Latest Time Out worldwide features

You’d be hard pressed to come by a travel bucket list that doesn’t feature the Northern Lights. Sure, there are plenty of aurora-chasers on social media, but having the chance to witness this wondrous natural spectacle irl is something most of us are keen to do at least once in our lives.  There is, obvs, a rather unromantic scientific explanation for the Northern Lights (solar flares plus the earth’s atmosphere, you get the gist), but we aren’t about to pour water on this fire. What we are going to do is bring you a list of the very best places to see the Northern Lights, which includes more than just Norway and Iceland. For your best chances, opt for a dark night between November and March, with minimal light pollution and preferably a new moon, at one of these wonderful locations – read on for the best places in the world to see the Northern Lights. RECOMMENDED:🏜️The best national parks in the world🌤️The best places to ‘coolcation’ in Europe🏖️The most underrated travel destinations in the world⛰️The best hikes in the world

Not every activity is improved by being stoned. Pro tip: never try to put together an IKEA bookshelf after a few bong rips. When it comes to watching movies, though, not only is it safe to light up a touch of the devil’s lettuce, it’s highly recommended – no pun intended. (Legal disclaimer: obviously, only where legal.) But as any experienced pothead will tell you, picking the right film for a zonked night on the couch is a precarious science. It doesn’t necessarily need to be a stoner comedy, but if you’re looking to giggle, you probably don’t want to have to think too much about a joke. And if you’re in the mood to simply trip out on some wild imagery, you don’t want to go down a hole of darkness. These 20 films, however, will hit the sweet spot… for as long as you manage to stay awake, anyway.   Recommended: 🤣 The 100 best comedy movies of all-time👽 The 100 best sci-fi movies of all-time🍻 The 20 perfect movies to watch when you’re hungover

Puritanical types like to scapegoat movie violence as a cause of social breakdown, but the truth is that the world has always been a violent place, and the movies merely reflect that fact. Even more to the point, while real-world violence is rarely worthy of celebration, in film, it can often be beautiful. Think the grace of Bruce Lee or Jackie Chan’s blur of motion. In cinema, interpersonal combat is an artform unto itself, one that has made careers and provides the foundation for whole genres. On this list of the greatest movie scenes ever filmed, though, the selections run the gamut, from action sequences so balletic they nearly count as dancing to brutal, sloppy brawls that nonetheless nudge us to the edge of our seats. A few caveats, though. First off, no gunplay allowed, at least not where a firearm is the primary weapon; well-orchestrated shootouts are a whole other category, and probably deserve a list of their own. For similar reasons, we’ve also omitted boxing matches, wrestling bouts or MMA fights. But that still leaves us with plenty of hard-hitting dust-ups, elegant martial arts mastery and the occasional goofy grapple that puts the slap in ‘slapstick’. All we are saying is: give violence a chance. RECOMMENDED:  🥋 The 25 best martials arts movies ever made.🧨 The 101 greatest action movies ever made.🪂 The 18 greatest stunts in cinema (picked by the greatest stunt professionals)

Any list of the best psychological thrillers needs to start by answering a basic question: what separates a psychological thriller from a regular old thriller? As the phrase implies, it mostly has to do with the mind. In the best examples, special attention is paid to the mental disposition of its characters, and the thrills themselves are derived from how those motivations influence the movement of the plot.  That might sound a bit cold, maybe alienating. But the greatest psychological thrillers play on elemental fears, traumas and delusions. As one particularly disturbed young man once said, we all go a little mad sometimes – and that’s what makes the genre so relatable…and often frightening. These are 32 of the absolute best. Recommended: 😬 The 100 best thriller movies of all-time🍆 The 35 steamiest erotic thrillers💣 The 101 best action movies of all-time🔥 The 100 best movies of all-time

For the first half of 2024, the main talking point around the movies was that no one was going to see them. Why weren’t audiences flocking to see Ryan Gosling drive stunt cars and flirt with Emily Blunt? Why did Furiosa flop when the last Mad Max film was such a hit? It was especially perplexing given that last year, the worldwide box office had seemed to finally rebound from the post-pandemic doldrums. Studio fortunes are starting to improve, however, on the backs of some major kids movies and the latest Bad Boys sequel. So how about we all stop wringing our hands, and begin appreciating what’s been a pretty great year for movies so far, both in the mainstream and at the arthouse? You’ll notice some of these movies came out in the US at the back end of 2023, but we’re basing this list on UK release dates to include the best worldwide releases from between January and December. And there is plenty more coming, so keep this one bookmarked. RECOMMENDED: 📺 The best TV shows of 2024 (so far) you need to stream🎥 The 100 greatest movies ever made🔥 The best movies of 2023

We’re only just past halfway through but 2024 is already starting to feel like a gala year for horror. There’s been everything from deviously meta spins on demonic possession flicks (Late Night With the Devil) to a paleolithic Blair Witch Project (Out of Darkness) to an alien invasion horror conducted at a whisper (A Quiet Place: Day One). And ahead are singular scare-fests and bloodbaths from up-and-coming filmmakers like Jane Schoenbrun and Tilman Singer, returning auteurs like Coralie Fargeat and some guy called Tim Burton. Right now, Oz Perkins’ chilling serial killer procedural Longlegs and Chris Nash’s slowburn slasher In a Violent Nature are turning the temperature right down in cinemas with superlative genre filmmaking that will haunt your nightmares. If you like things dark and disturbing, tick these off your list asap. 🎃 The 100 best horror films ever made 😱 The scariest movies based on a true story 💀 The best films of 2024 (so far)

Bad films are like bumps of coke: every actor has done a few. But some stars have the wattage to shine bright even as a dodgy production threatens to snuff out their spark. Whether bringing hard-earned pathos to paltry attempts, elevating lacklustre screenplays or going above and beyond to strive for authenticity, these players make their presence felt against the odds.  Here are 15 fantastic performances in poorly reviewed movies.  RECOMMENDED: 🔥 50 great scenes in bad movies.🗑️ The 40 best bad movies ever made.

Comedy gets no respect, no respect at all. Sure, everyone loves to laugh, and just about every film buff has a comedy movie they hold close to their heart. But for some reason, when it comes to awards and canonisation, comedies still get short shrift in the history of cinema. That’s probably because, more than any other genre, comedy is dependent on context. What’s funny in 1924 might land with a thud in 2024. And that’s to say nothing of varying tastes in humour.  That makes coming up with the best comedy films of all time especially tricky. We had to ask ourselves: what makes a truly great comedy? There’s many criteria, but one of the most important is the question of: ‘Is this film still funny now, and will it still be funny five years, ten years… a century from now?’ 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 laughers in history. No matter your sense of humour - silly or sophisticated, light or dark, surreal or broad - you’ll find it represented here.  Recommended: 🔥 The 100 best movies of all-time🤣 The best comedies of 2024 (so far)🥰 The greatest romantic comedies of all time

Let’s clear this up right away: no, ‘family comedy’ is not code for ‘kids movie’. At least, it doesn’t have to be. Sure, some movies described as ‘fun for the whole family’ are really just fun for the youngest ones in the household. But as these 35 films attest, it is possible for a movie to make every generation laugh in unison.  Each of the following hits just the right notes to send everyone on the couch into hysterics without making parents sweat over explaining the meaning of a few choice words, situations and possibly body parts to the littlest members of the audience. Next time the whole brood is corralled in front of the television, throw on one of these classics, and a good time is guaranteed. After all, the family that laughs together, stays together.  Written by Hannah Doolin, Danielle Valente, Alim Kheraj, Oliver Strand, Andy Kryza & Matthew Singer Recommended: 👪 The 50 best family movies to stream on movie night👶 The best family movies on Netflix for all-ages🤣 The 100 best comedy movies✍ The 100 best animated movies of all-time

Cinema has long had a fascination with serial killers. From Fritz Lang’s M, released at the birth of the sound era, to this year’s Longlegs, filmmakers have examined the psychology of compulsive murderers and the society that creates them. It’s easy to understand: exploring the human psyche, even (or especially) the darkest corners of it, is one of the things art is intended to do. But audiences apparently share the fascination, too. And that’s a bit harder to parse.  Other kinds of crime movies provide the vicarious thrill of watching people live outside the law. Movies about serial killers force us to confront humanity at its most frightening. That doesn’t sound like a fun way to spend two hours. But the best serial killer movies don’t just try to shock. In considering the best serial killer movies ever made, we prioritised those that go beyond mere exploitation or voyeurism. The ones that hold a cracked mirror up to the social conditions that would cause one of its citizens to hold human life in such low regard. Some might be categorised as horror, others as noirs or procedurals. All of them will leave you shaken. Recommended: 🔪 The best true-crime documentaries on Netflix in the US👹 Cinema’s creepiest anthology horror movies🩸 The 15 scariest horror movies based on true stories💣 The 100 best thrillers of all time😱 The 100 best horror movies of all time🕵️ The 40 best murder-mystery movies