Phil de Semlyen

Like college kids and middle-aged divorcees flocking to the nearest beach or rooftop pool to reveal their revenge bods, summer is the time for Hollywood to show off. The movie industry is going into its most important time of year with some positive momentum, thanks to A Minecraft Movie, Sinners and Thunderbolts* , and the likely successes of Mission: Impossible – Final Reckoning and Disney’s live-action Lilo & Stitch. And there’s reason to believe the money train will continue rolling, with James Gunn’s Superman rebooting the DC universe, Fantastic Four: First Steps looking to keep the Marvel revival moving and Jurassic World Rebirth bringing the dinosaur franchise back from extinction, with Scarlett Johannson, Mahershala Ali and Jonathan Bailey in tow. Of course, nothing in this cinema landscape is guaranteed. Which films will actually hit big and which will have studio execs and industry watchers wringing their hands? We break it all down below with the 22 movies we’re most excited about in summer 2025.RECOMMENDED: 🎥 The best movies of 2025 (so far)🔥 The best TV and streaming shows of 2025

Movies are back. Not that they ever really went anywhere. For a few years, though, particularly during and after the pandemic, it felt like film culture was in the dumps. But with the rise of outlets like Letterboxd, the booming popularity of repertory theatres and the social media omnipresence of the Criterion Closet, it seems like cinema is nudging back toward the centre of culture again, especially among younger generations.  With interest in movie history rising, now’s a perfect time to make use of our list of the 100 greatest movies of all-time. It’s a broad survey of the highlights of film’s first century-plus, covering over 100 years, multiple countries, and just about every genre imaginable, from massive blockbusters to intimate cult films, silly comedies to bloody horror, action-packed thrillers to thrilling action flicks. We’re not so high-minded to consider it the definitive canon – but as a road map, it’s a great place to start.  Jump to list: 100-91 |  90-81 | 80-71 | 70-61 | 60-51 | 50-41 | 40-31 | 30-21 | 20-11 | 10-1 How we chose our 100 best movies of all time Admittedly, the process is not an exact science. Mostly, it involves a bunch of arguing, whittling and deal-making amongst Time Out’s most movie-obsessed writers, and then voila: a top 100 everyone is kinda sorta happy about! In terms of why we chose what we chose, that’s just as messy and multivarious. Mostly, it comes down to timelessness. Is a movie among the rare films that will play as fresh today

Halfway through 2025, Hollywood must be breathing a sigh of relief. At this point last year, the studios were scratching their heads at several major unexpected flops, and many analysts were left to wonder if the post-pandemic bounce-back of 2023 was simply an outlier. Now, with films like A Minecraft Movie, Sinners, Final Destination: Bloodlines and Lilo & Stitch outperforming expectations, it might be safe to say that the movies are finally, really, truly… back? Maybe we shouldn’t get ahead of ourselves. But there are reasons for cinephiles to celebrate beyond the industry’s financial health, whether it’s the blockbuster success of the aforementioned Sinners, Ryan Coogler’s ambitious and wholly original horror epic, or several smaller-scale achievements, from the formal invention of Nickel Boys to the animated underdog (undercat?) story of Flow to a pair of home runs from Steven Soderbergh. And there’s plenty more to come. Here are the films that have had us cheering loudest in 2025 so far.  RECOMMENDED: 📺 The best TV and streaming shows of 2025 (so far)🔥 The best horror movies of 2025🎥 The 101 greatest films ever made

The horror movie kicked off with Robert Eggers’ vampire smash hit Nosferatu and the fanged fraternity returned in a big way with Ryan Coogler’s Sinners, a Southern gothic with Michael B Jordan that sunk its teeth into the box office in a big way in April. And that’s just the start for a horror resurgence: 28 Years Later, M3GAN 2.0, The Conjuring: Last Rites, SAW XI, The Black Phone 2.0 and a new Insidious movie are all adding new shocks to smash-hit franchises. Talk To Me pair Danny and Michael Philippou return with Bring Her Back and the Jordan Peele-produced Him hits in September. This list will be updated as the frights arrive, so keep checking back to see what’s worth shelling out for.RECOMMENDED: 🎃 The 100 best horror films ever made😱 The scariest movies based on a true story 🔥 The best horror films of 2024

Summer’s in full effect, which means you can take your cinema outside with you via a range of al fresco big-screen options. For the indoor purist, July offers a tantalisingly eclectic array of new releases. Superman returns in a film that may have been called ‘Superman Returns’ had that movie not already happened. Instead, it’s MCU veteran James Gunn who will be trying to power up the DC movie universe with a new Man of Steel movie. And any month that offers a new David Cronenberg and the Smurfs – not in the same film – is not lacking variety. Here’s what to look out for. RECOMMENDED:📽️ The best films of 2025 (so far)📺 The best TV shows of 2025 you need to stream🏵️ The 100 greatest movies of all time

June 2025 update: In this update, we've added one of the best blockbusters of the last decade, Top Gun: Maverick, the movie that finally brought audiences back to theaters post-pandemic and which firmly outclasses the 1986 original with some of the most thrilling flight sequences ever put on film.  Everyone loves a good action movie. Sure, film school snobs may turn up their noses, but even hardcore cineastes cannot live on indie dramas and experimental art flicks alone. No matter how cultured you are, there’s a part of your lizard brain that loves explosions and shootouts and badass one-liners – and it needs to be satisfied. And the only thing that will scratch the itch is watching something get blowed up real good.  The truth is, action is a deeply misunderstood genre. Action flicks needn’t be dumb or epic or even particularly loud to succeed. Some find beauty in violence. Others might dropkick you right in the heart. Heck, some even have character development. So light that fuse, clip that wire and batten down the hatches – these are the most pulse-pounding, heart-racing, edge of your seat action movies of all-time.  Written by Eddy Frankel, Eddy Frankel, Yu An Su, Joshua Rothkopf, Trevor Johnston, Ashley Clark, Grady Hendrix, Tom Huddleston, Keith Uhlich, Dave Calhoun, Phil de Semlyen, Dave Calhoun and Matthew Singer Recommended: 🔥 The 100 best movies of all-time💥 The 18 greatest stunts in cinema (as picked by the greatest stunt people)🥋 The 25 best martial arts movies

June 2025 update: Hacks, The Rehearsal and Overcompensating are the latest shows to earn a spot on our ‘best of the year’ list this week. The former sees Jean Smart and Hannah Einbinder’s co-dependent star-and-assistant double act delivering another ten episodes of pass-agg magnificence, while Nathan Fielder delivers more must-see TV with his second season of The Rehearsal. Overcompensating, meanwhile, is one of the year's surprise hits, a raunchy-but-warm college comedy featuring several breakout performances. We’ve all heard the phrase ‘TV’s golden age’ enough times over the past couple of decades to get wary of the hyperbole, but this year does seem to be shaping up to be a kind of mini golden age for the TV follow-up. Severance, Andor and The Last of Us all look like building on incredibly satisfying first runs with equally masterful second runs (even more masterful, in Severance’s case). The third season of The White Lotus has proved that, whether you love it or find it a touch too languorous, there’s no escaping Mike White’s transgressive privilege-in-paradise satire. Likewise for season 7 of Charlie Brooker’s dystopian-flavoured sci-fi Black Mirror. Watercooler viewing is everywhere at the moment,  and that’s not going to change anytime soon. Netflix has announced the finale of Squid Game this summer, along with the end of Stranger Things, a second run of Tim Burton’s Wednesday, and about a zillion other things. Here’s everything you need to see... so far.  RECOMMENDED

There’s more to Japanese movies than Kurosawa, Ozu and Miyazaki. That’s not to downplay their contributions to the country’s cinematic history – or cinema in general. All three are potential GOATs. It’s just that there’s much, much more where that exalted triumvirate came from.  Like the trailblazing silent works of Kenji Mizoguchi. Or the off-kilter pop-art crime thrillers of Seijun Suzuki. Or the bizarrely horrifying visions of Takashi Miike. On this list of the greatest Japanese movies of all time, you’ll find them all, alongside, of course, Kurosawa’s epics, Miyazaki’s soulful animations and Ozu’s powerful domestic dramas – oh, and Godzilla too. You’ll trace Japan’s unique filmmaking history, moving from the silent era to its post-war golden age to the 1960s New Wave to the anime explosion of the ’80s, all the way up to the current renaissance spearheaded by Hirokazu Kore-eda, Ryusuke Hamaguchi and Mamoru Hosoda. It’s a lot to take in. But with expert commentary from Junko Yamazaki – assistant professor of Japanese Media Studies at Princeton, whose focuses include post-war Japanese film music and the jidaigeki (period drama) genre – this cinephile’s bible is as authoritative as it is exhaustive. Consider it your travel guide to one of the world’s most creative movie cultures. RECOMMENDED: 🇰🇷 The greatest Korean films of all time🇫🇷 The 100 best French movies ever made🇯🇵 The best anime movies of all time, ranked🌏 The 50 best foreign films of all-time

Summer is here and the sun is shining down on a variety of outdoor cinema options, as Londoners look for a suitably al fresco spot to catch a movie over the next few months. And the choices are wide-ranging and varied: from the rooftops of Peckham and Stratford, to the banks of the Regent’s Canal in King’s Cross and the banks of the Thames at London Bridge. Expect to catch Wicked, Gladiator II, Dune: Part Two, Inside Out 2 and other crowdpleasing blockbusters and evergreen classics. Here’s where to look – including a few free outdoor options. Recommended: 📽️ The best cinemas in London💰 London’s best cheap cinemas

Not that long ago, in a galaxy not terribly far away, science fiction was thought of as a niche interest – nerdery of the highest order. It’s hard to imagine now, given the geek insurrection of the last two decades. Now, nerds run the entertainment industry, and sci-fi isn’t just popular. It is, perhaps, the dominant genre in all of pop-culture.  The truth, however, is that the audience for science fiction was never so limited. The best sci-fi isn’t just about mythology and multiverses. Even if they’re taking place on other planets, truly great sci-fi speaks to the issues concerning the planet we actually live on – they just happen to be communicated through fantastical beasts and alien technology. Sci-fi’s reach is reflected in the wide-ranging panel of experts we conscripted to rank the greatest sci-fi films ever made. That includes Nobel Prize-winning geneticist Sir Paul Nurse to Oscar-winning film director Guillermo del Toro, to Game of Thrones creator George RR Martin, along with frequent Time Out writers. It’s also illustrated by the list itself, one that zigzags from Tatooine to Arrakis, Metropolis to Los Angeles circa, uh, 2019. Recommended: 🚀 Charlie Brooker’s ten favourite sci-fi movies👽 The best sci-fi shows streaming on Netflix🦄 The 50 best fantasy movies of all-time

Museums are one of the things that London does best. This city boasts grand institutions housing ancient treasures, modern monoliths packed with intriguing exhibits, and tiny rooms containing deeply niche collections – and lots of them are totally free to anyone who wants to come in and take a gander. And with more than 170 London museums to choose from, there's bound to be one to pique your interest, whatever you're in to.  Want to explore the history of TfL? We’ve got a museum for that. Rather learn about advertising? We’ve got a museum for that too. History? Check. Science? Check. 1940s cinema memorabilia, grotesque eighteenth-century surgical instruments, or perhaps a wall of 4,000 mouse skeletons? Check, check and check! Being the cultured metropolitans that we are, Time Out’s editors love nothing more than a wholesome afternoon spent gawping at Churchill’s baby rattle or some ancient Egyptian percussion instruments. In my case, the opportunity to live on the doorstep of some of the planet’s most iconic cultural institutions was a big reason why I moved here at the first chance I got, and I’ve racked up countless hours traipsing around display cases and deciphering needlessly verbose wall texts in the eleven years since. From iconic collections, brilliant curation and cutting-edge tech right down to nice loos, adequate signage and a decent place to grab a cuppa; my colleagues and I know exactly what we want from a museum, and we’ve put in a whole lot of time deliberating

Movies always find a way. It’s no secret the 21st century has so far been rough on cinema, between internet piracy, the pandemic, the strikes, the rise of streaming, etc. But while movies may no longer exist at the center of culture, over the first two decades of the new millennium, filmmakers have innovated at a more rapid clip than ever before: genres have been mixed, matched and completely exploded; more diverse stories are being told; blockbusters have reached unfathomable hugeness, and the smallest, strangest indies have won awards and reached vast audiences.  If cinema in the 21st century has been defined by tumult, it’s also exemplified the ability of those most dedicated to the medium to rise to the moment. These 100 movies represent the best of the last quarter-century so far. Written by David Fear, Joshua Rothkopf, Keith Uhlich, Stephen Garrett, Andrew Grant, Aaron Hillis, Tom Huddleston, Alim Kheraj, Tomris Laffly, Kevin B. Lee, Karina Longworth, Maitland McDonagh, Troy Patterson, Nicolas Rapold, Lisa Rosman, Nick Schager, Phil de Semlyen, Matthew Singer, Anna Smith, S. James Snyder.  RECOMMENDED: 🔥 The 100 best movies of all time🌏 The 50 best foreign films of all time🤘 The 40 best cult movies of all time📹 The 66 best documentaries of all time

Having a bunch of tech tycoons getting set upon by killer AI dolls feels like an easy win for Hollywood right now. Who doesn’t want to see thinly veiled versions of Sam Altman and Elon Musk trying to fight off the psychotic fruits of their labours? Form an orderly queue, then, for an unceasingly silly and consistently entertaining sequel that delivers more – quite a lot more – of the knowing, campy shocks that made 2023’s original a box-office hit and TikTok sensation.  2.0 picks up a little after M3GAN left off. The murderous robot girl-doll has been vanquished; its creator, repentant toy inventor Gemma (Allison Williams) has emerged from a stretch in prison vowing to bring kids’ tech usage under control, with some help of a non-profit run by eligible altruist Christian (SNL’s Aristotle Athari giving major ketamine). Meanwhile, Gemma’s niece, Cady (Violet McGraw) has learnt some key life lessons from her doll friend’s kill spree. Namely: be more like Steven Seagal. Even her newfound martial arts skills can’t help her, or her aunt, when a power-lusting tech baron (a scene-stealing Jemaine Clement) and the FBI come knocking – the latter looking for help to track down a rogue militarised AI doll called AMELIA (Ivanna Sakhno) made with Gemma’s designs.  Luckily – or unluckily – M3GAN is still out there in the ether, initially as a Siri-like presence, then in a winningly daft twist, reembodied into a sulky robot companion toy, and finally as a upgraded version of her old self. Bu

It’s the morning jog that seals the deal for me with The Fontenay. With a few hours to kill before my flight home, the sun casting a golden light on the Alster Lake and a night out in Hamburg’s punky St Pauli district to shake off, I forced myself into a slow-motion circuit of one of Europe’s most picturesque artificial lakes. When I get back, I’m greeted by the doorman holding a towel and water for me. If I’d had a dog with me, they’d get the same treatment (there’s a water bowl and a little pile of doggy towels next to the lobby doors.)  A hotel that thinks of everything – including your pooch’s soggy fur – The Fontenay’s general ambience is one of soothing professionalism. Anyone eager to lean into Hamburg’s reputation as the contrarian’s European city break of the moment can find hipper, more graffiti-covered spots across town. But for understated luxury, this leafy lakeside nook, shaded by summer limes and Norway maples, is an absolute oasis. Here, nothing is any trouble at all.  Bright and curvy, with its 131 rooms hugging a dramatic central atrium that stretches seven floors up, it might have been constructed as a tribute to some Weimar-era starlet. Each corridor arches gently, like ripples on the Alster, over which many of the rooms have views. The best views belong to the rooftop bar, which curls around the top of that atrium and offers glorious vistas across the water and the grand city centre beyond. In fact, there’s not a single straight corridor here, and nothing

It’s the morning jog that seals the deal for me with The Fontenay. With a few hours to kill before my flight home, the sun casting a golden light on the Alster Lake and a night out in Hamburg’s punky St Pauli district to shake off, I force myself into a slow-motion circuit of one of Europe’s most picturesque artificial lakes. When I get back, I’m greeted by the doorman holding a towel and water for me. If I’d had a dog with me, they’d get the same treatment (there’s a water bowl and a little pile of doggy towels next to the lobby doors.)  A hotel that thinks of everything – including your pooch’s soggy fur – The Fontenay’s general ambience is one of soothing professionalism. Anyone eager to lean into Hamburg’s reputation as the contrarian’s European city break of the moment can find hipper, more graffiti-covered spots across town. But for understated luxury, this leafy lakeside nook, shaded by summer limes and Norway maples, is an absolute oasis. Here, nothing is any trouble at all.  Bright and curvy, with its 131 rooms hugging a dramatic central atrium that stretches seven floors up, it might have been constructed as a tribute to some Weimar-era starlet. Each corridor arches gently, like ripples on the Alster, over which many of the rooms have views. The best views belong to the rooftop bar, which curls around the top of that atrium and offers glorious vistas across the water and the grand city centre beyond. In fact, there’s not a single straight corridor here, and nothing,

There’s a protocol you can count on to follow a public disaster in this country. It tends to begin with a years’ long and expensive inquiry, and end with little change and none of the responsible parties being held to account. Some, if they’re lucky, may even find themselves elevated to the House of Lords.  That establishment playbook is in operation again in this poignant, winding and righteously angry documentary about the Grenfell tower fire – just as it was in ITV’s Mr Bates vs The Post Office or Disney+’s 7/7 drama Suspect.  Directed with forensic skill and lots of compassion by first-timer Olaide Sadiq, Grenfell: Uncovered holds the survivors of the fire in one hand, honouring their anger and grief in moving interviews, while using the other to slap down the many companies and governmental bodies whose decisions led to the loss of 72 lives on the night of June 14, 2017. The title, of course, has a poignant double meaning. The aluminium cladding applied to the residential tower block for aesthetic reasons – supposedly to satisfy Grenfell’s well-heeled neighbours in the borough of Kensington and Chelsea – turned a small kitchen fire into a building-wide inferno, transforming the Fire Brigade’s ‘stay put’ policy into a death sentence for residents.  This is a poignant, winding and righteously angry documentary Sadiq pieces the night of the fire back together using audio from the emergency services, news footage, and the shakycam videos of locals. The shock and dawning hor

It’s been 23 years since Danny Boyle’s infected horror 28 Days Later changed the game for zombie flicks, and the genre has mutated plenty in the interim. The Walking Dead, The Last of Us, even Game of Thrones have prestige-ified the undead, building emotional human survival dramas around this gnawy-bitey brand of body horror. Which might explain why Boyle and returning 28 Days screenwriter Alex Garland have seen fit to spin their return to Rage virus-ridden UK into a two, possibly three, part saga. Time will tell if it’s a wise call, but from its jaw dropping opening, in which the infected apocalypse plays out over an episode of Teletubbies, this first salvo is a mostly propulsive start.   Things have changed a lot in 28 Years Later’s Britain too. The Channel Tunnel has been sealed off and the UK officially Zomb-xited from Europe. Naval patrols enforce a seaborne quarantine. Bows and arrows have replaced guns and ammo for the grizzled survivors gathered in a Lindisfarne community connected to mainland England by a tidal causeway.  From this folksy, Summerisle-like commune, dad Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and his 12-year-old son Spike (Alfie Williams, a real find) head off on an ultra-violent rite-of-passage to hunt infected on the mainland. Mum, Isla (Jodie Comer), is bedridden with an ailment no one has the expertise to diagnose. Awaiting them are new species of infected, including the formidable Alphas and ‘Slow-Lows’, icky, blubbery zombies who crawl on their bellies.  D

Loosely doing for Days of Thunder what Top Gun: Maverick did for Top Gun, and filling a big Top Gear gap for your dad in the process, F1 is the Jerry Bruckheimiest thing to hit our screens in an age – and it’s a full-throttle triumph. The ’90s are officially back and they’re really, really loud.  With Brad Pitt engaging A-list god mode, a booming Hans Zimmer score, a crateload full of pop and dance bangers, and writer-director Joseph Kosinski hitting the same punch-the-air beats as his superlative 2022 Top Gun reboot, it’s a throwback to simpler days when multi-dimensional characters were a luxury no one could afford, because they’d spent all the money on helicopter shots. But switch off your brain and F1 will overwhelm your senses with spectacle, sonics and just enough human drama to hold it all together.  A sport so in love with its soapy dramatics, its team chiefs were bitching about each other at the premiere of this movie, the gleaming, hermetic world of F1 isn’t a natural fit for Pitt’s languid charisma. Which is ideal, because his impulsive veteran racing driver, Sonny Hayes, isn’t either.  When we meet him, Sonny is an ex-F1 superstar with a troubled past and a transient present as a driver-for-hire at Daytona. His old pal and F1 team owner Ruben Cervantes (Javier Bardem, bringing his A-game to a B-grade character) has a proposal for him: help his struggling team finish the season in something other than disgraceful fashion, and stave off the vultures on the board in

The title of Kelly Reichardt’s (Certain Women) bone-dry art heist comedy, set in the ‘70s of Vietnam War protests and waterbed sales, is strictly tongue-in-cheek. Not only is he not a mastermind, Josh O’Connor’s unemployed Massachusetts carpenter James Blaine ‘JB’ Mooney would make Fargo’s Jerry Lundegaard look like the last word in criminal competence.  Mooney plans to steal four abstract – and fairly low value – portraits by modernist painter Arthur Dove from his local gallery. We see him scoping out the place, observing the snoozy guards and using his wife (Alana Haim) and sons (Sterling and Jasper Thompson) as cover as he figures out all the angles and nails down a watertight scheme to lift the art. And the actual plan? To grab the paintings, stick them in a bag and leg it. It’s executed with the help of a gormless local contact and a hot-headed last-minute ringer who brings a gun and starts pointing it at screaming kids. To add to the tragicomic vibe, their getaway vehicle gets stuck in traffic on the way out.  Based loosely on a real-life 1973 heist of Massachusetts’s Worcester Art Museum, it’s the kind of material from which the Coens would spin a blackly comic tale of betrayal, murder and cosmic justice. But Reichardt’s interest lies in a more existential kind of unravelling. As the cops circle, more serious criminals start sniffing around, and Mooney’s circuit court judge father (Bill Camp) and exasperated mum (Hope Davis) read about the story in the papers, O’Connor

Prepare the Brokeback Mountain comparisons now, because Paul Mescal and Josh O’Connor’s tender romance has all the ingredients of Ang Lee’s Oscar-winning queer love story. Like that Annie Proulx adaptation, it’s based on a short story (by Ben Shattuck, who adapts here) and is set in the woods and hills of rural America (Maine, rather than Wyoming). It’s full of the stifled emotions of two men who fall in love but can’t quite express it.  The only thing missing – and it’s a biggie – is the deep passion that coursed beneath the surface of that Oscar winning western. South African director Oliver Hermanus finds plenty of deep feeling and sincerity here but his beautiful-looking, measured period piece gets stifled by its own languors – especially in a first half that needs a slug or two of moonshine to inject some life into it. As he’s proved twice already, with gorgeous Ikiru remake Living and striking queer bootcamp drama Moffie, Hermanus is guided by a powerful sense of empathy and compassion. Here, he follows the story of Lionel (Mescal) and David (O’Connor), two music students who meet at Boston Conservatory in 1917 and bond over their shared love of folk music. Lionel, a gentle country boy blessed with an ability to see music – synesthesia – is the shy outsider; David is an east coaster with easy confidence and a boyish sense of mischief. They fall into bed, but their love remains unspoken and undefined. Soon, David is in uniform and off to the Great War trenches of France,

Chris Evans as a slutty evangelist. The Substance’s Margaret Qualley as a sleuth on the case of a missing woman. Aubrey Plaza as her cop lover. A stack of sex toys. A fork fight. Ethan Coen’s scurrilous new crime caper, the second part of his ‘lesbian B-movie trilogy’ co-written with partner Tricia Cooke, should be a lot of fun. Instead, it’s a sporadically funny nothingburger which, while not as bad as the lamentable Drive-Away Dolls, stills makes you wonder whether his brother Joel was the genius behind the operation all along. The clever opening credits, mapping out its Californian small-town setting to The Animals’ We Gotta Get Out of This Place, promise a level of inventiveness that just never materialises. Instead, there’s a gumshoe plot purportedly inspired by languid ’70s Chandler adaptations Farewell, My Lovely and The Long Goodbye. But where Coen’s own The Big Lebowski and Paul Thomas Anderson’s Inherent Vice took those same raw materials – a vague mystery, sexy dames and a criminal enterprise capable of violent nastiness – and forged enjoyably self-referential stoner noirs from them, Honey Don’t! is just a meandering yarn without a purpose.  You get the languor but not much else. Interminable Vice, maybe.  Honey Don’t! premiered at the Cannes Film Festival.

Iranian cinema is your go-to for knotty, complex morality tales. Small missteps are made, a series of seemingly inconsequential events leads to one big, defining one – and the fallout leaves characters trying to navigate the awful repercussions often made worse by the country’s suffocating social and religious codes. A gun goes missing in Mohammad Rasoulof’s The Seed of the Sacred Fig; a handbag is stolen in Asghar Farhadi’s A Hero. Torment and tragedies ensue.In Saeed Roustayi’s Woman and Child, a carefully crafted and endlessly gripping drama that follows a Tehran family’s slow disintegration, it’s the supposedly joyous occasion of a marriage proposal that set the wheels of fate in motion. Hard-working nurse Mahnaz (Parinaz Izadyar, magnetic) is a 40-year-old widow with two kids: teenage tearaway Aliyar (Sinan Mohebi) and all-round poppet Neda (Arshida Dorostkar). She’s dating ambulance driver Hamid (A Separation’s Payman Maadi), an older man whose flirtations suddenly turn serious. He pops the question, but there’s an immediate string attached: will she pretend she’s childless when his strict rural parents come to visit them at her house?  For anyone unfamiliar with the strictures and mores of Iranian society, the answer would be ‘hell no’. But as Roustayi shows in a movie that’s sympathetic to its female protagonist almost to a fault, it’s nothing like that simple. As a single mum, Hamid might be her best bet – even if he immediately scans as something of a rogue and she’

A sun-soaked dream – okay, nightmare – of a midnight movie, this Australian survival horror asks the question: what if Steve Irwin was basically the devil? The answer would probably look a lot like Jai Courtney’s shark dive owner Tucker, a brawny bogan who takes backpackers and tourists onto his rusty old boat to enthusiastically introduce them to the bull sharks, makos and great whites that swim off the Gold Coast. First in a cage, then sedated and trapped into a harness, lowered into the water while the sweaty psychopath records it all on his VHS camera. Obviously, he gives them a Vegemite sandwich and some shark facts first. He’s not a total monster. The movie’s two heroes are American hippie-chick surfer Zephyr (Hassie Harrison) and hunky local softboi Moses (Josh Heuston). They get some cursory character details (her: estranged from parents, likes eating buns; him: sensitive rich kid, drives a Volvo; both: love Creedence Clearwater Revival), and there’s a budding romance between them that’s rendered in the cheesiest possible notes. But the two actors make them likeable enough for you to hope they don’t end up chomped on by a peckish mako. Zephyr gets abducted during a late-night surf and wakes up chained to a bed aboard Tucker’s boat. From there, we’re off on a gnarly fun ride in the dank cabins and on bloodstained decks, as the sharks, captured in some gorgeous real-life footage, circle below. This is no Sharknado CG fest – it looks and feels real. And the boat itself i

It’s a suitably arresting set-up for Jafar Panahi’s politically charged and darkly hilarious abduction movie – especially when it becomes clear what’s going on: impulsive mechanic Vahid (Vahid Mobasseri) believes he’s caught the brutal interrogator who once tortured him for three months and left him scarred – a man given the epithets ‘Peg Leg’ and ‘the Gimp’ by his victims. The guy in cuffs has a prosthetic leg, just like the Gimp, who lost his fighting in Syria. It scans. But like so much else in this blackly brilliant film, a question mark hangs over this Blood Simple-style scenario. Is this man, played by Ebrahim Azizi, really the author of his suffering or is he just a family man called Eghbal, as he claims? All the Gimp’s victims were blindfolded, so how can anyone be sure?  Panahi is a formidably courageous filmmaker who has spent time in jail at the hands of his country’s repressive regime. Here, he brings deep feeling to a movie that often plays closer to a straight comedy than a fiercer indictment of the state or a Munich-like morality tale about justice and vengeance.  You can definitely sense the directorial wish-fulfilment in the carnivalesque that follows as Vahid drags the drugged Eghbal around Tehran in his beat-up transit van, gathering a small band of fellow victims to help him identify the man and decide what to do with him. Joining this increasingly hapless quest are wedding snapper Shiva (Mariam Afshari), a soon-to-be newlywed couple (Hadis Pakbaten and Ma

‘Come with me and you'll be in a world of pure imagination…’ For director Paul King, star Timothée Chalamet and the rest of the ‘Wonka’ crew, that world of pure imagination was, well… Watford. The Galeries Gourmet and the wider world of the new Roald Dahl-inspired movie was painstakingly and grandly constructed on sound stages and the back lot at Leavesden. Once home to Hogwarts in ‘Harry Potter’, Warner Bros.’ HQ outside of London reverberated with the sounds of Willy Wonka’s song-filled odyssey from humble travelling chocolatier to confectionary king. But as ‘Wonka’ production designer Nathan Crowley tells us, the creation of the movie’s fairy tale world involved as many secret ingredients as one of Willy Wonka’s Hoverchocs. Little bridges, exits and doorways at Leavesden led to a host of real-life locations, with invisible cuts, VFX and matte work extending the world seamlessly in unexpected ways and to unexpected places.  ‘The town’s name is purposely unscripted,’ he says. ‘We scouted lots of places in Europe but none of them touched this idea of what a Roald Dahl city might be, so we decided to build it on the backlot at Leavesden,’ he says. ‘The architects of Georgian London and medieval Bruges would be very upset.’  We asked the Oscar-nominated production designer to share the story behind ‘Wonka’s real-life UK locations.  Photograph: ShutterstockOxford’s Bridge of Sighs has a close encounter with a giraffe in ‘Wonka’ Bridge of Sighs, Oxford A key part of ‘Wonka’s wo

Gentlemen, rev your Aston Martins and start shaking those martinis, because a new James Bond is on the horizon. Menthol smoke has not yet started billowing out of MGM Studios – the traditional indication that the next 007 has been chosen – with Daniel Craig’s likely replacement still a mystery. What does this mean for the future of the iconic British spy series and its upcoming 26th instalment? Information is limited, but here’s what we know so far.  What does Amazon MGM Studios’ takeover mean for the next James Bond? After months of rumour and speculation, James Bond finally got a new boss in February 2025. Not M, but Amazon MGM Studios who sealed a deal with 007’s producers, Eon’s Barbara Broccoli and Michael G Wilson, to take creative control of the franchise.  Broccoli and Wilson will remain co-owners of James Bond but crucially, will step back from controlling the future direction or execution of the franchise. ‘With the conclusion of No Time to Die and Michael retiring from the films, I feel it is time to focus on my other projects,’ Broccoli said in a statement.So what does it all mean for 007? We’re probably a step closer to a release date for Bond 26 and the announcement of a new James Bond to star in it. Maybe a radical change of direction for the whole franchise, too, with immediate speculation that Amazon will look to spin their expensive new IP into the kind of shared universe storytelling that Disney pursued with Lucasfilm and Star Wars after its takeover. Is a

Big-screen evenings are coming back to the banks of the Thames this summer. To add to the swelling range of outdoor cinema options for Londoners this summer, London Bridge’s The Scoop amphitheatre is hosting another two months of al fresco movies – and they’re entirely free for all-comers.  Summer by the River will be creating a beachy vibe in the riverside nook. There are also sporting events on the big screen – Wimbledon and UEFA Women’s Euros – plus music, performances and family-friendly entertainment on the schedule.  The film screenings run on Tuesdays, with evening movies starting at 7pm. Look out for a Wicked singalong on July 22.  Here’s the line-up in full: Despicable Me 4 – 7pm, Tues Jul 15Moana 2  – 12.30pm, Tues Jul 22Wicked singalong – 5pm, Tues Jul 22Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire – 7pm, Tue Jul 29Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes – 7pm, Tues Jul 29Twisters – 7pm, Tues Aug 12If – 7pm, Tues Aug 19Inside Out 2 – 7pm, Tues Aug 26 There’s no need to book tickets, just pitch up, grab a drink and find a spot. Head to the official site for all the information. Photograph: London Bridge City The Scoop at More, London SE1 2AA. Nearest tube: London Bridge. The best outdoor cinema in London this summer. Everyman’s canal-side cinema is coming back to London this summer – and it’s free.

The biggest residential fire since ​​the Blitz broke out in Grenfell tower on June 14, 2017. Few Londoners can have shaken off the memory of the North Kensington high-rise blazing through the night as firefighters worked desperately – and fruitlessly – to subdue it.  ‘I was on holiday in Thailand at the time,’ remembers Grenfell: Uncovered director Olaide Sadiq. ‘The news [chyron] had “fire in London” on it, but I didn't think it was real. I didn't understand how it was even possible that this had happened.’ When she got back to the UK, the filmmaker discovered that she knew one of the victims of the fire – ‘Her face was popping up in group chats as missing’ – which added a personal dimension to the disaster.  Eight years on, her documentary about the fire is both poignant and enraging. None of the responsible parties is let off the hook – cladding manufacturers like Arconic, bureaucrats like Hammersmith and Fulham Council, and politicians alike – but the deeper story is one of resilience and misplaced trust. ‘This was the biggest residential fire in Britain since the Blitz,’ says Sadiq. ‘You expect this kind of devastation at war, but you don't expect it in the middle of the night when people are sleeping.’ Photograph: Courtesy of Netflix © 2025 You speak to a lot of traumatised people in the film. How did you approach those interviews? With respect and care. A lot of the Grenfell community have been poked and prodded for a long time, and there’s a lot of trauma in everyon

Si vous aimez les films d’horreur, pas besoin d’attendre octobre pour faire le plein de frissons cette année. C’est un été terrifiant qui s’annonce au cinéma, Hollywood misant à fond sur le genre le plus sûr pour attirer les foules le vendredi soir. En sortirons-nous avec nos nerfs intacts ? En sortirons-nous tout court ? Ces sept sorties à venir feront monter votre rythme cardiaque bien avant l’arrivée de la saison d’Halloween. 28 Ans plus tard, de Danny Boyle Danny Boyle et le scénariste Alex Garland reviennent dans le paysage post-apocalyptique de 28 Ans plus tard (également de retour en salles ce mois-ci) pour nous rappeler, comme le dit le slogan, que le temps n’a rien guéri. En réalité, les infectés semblent avoir pris le contrôle des lieux, laissant les humains – Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Jodie Comer, Ralph Fiennes, Jack O'Connell – se battre pour survivre. Ça promet d’être épique. Au cinéma le 18 juin. M3GAN 2.0, de Gerard Johnstone La poupée tueuse est de retour pour nous rappeler que l’IA ne va pas seulement nous piquer nos emplois, elle va aussi faire des petites danses adorables et dignes de mèmes. Et si cela ne suffit pas à vous perturber, cette suite de science-fiction horrifique promet d’amplifier les chocs grisants du succès de 2022 avec de nouveaux meurtres troublants, alors que M3GAN est reprogrammée pour affronter une IA de niveau militaire nommée AMELIA. Au cinéma à partir du 25 juin. Souviens-toi… l’été dernier, de Jennifer Kaytin Robinson C

She may be starring in a new horror movie but you won’t catch Jodie Comer queuing to see too many of this year’s other scarefests. ‘My whole life, I've been like: ‘Yeah, I'll watch a horror film!’ and then I just look at the corner of the TV screen,’ says the 28 Years Later actress. ‘I’m not really into it.’ Danny Boyle’s much-anticipated return to the rabid, post-apocalyptic world he last visited with 2002 classic 28 Days Later sees Comer playing a waning woman who’s holed up with her family on a coastal island, as infected roam mainland Britain. It’s another memorable performance in a career packed with them. Surprisingly, it’s the Liverpudlian actress’s first bona fide genre movie. She’s been a major presence on our stages and screens for long enough to feel like a veteran. Since her 2010s TV work on a range of telly shows, culminating in Killing Eve and coronavirus drama Help, the 32-year-old has broken through in a big way – and on the big screen and the West End stage, too. She was the best thing in ​​Ridley Scott’s period blockbuster The Last Duel, and has won awards and praise for her one-woman theatre turn as Tessa, Prima Facie’s working-class Liverpudlian defence barrister. Next year, she revisits the character for a UK tour of the sexual assault drama.  In person, she’s smiley and down-to-earth, even with a small team of stylists buzzing around making imperceptible tweaks to get-up. She takes her work super-seriously, but seems to take herself a lot less so.  Time

Rap superstar, grime pioneer, fashion icon, Glastonbury headliner. Michael ‘Stormzy’ Omari’s hat already has many feathers in it – and now it has another: lead actor.  The south Londoner is starring in a new short film for Apple called Big Man.  Shot entirely on an iPhone 16 Pro by Surge director Aneil Karia, it gives the musician-turned-actor, who has credits in Noel Clarke’s Brotherhood and Michaela Coel’s TV breakthrough Chewing Gum, a first starring turn.Full of pisstakey humour, much of it aimed at the overinflated egos of musical superstars, Big Man follows a world-weary musician called Tenzman as he struggles with his diminished status and daily life’s various headaches. Then he bumps into two kids by chance and the trio team up for a heart-warming journey to Brighton. Take 20 minutes out to soak up the good vibes below. ‘You have to be a bit mad to try this’: inside London’s most daring new cinema.Canal-side cinema is coming back to London this summer – and it’s totally free.

In an era of movie reboots, the grand old Whiteley building in Bayswater is getting a big-budget legacy sequel of its own.A new Everyman Cinema has been in the pipeline for the Grade II-listed building since 2023 – and Time Out can exclusively reveal that it’s opening this summer, with five screens and a total of 332 seats.  Expect all the usual trappings of Everyman’s ‘chic cinema’ offering: comfy sofas, fancy food and cocktails for miles. The screening room will be kitted out with state-of-the-art 4K projection and Dolby Atmos sound.  Photograph: EverymanEveryman at The Whiteley Everyman at The Whiteley will also boast two bars (pictured), serving alcoholic and non-alcoholic cocktails.  Nostalgic moviegoers who remember the old UCI Whiteleys from the 1990s, or even the Odeon after 2006, are promised a familiar experience heading to the new cinema, which will occupy the ground, basement and lower basement floors of the newly restored landmark building.  Photograph: EverymanEveryman at The Whiteley Everyman at The Whiteley, the luxe cinema chain’s 49th UK venue, follows its 2024 London opening in Stratford. As usual, there are founder memberships available. Sign up and receive a year’s worth of free popcorn and a special membership card.  Read more: Here are the 25 best cinemas in London.Plus: these are the 50 most beautiful cinemas in the world. 

UPDATE: MUBI has cancelled its Twin Peaks pop-up via a post on Instagram (June 17). View this post on Instagram A post shared by MUBI UK & Ireland (@mubiuk) It’s the 35th anniversary of David Lynch and Mark Frost’s landmark TV brain-bender Twin Peaks and MUBI is celebrating in style.   For one day only, the streamer will be turning Stoke Newington’s New River Café into a pop-up version of Twin Peaks, Washington State’s famous Double R Diner – Agent Dale Cooper’s morning stop-off of choice. Expect cherry pie, damn fine coffee, and maybe even a glimpse of the Log Lady passing by.  The diner will be drop-in only and open from 11am-7pm on June 18. Alongside the coffee and pie, you’ll be able to win limited edition Twin Peaks goodies throughout the day. The pop-up diner is the handiwork of the Mam Sham crew and creative agency Hot Sauce Presents. You’ll find it at New River Café, 271 Stoke Newington Church Street.Twin Peaks (1990) and 2017’s Twin Peaks: The Return are streaming on MUBI from June 13. And the film company is also teaming up with Whitechapel’s Genesis Cinema for a two-day Lynchian celebration called A Gathering of the Angels: A Tribute and Celebration of the world of David Lynch from September 27-28. More than 400 of David Lynch’s personal items to be auctioned. Where to start with David Lynch – 5 key films that showcase his brilliance. Get the latest and greatest from the Big Smoke – from news and reviews to events and trends. Just follow our Ti

Summer is here – honestly – and with it comes a host of outdoor cinema options for anyone who fancies taking in a movie al fresco. On the menu is rooftop cinema, riverside flicks, brutalist blockbusters, Marsh-side movies, even Canary Wharf kino.  Now, adding to the mix is Everyman’s popular pop-up on the Regent’s Canal at King’s Cross.Everyman on the Canal will be back on the Granary Square canal-side steps, rain or shine, between June 30 and August 17. On the programme are films, live events, Wimbledon action and DJ sets to enjoy with a snack and a glass in hand, including Breakfast at Tiffany's, Grease, Parent Trap, Top Gun: Maverick, Bohemian Rhapsody, and Encanto. Here’s the programme in full. To add a splash of aesthetic vibrancy to the experience this year, Everyman has called on designer and ‘architect of joy’ Yinka Ilori to create a screen design that echoes ‘the fantastical landscapes’ explored in Disney movies. Which should make the setting even more Instagrammable. Walk-ins are welcome, but be sure to arrive early to secure a spot. Head to the official Everyman site for more info on the screenings. The best outdoor cinemas in London to watch a movie this summer. Take a first look at west London’s showstopping new cinema.

There’s been the Summer of Love, Hot Girl Summer, Brat Summer. Tomato Girl Summer at a push. This year, however, is the Summer of Bruce.Jaws’ iconic Great White – one of cinema’s most legendary monsters, named after director Steven Spielberg’s formidable lawyer Bruce Ramer – is back in a big way as the 1975 classic celebrates its 50th anniversary across the US.  So, if, like 30 Rock’s Tracy Jordan, you want to live every week like it’s Shark Week, the next few months are a dream come true. Here’s seven ways you can revisit this masterpiece in watery horror over the next few months. 1. Watch Jaws in Concert… where it all began Jaws’s Amity Island is fictional but Martha’s Vineyard, its real-life inspiration, is very real. The island’s chamber of commerce is teaming up with Alamo Drafthouse for a weekend of Jaws fun beginning on June 19. The highlight? A special Jaws screening accompanied by the Cape Cod Symphony Orchestra – right there where it all began. Check out the local museum’s special summer-long exhibition about the movie, Jaws at 50: A Deeper Dive, while you’re there. 🛟 6pm, Sat Jun 21. Head here for all the information.  Photograph: Heather Kennedy 2. Watch Jaws on the water (if you dare) Grab a rubber ring and drift serenely across a lake for Alamo Drafthouse’s not-remotely-unnerving ‘Jaws on the Water’ screenings at Texas’s Volente Beach Resort & Waterpark. Impress your friends by watching the whole movie with your legs dangling in the water.  🛟 Jun 21, July 1

If you love horror movies, you don’t need to wait for October to get your fill of frights this year. It’s a massive summer of scares at the cinema, with Hollywood leaning hard into the genre currently most locked in to pull in big crowds on a Friday night.   Will we emerge with nerves intact? Will we emerge at all? These seven upcoming releases will be raising heart rates long before Halloween season arrives.  Photograph: Miya Mizuno/Sony Pictures Internatiional 28 Years Later Danny Boyle and screenwriter Alex Garland return to the post-apocalyptic landscape of 28 Years Later (also back in cinemas this month) to remind us that, as the tagline goes, time hasn’t healed anything. In fact, the infected seem to have the run of the place, leaving the human cast – Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Jodie Comer, Ralph Fiennes, Jack O'Connell – fighting for survival. This could be epic. Anticipation levels: 😱😱😱😱 In cinemas worldwide Jun 20 Photograph: Universal Pictures M3GAN 2.0  The killer doll is back to remind us that AI isn’t just going to take our jobs, it’s going to do cute, meme-able dances too. If that isn’t upsetting enough, this sci-fi-horror sequel will be adding to the giddy shocks of the 2022 hit with more uncanny kills as M3GAN gets retooled to take on a weapons-grade AI called AMELIA.  Anticipation levels: 😱😱😱 In cinemas worldwide Jun 27 Photograph: Brook Rushton/Sony Pictures International I Know What You Did Last Summer This franchise reboot knows what everyone did