euphonium – along with vocals, guitar, drums, keys, production, mixing and art direction. Her name appears 123 times.

“I thought it was funny, my name listed over and over,” she says. Similarly, in the video for new song Wanna Die , Thackray plays every member of her band, introduced – in a send-up of the infamous Fast Show sketch Jazz Club – by a turtlenecked Gilles Peterson, her label boss. But Wanna Die is about deep depression, and the multiple Thackrays are a serious statement of intent. The album, she says, “is about survival. If I hadn’t made this record, I would not be here.”

Continue reading...

Alice Oseman’s hit series starring Kit Connor and Joe Locke will end with a story based on the as-yet-unpublished sixth book, with the pair facing a long-distance relationship

Heartstopper, the much-loved Netflix adaptation of Alice Oseman’s graphic novel series, is to conclude with a feature film directed by Wash Westmoreland, whose previous credits include Still Alice and Colette.

Following three series of the adventures of Nick (Kit Connor) and Charlie (Joe Locke) and their assorted schoolfriends, a film will wrap up their story, based on Oseman’s as-yet-unpublished sixth book.

Continue reading...

Fancy getting poetry performances and DJ sets all in one place? A growing number of event organisers across the UK are putting their own spins on literature readings – and there are queues out the door

On a Saturday evening in London’s Notting Hill, a large crowd of moderately tipsy young people are spilling into a tailor’s shop on Portobello Road. A passerby could easily assume they were walking past a fashion pop-up attracting a stylish herd of fanatics. But they’d be wrong. The buzzing crowd is here for a live reading event, and they’re eager with energy and anticipation.

Soho Reading Series began in the summer of 2023 and was founded by Tom Willis, a writer and PhD student. He wanted to make a “scene where anyone could turn up, party, and have a killer time with literature as the centre,” he tells me over an extra-dry martini a couple of hours before one of the events.

Continue reading...

An inventive debut by Michiel Blanchart, this tightly wound thriller owes a debt to Michael Mann’s Collateral, but has a confidence all of its own

Picturesque, bureaucracy-dominated Brussels is probably not on the top of many lists of cities likely to serve as a setting for an exciting crime film. But this Francophone drama just goes to prove that, given enough moody lamplit street scenes, well-designed stunts and chase sequences and a bit of imagination, any city will work. It’s even more impressive a feat in that it is co-writer-director Michiel Blanchart’s first feature, and yet it feels confident, inventive and as grippy as duct tape throughout.

The protagonist is Mady Bala (Jonathan Feltre, displaying impressive subtlety and physical prowess), a young, independent locksmith who stays up all night on call in case he’s summoned to help a customer break into their own home. In order to ensure he’s not being used to commit a crime, Mady usually asks to see a callout client’s ID, or at least get paid 250 euros in advance. On the night this all takes place, he lets these precautions slide for Claire (Natacha Krief), a pretty girl who shares his taste for an old chanson he hums while working, who says her money and her wallet are inside the flat. Of course, that’s a big mistake and soon Mady is ensnared by a gang hunting down a stolen fortune, one led by icily efficient boss Yannick (Romain Duris), assisted by thugs Remy (Thomas Mustin) and Theo (Jonas Bloquet). The latter turns out to have just a smidge more humanity, or at least a weak spot, that gives Mady a chance to survive.

Continue reading...

The announcement that members must watch all films nominated in a category in order to vote for the winner, is met with disbelief that it wasn’t already the case

A new rule introduced by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to ensure voters have seen all the films in a category before they cast their ballots has provoked disquiet online, with many expressing surprise it wasn’t already a requirement.

A raft of measures were announced by the Oscars governing body on Monday, including the stipulation that “Academy members must now watch all nominated films in each category to be eligible to vote in the final round for the Oscars”.

Continue reading...

As she unveils The Trembling Forest with an ensemble of clay-covered performers, the great dance disruptor looks back on decades of radical and autobiographical shows

Maybe it’s inevitable by the age of 75 that you’ve lived a number of lives. For Emilyn Claid , that’s meant the leap from ballet dancer in Toronto to the squats of grungy 1969 New York (via Martha Graham’s garden), to pioneering the New Dance scene in 1970s London, to artistic director, academic and psychotherapist (not to mention mother, grandmother), and then in her eighth decade, full circle to being a performer again.

It was after realising “I was leaving three-quarters of myself out” that Claid made 2022’s comeback solo show Untitled , appearing strong, sensual, funny and provocative, dressed in leather vest and a fur cloak. She put the work in to get back on stage at 72 (“A lot of press-ups and sit-ups”) but at the same time, she says, it was absolutely natural, like coming home. “Not being at home like a comfortable sofa,” she clarifies. “The excitement of knowing a whole world that’s familiar to me and yet is always constantly changing.”

Continue reading...

The double Oscar-winner responded to the president’s criticism of his New York Times op-ed last summer urging Joe Biden to step down for re-election, saying it was his ‘civic duty’

George Clooney has said he is unconcerned about the persistent verbal abuse levelled at him by Donald Trump, after the president labelled him a “fake movie actor” on Truth Social.

Speaking to Gayle King on CBS Mornings, Clooney said: “I don’t care. I’ve known Donald Trump for a long time. My job is not to please the president of the United States. My job is to try and tell the truth when I can and when I have the opportunity. I am well aware of the idea that people will not like that.”

Continue reading...

To mark 20 years since the first ever YouTube video, we’d like to hear your favourite YouTube TV shows

The first YouTube video, a 19-second clip posted entitled “Me at the zoo” posted by co-founder Jawed Karim, was uploaded on 23 April 2005. Now the most popular video-sharing platform in the world, YouTube has expanded far beyond short clips and into TV streaming.

To mark the anniversary, we’d like to hear your favourite YouTube TV shows of the moment. You can tell us your favourite and why below.

Continue reading...