Tom Huddleston

War is a natural source of fascination for filmmakers, what with the inherent horror, heroism and human drama it presents. And if we’re speaking specifically, no conflict has intrigued filmmakers like World War II. It’s not surprising, considering the remarkable scale of the destruction, the atrocities it involved and its long-tailed aftermath. Almost 80 years since it ended, movies are still being made about it – and there are likely many more coming. Choosing the best World War II movies ever made, then, is clearly a challenge. That’s why, along with polling Time Out writers, we also called in an outside expert to come up with this definitive list: Quentin Tarantino, a man who knows a thing or two about making a great Dubya Dubya 2 film. Among the selections, you’ll find wide-scale epics, personal dramas, devastating documentaries, historical revisions and even a comedy or two. War, as we all know, is good for absolutely nothing – but at least we have these films to help make some sense of it. Written by Tom Huddleston, Adam Lee Davies, Paul Fairclough, Anna Smith, David Jenkins, Dan Jolin, Phil de Semlyen, Alim Kheraj & Matthew Singer Recommended: ⚔️ The 50 best war movies of all-time🎖️ The best World War I movies, ranked by historical accuracy🇺🇸 The 20 best Memorial Day movies

Over the last decade or so, comic book movies have ruled the box office. At times, they’ve seemed like the only movies out there. That’s proven to be a double-edged sword: while the dominance of both the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the DC Extended Universe has made a lot of money for Hollywood mega-studios, the oversaturation finally appears to have exhausted audiences, given several recent flops like Madame Web, The Flash and The Blue Beetle.  But when done right, the genre ranks among the most spectacular forms of escapist entertainment that exists. Some deal with complex, real-world issues and emotions, and never actually engage with superhero mythology at all. Others use superheroes to explore the problems that plague modern society, or deconstruct the idea of heroism itself. Here are 50 of the best examples, as selected by Time Out writers – with an assist from a guy who has made a few great comic adaptations himself, director Edgar Wright. Written by Tom Huddleston, Adam Lee Davies, Paul Fairclough, David Jenkins, Andy P. Kryza, Phil de Semlyen, Alim Kheraj & Matthew Singer  Recommended: 🦸 All the Marvel movies ranked from worst to best🦄 The 50 best fantasy movies of all-time💣 The best action movies of all-time✍ The 100 best animated movies 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: 🔥 The 100 best movies of all-time🥰 The greatest romantic comedies of all time😬 The best thriller films of all-time🌏 The best foreign films of all-time

Once thought of as the exclusive province of nerds playing Dungeons & Dragons in their parents’ basements, fantasy movies are now huge business. Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy changed the game, while Game of Thrones, Stranger Things and the Marvel Cinematic Universe made it clear that the geeks have inherited the earth. And thank goodness, really. No genre can transport you to a different place better than fantasy, and in this day and age we need all the escapist entertainment we can get. But for the purposes of this list, we’re not limiting the definition of ‘fantasy’ to swords-and-dwarves epics and superhero flicks. You’ll find plenty of those, sure. But you’ll also find movies of a more surreal bent, and some that reimagine our own planet as a place where magic, mystery and adventure is easy to find, if you know where to look.  Recommended: 🦸🏿 50 amazing comic-book movies🛸 The 100 best sci-fi movies of all time👹 The 50 best monster movies ever made👾 The 50 best ’80s movies, ranked

In the past few decades, queer cinema has made major strides – not just in reaching mainstream audiences, but in redefining what ‘queer cinema’ actually looks like. In the past, if gay lives and issues were ever allowed to be addressed on screen at all, the viewpoint was often limited to that of white, cisgender men. But the LGBTQ+ experience is not a monolith, and recent years have seen the scope of queer film expand to include the voices of the trans community and people of colour.  Obviously, there are still many barriers left to breach, but the progress of the last half-century or so deserves to be celebrated. To that end, we enlisted some LGBTQ+ cultural pioneers, as well as Time Out writers to assist in assembling a list of the greatest gay films ever made.  Written by Cath Clarke, Dave Calhoun, Tom Huddleston, Alim Kheraj, Guy Lodge, Ben Walters and Matthew Singer. RECOMMENDED: 🔥 The 100 best movies of all-time🎥 The 65 best documentaries of all-time😍 The 100 best romantic films of all-time🤣 The 100 best comedies of all-time

‘Back in my day, you could see a film for 20p and still have change for a bag of chips on the way home.’ It’s been the anecdote of choice for grumbly codgers for decades, and their disapproving view of today’s cinema prices is hard to argue with. But there are still lots of cheap cinemas in London – you just need to know where to look. Read on for our pick of London’s best cheap cinemas – the value probably still won’t impress your grandad, but the prices are at least cheaper than a pint in most London pubs. RECOMMENDED: Find more great places to see a movie with our pick of London's 25 best cinemas, or check out these romantic picturehouses for a date

Television used to be considered one of the lowest forms of entertainment. It was derided as ‘the idiot box’ and ‘the boob tube’. Edward R Murrow referred to it as ‘the opiate of the masses’, and the phrase ‘I don’t even own a TV’ was considered a major bragging right. And for a long time, it was hard to say that television’s poor reputation was undeserved.  A lot has changed. Television is now the dominant medium in basically all of entertainment, to the degree that the only thing separating movies and TV is the screen you’re watching on. Now, if you don’t own a television – or a laptop or a tablet or a phone – you’re basically left out of the cultural conversation completely. The shift in perception is widely credited to the arrival of The Sopranos, which completely reinvented the notion of what a TV show could do. But that doesn’t mean everything that came before is primordial slurry. While this list of the greatest TV shows ever is dominated by 21st century programs, there are many shows that deserve credit for laying the groundwork for this current golden age. Chiseling them down to a neat top 100 is difficult, so we elected to leave off talk shows, variety shows and sketch comedy, focusing on scripted, episodic dramas, comedies and miniseries.  So don’t touch that dial – these are the greatest TV shows of all-time. Recommended: 📺 The best TV and streaming shows of 2023 (so far)🔥The 100 greatest movies of all-time🎬The most bingeable series on Netflix

Not everyone has been in love, but most of us know what it’s like to have a close buddy. So why is it that in the movies, romantic relationships get all the love? It’s high time to give it up for friendship flicks – movies about the platonic bro-downs and girl crushes that can often define our lives as much as any great love affair. So let’s raise a toast to our pals, homies, mates and BFFs – our cinematic ones, anyway. We asked the Time Out staff to name their personal favourite movies about friendship. Whether it’s between a hitman and a teenage orphan, high-school soulmates or two animated fish, we’ve spent so much time with these movie buds, we know them almost as well as our own friends. Recommended: 🤣 The 100 best comedy movies💓 The 100 best romantic movies of all-time✍ The 100 best animated movies of all-time

Action movies get a bad rap. Not necessarily from the general public, of course. Audiences love ’em, for the most part, especially if you expand the definition to include superhero flicks and comedies like The Fall Guy. But for hardcore cinephiles, action is too often regarded as cinematic junk food, replacing all story and substance with eardrum-shattering explosions and mindless violence. Sure, you can enjoy one every now and then, but a steady diet of loud noises, death-defying stunts and one-liners? That’s for the normies to consume. Here’s the thing, though: if the main point of any film is to make you feel something, what produces more visceral feeling than a good action flick? Anyone who’s ever had their senses rattled by a truly great action movie knows that there are few moviegoing experiences that can compare. Another thing: not all action movies are loud and dumb. Some are nearly operatic in scope and balletic in their grace – and sometimes, you might even actually care about the person dodging bullets and delivering throat chops. This list of the greatest action films ever made is proof that the genre is more versatile than it appears. We polled over 50 experts in the field, from Die Hard director John McTiernan to Machete himself, Danny Trejo, along with Time Out’s writers. The results show that, when done right, there are few things more plainly awesome than an action movie. Written by Eddy Frankel, Eddy Frankel, Yu An Su, Joshua Rothkopf, Trevor Johnston, Ashle

Like the universe itself, Star Wars is constantly expanding. Almost half a centuryafter the release of the first film, the galaxy that writer-director George Lucas createdhas grown to encompass nine saga movies, multiple big-screen spin-offs and a wholehost of TV series, with new ones arriving all the time.But while the name ‘Star Wars’ may conjure images of epic starscapes, swift-movingspaceships and exploding battle stations, Lucas’s film and its many sequels onlyreally work because of one thing: the characters.Whether they’re human, alien or droid; noble, treacherous or somewhere in between(we’re looking at you, Lando), these iconic figures are able to inspire devotion,passion, hatred and, yes, extreme nerdiness in audiences around the world.Here, in an entirely subjective list compiled by Time Out’s resident Gonk-geek TomHuddleston, are the 62 best Star Wars characters in order of greatness, from the veryfirst movie to the most recent Disney+ series. RECOMMENDED: Read our full guide to Star Wars

Has movie music ever been better? With legends like John Williams and Howard Shore still at work, Hans Zimmer at the peaks of his powers, and the likes of Jonny Greenwood, AR Rahman, Mica Levi, and Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross knocking it out of the park, the modern film score is a Dolby Atmos-enhancing feast of modernist compositions, lush orchestral classicism and atmospheric soundscapes.What better time, then, to celebrate this art form within an art form – with a few iconic soundtracks thrown in – and pay tribute to the musicians who’ve given our favourite movies (and, to be fair, some stinkers) earworm-laden accompaniment? Of course, narrowing it all down to a mere 100 is tough. We’ve prioritised music written for the screen, but worthy contenders still missed out, including Dimitri Tiomkin’s era-defining score for It’s a Wonderful Life and Elton John’s hummable tunes for The Lion King.To help do the narrowing down, we’ve recruited iconic movie composers, directors and broadcasters like Philip Glass, Carter Burwell, Max Richter, Anne Dudley, AR Rahman, Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch, Edgar Wright and Mark Kermode to pick their favourites. Happy listening!Recommended: 🔥 The 100 best movies of all time.🪩 The 50 best uses of songs in movies.💃 The greatest musical movies ever made.

A comédia é um género frequentemente ignorado pelos prémios e pela crítica. Mas produzir uma grande comédia, uma comédia intemporal, é 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 é preciso passar meio século, como é muitas vezes o caso; bastam alguns anos de diferença. Por isso mesmo, aqueles que nos fizeram rir durante décadas são verdadeiramente especiais. Para elaborar esta lista das 100 maiores comédias de sempre, pedimos a comediantes como Diane Morgan e Russell Howard, a actores como John Boyega e Jodie Whittaker e a uma pequena legião de escritores da Time Out sobre os filmes que mais os fazem rir, e por mais tempo. Ao fazê-lo, acreditamos ter encontrado as melhores, mais intemporais e amplamente apreciáveis 100 comédias da história do cinema. Independentemente do seu sentido de humor – disparatado ou sofisticado, leve ou sombrio, surreal ou mais abrangente – vai encontrá-lo representado aqui. Recomendado:🔥 Os 100 melhores filmes de sempre🥰 As melhores comédias românticas de sempre

There’s no shortage of great American films by British directors – from Alfred Hitchcock to Alexander Mackendrick, homegrown filmmakers have adopted an outsiders’ perspective to pick at the American dream. But traffic coming the other way is surprisingly light: while Hollywood loves to take advantage of our soundstages and expert craftsmanship, they’re not so interested in telling our stories. Which makes 1963’s ‘The Servant’ all the more special: thanks to the detached, dispassionate viewpoint of American expat and McCarthy refugee Joseph Losey, it’s one of the most insightful films ever made about the British class system. Of course, the screenplay by our own Harold Pinter doesn’t hurt. He begins the story with a pair of sturdy class clichés. Hardworking northern schemer Barrett (Dirk Bogarde) takes a job as a manservant for workshy fop Tony (James Fox). There’s a spot of manly flirting, a touch of jealousy from Tony’s intended (Wendy Craig) and an almost imperceptible bending of master-servant codes of conduct. Then Barrett’s sister (Sarah Miles) arrives from Manchester, and things get very strange indeed… In terms of tone and mood, ‘The Servant’ stands almost alone. You’d have to seek out two other guys-go-mad-in-a-flat movies, ‘Performance’ and ‘Dead Ringers’, to find anything that approaches its atmosphere of febrile desperation and deepening identity confusion. The performances are note-perfect and Pinter’s script is smart, subversive and sly, lifting the lid on our ag

Nobody panic but New Yorkers may be running out of subjects for romcoms. ‘The Boy Downstairs’ spins 89 minutes out of the story of a young woman who, upon returning from three years abroad, realises she’s inadvertently moved into an apartment upstairs from her ex. That’s literally it – no twists, no subplots, just a girl, a guy and a beautifully varnished hardwood floor. The girl is Diana (Zosia Mamet from ‘Girls’), a budding author who ran from her relationship with Ben (Matthew Shear) when things turned serious. Now they’re in close proximity, will she realise the dreadful error she’s made? What do you think? With not a lot going on ideas-wise, debut writer-director Sophie Brooks plugs the gaps with stock romcom characters and situations. So Diana has an unconventional day job – selling wedding dresses – and a kooky BFF (Diana Irvine). Her landlady is a brassy dame who dishes out life lessons, and her love rival is a snippy shrew who doesn’t deserve gentle Ben’s affections. With likeable performances and serviceable one-liners, there’s nothing truly reprehensible here, though the combination of ostentatious (and very white) privilege and ‘why me?’ angst can get off-putting. If only ‘The Boy Downstairs’ had something – anything – new to say. 

Amy Schumer y Goldie Hawn interpretan una madre y una hija perdidas en la selva amazónica en una comedia larga y aburrida. La primera es Emily, una chica que va por la vida sin rumbo e intenta encontrar su camino haciendo un viaje a Ecuador. La segunda es Linda, que se apunta a la aventura como un gato asustado.

Racing docs are still big business in the wake of ‘Senna’, but this is the first to focus not on a driver, but on the head of a Formula One team. Frank Williams is a fascinating case: born into a family of relatively modest means, he developed an obsession with speed that led him to form Frank Williams Racing Cars in the late ’60s, when chain-smoking men’s men ruled the scene. Left with a lifelong spinal injury following a crash in 1986, Williams was awarded a CBE in 1987 and a knighthood in 1999. In the midst of all this, his wife Virginia published a book detailing the struggles that come with caring for a tetraplegic, and it’s that memoir as much as Williams’s own recollections that inform the film. The result is unusually intimate, at times uncomfortably so. Williams admits that he never read his wife’s book, even after her death from cancer in 2013. Is he emotionally reluctant to relive difficult times, or simply unwilling to listen? The film also explores what looks like a troubled relationship between Frank and Virginia’s children: Claire, who is now deputy team principal of the Williams Formula One team, and Jonathan, who seems to feel thinly concealed resentment towards his younger sister. As a story of how families deal with success and hardship, and how one man’s legacy affects those who follow in his footsteps, this is complicated, thoughtful stuff. But ‘Williams’ tries to appeal to the petrolhead crowd as well, with a blow-by-blow account of his career that can f

If you have a problem with fart gags and scatological slapstick... why are you reading a review for a movie called ‘Captain Underpants’? Adapted from the hugely popular series of knockabout kids’ books by American author Dav Pilkey, this hectic cartoon aims for broad laughs with its story of two prank-loving boys who semi-accidentally hypnotise their cruel principal into believing he’s a Y-fronts-wearing superhero. Thanks to a feverishly fast-paced script by Nicholas Stoller, the man behind ‘The Muppets’ reboot, it also sneaks in some actual satire and a touch of heart among all the giant toilets and pre-pubescent sniggering. George (voiced by Kevin Hart) and Harold (Thomas Middleditch) have been friends for ever, hiding out in George’s treehouse sketching comic books about their invented action hero, Captain Underpants. But when the evil Mr Krupp (Ed Helms) threatens to separate them for life, George whips out his cereal-box hypnotism ring and goes to work. Soon, Krupp is rampaging around in his pants trying – without great success – to save the world. Crammed with shrieking kids, flying bog rolls and a villain called Professor Poopypants (Nick Kroll), ‘Captain Underpants’ can definitely get a bit much. But just when your brain’s starting to ache, the film chucks in another subversive crack about America’s failing school system, or a genuinely hilarious sock-puppet-animated flashback. It’s been an absolutely disastrous summer for kids’ movies – here’s one that parents might

Would a Rock by any other name shoot as sweet? That’s the theme of this enjoyable, mildly pretentious documentary about iconic music photographer Mick Rock, who just happened to be born with the right name and skillset at just the right time. Rock has photographed everyone from Syd Barrett and David Bowie – he took those amazing shock-of-red-hair pics from the ‘Ziggy’ era – to Queen, Blondie and The Ramones. Left on the verge of death in the early ’90s by three heart attacks and quadruple bypass surgery – the fallout from decades of substance abuse – Rock threw himself into yoga and clean living. Narrated entirely by its subject – no famous faces popping up to tell us what a ledge he is – the film is intimate and crisply told. It suffers slightly from the fact that Rock takes himself terribly seriously, recounting passages from Rimbaud in the original French and going on about how rock stars (plus himself) were the ultimate outsiders. But a handful of breezily psychedelic visual sequences lighten the mood, and those photographs really are incredible.

Opening a new boozer on the site of a beloved local institution can be a tricky proposition. But the folks behind Stoke Newington’s new beer-nerd destination The Axe have done a bang-up job, retaining everything that worked at Jan’s Belgian beer bar – the dim, cosy atmosphere, extensive ale selection and welcoming vibe – and adding a bright, airy, pine-lined smoking yard along with a captivating food menu. The drinks selection is frankly ludicrous. There are more than 60 beers on offer (22 of them on tap), ranging from a pint of Camden Lager for less than a fiver (a near-miracle in Stoke Newington) to an 11 percent monstrosity called Marshall Zhukov’s Imperial Stout that costs, I kid you not, £33 for 75cl. You can also choose from eight different gin and tonics and a perfectly serviceable wine list. Oh, and they do negronis on tap, which are flat-out gorgeous. The food is every bit as impressive, with starters and bar snacks several storeys up from your standard sausage roll. Try the olives Ascolane, a kind of Italian scotch egg minus the egg, using olives stuffed with veal. The ’nduja on sourdough toast was finger-licking greasy, smoky and heavily spiced, while halloumi chips were as thick as my thumb and dripped with sticky-sweet pomegranate molasses. Beyond gastropub bases, I tried grilled lamb chops, fat and juicy and lying on a heap of hearty, balsamic-rich Sicilian caponata; and mellow, salty-sharp king scallops on lemon risotto. At heart, The Axe is a modest, fairly af

‘Couldn’t you just be a friendly, neighbourhood Spider-Man?’ asks Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr) of his 15-year-old webslinging protegé Peter Parker (Tom Holland), fearing that the high schooler is going to tangle with the wrong bad guy and end up in more trouble than he can handle. And indeed ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’ offers a welcome narrowing of the Marvel mega-verse, away from alien invasions and globe-smashing supervillains and back towards something more local and intimate. The film’s villain, flight-suited arms manufacturer The Vulture (Michael Keaton), doesn’t even want to rule the world: he’s just chasing a fast buck to feed his family. The problem is that he’s willing to sacrifice innocent lives to achieve that goal – starting with Peter’s. ‘Homecoming’ isn’t strictly an origin story: there’s no radioactive spider bite, no wow-I-can-lift-a-car-now moment. This is about a young man figuring out what to do with the power he’s already acquired, while also navigating the pitfalls of everyday teenagerhood. It’s light and breezy – and perhaps a little throwaway, at times. It’s also dizzingly entertaining. Holland brings just the right blend of goofy and gallant – we genuinely like this kid, even when his cockiness threatens to get out of hand. He’s handed a perfect foil in the form of Ned (Jacob Batalon), the traditional chubby sidekick with a touch more depth. And despite what the trailers might suggest, Tony Stark’s regular cameos don’t unbalance the film: he’s more guard

No es cierto que a la tercera siempre vaya la vencida. Y aquí tenemos un ejemplo claro. La franquicia 'Gru' ha pasado de ser una pequeña locura simpática a un tedioso producto en tres partes –y esto sin contar el temible spin-off de 'Los Mínions'–. Esta vez, el supervillano convertido en superagente descubre que tiene un hermano, que vive en una granja de cerdos dorada –como Gru, también es Steve Carell quien le pone voz–. En paralelo, hay un ladrón de diamantes que está obsesionado con los años 80. Es una película en la que no hay gags memorables ni nuevas ideas, y en la que parece que alguien haya asumido desde el primer momento que la complicidad que la audiencia ha generado con el producto es más que suficiente. La falta de consistencia de los personajes es alarmante. Y, por si fuera poco, hay un mensaje xenófobo encubierto: hay un país inventado, Freedonia –una referencia al reino imaginario de los hermanos Marx–, que hace alusiones explícitas a la Europa del Este, y que han poblado de granjeros analfabetos y gitanas con pelos en la nariz.

No és cert que la tercera sempre sigui la bona. I aquí en tenim un exemple. La franquícia 'Gru' ha passat de ser una petita bogeria simpàtica a un tediós producte en tres parts –i això sense comptar el temible spin-off d’'Els Mínions'–. Aquesta vegada, el superdolent convertit en superagent descobreix que té un germà, que viu en una granja de porcs daurada –com a Gru, també és Steve Carell qui li posa veu–. En paral·lel, hi ha un lladregot de diamants que està obsessionat amb els anys 80. És una pel·lícula en què no hi ha gags memorables ni noves idees, i en què sembla que algú hagi assumit des del primer moment que la complicitat que l’audiència ha generat amb el producte és més que suficient. La falta de consistència dels personatges és alarmant. I, per acabar-ho d’adobar, hi ha un missatge xenòfob encobert: hi ha un país inventat, Freedonia –una referència al regne imaginari dels germans Marx–, que fa al·lusions explícites a l’Europa de l’Est, i que han poblat de grangers analfabets i gitanes amb pèls al nas.

The house always wins? One thing’s for certain – if you pay to see this lazy waste of time and talent, you’ll be the loser. As comedy, it may have worked on paper: Will Ferrell and Amy Poehler play the struggling parents of a perky, sure-to-succeed daughter. Trouble is, they can’t afford to send her to college. Enter their gambling-addicted buddy Frank (Jason Mantzoukas) with a hare-brained scheme to turn his house into an underground casino. In practice, there’s nothing here that works. The script by ‘Neighbours’ writers Andrew J Cohen and Brendan O’Brien is practically non-existent – perhaps director Cohen was hoping Ferrell and Poehler would sprinkle a little of their improv magic and bring it to life. But both performers seem totally disengaged, zombie-ing through their parts as though they’d rather be somewhere, anywhere else (and fair enough). Jeremy Renner is unexpectedly funny in his fleeting cameo as a ruthless mob boss – but, hey, if stone-face Renner’s the liveliest thing in your movie, you’ve got problems.

This Wikipedia-page biopic of Tupac Shakur races through the rapper’s Major Life Events without ever getting to grips with the glaring questions his story throws up. The bullet points are familiar: Tupac (played by eerily identical-looking Demetrius Shipp Jr) is raised by his Black Panther turned crack addict mum (Danai Gurira from ‘The Walking Dead’), hits the big time, beefs with Biggie (Jamal Woolard, who played the same role in 2009’s ‘Notorious’) and ends up dead in the passenger seat of rap mogul Suge Knight’s limo following a drive-by shooting. This feels very much like the Shakur-estate-approved version of events: an essentially decent but desperately unlucky character, ’Pac just happens to be on scene during a shooting and he’s asleep while someone’s getting sexually assaulted next door. The latter incident is handled with a shameful lack of inquiry – Tupac even blames the system when he’s convicted. But at least ‘All Eyez on Me’ tackles misogyny at all, which is more than could be said for this film’s obvious inspiration, the NWA biopic ‘Straight Outta Compton’. The filmmaking is solid, the performances strong and the tunes are pretty terrific. But this is too wary of controversy – and too ‘respectful’ of the fans – to treat its subject to the hard-headed analysis Tupac’s legacy deserves.

Located in one of London’s most atmospheric local cinemas, the Lexi Film School in Kensal Rise isn’t some stuffy, snobby, nose-in-the-books cinéaste course. It’s a series of public screenings, with each film introduced by a notable expert in the field. This term runs from March to May, with six films and six speakers including Guardian critic Peter Bradshaw, who will speak about apocalyptic documentary ‘Homo Sapiens’; film journo (and Time Out alumnus) David Jenkins, who will introduce bracing Argentinian drama ‘The Headless Woman’; and excitingly, an appearance from ‘Suffragette’ director Sarah Gavron, who will present an exclusive early screening of her brand new film ‘Rocks’, a scrappy tale of London teenagers that’s been garnering great reviews at film festivals. The programme also includes British new-wave masterpiece ‘A Taste of Honey’, Beyoncé’s favourite experimental drama ‘Daughters of the Dust’ and intimate relationship comedy ‘Losing Ground’. Every £9 ticket comes with introductory notes written by the speaker, plus a month’s free subscription to MUBI. Head to the official site for all the info. Find out where the Lexi features on our poll of Londoners’ favourite cinemas.   

Secret Cinema’s latest interactive experience is a leap into the unknown for its creators as much as their audience. Can an event traditionally tied to a specific, well-loved film – and culminating in a screening – still work when the anchor is a streaming series? Is it really Secret Cinema without the ‘cinema’ part? As always, the creative team has gone to extraordinary lengths to immerse attendees in the world of the show. It’s the Fourth of July and the town of Hawkins, Indiana is hosting the biggest high school reunion party of all time. Mulleted, deely-boppered and dolled up in their shiniest ’80s threads, the students have gathered at the neon-drenched Starcourt Mall to shop, stuff their faces with Scoops Ahoy ice cream and party the night away. But in the darkness on the edge of town, something wicked is lurking… The mall is spectacularly recreated inside and out, with a video bar, a fashion emporium and an old-school arcade where punters can remind themselves how infuriatingly impossible early console machines were (I spent 25 minutes on Donkey Kong and didn’t make it past the first screen). Hits of the era blast from the public address system and those inclined can take part in dance-offs and energetic, Jane Fonda-style fitness workouts in the lobby. But it’s not just about retro rubbernecking: there are stories to follow too, mysteries to uncover and hidden spaces to explore. Actors in character weave through the crowd, pursuing leads of their own and encouraging th

He hasn't made a film since 2008's Bafta-winning Wallace and Gromit short 'A Matter of Loaf and Death'. So the promise of a new film from animator, writer and all-round national treasure Nick Park has us very excited. Set – as the title implies – in prehistoric times, 'Early Man' features Eddie Redmayne as the voice of Dug, a decent caveman whose tribe is under attack by a more advanced army of Bronze Age warriors led by the villainous Nooth (voiced by Tom Hiddleston). There's no sign of Nooth in this just-released teaser trailer, but we do get a good look at Dug and his piggy pal Hognob, who comes off a lot like Gromit with tusks. ‘Early Man’ isn't out until the start of 2018, but we’re officially looking forward to it. And we’re not the only Nick Park fans getting a bit overexcited...   Been working with the great Nick Park and Aardman on their hilarious new film, @earlymanmovie. He is absolutely as brilliant as you might expect. Sometimes he makes me laugh so much I have to leave the sound studio for five minutes and calm down and have another go. A photo posted by Tom Hiddleston (@twhiddleston) on Oct 20, 2016 at 3:45am PDT   The first clip from Nick Park’s ‘Early Man’ and A look at Tom Hiddleston’s role in ‘Early Man’.

David Lynch’s dizzying detective show ‘Twin Peaks’ features some of the most memorable villains in TV history, from double-denim demon Killer Bob in the original series to Kyle MacLachlan’s gurning greaser Mr C in the recent reboot. For its tenth birthday bonanza, the immersive, weekend-long Twin Peaks UK Festival has invited three of the show’s most notable bad boys over to London to meet their British fans. From the 1990s show, there is Kenneth Welsh, AKA impish master of disguise Windom Earle. Meanwhile, from the reboot they’re bringing George Griffith, who played murderous sidekick ‘that fucker’ Ray Monroe, and John Pirrucello, AKA Deputy Chad Broxford, the dirtiest cop in 'Twin Peaks'. They will be joined by the usual array of special appearances and live acts, from performances by the long-running Double R Club cabaret troupe to a Roadhouse stage crammed with Lynch-inspired bands. Add in movie screenings, a live owl show, doughnuts, limitless coffee and a chance to lose yourself in the immersive ‘Black Lodge Experience’ and this should be as wild, weird and wondrous as the series itself. The Twin Peaks UK Festival runs from Oct 5-6 at Stoke Newington Town Hall. See the official website for more info and tickets.What’s on this Bank Holiday weekend? Check out our guide to the best things to do in London.

How do you spot a great film? Is it widespread critical acclaim? A regular spot in all-time top ten lists? A famous director and a bunch of big stars? Or is it possible that all those things – whisper it now – don’t actually matter? A weekly programme of screenings introduced by a critic, filmmaker or academic, the Lexi Film School aims to expand the definition of ‘classic’ cinema. Sure, they show the odd established masterpiece – the upcoming run includes ‘Rome: Open City’, Robert Rossellini’s neo-realist masterwork shot on scraps of film in the wake of the fall of fascism, alongside the timeless ‘Saturday Night and Sunday Morning’, in which Albert Finney plays a Nottingham factory worker railing against the strictures of ’60s society. And art enthusiasts won’t want to miss ‘Frida’, the controversial, bracingly original biopic of Mexican painter Frida Kahlo. But the season also includes a fistful of titles we’re betting you haven’t even heard of (we hadn’t, and we’ve seen quite a lot of films). There’s ‘Of Love & Law’, a recent documentary about the first openly gay lawyers in Japan and the fight they face to be taken seriously in their profession. There’s ‘Saawariya’, a Bollywood romance with an unexpectedly dark edge. And there’s the fiercely radical ‘Angela Davis: Portrait of a Revolutionary’, a 1972 doc following the woman who came to symbolise the Black Power movement. The Lexi Film School runs from April 29, every Monday at 6pm. Each screening will be preceded by an in

One of our favourite small cinemas celebrates its tenth birthday this month. Here’s everything you need to know about the lovely Lexi in Kensal Rise:1. It shows everything from blockbusters to cult classics While the main programme consists of new-release indies, arthouse titles and the occasional big-ticket blockbuster, the Lexi also finds room for more offbeat fare like their ongoing Film School project (see below). In this anniversary month there’s loads of juicy extras to sink your teeth into, including a screening of ‘The Harder They Come’ complete with a slap-up Jamaican feast. 2. It’s got heaps of celebrity fans This summer, Lexi-goers got the surprise of their lives when Tom Hiddleston showed up unannounced, to discuss his acting debut ‘Unrelated’. And regulars still speak in hushed tones of the time Mark Rylance introduced a screening of ‘Night of the Hunter’ with an impromptu calypso number… 3. It looks – and sounds – amazing From the outside, the Lexi is recognisable for its old-school marquee sign – funded earlier this year with a Kickstarter campaign - and for the graffitied front wall that reads ‘I AM A CINEMA – LOVE ME’. But it’s quality on the inside too, with a plush auditorium and great sound. 4. It’s truly independent In London, most little cinemas are linked in one way or another to the big chains like Picturehouse and Curzon. The Lexi is one of the few genuinely independent venues in the city, free to pick its own film programme.   Lex appeal: inside the

It’s been a London institution for nine years, and in the wake of last year’s dizzying, controversial TV reboot the UK’s only official ‘Twin Peaks’ festival is set to be bigger and weirder than ever. Over the weekend of September 29-30, the London Irish Centre and the adjoining Camden Square Gardens will play host to an extravagantly costumed cavalcade of Lynchian obsessives, not to mention guests from the show, musicians, cabaret artists, DJs and doughnut delivery drivers. This year’s lineup includes appearances from Kimmy Robertson, who plays scatterbrained receptionist Lucy Moran both in the original series and the 2017 reboot, and Rebekah Del Rio, the extraordinary singer who performed a haunting Spanish-language version of Roy Orbison’s ‘Crying’ (‘Llorando’) in Lynch’s ‘Mulholland Drive’. Ms Del Rio will be performing live at the festival, alongside ‘Peaks’-inspired cabaret from the Double R Club, a lineup of live bands and some actual performing owls, which may or may not be what they seem. There’ll also be screenings, an art gallery and interactive events, and for the first time, the festival will include a Virtual Reality experience, which sounds potentially bloody terrifying. Standard tickets for the festival are now on sale, starting from £85 – but grab them fast, the VIP tickets were snapped up in less than two minutes. We’ll see you in the trees… Head to the official site for the skinny, or check in with your local log lady.The biggest and best films to see this s

Des robots ! Des vaisseaux spatiaux ! Des sabres laser ! De l'inceste ! Avant 'Les derniers Jedi', et au cas où vous n'auriez pas dix-huit heures devant vous pour revoir l'ensemble des épisodes précédents, voici notre résumé de la saga 'Star Wars' en moins d'une minute...     Ceci est un Jedi. Une sorte de sorcier (d'où la barbe) qui saurait manier le sabre laser (cool) et s'occuperait parfois de diplomatie intergalactique (moins cool).   Le personnage ci-dessous est un Gungan, nommé Jar Jar Binks. Imaginez un hippocampe qui essaierait de faire du stand-up en imitant Roger Rabbit parlant patois. Autrement dit, un personnage très chiant et pas drôle du tout.   Et voici Anakin Skywalker, un sale gosse odieux qui deviendra la force la plus néfaste de l'univers.   En grandissant, Anakin travaille à devenir Jedi. Il en profite pour fricoter avec Natalie Portman, une reine qui adore se travestir en clown.   Leur meilleur allié est Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor), dont le fameux passé de toxicomane fait de lui le conseiller intergalactique idéal en matière de narcotiques.   Et voici le plus grand des Jedis (qui est aussi le plus petit) : maître Yoda. Tout vert et parfois pixellisé, il se révèle étonnamment retors, un sabre laser à la main.   Malheureusement pour tout le monde, un gros blaireau ridé, le sénateur Palpatine, compte bien être le dernier à rire en dominant l'univers.   Aussi Palpatine persuade-t-il Anakin de trahir ses amis et de passer du côté obscur. Ce qui ne lu

Tickets are on sale for next weekend’s big London book celebration, the annual Stoke Newington Literary Festival. Now in its eighth year, the festival offers everything from straight-up author interviews to quizzes, panel discussions and loads of food and drink events. As ever, the focus is on music and politics – the latter is hardly surprising, given the festival takes place just a few days before the election. Here are five events we can heartily recommend. 1. Friday Night Live – Pre-election Special Comedians and commentators including Guardian columnist Suzanne Moore and ‘The Thick of It’ contributor David Quantick discuss the upcoming vote. Try to keep it light, guys.Stoke Newington Town Hall. Fri Jun 2, 7.30pm. £10. 2. John Berger: Ways of Seeing One of Stoke Newington’s most beloved sons, writer and thinker John Berger passed away in January this year. At this event, leading Berger-ologists Tom Overton and Andrea Luka Zimmerman discuss the great man’s life and legacy.Stoke Newington Library Gallery. Sat Jun 3, 12pm. £5.         3. Owen Jones The effortlessly articulate boy prince of lefty politics returns to the festival to try and persuade us that everything’s going to be fine, and the world’s not going to hell in a handcart. Sure, Owen. Sure.Stoke Newington Town Hall. Sat Jun 3, 6pm. £8. 4. ‘Game of Thrones’ Pub Quiz Test your knowledge of all things Thrones, from bastards to battles, Starks to Lannisters, dragons to Dornishmen. Any apparent similarity between this

Twenty-six years since its initial run, David Lynch’s game-changing murder-soap-thriller-fantasy ‘Twin Peaks’ returned to TV screens this weekend with the first two instalments of an 18-episode run. Screening on Sky Atlantic in the UK, the series kicked off at 2am on Monday, concurrent with the US launch. But they’ll both air again this evening for non-night owls, and are already available to stream. Our resident ‘Twin Peaks’ expert Tom Huddleston offers a few tips on how best to enjoy the new series. 1. Be realistic At 71, David Lynch is no longer the upbeat upstart who made unusual but approachable works such as ‘Blue Velvet’, ‘Wild at Heart’ and the original ‘Twin Peaks’. In old age, he’s cycled back to his roots in the American avant-garde: his last film, 2006’s ‘Inland Empire’, was his most idiosyncratic since his DIY 1977 debut ‘Eraserhead’. Anyone coming to the new ‘Twin Peaks’ expecting aw-shucks comedy and lashings of cherry pie is going to be disappointed. It’s funny, when it wants to be – but this is most definitely not comfort viewing.     2. Be patient The new ‘Twin Peaks’ doesn’t care if you like it; it is entirely itself and nothing else. This approach results in some of the most mind-blistering moments you’ll ever see on TV, indelible images of shock, horror and unearthly loveliness. But it also means that not everything happens when you think it’s going to, at the speed at which modern television usually operates. In simple terms: it can be slow. It’s not b

Londoners, you have a choice – watch ‘Twin Peaks’ or live in it. After 26 years, new episodes of David Lynch’s iconic mystery thriller debuted on Showtime in the US last night (we’ll have a full report on that soon). But there was more exciting news this weekend, as tickets for London’s annual Twin Peaks UK Festival went on sale.        This giddy, immersive two-day celebration of all things ‘Peaks’ may not be exactly cheap, but it’s worth it: not only do you get to enjoy a wide range of festival screenings while stuffing your face with complimentary doughnuts, cherry pie and coffee, you get to meet actual real-life cast members – this year's confirmed guests so far are Sherilyn Fenn, aka cherry-twisting high school vixen Audrey Horne, and Kenneth Welsh, who played season two’s madcap villain Windom Earle. There’s also live Lynchian cabaret from the Double R Club, a costume competition, a quiz and a live music stage offering ‘Peaks’-y sounds throughout the day. All this, plus the chance to mingle and get gradually, happily plastered in the company of fellow nerds. The Twin Peaks UK Festival takes place at Hornsey Town Hall Arts Centre on Oct 7-8. Get your tickets here.  Swot up with our in-depth A-Z for ‘Twin Peaks’ newbies. Check out the first images from the ‘Twin Peaks’ reboot. And did you know that there’s a cookbook celebrating the food of ‘Twin Peaks’?

It’s an even worse idea than ‘The Angry Birds Movie’, and that was bad enough. But this summer’s family cartoon ‘The Emoji Movie’ didn’t have to be awful. In fact, when news emerged that the legendary Patrick Stewart would be voicing the poo emoji 💩, and that ‘School of Rock’ scribe Mike White was going to be working on the script, some even whispered that it might turn out to be pretty good.👍 Those voices were silenced today 🤐, when the first trailer exploded colourfully onto our laptop screens. You can pretty much guess the plot from the title: inside your phone there’s a whole computerised world (like ‘Wreck-It Ralph’) full of day-glo characters who all represent different emotional states (like in ‘Inside Out’). They work in a kind of emoji factory (like in ‘Monsters Inc’), but our hero the ‘Meh’ emoji 😒 wonders what it’s all really about (like in ‘The LEGO Movie’). Cue snarky humour, speedy action, and absolutely no soul whatsoever. 👎 Of course, this might just be a bad trailer, and the resulting film could still be a lot of fun. And poos might fly. Either way, we’ll find out when ‘The Emoji Movie’ is released into UK cinemas on August 4. In other news, Charlie Brooker didn’t want to do his annual TV ‘Wipe’ because 2016 was so shit.