Phil de Semlyen

Updates for 2026: Indisputably, the two most talked-about movies of 2025 were also among the best of the century. Ryan Coogler’s gangster-vampire-blues-musical-period-piece Sinners proved that original stories can still draw huge audiences, while One Battle After Another confirmed Paul Thomas Anderson as the brightest filmmaking mind of his generation. Movies were born in the 20th century, and the 21st century has nearly killed them. At least, that’s the common narrative. And it hasn’t seemed far from the truth: between internet piracy, the pandemic, the rise of television as the go-to storytelling medium, and ongoing corporate consolidation, the film industry has often felt imperilled throughout the first two decades of the new millennium.  But even among all the doom and gloom – or perhaps even because of it – film itself has continued to thrive. Genres have been mixed, matched and completely exploded. More diverse stories are being told than ever before. Blockbusters have reached unfathomable hugeness, while 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 filmmakers 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, Tro

These stuck-at-home times have us all pining for the freedoms of the big city: to hang out, see the sights, or just sip a pint and watch the world go by. We can’t do it – at least, for the moment – so why not experience the big city vicariously and take a trip to its most glamorous nooks and seediest crannies as captured by some great filmmakers? From the silent era right up to the present day, Time Out’s list of the best London movies covers comedy, horror, sci-fi, romance, disaster movies, political dramas and psychedelic thrillers. But they’re all united by one thing – they’re set and shot in the greatest city in the known universe… RECOMMENDED: The 100 best British films of all time

From winter blockbusters to festival sleepers, these are the movies our critics think define 2025. Expect prestige dramas, horror gems, wild indies and some surprise streaming hits – all watched and ranked by Time Out’s film team. What even was last year in movies? A rollercoaster is the most obvious cliche, full of exhilarating successes, puzzling disappointments and news stories that’ve left us wondering if there’s even going to be much of a movie industry left in the next few years. Artistically, it was a top-heavy 12 months, producing one surefire Best of the Decade candidate, with a few others not far behind, then a vast middle-class of films that max out at ‘very good’. As always, though, if you’re willing to do the work, you’ll find dozens of small and medium-sized gems to fill you with hope for the future of moviemaking as an artform, no matter what happens to the business itself. Here are the movies that made us gasp, swoon and shout the loudest in 2025. Quick Picks: 2025’s best films by genre: 😂 Best comedy: The Naked Gun 😱 Best horror movie: Weapons 🥋 Best action movie: One Battle After Another🎭 Best drama: Nickel Boys🪆 Best family film: Flow

The horror business is booming right now. Over the last few years, it’s become one of the movie industry’s most bankable genres, financially and creatively. Ryan Coogler has already made Oscar-nomination history with a vampire flick of all things, while the combination of Barbarian and Weapons has made director Zach Cregger one of Hollywood’s most exciting new voices – and that’s to say nothing of the huge box-office success of franchise entries like The Conjuring: Last Rites, Final Destination Bloodlines and Five Nights at Freddy’s 2.Only a few months into 2026, and the year in horror is already off to another good start, between 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, entertaining killer monkey ripper Primate and Sam Raimi’s return-to-form, Send Help. Nothing on the docket for the rest of the year immediately screams ‘blockbuster,’ but that’s the great thing about horror: like a bump in the night, the hits often come from unexpected places. Here’s what has stood out like a bloody knife so far. 📽️ The best movies of 2026 (so far)🔥 The best TV and streaming shows of 2026 (so far)🧟 The 100 greatest horror movies ever made

War has long fascinated filmmakers, no conflict more so than World War II. No wonder: the sheer scale of the destruction, the atrocities associated with it and its place in human history make it a natural framework for stories of resistance, survival and unimaginable loss. So many movies have been made about the war, it’s almost a genre unto itself.  For that reason, choosing the best World War II movies is a challenge. That’s why, along with polling our well-studied Time Out writers, we also called in an outside expert: Quentin Tarantino, a man who knows a thing or two about making a great WW2 film. Among the selections, you’ll find towering epics, intimate character studies, intense documentaries, historical revisions and even a few comedies. War is hell, and World War II was particularly hellish – 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

And we’re off. In most years, it takes a few months to assemble a list of the best movies of the year so far where the bar for quality isn’t lowered into the Earth’s core. The first quarter of the release calendar is typically where studios toss their tax writeoffs, but to this point, 2026 has outstripped expectations. In how many other years have we gotten a killer horror sequel like 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, a sharp, gross Sam Raimi return-to-form, a Gus Van Sant thriller and one of the best actor-to-director transitions in recent memory, all before the calendar even flips over to March? And that’s to mention some of the smaller gems that have already popped up. As usual, this post will be updated throughout the year as highlights arrive – and there is bound to be a lot of them, between Project Hail Mary, Steven Spielberg’s Disclosure Day and Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, all arriving in the first half of 2026 alone. As you’ll see below, though, we’re already off to a good start. May we say that movies are… so back? 📺 The best TV and streaming shows of 2026 (so far)📕 15 book-to-movie adaptations to get excited about in 2026🔥 The 40 best movies of 2025

Updated for 2026: Welcome to the canon, Uncut Gems! It took a few years to allow the then-united Safdie brothers’ high-stress rollercoaster to truly sink in, but once we stopped hyperventilating, it became clear that it’s one of the all-time great thrillers, even if ‘thriller’ seems, in its case, too weak a word. Will Josh Safdie’s Marty Supreme eventually join it? Time will tell. What makes a great thriller? Well, let’s see. Are your palms sweaty? Your teeth clenched? Is your heart pumping and your leg shaking uncontrollably? If so, the chances are that the movie you’re watching is doing its job. When done right, a thriller provokes a physical response more than any other genre, bar horror. Exactly how it initiates those reactions, however, varies greatly. In the pantheon of the best thrillers ever made, you’ll find murder, political intrigue, espionage, conspiracy, manipulation, gaslighting, and, of course, lots and lots of crime. But as a category of movie, the thriller is also loosely defined – within the genre, you’ll find examples of science fiction, horror, heists, action, even comedy, along with the ever-nebulous ‘psychological thriller’ subdivision. In other words, the thriller contains multitudes. But the best of them will always draw you in, make you sweat and leave you breathless. Here are the 100 greatest thrillers ever made. Written by Abbey Bender, Joshua Rothkopf, Yu An Su, Phil de Semlyen, Tom Huddleston, Andy Kryza, Tomris Laffly & Matthew Singer RECOMMENDED

Updated for 2025: After a banner few years for the horror genre, several recent films have managed to claw their way into our latest update: 2023’s Talk To Me, which remixes genre tropes into something fresh, frightening and zeitgeisty; 2024’s The Substance, easily the most disgusting movie ever nominated for a Best Picture Oscar; and 2025’s Sinners, a blockbuster smash that’s far from being just a ‘vampire movie’, while being an extremely awesome vampire movie at the same time. We have also moved Ari Aster's disturbing supernatural drama Hereditary into the top 12, owing to the influence it has exerted on several films to come after exploring grief and buried family secrets. Cinemagoers love a good scare. That much is evident these days from the commercial and critical success of the horror genre: in 2025 alone, the latest instalments of The Conjuring, Final Destination and The Black Phone franchises are among the highest-grossing movies of the year, while wholly original stories like Sinners and Weapons are legitimate box-office phenoms. And that’s not even to mention leftfield Halloween-friendly smashes over the last decade, like A Quiet Place, Hereditary and basically everything Jordan Peele has done.   It’s crazy to think, then, that not long ago, horror was thought of as a euphemism for ‘schlock’. If you were alive at the height of the VHS era, you know it wasn’t totally unfounded. Churning out formulaic slashers and monster movies became a way for hacks and hucksters t

Updated for 2026: Whatever you think of Netflix’s theatrical strategy, it continues to produce some of television’s most formally daring works, including Adolescence, a hard-to-watch but impossible to ignore limited series about an unimaginable crime. On the other end of the spectrum, there’s HBO’s hilariously profane The Righteous Gemstones, which stuck the landing in 2025 with its final season. In addition, we have moved Andor into the top 20 after its astounding second and final season.  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.  A lot has changed. Television is now the dominant medium in basically all of entertainment. 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, from The Wire to Succession to Adolescence, 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 touc

With the return of The Night Manager, Industry and Hulu’s A Thousand Blows, the home viewing year has kicked off in head-spinning style. And with HBO’s Game of Thrones spinoff A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms and Netflix’s How to Get To Heaven From Belfast, the latest from the creator of Derry Girls, the array of small-screen offerings are landing at dizzying speeds well into the spring. We have stopped at nothing – not sleep, not family responsibilities – to watch all of it and curate this list of the best shows to give your limited spare time over to. You don’t have forever to spend on the sofa so make it count with something from our list of the best of the year so far. Recommended: 📽️ The best movies of 2026 (so far)🔥 The best TV and streaming shows of 2025📺 The 100 greatest TV shows of all time

Great movies were made to be debated. All right, maybe that’s not their primary function, but all art deserves to be argued over. If you’re passionate about something, you’re going to feel compelled to fiercely defend your favourites and shout down whatever you think is undeserving. Inflaming public discussion is one of the reasons we’ve put together this list of the greatest films ever made. It gets you thinking, and, when reasoned and civil enough, perhaps rethinking your own opinion.   It seems like a particularly good time to get the discussion going, too, given that movies are, slowly but surely, inching back toward the center of popular culture. Young people are going to cinemas again, particularly for repertory screenings, and making hits of original movies from fresh filmmakers like Ryan Coogler's Oscar-record-breaking Sinners. Letterboxd is growing in usage, and the Criterion closet is all over social media. New cinephiles are being made every day, and we’ve always thought of this list mostly as an educational tool for burgeoning film buffs. It covers a lot of ground: over 100 years, multiple countries, and just about every genre imaginable. So let’s get talking – and most importantly, watching.   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 mo

ปี 2026 เริ่มต้นขึ้นด้วยจังหวะที่ทำเอาคอหนังแทบหายใจหายคอไม่ทัน ทั้งการกลับมาของสายลับมาดเนี้ยบใน The Night Manager, ความดุเดือดของโลกการเงินใน Industry ไปจนถึงโปรเจกต์ใหม่จากผู้สร้าง Derry Girls ทีมกองบรรณาธิการของเรายอมอดหลับอดนอน (และละเลยงานบ้านไปบ้าง) เพื่อคัดสรรสิ่งที่ คู่ควรกับเวลาพักผ่อนอันน้อยนิดของคุณ มาทำให้การนั่งโซฟาหลังเลิกงานคุ้มค่าที่สุดด้วยลิสต์ระดับตัวท็อปเหล่านี้กัน!คอนเทนต์แนะนำ🔥 The best TV and streaming shows of 2025📺 The 100 greatest TV shows of all time

We’ve had the ‘McConaissance’; now comes the ‘Glenlightenment’. Like his fellow Texan, albeit a couple of decades younger, Glen Powell is a gifted and charismatic comic performer with proper dramatic chops too. What he isn’t, to the detriment of this watered-down comedy-thriller, is a miracle worker.  Remaking Ealing comedies is a fool’s errand, even when it’s done unofficially. But writer-director John Patton Ford’s serial-killer yarn is inspired by Kind Hearts and Coronets and it has nothing of that 1949 classic’s bite and crackle. (That the story credit has gone to Israel Rank: The Autobiography of a Criminal, the 1907 book that inspired Kind Hearts, should fool no one.) Here, it’s Powell in the Alec Guinness role and a variety of watchable actors in the roles Dennis Price played so memorably. Powell is Becket Redfellow, an heir to a tycoon’s fortune who is tossed aside as a boy and hatches a plan to claw his way back into the old man’s will. The only thing standing in his path to those billions is his seven relatives. We meet him on Death Row wearing a silk eye mask, fussing over his last meal with the calmness of a man who clearly plans to eat further meals. He’s the narrator of his own story but in keeping with this meat-and-two-veg murder-athon, his tale isn’t especially full of tricks and feints. Giving away (most of) the ending is unwise.  And therein lies the issue: How To Make a Killing is not a Grand Guignol bloodbath – with the exception of the first offing, invo

If, like Alan Partridge, you believe that Wings were ‘the band The Beatles could have been’, Morgan Neville’s propulsively upbeat music doc is a total treat. And, honestly, even if the merest waft of bagpipe on ‘Mull of Kintyre’ brings you out in hives, Man on the Run is still full of treasures. Piecing together a snappy collage of ’70s home video, unseen archive and gig footage, plus some insightful voiceover interviews, the Piece By Piece and 20 Feet From Stardom director revisits Paul McCartney as he tries to figure out what it is to be an ex-Beatle – and, ideally, how to graduate from it.  For Macca, the immediate post-Beatles era was a confounding time: the band hadn’t yet officially split and rumours that they’d reform for a big pay day would dog him, John, George and Ringo throughout the 1970s. A fugitive from his own life, Neville’s doc finds a glum McCartney, wife Linda and family in a ramshackle farmhouse on Scotland’s Kintyre peninsula. It’s a billion miles from the glare of his mop-top days but he’s still dealing with the odd intrepid journalist. In one case, using a lobbed bucket.But, as Man on the Run shows so enjoyably, McCartney’s urge to make music conquered even his love of serenity and sheep shearing. In a jiffy, he was recruiting Linda, Moody Blues guitarist Denny Laine and a revolving cast of bandmates to form experimental rock band Wings, recording among the chickens at a jerry-built studio at the farm.The songs initially reflected those surrounds, and n

From Thor and Hulk to (basically) McCauley and Hanna. The reunion of two of Marvel’s mightiest heroes, Chris Hemsworth and Mark Ruffalo, as a meticulous but troubled thief and the schlebby, Columbo-alike detective on his case across LA evokes unenviable Heat comparisons. They’re overblown but not outrageous.  Crime 101 doesn’t have quite the operatic sweep of Michael Mann’s 1995 crime masterpiece or its army of supporting characters, but it’s a serious and satisfying throwback to the golden days of the crime thriller, full of crackling dialogue, noirish LA locations and adrenalised car chases, all briskly overseen by talented British writer-director Bart Layton (The Imposter). The title, of course, has a double meaning: Hemsworth’s hangdog jewel thief Mike Davis has a simple code – he’s courteous, avoids violence and his back story is a blank – and targets marks along LA’s 101 freeway. The road, which runs along the Pacific coast, represents something spiritual for Mike, who carries scars from a former life in the city. His spartan oceanside apartment offers more common ground with De Niro’s thief in Heat. When he falls out with his growly fence and mentor (Nick Nolte), who replaces him with Barry Keoghan’s loose-cannon biker, the stakes ramp up. Mike needs to pull off one last job. Ruffalo’s detective and his loyal but wary partner (Corey Hawkins) are hot on his heels. You know the drill. The Heat comparisons are overblown but not outrageous  Caught up with them both is a mi

Once again, this boutique west London indie film is gathering and supporting underrepresented voices, with a focus on inclusive storytelling and accessibility. Highlights at the the 2026 Little Venice Film Festival (LVFF) include The Reckoning of Erin Morrigan, directed Gabrielle Russell and telling the story of an ex IRA operative; Alan Walsh’s short One Last Show in Taghmon about three stuntmen who are preparing for their final stunt show; and paralympian documentary by Sheridan O’Donnell Rising Phoenix: A New Revolution. There are also screenings dedicated to female stories, girls in film, disability films, LGBTQ+ voices and youth-focused films. Venues are still TBC, but expect screenings to be staged around Maida Vale and Little Venice. 

‘I’m getting a divorce. What tipped me off is that I’m living in an apartment on my own and my wife and kids don’t live there.’ With that droll line, delivered in the spotlight of a hushed Manhattan comedy club after half a space cake, Will Arnett’s jaded executive stumbles upon the best – and cheapest – form of therapy available to a broken-up dad struggling amid the ruins of his marriage. Yes, it looks horrifying from a distance, but Alex, it turns out, is built differently. Based loosely on the experiences of arena-filling UK comic John Bishop, a divorcee-to-be who once walked on stage at a stand-up club to swerve paying the cover charge and never looked back, it shifts the story from Liverpool to Manhattan and the New York ’burbs. Arnett is Bishop surrogate Alex Novak and the Arrested Development actor is a revelation. Opposite is Laura Dern, who has previous in this terrain via a turn as Marriage Story’s hotshot divorce lawyer. She brings her A-game to a very different vision of marital ruin.  Obviously, divorce sucks at levels that are dizzying – especially when, like Alex and Tess (Dern), there are kids to shelter from the fallout. Props, then, to director and co-writer Bradley Cooper for finding a sense of renewal from this often painful snapshot of marital breakdown, with its forced smiles in front of friends, wrestling over the dogs and the children asking if ‘you’re fighting again’. ‘We need to call this, right?’ Alex asks Tess before moving out of the family home

Kangaroos have had a rough time in Australian cinema. But if the likes of Snowtown and Wake in Fright showed the perils of being pouched and hoppy in God’s own country, here’s a feel-warm-inside family roo-mance to finally celebrate the humble marsupial. Kangaroo is based on the true story of Chris Barns, an Aussie who discovered his purpose setting up a kangaroo sanctuary in Alice Springs. He found fame via social media and earned the nickname ‘Kangaroo Dundee’. The fact that his journey began with him running over a roo and adopting the surviving joey gave the story the kind of twist that’s absolute bait for screenwriters.  House of the Dragon’s Ryan Corr plays ambitious TV weatherman Chris Masterman, a very loose version of Barns, who boasts all the urbanite traits that get right up the noses of rural Australians. He’s conceited, he’s on the telly, he drives a fancy car and he uses moisturiser.Disgraced and sacked when a career-enhancing attempt to save a dolphin at Bondi ends in disaster, he’s on his way to Broome when he runs over a roo and is left cradling her joey. The locals in the local Northern Territory community don’t want to know – kangaroos are a dime a dozen here – except for Charlie (Lily Whiteley), a young roo-loving loner channelling her grief for her dad into nurturing young joeys. She’s even willing to overlook his ‘fish killer’ rep. It’s not doing anything wildly different, but it’ll put a smile on your face Will the pair bond? Obviously, yes. But not be

Aside from 2009’s Drag Me to Hell (one of the horror movies of the century so far,) and a stint spicing up the Marvelverse with some dark and freaky touches, Sam Raimi has been largely AWOL from the genre that made his name.  Happily, Send Help is both a return to the world of horror and a major return to form for the Evil Dead man, who’s been waylaid with bland franchise fare in recent years. There’s nothing bland in his queasy funhouse ride, a table-turning death match set on a remote island. Or in the wild performances of Rachel McAdams and Dylan O’Brien. The pair plugs into Raimi’s wavelength with increasingly unhinged commitment.  McAdams, a comic actress gifted enough to count as Canada’s Olivia Colman, plays hard-working, unsung professional Linda Liddle. She’s been overlooked for promotion at her anycorp employer because she isn’t one of the boys, doesn’t ‘golf’, and in a case of especially bad timing, meets the company’s disgusted new nepo-baby CEO, Bradley (O’Brien), with her lunch on her face.  But when the company’s private jet flight to Bangkok goes down in a tropical storm, boss and underling are forced to team up on a remote island. Except, she’s a Survivor superfan able to whip up a shelter and handy enough with a knife to turn the local marine life into a sashimi platter – and he’s injured and next to useless. Being a sexist dinosaur, he believes that office hierarchies still apply, even on a desert island. It plays out like a violent mix of Cast Away, Lord o

Finally, someone has returned to The Damned United’s cunning formula for a good football movie: don’t show any football.  Happily for co-directors Lisa Barros D’sa and Glenn Leyburn’s (Good Vibrations) sports flick, a psychological drama full of quirky touches and dry wit, not much of the Republic of Ireland’s pre-2002 World Cup prep on the Pacific island of Saipan made it as far as the pitch. As still-traumatised Irish fans will tell you, the reward for seeing their team qualify for the tournament in Japan and South Korea was to witness their star player and manager fall out in spectacular fashion. The two antagonists were Manchester United’s superstar midfielder Roy Keane (Éanna Hardwicke) – these days the furious face of dog walking and TV punditry; back then Ireland’s greatest player – and the team’s wry, Yorkshire-born manager Mick McCarthy (Steve Coogan).  Already minded to stay home, and nursing grievances against McCarthy, whom he considers a ‘plastic Paddy’, Keane is ready to explode when the squad touches down at its training base. Throw in a crappy hotel, rubbery cheese sandwiches, a bumpy training pitch and no practice balls and a full atomic meltdown is ensured. ‘Some people are unmanageable, aren’t they?’ McCarthy notes sanguinely to Mrs Mick (Alice Lowe), before the full horror unfolds. It’s a prophetic remark.  Normal People’s Hardwicke is striking as the fierce, brooding and ultra-competitive Keane. Coogan’s McCarthy, 50 percent proper football man, 50 percen

Trains and heroin. There are moments when you have to remind yourself that it’s Nia DaCosta (director) and Alex Garland (screenwriter) behind this quick-fire 28 Years Later sequel and not Danny Boyle and John Hodge reimagining that heady slice of ’90s pop-culture in a bled-out Britain. Here, though, it’s the English who are blissed-out on junk and the Scots who are the wankers. The trains are a bit more overgrown, too. The zombies are thinner on the ground in this instalment, presumably biding their time for Danny Boyle’s threequel, and that’s okay. There’s still some hyper-kinetic action – DaCosta (Candyman) and cinematographer Sean Bobbitt mix visceral GoPro sequences with stately long shots to deliver the best-looking film in the franchise – but most of the horror plays out with sticky intimacy here as the focus switches to two humans and an Alpha.  A fabulously malevolent Jack O’Connell is Sir Lord Jimmy Crystal, introduced by 28 Years Later as a Scottish preacher’s son narrowly surviving the zombie apocalypse and as a Jimmy Savile-styled cult leader in its jarring epilogue. He roams the land with a gang of wig-and-tracksuit-wearing acolytes, executing Satanic violence on anyone they come across in the name of ‘Old Nick’. The infected aren’t the source of the greatest cruelty here. Like Christopher Ecclestone’s soldiers in 28 Days Later, humanity has reclaimed that crown.  On the side of the angels (or perhaps the only one left), Ralph Fiennes returns as GP-turned-surviva

Movie monsters come in all shapes and sizes, but they’re rarely as diminutive and deceptively cuddly as the pet chimp-turned-brainy-hell​-beast in this endearingly daft B-movie​ horror. Because for a portion of its runtime, Primate feels a bit like Jaws if instead of a great white shark, Steven Spielberg and co had plumped for a peckish sea bass – or Samuel L Jackson had starred in ‘Snake on a Plane’. Can one modestly sized ape really rain down gory terror on a group of grown-up humans, and do for chimps what Stephen King’s Cujo did for mountain rescue dogs?  Well, kinda. With cleverly claustrophobic staging in a walled clifftop house, director and co-writer Johannes Roberts (47 Metres Down) smartly mines the premise for thrills. Though rarely scary, Primate is tense, unpretentious fun. Its antagonist (played by movement specialist Miguel Torres Umba and augmented with VFX) is menacing enough to make you see why a group of swimsuited teens would feel outmatched – especially after a spliff or two. Beneath that fur, after all, this little ape is as hench as peak Stallone. The mayhem unfolds at the Hawaiian home of Coda Oscar winner Troy Kotsur’s crime novelist, Adam. The pet chimp, Ben, has been inherited from his late wife, a linguistics professor who’d been teaching it to communicate with humans. When Adam is called away on a book tour, his daughters Erin (Gia Hunter) and Lucy (Johnny Sequoyah), and a few vacationing pals, are left to hold the fort. You could do worse than sp

If you’re feeling a touch downbeat about the state of the world, Eugene Jarecki’s (Why We Fight) searching but sympathetic doc about Wikileaks founder Julian Assange will not lift your spirits. With fly-on-the-wall footage, some extraordinary talking-head interviews, unexpected cameos (Lady Gaga, Pamela Anderson) and a sense of moral outrage, the American filmmaker takes on – and down – a global system of power that should worry the hell out of us all. Jarecki’s film, a conspiracy thriller in documentary clothing, provides a corrective to the public image of this deeply polarising figure, showing Assange as a warrior for transparency whose intelligence leaks embarrassed powerful national interests and who paid a terrible price for it.  We see Wikileaks growing from a small team led by the determined, spiky Australian as it broke through in 2007 by releasing US military footage of an Apache gunship gunning down unarmed civilians and Reuters journalists in Iraq. The viral video, dubbed ‘Collateral Murder’, turned the organisation into a name that everyone had heard of, even if they couldn’t quite pinpoint its exact aims. Ambiguity grew, fuelled when Assange was charged with rape in Sweden and hid out in the Ecuadorian embassy in London. The women he was accused of assaulting appear incognito here, revealing that the Swedish authorities pressed charges against the wills of the victims.  But the Wikileaks of The Six Billion Dollar Man is a more considered and journalistic enterpr

Aside from an overlong film, there’s little more dull than hearing some overprivileged critic whining about film length. After all, an extra helping of 3D-enhanced escapism measured in hundreds of millions of dollars in bleeding-edge effects: what’s not to love? With James Cameron serving it up, it’s like complaining about a Michelin-starred chef adding four courses onto their degustation menu, no extra charge.  Forgive me, then, for being that critic but if ever a movie could give your eyeballs gout, Avatar: Fire and Air is that film. At three hours and 17 sometimes spectacular, occasionally stultifying minutes (two more than Schindler’s List), your mind will struggle not to wander as human-turned-Na’vi Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and his blue clanspeople tackle new-yet-entirely-similar threats in a straining sequel that again zeroes in on Pandoran whale juice as its McGuffin. You will try to make it through this movie without needing a pee. You will not succeed.  Unlike the first two Avatars, which even haters would concede were epic journeys of discovery, with Cameron as an attentive guide to a dazzling alien universe, a sense of familiarity kicks in from the opening 3D shots of a guilt-ridden Lo’ak (Britain Dalton) soaring through the floating Hallelujah Mountains on a banshee. The death of his brother Neteyam (Jamie Flatters) in Avatar: The Way of Water will send him off on his own redemption arc, one of a few half-hearted story progressions in a movie that’s largely co

British cinema’s night of nights threw up some big surprises and the odd difficult one, too. Overall, though, the BAFTA voters played roughly the tunes everyone expected – with only Marty Supreme and Timothée Chalamet’s loss to Robert Aramayo for I Swear in the Best Actor category counting as the one major surprise. Elsewhere, Paul Thomas Anderson’s revolutionary caper picked up one award after another and Jessie Buckley’s heart-rending performance in Hamnet earned the Irish actress the gong everyone predicted.  But, hey, art isn’t a competition – it’s really about sharing the good word on excellent films (and Marty Supreme is definitely one of those) and this year has thrown up more than a handful of them. And better yet, almost all of them are available to stream right now. Here’s where to do it.  One Battle After Another – Best Film, Director, Adapted Screenplay, Supporting Actor, Cinematography and Editing The night’s biggest winner was Paul Thomas Anderson’s counter-culture thriller, starring Leonardo DiCaprio as a burnt-out revolutionary, Chase Infiniti as his firebrand daughter, and Sean Penn as a military type with issues. The film, surely a hot Oscar favourite, won six BAFTAs, including Best Film, Director, Adapted Screenplay, Supporting Actor for Penn, Cinematography and Editing. Where to stream One Battle After Another: it’s available to rent on all the main PVOD platforms, including Curzon, Prime Video and Apple TV, for a fiver. Agata Grzybowska/Focus FeaturesHam

Earthy yet transcendent, brooding but full of sensitivity and spirit, Nigerian-set family drama My Father’s Shadow has been busy earning comparisons with two recent classics – including a certain Best Picture winner. The man who made it, Akinola Davies Jr, knows this because he’s been stealthily logging onto Letterboxd to find out what people are saying about the film he co-wrote with his brother. ‘People are like, “It’s the Black Aftersun” or ”it feels a bit like Moonlight”,’ he says, referring to Barry Jenkins’ Oscar-winner and emotionally ruining Paul Mescal sad-dad drama. Not bad company to be in? ‘Just to be mentioned in the same breath as those two films is completely outrageous,’ he laughs. ‘To be talked about alongside those two films is fantastic,’ adds the film’s star, Gangs of London’s Sopé Dirisu. ‘I hope audiences share ours in the same way.’ Photograph: MUBI Into the shadows ‘Supernatural drama’ is the tag Davies uses for My Father’s Shadow’s rare blend of realism and rapture. Set in Lagos over one tumultuous day of political upheaval in 1993, it’s the story of an absentee dad, Folarin (Dirisu), who returns home to collect his two sons, Akin and Remi (played by real brothers Godwin and Chibuike Egbo), and take them on an unpredictable, revelatory journey into the Nigerian capital. The boys swim with Folarin in the Gulf of Guinea, Moonlight-style, bump into intimidating associates and gradually fill in some of the blanks relating to their dad’s life. It’s a ten

London’s popular Catford Mews cinema is getting a new lease of life, thanks to another independent cinema eight miles across the city. Hackney’s The Castle Cinema has taken ownership of Catford Mews, which closed in November 2024 after the previous operator was evicted over rent arrears. Lewisham borough’s only cinema, Catford Mews will reopen later in 2026 as The Castle Catford, with three screens as well as a community space, bar and café, bringing independent cinema back to this corner of south east London.  ‘In Catford, [The Castle] will take on the operation of the cinema and bar, with a strong focus on independent and foreign language films as well as more mainstream titles, ensuring there is something for everyone,’ says Lewisham Council in a statement. ‘They will also take on operation of the main foyer space accessible from Winslade Way, maintaining it as a cafe/food court space which has proven to be popular with the local community in recent years, as well as offering an opportunity for food start-ups to build their business from.’ Great news, in other words, for locals who came to love Catford Mews as a community hub and seed bed for local businesses – as well as local movie fans. ‘We’re building more than just a cinema,’ says The Castle’s co-founder Asher Charman, ‘we’re creating a space for culture and connection, for everyone. From Parent & Baby screenings and LGBTQ+ events to curated strands celebrating Black cinema and local heritage, we want our programme to

ถ้าคุณคิดว่า Wuthering Heights คือวรรณกรรมรักคลาสสิกที่มีแต่หมอก ทุ่งมัวร์ และความโศกเศร้าแบบผู้ดีอังกฤษ ขอต้อนรับสู่ปี 2026 ที่ เอเมอรัลด์ เฟนเนลล์ กำลังจะพานิยายกอธิคของ เอมิลี บรอนเต กลับมามีชีวิตอีกครั้งในเวอร์ชันที่จัดจ้านและเข็ดฟัน สมกับลายเซ็นผู้กำกับ Saltburn แบบไม่ต้องทำเป็นสุภาพ ครั้งนี้ความสัมพันธ์ระหว่าง แคทธี (มาร์โกต์ ร็อบบี) และ ฮีทคลิฟฟ์ (เจค็อบ เอลอร์ดี) ไม่ได้ถูกเล่าด้วยความโรแมนติกแบบนุ่มนวล แต่ถูกขับเคลื่อนด้วยแรงปรารถนา ความแค้น และพลังทำลายล้างที่เหมือนพายุในยอร์กเชียร์ พายุที่เฟนเนลล์ตั้งใจจะถ่ายให้เห็นเป็นตัวละคร อีกตัวหนึ่งของเรื่อง และถึงแม้ผู้กำกับจะตีความเรื่องนี้ผ่านสายตาวัยรุ่นที่ร้อนแรงกว่าเดิม แต่สิ่งหนึ่งที่เธอไม่ยอมละทิ้งคือภูมิทัศน์ อันเป็นหัวใจของนิยายต้นฉบับ เพราะในโลกของบรอนเต ทุ่งมัวร์ไม่ได้เป็นแค่ฉากหลัง แต่มันคืออารมณ์ คือบาดแผล และคือความทรงจำที่กัดกินคนได้พอๆ กับความรัก ตัวผู้เขียนอย่างเอมิลี บรอนเต เกิดและเสียชีวิตที่เวสต์ยอร์กเชียร์ในวัยเพียง 30 ปี และ วูเธอริง ไฮต์ส คือผลงานเพียงเล่มเดียวที่เธอฝากไว้ แต่กลับดังพอจะกลายเป็นหนึ่งในตำนานรักที่ถูกหยิบมาดัดแปลงซ้ำแล้วซ้ำเล่าในประวัติศาสตร์ภาพยนตร์อังกฤษ เวอร์ชันของเฟนเนลล์เลือกใช้ทุ่งมัวร์ เนินเขา และหุบเขาแถบยอร์กเชียร์ (โดยเฉพาะนอร์ทยอร์กเชียร์) เป็นพื้นที่หลักในการจำลองโลกชนบทระหว่างบ้านในวัยเด็กของแคทธี และคฤหาสน์ทรัชครอส แกรนจ์ที่เธอแต่งงานเข้าไปอยู่ แม้จะไม่ใช่ฮาเวิร์ธ บ้านเกิดของบรอนเตแบบเป๊ะๆ แต่ก็ใกล้พอจะทำให้สายลมบนจอมีน้ำหนักแบบที่คนอ่านนิยายจำได้ทันที และมันสมจริงกว่าเวอร์ชันปี 1939 ของ ลอเรนซ์ โอลิวิเยร์ ที่ฉากหลังดันเหมือนหลุดมาจากแคลิฟอร์เนียอยู่พอสมควร (แม้ว่าเวอร์ชันปี

Derry Girls fans rejoice because the hit comedy’s creator, Lisa McGee, is back with another show that simultaneously touches the heart, whacks the funny bone and gives the nervous system a jolt.  How To Get To Heaven From Belfast branches out beyond – far beyond – Derry, though. The new Netflix eight-parter spans almost the entirety of the Emerald Isle, as well as a corner of London, as it spins a dark, complex and often wildly funny story of three 38-year-old women trying to find out what happened to an old school friend. If Scooby-Doo’s Mystery Machine was an increasingly battered Land Rover Discovery and its sleuths were fuelled up on a diet of shots, white wines and noughties bangers, it might look a bit like this intoxicating, offbeat mystery-thriller.  Photograph: Chris Barr/NetflixSinead Keenan, Caoilfhionn Dunne and Roisin Gallagher in ’How to Get to Heaven from Belfast’ What is How to Get To Heaven From Belfast about? Our sisters-in-sleuthing are successful TV writer Saoirse (Roisin Gallagher), stressed-out mum Robyn (Sinéad Keenan) and carer Dara (Caoilfhionn Dunne). The trio are reunited when they’re invited to the wake of the fourth member of their old schoolgirl gang, Greta (Natasha O'Keeffe). Except that it isn’t Greta in the coffin. Cue a chaotic investigation from three bickering buddies. ‘I wanted a shit, female, Northern Irish A-Team!’ McGee tells The Guardian of the inspiration behind her road-trip-mystery-crime-thriller-black-comedy (yes, it really is al

Love murder-mysteries? Love Derry Girls? Love the work of noughties pop legends like Black Eyed Peas and Girls Aloud? If the answer to literally any of those questions is ‘hell yes’, you’ll be needing to settle in for a hearty binge of Derry Girls’ creator Lisa McGee new Netflix comedy-thriller How To Get To Heaven From Belfast. The show follows old school friends, TV writer Saoirse (Roisin Gallagher), stressed-out mum Robyn (Sinéad Keenan) and carer Dara (Caoilfhionn Dunne), as they cross Ireland trying to undercover them mysterious fate of the fourth member of their old schoolgirl gang Greta (Natasha O'Keeffe).  Photograph: Netflix/Christopher Barr Between their encounters with dangerous, charming and eccentric character amid glorious Irish landscapes, the sisters-in-sleuthing find time for some old school discos, boozy pub sessions and a whole mess of squabbling. The soundtrack is worth the binge alone, with McGee piling coins into the jukebox and teeing up Gaelic folk staples and some landmark noughties cheese featuring the likes of Atomic Kitten, S Club 7, All Saints, Daniel Bedingfield and, yes, Vengaboys. Trust it, it just works. ‘I really loved creating a soundtrack that reflected what these three women would have been dancing to when they were teenagers in 2003,’ McGee tells Time Out. ‘And the time of tunes they still whack on to dance to in the kitchen with a glass of wine. Not necessary cool – but bright and upbeat and nostalgic.’ Here’s the soundtrack in full: 

Emerald Fennell’s new adaption of Wuthering Heights is supercharging Emily Brontë’s classic gothic romance with all the spicy, Saltburn-y bits that the novelist neglected to include in her 1847 tale of doomed love. There’s carriage humping, moorland masturbation and heaving bosoms aplenty as Cathy (Margot Robbie) and Heathcliff (Jacob Elordi) verbally joust and get jiggy in the wilds of Yorkshire. We’re pretty sure that Brontë was just getting round to all that when she hit deadline.  But if, by her own admission, Fennell’s hot and heavy take on Wuthering Heights is her teenage interpretation of its forbidden romance, the filmmaker’s vision does cleave closely to the Yorkshire landscapes evoked by Brontë.  The author was born in West Yorkshire and died there, aged only 30, and her only novel echoes with the howl of the wind on its moors and the splosh of peat bogs. Fennell’s Wuthering Heights used the nearby moors, hills and valleys of – mostly – North Yorkshire, to stand in for the countryside between Cathy’s childhood home and her marital one, the grander pile of Thrushcross Grange.It’s not quite Brontë’s Haworth but only locals and geologists could spot the difference, and it’s a world closer than the Californian backdrops of the 1939 Laurence Olivier version (albeit, Andrea Arnold’s 2011 version went with North Yorkshire locations too). Here’s where Wuthering Heights was filmed. Photograph: Warner Bros. The rock Cathy waits for Heathcliff on is Healaugh Crag, North Yo

The great murder-mystery revival is continuing with Agatha Christie’s 1929 novel The Seven Dials Mystery bringing its twisty, knotty thrills to a new three-part adaptation on Netflix. Expect dark conspiracies, secret societies, espionage and political intrigue as a group of Edwardian bright young things are torn apart by murder and foul play.   Step aside The Thursday Murder Club, Knives Out and co. It’s time to yield the stage to the OG of the genre.  Adapted by Broadchurch writer-creator Chris Chibnall, The Seven Dials Mystery is set in 1920s where aristocrats are recovering from the Great War and London’s now-well-heeled Seven Dials is a slum in which shady goings-on impact national security. Once a TV film starring John Gielgud and Harry Andrews in 1981, Netflix’s three-part adaptation paints on a more widescreen canvas with southern Spain and western England lending sun-kissed settings, Edwardian elegance and stately grandeur to all the bloodshed. We asked location managers Dee Gregson and Enrique Martin Guadamuro to talk through how and where the sweeping new crime mystery came together.  Photograph: Simon Ridgway/NetflixHelena Bonham Carter as Lady Caterham What is Agatha Christie’s Seven Dials about? How To Have Sex’s Mia McKenna-Bruce is Lady Eileen ‘Bundle’ Brent, a sparky young aristocrat thrust into the reluctant role of amateur investigator when her dead brother’s bestie Gerry Wade (My Oxford Year’s Corey Mylchreest) is found dead in mysterious circumstances.

Mikä on sopivaa käytöstä elokuvissa? Kaikenlainen puhelimenkäyttö pitäisi ilman muuta kriminalisoida, ja popcornin popsimisestakin voidaan ollaan kahta mieltä, mutta miten pitäisi suhtautua niin vuolaaseen nyyhkytykseen, että elokuvateatteria uhkaa vesivahinko? Kysymyksestä tekee yllättäen ajankohtaisen Oscar-palkitusta Nomadlandista tutun Chloé Zhaon ohjaama ja tudor-aikaan sijoittuva Hamnet. Tämän kyyneltykin äärellä eivät auta pelkät nenäliinat. Tarvitaan kunnon froteepyyhettä. Jessie Buckleyn ja Paul Mescalin uransa parhaisiin lukeutuvien roolisuoritusten varassa Hamnet kertoo tarinan Shakespearen suurimman tragedian – Hamletin – taustalta, ja paljon muustakin. Äitiyden villistä voimasta, vanhemmuuden musertavasta vastuusta, luovan ilmaisun pakosta sekä siitä äkillisestä ahdistuksesta, joka syntyy, kun jotakin äärettömän arvokasta vaalitaan kuoleman varjossa.  Zhao pitää nämä alkukantaiset mutta tunnistettavat voimat kurissa, kunnes päästää ne valloilleen tunteet totaalisti nielaisevassa viimeisessä näytöksessä. Ota mukaan pyyhe, sillä pelkät nenäliinat eivät riitä Maggie O’Farrellin vuoden 2020 romaanin ystävät saavat helpotuksen: luonnonvoimaisen Agnes Hathawayn (Buckley) ja nerouttaan vasta tavoittavan aviomiehensä William Shakespearen (Mescal) syväluotaus on säilynyt, mutta elokuvataiteelle sopivasti tiivistettynä. Pois on jätetty koukerot, jotka rikastavat kirjaa, mutta tukkisivat valkokankaan: varhaiset seurustelukriisit, Shakespearen matkat Lontooseen, The Globen p

In a big year for slasher and horror franchises, the return of Scream will be bringing the knowingly self-aware brand of slasher thrills. Scream 7, directed by franchise creator Kevin Williamson, lands in UK cinemas at the end of February. And to warm up the fanbase, a new immersive Scream experience is coming to London – just for one day, mind.On the night of Wednesday, February 11, Stormzy’s House Party in Soho will transform itself into an eerie corner of Woodsboro to offer freaky thrills to those who dare venture within.. ‘This house will take you on a terrifying, immersive journey back to, the site of where the rules of modern horror were redefined, with clues of what's to come in Scream 7,’ runs the press release.  ‘The event includes elements, settings and situations which are designed to surprise and frighten visitors. Visitors attend at their own risk.’ Which rules us out.  It’s ticket only, but free to anyone who can snag tickets via the Eventbrite link. There are three slots to book between 8-11pm. Oh, and you must be 18 to attend.  Scream 7 will pick up with Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) and her daughter (Isabel May) when a new Ghostface killer emerges in her quiet town to wreck the usual bloody carnage. Catch it in cinemas from February 27. The two-part version of 'Harry Potter and the Cursed Child’ is set to close in London’s West End.The 100 greatest horror movies ever made.

Després d'uns anys d'altibaixos, el 2026 es perfila com el "moment de la veritat" per mesurar la salut real de la indústria del cinema. Ens esperen 12 mesos carregats d'èxits obligatoris (o, millor dit, de pel·lícules que més val que no fracassin). La llista inclou de tot: des de la cinquena entrega de Toy Story fins a l'esperadíssima seqüela d' El diable es vesteix de Prada, passant per una nova trobada a la tercera fase de Steven Spielberg i un Christopher Nolan que s'emporta gairebé tot l' "A-list" de Hollywood a l'antiga Grècia. La trilogia de Dune arribarà al seu fi, mentre l'Univers Cinematogràfic de Marvel intenta reinventar-se amb la pel·lícula de superherois més gran des d' Endgame. A més: més Frankenstein, més 28 anys després i més Superman (o, almenys, la seva cosina). Com dèiem: serà un any gran. Però si el futur dels blockbusters de Hollywood no et treu la son i només busques bon cinema, també hi ha un munt de pel·lícules petites i mitjanes per les quals val la pena il·lusionar-se. Aquí tens les 26 pel·lícules èpiques que més delirem per veure. 1. 28 años después: El templo de los huesos  Terror Prepara't per a la ràpida continuació de la trilogia de Danny Boyle que ens va deixar a tots bocabadats amb aquella escena final que presentava el líder de la secta interpretat per Jack O’Connell (un personatge a l'estil Jimmy Savile). Boyle cedeix el testimoni a Nia DaCosta (Candyman) i serà fascinant veure com gestiona aquest to mordaç i descobrir què aporta una cineas

Junia ja heroiinia. Välillä joutuu oikein muistuttamaan itseään, että tämän nopearytmisen elokuvan takana ovat Nia DaCosta (ohjaus) ja Alex Garland (käsikirjoitus), eivät Danny Boyle ja John Hodge palaamassa 1990-luvun päihteisen popkulttuurin äärelle Edinburghiin ja Trainspottingin tunnelmiin. Tällä kertaa osat ovat tosin vaihtuneet. Englantilaiset ovat pilvessä ja skotit täysiä kusipäitä. Ja junaradat ovat entistä pahemmin rapistuneita. Luutemppeli on jatkoa viime vuonna ensi iltansa saaneelle elokuvalle 28 vuotta myöhemmin. Tässä jatko-osassa zombeja on ykkösosaa vähemmän (ehkä ne säästelevät voimiaan Danny Boylen tulevaa kolmatta osaa varten), mutta se ei haittaa. Hyperkineettistä toimintaa riittää tässäkin filkassa: DaCosta (Candyman) ja kuvaaja Sean Bobbitt yhdistävät brutaaleja GoPro-jaksoja ylvään pitkiin otoksiin ja tulevat samalla tehneeksi koko zombiesarjan näyttävimmän elokuvan.  Suurin osa kauhusta syntyy tahmeasta läheisyydestä, kun fokus siirtyy kahteen ihmiseen ja yhteen alfa-zombiin. Tämä on zombie-elokuvasarjan ilkein, sielukkain ja pohdiskelevin osa Jack O’Connell on häikäisevän pahansuopa Sir Lord Jimmy Crystal. Edellisosa esitteli hänet skotlantilaisen saarnaajan poikana, joka selvisi nipin napin zombiapokalypsista. Nyt hän on kultin johtaja, joka vaeltaa ympäri saarivaltakuntaa peruukkipäisten, verkkareihin pukeutuneiden seuraajiensa kanssa ja harjoittaa saatanallista väkivaltaa kaikkia kohtaamiaan vastaan. Tartunnan saaneet eivät ole tämän elokuvan julm