Dave Calhoun is Chief Content Officer for Time Out, North America & UK.

Dave Calhoun

Dave Calhoun

Chief Content Officer, North America & UK

Articles (136)

The 100 best comedy movies: the funniest films of all time

The 100 best comedy movies: the funniest films of all time

Comedy has a shorter shelf life than just about any other movie genre. A classic drama will still make hearts swell and eyes water decades down the line, and a truly terrifying horror movie can still scare the bejesus out of viewers no matter how standards for scares change. But humour is highly subjective and dependent on context: what’s funny in 1924 might land with a thud in 2024.  That’s why, when considering the greatest comedy movies of all-time, one of the most important questions is not necessarily how big the laughs are, but how long they can keep audiences laughing. With the help of comedians like Diane Morgan and Russell Howard, actors such as John Boyega and Jodie Whittaker and a small army of Time Out writers, we believe we’ve found the 100 finest, most durable and most broadly appreciable comedies in history. As we said, hilarity is in the gut of the beholder – some like it, silly, others sophisticated or dark or surreal – but if you don’t find something funny on this list, you may want to check your pulse. Recommended: đŸ”„ The 100 best movies of all-timeđŸ„° The greatest romantic comedies of all time😬 The best thriller films of all-time🌏 The best foreign films of all-time

El TOP 5 de la cartellera de cinema

El TOP 5 de la cartellera de cinema

Si ja Ă©s difĂ­cil estar al dia de tot el que es pot fer a Barcelona, imagineu estar al dia de tot el cinema que es pot veure a la nostra cartellera! Per aixĂČ en aquesta llista trobareu les nostres cinc pel·lĂ­cules favorites, algunes que s'estan a punt d'estrenar i tambĂ© aquelles imperdibles que no podeu deixar escapar abans que desapareguin dels cinemes (i no us oblideu de consultar la llista de les estrenes del mes). NO T'HO PERDIS: Les 51 millors pel·lĂ­cules per veure en famĂ­lia

As 100 melhores comédias: os filmes mais hilariantes do cinema

As 100 melhores comédias: os filmes mais hilariantes do cinema

A comĂ©dia Ă© um gĂ©nero frequentemente ignorado pelos prĂ©mios e pela crĂ­tica. Mas produzir uma grande comĂ©dia, uma comĂ©dia intemporal, Ă© uma das maiores conquistas no cinema. É uma forma de arte em grande parte dependente do contexto: aquilo que faz uma plateia chorar a rir em 2024 pode ser recebido mais tarde com olhares vazios – nem sequer Ă© preciso passar meio sĂ©culo, como Ă© muitas vezes o caso; bastam alguns anos de diferença. Por isso mesmo, aqueles que nos fizeram rir durante dĂ©cadas sĂŁo verdadeiramente especiais. Para elaborar esta lista das 100 maiores comĂ©dias de sempre, pedimos a comediantes como Diane Morgan e Russell Howard, a actores como John Boyega e Jodie Whittaker e a uma pequena legiĂŁo de escritores da Time Out sobre os filmes que mais os fazem rir, e por mais tempo. Ao fazĂȘ-lo, acreditamos ter encontrado as melhores, mais intemporais e amplamente apreciĂĄveis 100 comĂ©dias da histĂłria do cinema. Independentemente do seu sentido de humor – disparatado ou sofisticado, leve ou sombrio, surreal ou mais abrangente – vai encontrĂĄ-lo representado aqui. Recomendado:đŸ”„ Os 100 melhores filmes de sempređŸ„° As melhores comĂ©dias romĂąnticas de sempre

The 100 best horror movies of all time

The 100 best horror movies of all time

Everyone is scared of something. It might be something specific, like spiders or snakes or heights, or something less tangible, like death or failure. But deep down, even the most posturing tough guy harbours deep-seated fears. Perhaps that explains why horror has grown into one of the most popular of all film genres. Even if a movie doesn’t necessarily touch on the things that personally scare us the most, allowing ourselves to be scared at all helps us confront and ease the anxieties and fears that keep us paralysed.   Of course, horror hasn’t always been a moneymaker. Not long ago, it was mainly a niche interest, ignored by mass audiences and shrugged off by critics. The recent artistic and commercial success of films like Get Out, A Quiet Place and Talk to Me have brought retroactive respect to a genre once synonymous with schlock. So if you’ve spent too much of your film fandom dismissing horror, consider this your guide to everything you’ve missed. Here are the 100 greatest horror movies ever made. Written by Tom Huddleston, Cath Clarke, Dave Calhoun, Nigel Floyd, Phil de Semlyen, David Ehrlich, Joshua Rothkopf, Nigel Floyd, Andy Kryza, Alim Kheraj and Matthew Singer Recommended: đŸ”Ș The best new horror movies of 2024 (so far)đŸ”„Â The 100 best movies of all timeđŸ‘č Cinema’s creepiest anthology horror moviesđŸ©žÂ The 15 scariest horror movies based on true stories

The 101 best sex scenes in movies of all time

The 101 best sex scenes in movies of all time

Sex scenes are back! After a chaste period that had the internet wondering why cinema had lost its libido altogether, big-screen nookie has made a comeback. From Poor Things’ orgy of ‘furious jumping’ to Passages’ complex, elicit mĂ©nage Ă  trois, to All of Us Strangers’ tender gay romance and Femme’s much less tender one, sex is everywhere you look – and it’s all to the good. Because while Jermaine Stewart wasn’t wrong when he sang that: ‘you don’t have to take your clothes off to have a good time’, some well-judged on-screen sex can definitely help a filmmaker tell their story – and ideally, not in a porn-y, lascivious, exploitative way. Because as a means of deepening a romance, building character, shocking and provoking an audience, there’s plenty to be said for kicking off the undies and getting down to it. But there’s a bigger story here, too, because the story of sex scenes is the story of cinema: a slow evolution from Hays Code-era censorship to a more open and honest view of human behaviour marked by sudden advances in what’s depicted – and more than a few regressive ones, too. The good, the bad and the ugly – looking at you, Last Tango in Paris – are all represented by the 101 entries below, a list that show how films’ steamier sides has shaken up the medium – and the world. Sorry Jermaine, but we’re taking cinema’s clothes off.  Written by Dave Calhoun, Joshua Rothkopf, Cath Clarke, David Ehrlich, Phil de Semlyen, Daniel Walber, Trevor Johnston, Andy Kryza, Daniel Wa

The 50 best gangster movies of all time

The 50 best gangster movies of all time

As far back as anyone can remember, cinemagoers have loved gangsters. It’s not hard to understand. Who hasn’t fantasised about living outside the law, of having money and influence, of being untouchable? In reality, life as a career criminal seems like a bum gig – always looking over your shoulder, never able to trust even your closest compatriots, and of course, all the immoral behaviour. But getting to live vicariously through the ones we see on screen is one of cinema’s purest thrills.  But not all movie gangsters are built the same. Some are loud and boisterous, others cold, calculating and unreadable. From fedora-sporting mobsters to pistol-packing yakuza enforcers, to street-level bosses whose empire only extends to the end of the block, cinema has seen them all and told their stories – and you’ll find all of them on our definitive list of the best gangster movies of all-time.  Recommended: 😬 The 100 best thriller movies of all-time💣 The 101 best action movies ever madeđŸ”Ș The 31 best serial killer moviesđŸ•”ïž 40 murder mysteries to test your sleuthing skills to the max

The 100 best British movies

The 100 best British movies

How exactly does one define British cinema? It’s more difficult to nail down than it seems. Okay, so the accents usually give it away. But the essential qualities of the best British movies are as wide-ranging as the Commonwealth itself. In terms of the stories it tells, it’s basically limitless. Want a widescreen epic? Go straight to the work of David Lean or Powell and Pressburger. In the market for a smaller, more personal drama? Try Joanna Hogg or Shane Meadows. Thrillers? Comedies? Period dramas? Movies about drugs? Movies that seem to be on drugs themselves? The UK film industry has produced them all, each displaying a distinctly English slant. In compiling this list of the best British movies of all-time, we surveyed a diverse array of actors, directors, writers, producers, critics and industry heavyweights, from Wes Anderson, Mike Leigh, Ken Loach, Sam Mendes and Terence Davies, David Morrissey, Sally Hawkins and Thandiwe Newton. Unsurprisingly, the results are as diverse as the country itself. Written by Dave Calhoun, Tom Huddleston, David Jenkins, Derek Adams, Geoff Andrew, Adam Lee Davies, Paul Fairclough, Wally Hammond, Alim Kheraj, Matthew Singer & Phil de Semlyen Recommended: 💂 50 great British actorsđŸ”„ The 100 best movies of all-timeđŸŽ„ The 100 best movies of the 20th century so far🇬🇧 The 100 best London songs 

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Te invitamos a ver Indiana Jones y el Dial del Destino

Te invitamos a ver Indiana Jones y el Dial del Destino

La quinta pelĂ­cula de Indiana Jones juega a lo seguro en territorio familiar y logra un impulso energĂ©tico que se mantiene durante su larga duraciĂłn, en parte sosteniendo momentos humanos mĂĄs tranquilos al mĂ­nimo. Indiana Jones y el Dial del Destino nos muestra a Indiana (Harrison Ford) como un acadĂ©mico malhumorado y afligido a fines de los sesenta en Nueva York, lo que le permite al envejecido arqueĂłlogo y aventurero rozarse brevemente con la modernidad de la carrera espacial y los jĂłvenes hippies. El director James Mangold y los escritores, incluidos los hermanos Butterworth, saben lo que realmente hace funcionar al viejo Indiana: nazis, trenes a toda velocidad, cuevas espeluznantes y serpientes aterradoras. Y aquĂ­ los tenemos todos, comenzando con un prĂłlogo ambientado en Europa en los Ășltimos dĂ­as de la Segunda Guerra Mundial y continuando con un villano nazi con anteojos (Mads Mikkelsen) que sigue a Indiana de un perĂ­odo al siguiente. Ah, y el propio ArquĂ­medes tiene un cameo. Hay ecos de historias pasadas y rostros familiares (para los fanĂĄticos nostĂĄlgicos), pero la nueva en la escena es Helena (Phoebe Waller-Bridge), la ahijada de Indiana e hija de su compañero. Helena sabe lo que hace en lo que respecta a la misiĂłn de la pelĂ­cula: recuperar una mĂĄquina que dobla el tiempo, la Antikythera, construida por el mismo barbudo ArquĂ­medes. Pero Helena adopta un enfoque mercenario de la antigĂŒedad. “Lo Ășnico en lo que vale la pena creer es en efectivo”. Teniendo en cuenta qu

The best animated movies of all time to add to your watch list

The best animated movies of all time to add to your watch list

Cartoons aren’t just for kids, of course. But for most kids, cartoons are where a love of movies often starts. No matter how highfalutin your taste in movies as an adult, chances are, your first cinematic obsession was an animation – whether it was a classic of Disney’s Golden Age or its ‘90s renaissance period, a Pixar heart-tugger or perhaps even a Studio Ghibli masterpiece. It’s a love most of us never never fully grow out of, either. Ask any parent about the joys of early child-rearing and they’ll undoubtedly tell you about showing their kids a cartoon they loved as a young’un. It’s a magical experience you get from few other forms of entertainment.   But the best animated movies don’t just appeal to kids, nor childhood nostalgia. They work on multiple levels, for broad audiences and age groups. In composing this list of the greatest animated movies ever made, we polled Time Out writers and experts including Fantastic Mr Fox’s Wes Anderson and Wallace and Gromit’s Nick Park, and the results run the gamut, from from those Disney, Pixar and Ghibli no-brainers to stop-motion nightmares, psychedelic headtrips, illustrated documentaries and bizarre experimental features that are decidedly for adults only. The movies on this list may make you feel like a kid again – but they may also blow your grown-up mind in ways you never expected.  Written by Trevor Johnston, David Ehrlich, Joshua Rothkoph, Tom Huddleston, Andy Kryza, Guy Lodge, Dave Calhoun, Keith Uhlich, Cath Clarke and M

The 12 most exciting films at this year’s Cannes Film Festival

The 12 most exciting films at this year’s Cannes Film Festival

Okay, so the rumours were wrong and this week’s Cannes Film Festival will have to manage without a new David Lynch film. But there’s still a tonne of attention-grabbing new movies premiering over the next fortnight, ranging from the flamboyant (Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis) to the intriguingly niche (Ethan Coen’s Jerry Lee Lewis doc).It all kicks off with a hoard of zombies, in Michel Hazanavicius’s B-movie homage Final Cut, and ends with a seriously topical immigrant drama set in Paris’s banlieues (LĂ©onor Serraille’s Mother and Son). Here are 12 films on the programme to look out for.

Pedro AlmodĂłvar nos cuenta sobre su nueva pelĂ­cula, Madres Paralelas

Pedro AlmodĂłvar nos cuenta sobre su nueva pelĂ­cula, Madres Paralelas

Pedro Almodóvar estå hablando por video desde su oficina en Madrid, su inconfundible mata de cabello blanco llena el marco de mi computadora portåtil. A su derecha, hay un Bafta en un estante (ha ganado cuatro), junto al Oscar que ganó en 2002 por Hable con ella. Le pregunto qué hay en su escritorio. ¥Estå lleno de cosas, de muchas cosas! Es optimista y se desliza entre el inglés y el español, a veces en la misma oración. Aquí hay algunos guiones. ¥Mi próxima película estå aquí! Pero no sé si la haré. Si lo hago, serå en inglés. Pero necesito saber que puedo hacerlo con las mismas condiciones de siempre, con absoluta libertad.Ahora con 72 años, el cineasta español ha estado haciendo las cosas a su manera desde que comenzó a hacer cortometrajes punk en 1970, en Madrid. El nuevo guión que estå considerando (que serå el primero en inglés) es nn manual para mujeres de la limpieza, y es probable que esté protagonizado por Cate Blanchett. Pero hoy hablamos de su nueva película Madres paralelas, la séptima que protagoniza Penélope Cruz. Como muchas de las películas de Almodóvar, desde Volver hasta Julieta, se trata de mujeres y maternidad, y es contemporånea, preocupada por cómo vivimos ahora y los extremos de la vida cotidiana.Cuenta la historia de dos mujeres, la fotógrafa Janis (Cruz) y la joven Ana (Milena Smit), cuyas vidas se cruzan cuando dan a luz en el mismo hospital, el mismo día. Su manejo magistral del destino y la gran emoción es tan esperado de Almodóvar como su vívido

Listings and reviews (431)

Anora

Anora

5 out of 5 stars

A massive jittery comedown of nervous laughs follows a giggly, addictive high in Sean Baker’s Anora. Its wild energy and cynicism-free compassion matches the writer-director’s previous deep dives into the margins of American life, from Tangerine and The Florida Project to Red Rocket. Again, sex work is a no-judgment matter of fact for Baker: the glowing, sparky heroine of Anora is 23-year-old Anora herself (a brilliant Mikey Madison from Better Things), or ‘Ani’ as she prefers: she’s a lap dancer in a Brooklyn club who gets into an out-of-hours paid-sex relationship with Ivan (Mark Eydelshteyn), a stupidly rich Russian young layabout two years her junior. A responsibility-free manchild – endearing but highly slappable – Ivan pays Ani for sex and company as they camp out in his parents’ party-central waterside Brooklyn mansion, smoking weed and gaming on the couch. They even speak a little Russian together, as Ani grew up with a Russian grandmother in Brooklyn’s Brighton Beach. Things move fast. Days later, Ivan is paying Ani for a whole week in Vegas with his pals and – hold tight – proposing marriage. It’s all beaming smiles and devil-may-care partying as Ani – and Baker – runs with the crazy momentum of the whole thing, saying ‘yes’, accepting a ring, finding it genuinely cute when Ivan says he loves her, and, finally, marrying him in Vegas’s Little White Chapel.   The smiles soon fade, with Baker bursting the cosy bubble of this fledgling relationship. When Ivan’s oligarch

The Shrouds

The Shrouds

3 out of 5 stars

You, too, might feel like you’re trapped in a grave during the low points of this sombre, claustrophobic and deeply personal oddity from Canadian filmmaker David Cronenberg (The Fly, A History of Violence). It’s a film of bold ideas and moments of terrific atmosphere and visual power, but those strengths are often neutered by a lack of storytelling precision, with various strands coming and going. Yet for its faults, you can’t escape the late-career, and late-life, honesty here: you can feel the madness of loss running through it. It’s flawed, but still worth experiencing for its dark imagination and black humour. ‘Grief is rotting your teeth,’ the dentist tells Karsh (Vincent Cassel), a Toronto tech entrepreneur whose stacked grey hairline immediately nods to Cronenberg himself. Grief is also rotting Karsh’s mind, which was already occupied with death. He’s a businessman who runs a high-tech cemetery with a restaurant attached. Here, for a price, bodies are buried in high-tech shrouds fitted with tiny cameras which allow relatives of the dead to observe the bodies of their loved ones from the grave, via screens fitted in headstones and connected to apps. Elon Musk will surely take notes. Cronenberg usually tells stories with more verve and storytelling power than this Karsh has recently buried his own wife Rebecca (Diane Kruger) in this peculiar fashion. But it’s not just the haunting images of her decaying bones that keep her top of his mind. She’s still present in every st

Caught by the Tides

Caught by the Tides

4 out of 5 stars

This dreamy, arresting, dialogue-light latest from Chinese filmmaker Jia Zhangke (Ash Is Purest White) is a poetic, musical and reflective portrait of one woman’s journey to find an old lover – but equally importantly to find herself – set against the backdrop of a rapidly changing nation.  Jia presents his frequent star (and wife) Zhao Tao (incredibly captivating here) as Qiao Qiao, a young woman from Datong in northern China. We follow her as she leaves her home city, searching for a disappeared former boyfriend, Brother Bin (Li Zhubin). Following a stormy relationship, Bin has abruptly left both Qiao and Datong for a life of shady property development in the middle of the country. But as time goes on Qiao’s search feels less like a search for a person and more like a search for soul and for meaning in a country where so much is changing so quickly. Caught by the Tides is more a montage of music and miscellaneous episodes than anything representing a traditional drama. It’s strongly propelled by music – from Chinese classical music to techno to rock – and it’s a heady visual mix of styles and formats: from grainy, phone-like footage in a documentary style, to much more pristine and considered imagery. It is set – and was actually shot – over more than 20 years, between 2001 to 2023, so the passage of time feels unusually real, giving us people and places who genuinely age and transform over the years. There’s so little conversation, it often feels like a silent film It’s a

Lula

Lula

3 out of 5 stars

You don’t come to Oliver Stone, the American maker of epics like JFK and docs like Comandante about Fidel Castro, for sober, balanced journalism encouraging you to make up your own mind. Big spoiler before you see this lively doc full of great archive footage: Stone really likes Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (better known as just ‘Lula’), the three-time Brazilian president of the left who served time on corruption charges in the previous decade and returned to frontline politics to beat the incumbent Jair Bolsonaro and win a third term in 2022.‹ There’s something endearing about how much of a fanboy Stone seems to be as he sits down to meet a glowing Lula ten months before his most recent election victory. It’s that interview – amiable and fawning – which punctuates the biographical run of Stone’s doc. But it’s also a tiny bit embarrassing, not least when he asks Lulu about Bolsonaro: ‘Where does this creature come from?’ It comes soon after the dominating score delivers a cue presumably titled ‘Enter the Villain’ accompanying images of the extreme right-wing ex-president.  It’s an arresting piece of hagiography from the director of JFK‹ Not liking Bolsonaro is fine (even welcome), but it doesn’t inspire trust in the doc when Stone comes across so nakedly narrow in his focus, apparently trusting only the very pro-Lula investigative journalist Glenn Greenwald to give him context on screen about the complicated corruption scandal. Again, it’s fine if Stone wants to proclaim Lula’s

Limonov: The Ballad

Limonov: The Ballad

3 out of 5 stars

Ben Whishaw is miles away from his comfy gig as the voice of Paddington Bear as the impressive star of this punky, challenging biopic about the life of Eduard Limonov – a self-professed literary antihero whose final chaper (he died in 2020, aged 77) saw him involved in radical right-wing Russian politics and waving the flag for the country’s annexation of the Crimea.  If you’ve no idea who Limonov was, the subtitle of Emmanuel Carrùre’s 2014 book on which Russian filmmaker Kirill Serebrennikov (Leto, Petrov’s Flu) bases this film, is a snappy intro: ‘The Outrageous Adventures of the Radical Soviet Poet Who Became a Bum in New York, a Sensation in France, and a Political Antihero in Russia’.  That’s a fair summary of the film’s story, but it also captures the spirit and tone of Serebrennikov’s film, which crashes through time and space with a similar mercurial force as Limonov apparently did through life.  Limonov, born in Russia and raised in Kharkiv in Ukraine, was already a poet when he moved to New York in the 1970s, and it’s that scuzzy chapter of his life, followed by his time in Paris in the 1980s, over which Serebrennikov mostly lingers. Even before he left the USSR, Limonov was outspoken on the idea of ‘exiled dissidents’, spitting bile on successful contemporaries like Solzhenitsyn and Yevtushenko who, in his mind, too comfortably inhabited the role. (Serebrennikov surely has his own thoughts on the matter, having himself fallen foul of Putin’s government as a contro

Kinds of Kindness

Kinds of Kindness

3 out of 5 stars

Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos follows the baroque, Oscar-winning historical antics of Poor Things and The Favourite with this sombre, darker, but no less odd triptych of stories shot in and around modern-day New Orleans.  Fast becoming a fixture in Lanthimos’s troupe, Emma Stone rejoins him for the ride, as does Poor Things’s Willem Dafoe, alongside Jesse Plemons, Margaret Qualley, Joe Alwyn, The Whale’s Hong Chau and others, forming a repertory cast that rotates around three tales. Each vignette is distinct but has one minor character in common: a silent, bearded man called ‘RMF’. Also uniting them is a pristine, glacial visual style and an unnervingly sharp piano score with choral outbursts that colour the mood. No surprise for long-time Yorgos fans, the tales are grim: a businessman (Plemons) lives a personal and professional life entirely under the grip of his boss (Defoe), down to the juice he drinks each morning and the exact time he has sex with his wife; a woman (Stone) returns from an accident at sea but her husband (Plemons) doesn’t believe she’s the same person and forces her to commit unspeakable acts on her body; a wife and mother (Stone) has abandoned her husband and child for a cult leader (Dafoe) who believes a young woman (Qualley) has powers to raise the dead. The deadpan absurdity and black comic tone recalls Dogtooth and Alps Control is Lanthimos’s obsession, and extreme possession of other people’s lives runs through these tales just as much as extreme

Oh, Canada

Oh, Canada

3 out of 5 stars

American filmmaker Paul Schrader, whose long career stretches from writing Taxi Driver to more recent late-career writing-directing successes such as First Reformed, arrives in minor-key reflective mode for this film-within-a-film tale. It’s adapted from Russell Banks’s novel ‘Foregone’ – Schrader’s second Banks adaptation after 1989’s Affliction – one which riffs on the life and death of a fictional documentary filmmaker, Leonard Fife (Richard Gere, with Jacob Elordi sometimes playing him as his younger self). The focus of Oh, Canada is tight: Fife is dying and two of his former students, now middle-aged themselves, have created a mini studio in his home to film his recollections on a life that has seen creative and professional success but also the abandonment of several people and places along the way. It’s time to spill the beans for an expectant public before the grim reaper arrives, even though Fife’s current wife (Uma Thurman) would rather he didn’t do this at all. Between grimaces, growls, tiredness breaks and catheter changes, Fife attempts to put a spin on his past, eliciting flashbacks, mostly to his time as a young man in the 1960s, when he claims he moved north to Canada to dodge the Vietnam draft. What becomes clear, as stressed by the double casting of Gere and Elordi as the young Fife, is that finding consensus on anything is going to be hard to achieve. With its thoughts on films and filmmaking, and especially the possibilities of ever really capturing truth

Megalopolis

Megalopolis

Enter with caution the pompous parallel world of Megalopolis, a long-awaited and self-funded passion project from writer-director Francis Ford Coppola. The great American auteur boldly attempts to distill the biggies of human co-existence – politics, power, sex – into a Shakespearean story set in a vision of a modern-ish New York City that he renames ‘New Rome’. A visionary scientist-architect, Cesar (Adam Driver) wants to transform this city for the future but runs up against powerful reactionary forces, including a conversative mayor, Cicero (Giancarlo Esposito), and an ageing tycoon (Jon Voight). It’s no big leap to see Driver’s Cesar as a reflection of Coppola himself, fighting for a pure creative vision in the face of string-pullers keen to dampen or stamp out his creativity. The now octogenerian filmmaker is still best-known for his 1970s enfant terrible era masterpieces, Apocalypse Now and the first two Godfather films. In more recent years the Coppola name has been more strongly associated with his daughter Sofia and his own successful wine brand. ‘No vino, no movie’, so the financial backstory to Megalopolis runs, and you might need a couple of glasses of something strong to settle into its heady, trying, self-important vibe. You’ll need something strong to settle into its self-important vibe The finger-pointing at modern America is clear, yet the references to late Roman history and literature will need a classicist to unravel (I look forward to Mary Beard’s review)

Bird

Bird

4 out of 5 stars

Twelve-year-old Bailey (Nykiya Adams) is a kid adrift. She lives in a squat in Gravesend, Kent with her older brother Hunter (Jason Buda) and tattooed-to-the-eyeballs dad Bug (Barry Keoghan), a sparky man-child who defines the word ‘chaos’ with every move he makes and word he speaks. Right up the top of Bird, which unfolds over a few hazy summer days, Bug announces to Bailey that he’s going to marry his girlfriend on Saturday, a fixation that competes for his attention with a mad project to extract some hallucinogens from a toad to fund the nuptials. Elsewhere, Bailey’s mum and younger siblings are living with a lairy Liverpudlian whose every move screams ‘abuser’. It’s close to a decade since Bird’s British writer-director Andrea Arnold made a dramatic feature for cinema. After American Honey in 2016, she dived into a whole load of TV directing work in the USA, including episodes of Big Little Lies, and made an arresting experimental doc, Cow (2021). It’s even longer since her last contemporary British story, Fish Tank (2009), which was also set in the scrappy suburban edgelands of Kent.  That’s the territory to which Arnold returns with a bang with Bird, and you can feel and almost smell the pent-up cinema in the room – she’s got a whole load of ideas and stories to share. That energy is right there in an early scene in which two of her characters burn through a suburban shopping street on an electric scooter with music blaring out. There are enough characters and events i

Tish

Tish

4 out of 5 stars

Proper recognition came too late for Tyneside-born photographer Tish Murtha, who died at 56 in 2013. As she was dying after suffering a brain aneurysm, her adult daughter Ella was on the phone to a UK government agency trying to persuade them not to sanction her mother for failing to show for a job centre appointment. It’s unmistakeable I, Daniel Blake territory, made even worse by the thought that an exceptional talent was being stifled by poverty and an unforgiving state. But that tragic note is only the postscript of this warm, conversational doc. Ella takes a tour of her late mother’s siblings and friends to discuss Murtha’s life and remarkable social-realist photo work – the latter of which takes centre stage on screen for us to discover or rediscover, like many have since Murtha’s death. It’s a remarkable and just posthumous revival of the artist’s work Work and life blurred for Murtha: she documented subjects close to her own experience, starting off photographing tough street kids like her brothers, two of whom appear as talking heads in the film. Murtha’s obvious talent led her to study photography in Wales and intermittent projects and commissions followed, especially during an especially fruitful period in the early and mid-1980s that coincided with the worst of Thatcher-era unemployment and discontent. But Murtha rarely made money from her work, and she spent her later years back in the North East, struggling to find support to continue working as a photographer.

Big Bad Me

Big Bad Me

3 out of 5 stars

This review is from 2017. The show returns to the Little Angel in 2023 under the new name ‘Big Bad Me’. This likeable new show at Islington’s backstreet puppet theatre the Little Angel offers a new spin on the classic fairytale. ‘Red Riding Hood and the Wolf’ gives us a young girl, Robyn (Charlotte Croft), who reimagines the story for us in the confines of her room one night before bedtime, using whatever’s at hand – toys, pillows, stuffed animals – to tell the tale while her offstage mother wishes that she would just go to sleep. In this version for ages six-plus, the wolf isn’t just dangerous, he’s misunderstood, and Jon Barton’s cheery rhyming verse invites us to see both sides of the story. Also, by setting the show entirely in a family home, Jimmy Grimes’s production reaches for a close connection with a young audience, inviting them into the closed world of imagination that is a child’s bedroom. Croft is an impressive performer, childlike enough to convince as a little girl, efficient with the verse and adept at bringing to life the props around her (I especially liked the pillow that became her grandma). How much kids will enjoy this version of Red Riding Hood depends partly on how much they’re willing to run along with the two-sides-to-every-story conceit. I worry a little that Barton’s spin removes some of the peril – and so some of the interest – from the story, but it also adds a new level of intrigue for adults accompanying their kids to the show, and you can’t

Fallen Leaves

Fallen Leaves

4 out of 5 stars

Can a film be both bleak and lovely at the same time? Finnish filmmaker Aki KaurismĂ€ki (The Other Side of Hope, Drifting Clouds) takes a good stab at it with this black comic, repeatedly-stalled love story in which Helsinki again serves as a convincing shabby crucible of broken dreams. It’s a low-key treat with moments of real bliss. Our two leads look like they’ve had the life sucked out of them. Middle-aged Ansa (Alma Pöysti) stacks shelves in a supermarket but is sacked for taking home out-of-date food and distributing it to the poor. Long-faced Holappa (Jussi Vatanen) works as a metalworker and lives in a dormitory on the job, but he’s soon fired, too, in his case for knocking back moonshine at work. News of the Ukraine war plays on the radio (especially relevant news for Russia’s neighbour Finland, not even a member of NATO when this was shot) and the screws are tightening at every turn. It sounds miserable, but KaurismĂ€ki finds moments of morose comedy everywhere, whether it’s the burly security guard at the supermarket (‘I was just following orders’) or the unlikely named grim dive bar, California Pub. It’s not all a downward spiral. There’s romance on the horizon when Ansa and Holappa meet in a karaoke club and enjoy a date at the cinema (to see Jim Jarmusch’s The Dead Don’t Die). But the horizon keeps shifting: Holappa loses Ansa’s phone number, only one of several mishaps to keep them them apart as soon as a relationship beckons. Aki KaurismĂ€ki is the king of pared

News (32)

Ya hemos visto 'Indiana Jones y el dial del destino' y es la aventura que todo el mundo esperaba

Ya hemos visto 'Indiana Jones y el dial del destino' y es la aventura que todo el mundo esperaba

Esta Ășltima y quinta pelĂ­cula de Indiana Jones se asegura el tiro regresando a un territorio familiar y sostiene el impulso durante sus dos horas y media de metraje, en parte dejando los momentos mĂĄs Ă­ntimos al mĂ­nimo estrictamente necesario. 'Indiana Jones y el dial del destino' encuentra a Indy (Harrison Ford) como un acadĂ©mico irritable y afligido en la Nueva York de finales de los años 60, lo que permite al envejecido arqueĂłlogo y aventurero enfrentarse brevemente con la modernidad de la carrera espacial y los jĂłvenes hippies. Pero el director James Mangold y el equipo de guionistas de este Ășltimo hurra de un Ford que tiene 80 años saben quĂ© hace que el viejo Indiana funcione: nazis, trenes a gran velocidad, cuevas escalofriantes, serpientes espantosas, un revoltijo del mundo antiguo y un viaje al norte de África. Tenemos de todo, empezando con un prĂłlogo ambientado en la Europa de los Ășltimos dĂ­as de la Segunda Guerra Mundial y continuando con un nazi con gafas (Mads Mikkelsen) que sigue a Indiana. Ah, y el propio ArquĂ­medes tiene un cameo, pero tendrĂ©is que ver la pelĂ­cula. Hay ecos de historias pasadas y caras conocidas (para los aficionados nostĂĄlgicos), pero la novedad es Helena (Phoebe Waller-Bridge), la ahijada de Indiana e hija de su camarada acadĂ©mico (Toby Jones, muy divertido). Helena sabe lo que hace en relaciĂłn con la misiĂłn de la pelĂ­cula: recuperar una mĂĄquina de doblar el tiempo, Antikythera, construida por el barbudo ArquĂ­medes. Pero tiene un enfoq

Ja hem vist 'Indiana Jones i el dial del destĂ­' i Ă©s l'aventura que tothom esperava

Ja hem vist 'Indiana Jones i el dial del destĂ­' i Ă©s l'aventura que tothom esperava

Aquesta darrera i cinquena pel·lĂ­cula d'Indiana Jones s'assegura el tret tornant a un territori familiar i sostĂ© l’impuls durant les seves dues hores i mitja de metratge, en part deixant els moments mĂ©s Ă­ntims al mĂ­nim estrictament necessari. 'Indiana Jones i el dial del destĂ­' troba Indy (Harrison Ford) com un acadĂšmic irritable i afligit a la Nova York de finals dels anys 60, cosa que permet a l'envellit arqueĂČleg i aventurer enfrontar-se breument amb la modernitat de la carrera espacial i els joves hippies. PerĂČ el director James Mangold i l'equip de guionistes d'aquest Ășltim hurra d’un Ford que tĂ© 80 anys saben quĂš fa que el vell Indiana funcioni: nazis, trens a gran velocitat, coves esgarrifoses, serps espantoses, un poti-poti del mĂłn antic i una estada al nord d'Àfrica. Tenim de tot, començant amb un prĂČleg ambientat a Europa en els Ășltims dies de la Segona Guerra Mundial i continuant amb un nazi amb ulleres (Mads Mikkelsen) que segueix Indiana. Ah, i el mateix Arquimedes tĂ© un cameo, perĂČ haureu de veure la pel·lĂ­cula. Hi ha ressons d'histĂČries passades i cares conegudes (peixet per als aficionats nostĂ lgics), perĂČ la novetat Ă©s Helena (Phoebe Waller-Bridge), la fillola d'Indiana i filla del seu camarada acadĂšmic (Toby Jones, molt divertit). L'Helena sap el que fa en relaciĂł amb la missiĂł de la pel·lĂ­cula: recuperar una mĂ quina de doblegar el temps, l'Antikythera, construĂŻda pel mateix barbut Arquimedes. PerĂČ tĂ© un enfocament mercenari pel que fa a l'antiguitat. "

I went to see the Queen lying in state and eight hours later I still don’t know why

I went to see the Queen lying in state and eight hours later I still don’t know why

It’s 5.30am on the Thursday before the Queen’s funeral, and I’m snaking along the sort of soul-sapping switchback queue you might see at Luton if every Ryanair passenger decided to take their summer trip at the exact same hour on the exact same day. A chirpy volunteer with a big plastic bag is taking banned snacks and drinks off queuers and redistributing them to the shivering crowd to gobble quickly before they enter Westminster Hall. Let no one throw peanuts at a Beefeater. ‘Oooh, suddenly I’m everyone’s friend,’ smiles the volunteer on snack-handout duty. ‘There’s a big bag of Haribo here. Anyone? Oh, it’s already open.’ Someone grabs it anyway and starts shoving wobbly sugar bits down their throat. On the grass here in Victoria Tower Gardens, there’s a woman sitting alone with her head in her hands, face sloping, eyes staring as if she’s just staggered out of Shangri-La at Glastonbury. The line of stinking Portaloos adds to the festival vibe. So do the fluorescent wristbands we’re all wearing. Another Queuer asks if she’s okay. She is, she’s just knackered. Her legs have given way and she’s having a breather. Photograph: Jess Hand In front of me in the queue are two jolly adult Scouts, a couple, complete with neckties and woggles. They seem to know half of the volunteers along the route, many of them fellow grown-up Scouts. ‘We must catch up.’ ‘Let’s see each other soon.’ The Queue is quickly becoming the air-kissing highlight of London’s Scouting social season. I don’t

Why Time Out is leaping into the Metaverse – and how to get involved

Why Time Out is leaping into the Metaverse – and how to get involved

At Time Out we love sharing cities with you – and we love shining a light on the most exciting experiences and communities within them. Which is why it feels natural for us to continue guiding you through the virtual experiences of the rapidly emerging Metaverse – and also to make our own first step into the Metaverse by launching a Time Out House in the new virtual community, Metropolis World, which you can access and explore yourself from today. Just as Time Out exists to unlock the best of great cities like London, New York, Sydney and Tokyo in the physical world, so we increasingly want to unlock the emerging communities and spaces of the virtual world – so that we all know what to embrace and avoid in this developing space which merges digital and physical experiences like nothing before it.  But what is the Metaverse? Fair question – hard and fast definitions are slippery and tough to pin down right now, which is why we have put together this handy cheat sheet that dives into some of the key questions and definitions. The author Matthew Ball has recently spent over 300 pages attempting to define it in his book The Metaverse and How It Will Revolutionize Everything. Ball sums up the Metaverse as: ‘a persistent and interconnected network of 3D virtual worlds that will eventually serve as the gateway to most online experiences, and also underpin much of the physical world.’ At Time Out, it’s a movement – often characterised as ‘the next Internet’ – that we want to join and

Five seriously unexpected moments in the brand-new Princess Diana doc

Five seriously unexpected moments in the brand-new Princess Diana doc

With Spencer and The Crown both tackling the life of Diana, Princess of Wales, the appetite of audiences for stories about her shows no sign of fading 25 years since her death. The latest of them, The Princess, just premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. Made by British filmmaker Ed Perkins, it’s a documentary formed entirely of archive footage (ie: no interviews, no voiceovers). And there’s plenty of that to choose from, given that Diana was endlessly covered by the media from the moment her relationship with Prince Charles became public in 1980, where this film begins. The Princess retells her story from a new perspective by giving all these clips room to breathe, holding a chilling mirror to the strange effect Diana had on her country and the world beyond. Here are five of the film’s more eyebrow-raising scenes.  1. A newsreader casually mentions that the family of 19-year-old Diana has ‘vouched for her virginity’  The engagement of Diana Spencer, 19, and Prince Charles, 32, caused a media frenzy that never really stopped until her death in 1997. At one point in The Princess we hear a solemn newsreader explain how Diana was a good pick for the wife of a future king because of her innocence and her lack of previous sexual partners. The same newsreader then goes further, explaining that her family has ‘vouched for her virginity’. He might as well be talking about a prize cow.  2. A skinhead gets a Diana tattoo on the eve of her wedding  The Princess shows how Diana and Cha

A new film project invites us to embrace the uncertainty in our lives

A new film project invites us to embrace the uncertainty in our lives

Facing up to uncertainty and big decisions is a challenge that pretty much everyone has had to face on some level in the past 18 months. Where is this all heading? How much longer will this go on? Should I stay on the same path or take a leap into the unknown? IS THERE ANYBODY OUT THERE? Those sorts of questions underpin a unique new film and science project that’s emerged from London called The Uncertainty Experts (which Time Out is happy to be supporting as a media partner having been given a sneak preview of the project at pilot stage earlier this year). The Uncertainty Experts is an experimental film event, but it’s also a live science project designed in tandem with scientists at UCL to test and stretch each of our abilities to withstand uncertainty in our lives. If it has a mission, it’s to turn uncertainty into a positive rather than something which stops us sleeping well at night. The Uncertainty Experts will be screening online over three Tuesdays this November, and everyone taking part is expected to watch all three episodes and to get involved by taking part in digital surveys and virtual tasks. It’s a tough project to explain, but as someone who took part in the project’s pilot earlier this year along with 500 others, I can tell you that it’s a challenging and surprising experience. It’s in one way a bold live film event and, in others, it’s a community wellness project. It’s hectic and invigorating. It challenges you to ask some hard and rewarding questions about

‘The Crown’ Season 3 review: long may this royal soap opera reign

‘The Crown’ Season 3 review: long may this royal soap opera reign

Verdict: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ The third series of ‘The Crown’ brings with it an almost wholesale change of cast and new problems to pile on old as we meet the British royal family in 1964. The challenges of the newly permissive 1960s are met almost entirely by a largely drunk Princess Margaret (an entertaining, if unfocused Helena Bonham Carter) dealing with her philandering husband Lord Snowdon (Ben Daniels). Elsewhere in the royal household it might as well be the 1860s when it comes to moral matters – not counting the high cut of the skirt worn by Princess Anne (a deliciously dry Erin Doherty). Prince Charles makes his first appearance in the series as an adult, with Josh O’Connor playing him as a gentle but haughty idiot, and he suffers the full weight of The Firm when his desire to marry Camilla Shand (Emerald Fennell) is well and truly nixed by the joint efforts of the Queen Mother (a near-silent performance by Marion Bailey) and Lord Mountbatten (Charles Dance, of course). Yet there is one very twentieth-century phenomenon lurking in this series: the midlife crisis. As Olivia Colman takes over from Claire Foy, her Queen is more settled and forthright, but also prone to paranoia and anxiety, especially when it comes to Cold War threats, and to the distraction of racehorses. Meanwhile, her husband, Prince Philip (Tobias Menzies), enters a full-on crisis of purpose, brilliantly expressed in an episode when Neil Armstrong and his fellow astronauts visit the Palace and the Queen’s cons

'Rogue One' : que vaut le premier spin-off de 'Star Wars' ?

'Rogue One' : que vaut le premier spin-off de 'Star Wars' ?

Des rebelles qui ont du cran, un mĂ©chant ricanant, quelques plaisirs nostalgiques et des troubles politiques : Gareth Edwards livre un prequel de ‘Star Wars’ agrĂ©able et grinçant. Ce nouvel Ă©pisode de ‘Star Wars’ – dont l’histoire se dĂ©roule peu de temps avant celle du tout premier de la saga, sorti en 1977 – ressemble Ă  un conte d'action autonome et dynamique, mettant en scĂšne un groupe de rĂ©sistants au sein de l'Alliance rebelle. Cette bande de combattants enragĂ©s, dirigĂ©s par Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones, une hĂ©roĂŻne complexe, pas toujours attachante ; ce qui est assez rafraĂźchissant), se regroupent pour mener une attaque contre l'Empire – dont le plus visible salopard est le militaire Orson Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn, tout en menace tranquille et huileuse). FrĂ©nĂ©tique, parfois irrĂ©vĂ©rencieux et un peu dĂ©cousu, ‘Rogue One’ se plaĂźt Ă  rendre troubles les idĂ©es de bien et de mal, crĂ©ant d’inattendues nuances de gris. En revanche, le film botte en touche les thĂšmes quasi-spirituels de la saga auxquels on pouvait pourtant s’attendre : ici, la Force n'est pas particuliĂšrement prĂ©sente, et les habiletĂ©s de combat Ă  l’ancienne se rĂ©vĂšlent plus importantes. Remonter dans le temps de la saga offre Ă©galement une jolie possibilitĂ© de ressusciter, parfois, les plaisirs des films antĂ©rieurs – des bons vieux X-Wings Ă  la prĂ©sence d’un Dark Vador bien furax. Plus vous vous souviendrez du ‘Star Wars’ de 1977, plus l'histoire de ‘Rogue One’ prendra de sens. Dans le premier film, la princesse Leia

The real story behind ‘Rillington Place’

The real story behind ‘Rillington Place’

If, like us, you cowered behind the sofa watching Tim Roth and Samantha Morton in the BBC's new serial killer series ‘Rillington Place’ last night, prepare for the full, shocking story behind the drama. Warning - potential spoilers abound.   If you mention the name ‘John Christie’ to an older generation of Londoners, they’ll know exactly who you’re talking about. Christie was a serial killer hanged for his crimes in 1953. He’s now being played by Tim Roth in the new three-part drama series ‘Rillington Place’, with Samantha Morton playing his wife, Ethel. But what is the real story behind John Christie’s murders? Who was he? Why did he become notorious? And what happened to the real Rillington Place in west London? What did John Christie do? John Christie killed at least eight women between 1943 and 1953 in his flat at 10 Rillington Place in Ladbroke Grove, west London.         Where is the real Rillington Place? This Ladbroke Grove street was demolished in the late 1970s – after having been renamed Ruston Close in 1954 shortly after the murders were uncovered (at the request of residents). The site of 10 Rillington Place now sits roughly in the area of St Andrew’s Square, which is off Bartle Road. Who was Christie? Originally from a large family in Yorkshire, Christie served in World War One as an infantryman and was gassed – reportedly causing him to speak in a whisper for the rest of his life. He married Ethel in 1920 in Sheffield but they were separated between 1924 and 1

Why Netflix's new show ‘The Crown’ will change everything you think you know about the Queen

Why Netflix's new show ‘The Crown’ will change everything you think you know about the Queen

In November, Netflix will drop its most ambitious Originals series ever, ‘The Crown’ – the first season of a drama that'll tell the story of the entire reign of Queen Elizabeth II. Its creator and writer is Peter Morgan, who has previous with Her Maj – he wrote the movie ‘The Queen’ and the play ‘The Audience’, both starring Helen Mirren. We've had a sneak watch of all ten episodes, and can report that this is as good as it gets – exciting and smart drama. Claire Foy is terrific as young Elizabeth II, who we first meet in her twenties: her father, George VI (Jared Harris) is still king and she’s recently married Philip (Matt Smith). The first series examines how she copes with the responsibility of becoming Queen and explores the major relationships in her life: her husband; her first Prime Minister; her sister Princess Margaret; and her uncle, the former Edward VIII. It’s about power, duty, politics and tradition, and we’re hooked. Here are five things you need to know about The Crown 1. Claire Foy's performance will make you think twice about Queen Elizabeth II Claire Foy, 32, is best known for playing Anne Boleyn in the TV series ‘Wolf Hall’. ‘The Crown’ is going to make her a star. She’s flawless as the young Queen in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Minus the grey rinse, the young princess we meet is a privileged but sensible young woman, struggling with her own inadequacies (her lack of a proper education is a big theme). Foy – working with a genius script by Peter Morga

Why Netflix's new show "The Crown" will change everything you think you know about Queen Elizabeth II

Why Netflix's new show "The Crown" will change everything you think you know about Queen Elizabeth II

In November, Netflix will drop its most ambitious Originals series ever, The Crown – the first season of a drama that'll tell the story of the entire reign of Queen Elizabeth II. Its creator and writer is Peter Morgan, who has previous with Her Maj – he wrote the movie The Queen and the play The Audience’, both starring Helen Mirren. We've had a sneak watch of all ten episodes, and can report that this is as good as it gets – exciting and smart drama. Claire Foy is terrific as young Elizabeth II, who we first meet in her twenties: her father, George VI (Jared Harris) is still king and she’s recently married Philip (Matt Smith). The first series examines how she copes with the responsibility of becoming Queen and explores the major relationships in her life: her husband; her first Prime Minister; her sister Princess Margaret; and her uncle, the former Edward VIII. It’s about power, duty, politics and tradition, and we’re hooked. Here are five things you need to know about ‘The Crown’ 1. Claire Foy's performance will make you think twice about Queen Elizabeth II Claire Foy, 32, is best known for playing Anne Boleyn in the TV series ‘Wolf Hall’. ‘The Crown’ is going to make her a star. She’s flawless as the young Queen in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Minus the gray rinse, the young princess we meet is a privileged but sensible young woman, struggling with her own inadequacies (her lack of a proper education is a big theme). Foy – working with a genius script by Peter Morgan –

The actress playing the Queen in Netflix’s ‘The Crown’ thinks 'the royal family could be massively pissed off'

The actress playing the Queen in Netflix’s ‘The Crown’ thinks 'the royal family could be massively pissed off'

Claire Foy, who plays the Queen in ‘The Crown’, Netflix’s new ten-part drama series covering the early years of the reign of Queen Elizabeth II, has revealed to Time Out that she doesn’t care very much what the real royal family thinks of the show. ‘They could be massively pissed off,’ Foy told us ahead of the series’s release this week. ‘But I’m not going to bump into the royal family in Covent Garden! I’d be more concerned if I could walk down the street and meet someone who could say: “You’re a fucking liar! I hated sitting there watching you!” That’s not going to happen.’ Set in the late 1940s and early 1950s, the first two series of ‘The Crown’ are said to have cost the streaming service £100 million. It’s Netflix’s biggest gamble to date. The first ten episodes cover just a few years and see Elizabeth marry Philip (Matt Smith) at 21, lose her father, King George VI (Jared Harris), at 25 and deal with several national crises and one veteran Prime Minister, Winston Churchill (John Lithgow), before the age of 30. If the first two series are successful, ‘The Crown’ could run and run, covering events up to the present day. Foy might not be worrying what the royal family thinks of ‘The Crown’ – but how would she vote if we had a referendum on the monarchy? ‘Oooo! Whether to keep them or get rid of them? Of course I’d want to keep them! That’s literally my heart just going, “No, don’t get rid of them, that’s not necessary at all. They’re lovely!” But I realise that’s not a vie