Radio Times
type: channel
link: https://www.radiotimes.com
date: 2026-02-16T12:09:57.000Z
update period: hourly
update frequency: 1
update base: 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00
items: The Moment review: A perfect way to finally bang a nail in the Brat coffin
items: Animol review: Adolescence star Ashley Walters makes an impressive, confident directorial debut
items: Is This Thing On? review: Bradley Cooper turns John Bishop's life into sweet but indulgent comedy-drama
items: Is This Thing On? review: Bradley Cooper turns John Bishop's life story into sweet but indulgent comedy-drama
items: No Other Choice review: Park Chan-wook's killer comedy is more than paper thin
items: The History of Sound review: Tender love story will deepen Josh O'Connor and Paul Mescal's fanbases
items: How Roy Keane's infamous 2002 World Cup bust-up was transformed into an acclaimed film
items: How the distress call of a Palestinian child was turned into an Oscar-nominated film
items: How the distress call of a Palestinian child was turned into an Oscar contender
items: Hamnet review: Jessie Buckley is superb in family drama that's much more than 'Shakespeare in Grief'
items: Hamnet review: Jessie Buckley is superb in this masterly study of loss
items: Avatar: Fire and Ash review – Yet another marvel of CG craftsmanship from James Cameron
items: Avatar: Fire and Ash review – Another marvel of CG craftsmanship from James Cameron
items: Scarlett Johansson on becoming more comfortable with herself and why it would be "reductive" to politicise her directorial debut
items: Blue Moon review: Ethan Hawke and Andrew Scott shine in tender portrait of an artist
items: Jay Kelly review: George Clooney's comedy drama is glossy and navel-gazing – but Adam Sandler excels
items: 10 Questions with George Clooney and Adam Sandler
items: Jay Kelly stars George Clooney and Adam Sandler reveal how age has changed ambitions and talk correcting past mistakes
items: Wicked: For Good review – Oz saga conclusion will satisfy its extensive army of devotees
items: Wicked: For Good review – A conclusion of the Oz saga to surely satisfy its extensive army of devotees
items: Dragonfly review: Brenda Blethyn is at her very best in frequently heartbreaking film
items: Kenny Dalglish reflects on his glory years, the tragedy of Hillsborough and the joy of still attending Anfield
items: 'I identify with the creature'
items: Guillermo del Toro reveals his favourite horror films
items: Emotive reason Jacob Elordi was cast as Frankenstein’s Monster revealed by Guillermo del Toro as director also shares his family trauma
items: Meet my parents
items: The Mastermind review: Josh O'Connor leads an art-theft film that will stay with you
items: Ben Stiller says new Apple TV film allowed him to ‘process the grief’ of losing his parents
items: 10 Questions with Josh O'Connor
items: Josh O’Connor on "awful" audition for movie blockbuster – and why he was afraid of being similar to Prince Charles

The Moment review: A perfect way to finally bang a nail in the Brat coffin
type: item
date: 2026-02-16T12:09:43.000Z
creator: James Mottram
subject: Movies
subject: Contains Trailer
subject: Review
description: Charli xcx plays herself in this amusing-if-not-always-merciless mock-documentary.
encoded: "Are you doin' a Joaquin Phoenix-like thing?" With a handheld camera capturing her in uncomfortable close-up, it’s a question British dance-pop sensation Charli xcx is asked in The Moment, an amusing-if-not-always-merciless mock-documentary that never quite goes to the extremes of Phoenix's piss-taking 2010 film I’m Still Here, where he – fairly convincingly – fooled the world that he was having a meltdown. The Moment is all set around Brat, the album that sent Charli stratospheric, with its distinct slime-green branding and don’t-give-a-f**k attitude. "How do we keep this 'Brat' thing going?" asks Rosanna Arquette’s spiky record executive Tammy Pitman, surrounded by a phalanx of useless 'yes' men. It’s no doubt an echo of conversations Charli faced for real, as the corporate machine looked to squeeze every last bit of juice out of 2024’s 'Brat summer'. The answer to Pitman’s question is twofold. As Charli prepares for a huge O2 gig, she’s pushed into doing a concert film, directed by the slightly sketchy Johannes (Alexander Skarsgård), who immediately starts throwing "creative" ideas around – the worst of which sees Charli put inside a giant cigarette lighter on stage that shoots flames out of the top. At the same time, Charli’s endorsing a new green-coloured 'Brat' credit card aimed at the LGBTQ community. On Charli’s side, she has ineffectual manager Tim (Jamie Demetriou) and her stage designer Celeste (Hailey Benton Gates), but as the gig gets closer, tempers fray, egos swell and Charli's artistic juices run dry. "Everybody’s so desperate for me to be so f**king innovative," she cries. Maybe she should’ve paid more attention to the bird that is living in the rafters of the O2 and dropping excrement all over the floor – surly an omen if ever there was one. A particularly amusing segment sees her escape to a spa hotel, only to be left further frazzled after an encounter with Kylie Jenner, playing herself in a wince-inducing exchange of fake pleasantries. There are…

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Animol review: Adolescence star Ashley Walters makes an impressive, confident directorial debut
type: item
date: 2026-02-14T18:45:42.000Z
creator: James Mottram
subject: Movies
subject: Review
description: This prison drama exploring the hardcore complexities that come with incarceration is led by brilliant young star Tut Nyuot.
encoded: It’s a good year for fans of the British prison drama. Hot on the heels of Wasteman – due out in UK cinemas this week – we have Animol. Receiving its world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival, in the Perspectives strand, this tense tale marks the feature directorial debut of Ashley Walters. The star of shows like Top Boy and, more recently, Adolescence and A Thousand Blows, of which he directed three episodes, Walters showcases some serious young talent here, notably Tut Nyuot, who previously featured in The Long Walk, and Netflix drama Steve, alongside Cillian Murphy. Here, he plays Troy, brought into a young offender institution on remand as he faces grave charges: conspiracy to commit murder. Arriving the same day as the Polish-born Krystian (Vladislav Baliuk), with whom he soon forms a tight bond, he also runs into the very dangerous Dion (Sekou Diaby). Either Troy smuggles in a phone or D – as he calls himself – is going to make life very difficult for him. Thankfully, Krystian causes a distraction to help Troy sneak the burner past the guards, but it won’t be the last time D calls upon him. Placed in a cell with the highly unstable Mason (Ryan Dean), Troy is soon told by D to cut his cellmate, using a homemade weapon, a razor blade implanted in a toothbrush head. “It’s either you or it's him,” he’s told. After confronting Mason in front of others, he can’t bring himself to deliver this most vicious of warning signs. He’s not a violent lad by nature; all he’s trying to do is survive any way he can, something the script shows very well, as it ticks off the days he’s inside. Scripted by Nick Love, with whom Walters collaborated on TV show Bulletproof, this feels like a million miles away from the excessive, boyish tone of Love’s own movies as a director (most recently, the Danny Dyer-starring Marching Powder). Of course, Animol comes nowhere near the brutal nature of Alan Clarke’s Scum – still the Daddy of all Brit prison flicks – but, like Wasteman, it shows a …

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Is This Thing On? review: Bradley Cooper turns John Bishop's life into sweet but indulgent comedy-drama
type: item
creator: James Mottram
subject: App
subject: App features
subject: Contains Trailer
subject: Review
description: This is a good exercise for Cooper in creating something more low-key than his previous directorial efforts, even if it doesn’t quite come off.
encoded: ★★★☆☆ Is This Thing On? is in cinemas on Friday 30 January. Did you hear the one about the lonely husband who went into a bar? That’s the set up for Bradley Cooper’s third film as director, Is This Thing On?, a shaggy-dog movie that feels a world away from his musically-themed, Oscar-nominated earlier directorial efforts, the A Star Is Born remake and Leonard Bernstein biopic Maestro. Those films played out on a grand scale – featuring concerts where the world was watching. Here, the feeling is more intimate. A man on stage, alone, with a mic, pouring his heart out. Scripted by Cooper, star Will Arnett and British writer Mark Chappell (who penned the delightful murder-mystery from 2022, See How They Run), the film comes loosely inspired by the life of comedian John Bishop. The Scouser stand-up, so the story goes, got into comedy after being at a low-ebb in his personal life. Cooper et al simply transpose this idea to New York. Father-of-two Alex (Arnett) has quietly separated from his wife Tess (Laura Dern), a former volleyball player who gave up her dreams to raise kids. The couple are still socialising with mutual friends, long-term husband and wife Christine (Andra Day) and Balls (Cooper), and gay newlyweds Stephen (Sean Hayes) and Geoffrey (Scott Icenogle). But they no longer live together, a fact that has spun Alex out. One night, unwilling to go home to his empty apartment, he walks into a bar in the West Village. Rather than pay for the $15 cover charge to get in, he signs up for an open mic stand-up night in the basement downstairs. At first, it’s excruciating as he stands there, like a rabbit in the headlights. But then he starts talking about his impending divorce, poignant material that gets unexpected laughs. It’s a brave and exposing act, one that offers him a much-needed catharsis, so it’s no surprise when he returns for another bash. Around him are experienced comics (played by real strand-ups, including Chloe Radcliffe), willing to offer him advice a…

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Is This Thing On? review: Bradley Cooper turns John Bishop's life story into sweet but indulgent comedy-drama
type: item
date: 2026-01-26T15:06:26.000Z
creator: James Mottram
subject: Movies
subject: Contains Trailer
subject: Review
description: This is a good exercise for Cooper in creating something more low-key than his previous directorial efforts, even if it doesn’t quite come off.
encoded: Did you hear the one about the lonely husband who went into a bar? That’s the set up for Bradley Cooper’s third film as director, Is This Thing On?, a shaggy-dog movie that feels a world away from his musically-themed, Oscar-nominated earlier directorial efforts, the A Star Is Born remake and Leonard Bernstein biopic Maestro. Those films played out on a grand scale – featuring concerts where the world was watching. Here, the feeling is more intimate. A man on stage, alone, with a mic, pouring his heart out. Scripted by Cooper, star Will Arnett and British writer Mark Chappell (who penned the delightful murder-mystery from 2022, See How They Run), the film comes loosely inspired by the life of comedian John Bishop. The Scouser stand-up, so the story goes, got into comedy after being at a low-ebb in his personal life. Cooper et al simply transpose this idea to New York. Father-of-two Alex (Arnett) has quietly separated from his wife Tess (Laura Dern), a former volleyball player who gave up her dreams to raise kids. The couple are still socialising with mutual friends, long-term husband and wife Christine (Andra Day) and Balls (Cooper), and gay newlyweds Stephen (Sean Hayes) and Geoffrey (Scott Icenogle). But they no longer live together, a fact that has spun Alex out. One night, unwilling to go home to his empty apartment, he walks into a bar in the West Village. Rather than pay for the $15 cover charge to get in, he signs up for an open mic stand-up night in the basement downstairs. At first, it’s excruciating as he stands there, like a rabbit in the headlights. But then he starts talking about his impending divorce, poignant material that gets unexpected laughs. It’s a brave and exposing act, one that offers him a much-needed catharsis, so it’s no surprise when he returns for another bash. Around him are experienced comics (played by real strand-ups, including Chloe Radcliffe), willing to offer him advice and a bit of a roasting because, hey, that’s what they do. Vi…

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No Other Choice review: Park Chan-wook's killer comedy is more than paper thin
type: item
date: 2026-01-23T15:00:56.000Z
creator: James Mottram
subject: Movies
subject: Review
description: Director Park's latest is broader than many of his works, but still hugely inventive.
encoded: “Losing my job is not my choice.” It’s a phrase spoken more than once in Park Chan-wook’s latest film, No Other Choice, a black comedy set in the often dispiriting white-collar world of work. Premiering in competition at the Venice Film Festival, as anyone familiar with the South Korean Park’s ‘vengeance trilogy’, including the acclaimed Oldboy, will know, his movies are not for the feint-hearted. Even when they’re ostensibly comedies. In this case, there’s plenty of moments that’ll make you squirm, especially if you’re squeamish when it comes to oral hygiene. There’s even a very grim way of disposing a body, one that seemingly comes inspired by techniques for tying up plants in the garden. The ‘killer’ in question is Man-su (Lee Byung-hun), a father-of-two who has worked for Solar Paper as a speciality paper manager for the past quarter-century. “Paper has fed me for 25 years,” he says, sounding rather like The Office’s Michael Scott. When he gets let go, he’s left to find a new job in his middle years, with economic pressures meaning he might need to sell the family home. His wife (Son Ye-jin) is already trying to economise – no more Netflix, kids! – as all non-essentials are cut back on. Only their youngest daughter’s cello lessons will continue, as Man-su desperately keeps searching for a gig in this increasingly tough economy. But with paper his life (he was 2019’s ‘Pulp Man of the Year’, after all), all he wants to do is find work in the same industry. View oEmbed on the source website Adapted from Donald Westlake’s 1997 novel The Ax, Man-su takes a novel approach to finding work, and it doesn’t involve updating your LinkedIn profile. Rather than take his chances in an interview, he decides to kill off all those who might stand a chance. Of course, he’s no murderer; his hand shakes every time he picks up a gun, taken from the wall of his family home. His first target is Lee Sung-min’s engineer, a married man who has succumbed to drink while his actress wife tr…

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The History of Sound review: Tender love story will deepen Josh O'Connor and Paul Mescal's fanbases
type: item
date: 2026-01-23T14:55:01.000Z
creator: James Mottram
subject: Movies
subject: Review
description: This decade-spanning tale is exquisitely told by director Oliver Hermanus.
encoded: A tender, decade-spanning love story, exquisitely told by director Oliver Hermanus, The History of Sound is yet another wonderful showcase for the considerable talents of Josh O’Connor and Paul Mescal. The British actor O’Connor, best known for his work as Prince Charles on The Crown, and the Irish-born Mescal, famed for Normal People and, more recently, Gladiator II, are already dizzyingly popular; this first collaboration is only likely to deepen their fanbases. Premiering in competition at the Cannes Film Festival, The History of Sound begins, briefly, in 1910, as Mescal’s Lionel narrates about his unique appreciation of music. “I thought everyone could see sound,” he intones. But it won’t be for another seven years that he meets a man who is similarly in tune with sound. In a bar one night, David (O’Connor) is playing a piano. They will soon become firm friends and more. David, we learn, grew up in Newport, then London, and comes from a wealthier background than Lionel, who was raised up on a poor farm in Kentucky (one he still is expected to help out on). His poor eyesight means that he avoided the draft, to fight in the trenches of the First World War. But David heads to what he wryly calls his “walking tour of Europe”, thankfully returning unscathed. Sponsored by Vue Save up to 30% on the latest releases at Vue in 2025 Are you a movie lover who always wants to be up to date with the latest releases? Then you're in luck, as RadioTimes.com readers can enjoy new films at Vue Cinemas for less. Customers will receive up to 30% off films with Vue Pass, as long as they have a RadioTimes.com account. It's a great time for new releases, with films such as Wicked, Nosferatu, The Brutalist and Moana 2 taking UK cinemas by storm. Head to your nearest Vue to catch these movies and more for up to 30% less if you're signed up as a RadioTimes.com member. Save up to 30% with Vue Pass When he does, these two young men reunite in Maine and decide to venture cross-country, recor…

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How Roy Keane's infamous 2002 World Cup bust-up was transformed into an acclaimed film
type: item
date: 2026-01-23T07:00:44.000Z
creator: James Mottram
subject: Movies
subject: Exclusive
subject: Interview
description: The cast and crew for the new football flick Saipan speak to Radio Times about adapting the notorious row for the big screen.
encoded: Irish actor Éanna Hardwicke was only five at the time of the 2002 World Cup, but the memories are still vivid. “I was really aware of the iconography of it,” he reflects, when we meet in London’s Sea Containers hotel. “I can picture the Irish jersey. I could probably tell you the whole starting 11 of the Irish team. I had sticker books, and I remember just being completely caught up in World Cup fever, which I probably haven’t been to an extent since.” Of course, for any Republic of Ireland football fan, the 2002 FIFA tournament in Japan and South Korea remains infamous. Not so much for events on the field, with Ireland eventually knocked out on penalties in the last 16 to Spain. More for events off it, before a ball had even been kicked, when Irish captain – and Manchester United midfield legend – Roy Keane had an unforgettable bust-up with manager Mick McCarthy. The setting was Saipan, a small island in the Pacific, where the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) had determined its team acclimatise before the FIFA World Cup. Infuriated by the poor training facilities – including no footballs when they arrived – Keane flew home, making headlines around the world. “It’s something that happened over four or five days on, fair to say, the biggest global stage you can get, whether you’re a sportsman or not,” remarks Hardwicke, who plays Keane in Saipan, a new movie that dramatises the fallout. While there have been other player-manager meltdowns at World Cups – think of French star Nicolas Anelka in 2010, arguing with coach Raymond Domenech – this was a row that divided families across Ireland and according to Saipan’s co-director Glenn Leyburn, “still reverberates through Irish culture to this day”. Back in 2002, Ireland was going through a huge transition, the time of the so-called Celtic Tiger when a period of rapid economic growth had transformed the country into a thriving economic success story. View oEmbed on the source website Mirroring that, Irish football was…

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How the distress call of a Palestinian child was turned into an Oscar-nominated film
type: item
creator: James Mottram
subject: App
subject: App features
description: Director Kaouther Ben Hania speaks to RT about her immensely powerful new film The Voice of Hind Rajab – which is built around the real audio from a January 2024 distress call in Gaza.
encoded: The Voice of Hind Rajab is in cinemas now. Add it to your watchlist When Kaouther Ben Hania first heard the voice of Hind Rajab, it was life-changing. In January 2024, trapped in a car in Gaza City and under fire from Israeli forces, the 5-year-old Palestinian girl put in a call to paramedics from the Palestinian Red Crescent Society. Left utterly terrified, with her relatives all dead around her, tragically, Hind did not survive the onslaught. Later investigations discovered 355 bullet holes in the black Kia she was in. The 70-minute audio of her distress call went viral, as Hind became a symbol for the thousands of children killed in the appalling conflict that escalated in Gaza after the terror attacks of October 7, 2023. "The first time I heard her voice, it impacted me a lot," says Ben Hania. "There was a feeling of helplessness around what is happening in Gaza. And since she was asking for help, this feeling of helplessness was amplified. And I thought this is something that cinema can translate." A Palestinian story "should be told by Palestinian actors" The Tunisian director behind the Oscar-nominated titles The Man Who Sold His Skin and Four Daughters was prepping another film at the time, but she knew she had to switch focus. "There was the urgency to tell this story," she says. Setting her other project aside, Ben Hania conceived of a radical idea: to build a film around the audio. All set in the Red Crescent call centre, the film casts actors as the volunteers there, reacting to Hind’s real cries for help as they scramble to save her. Naturally, Ben Hania spoke to Hind’s mother early in the process. "I told myself, ‘You can’t do this movie if you don't have the approval of Hind's mother.’ It's her child. Losing a child is one of the hardest things, I think, for a parent. So if she didn’t want me to do it, I wouldn’t do it.” As distressing as it was, Hind’s mother approved the idea. "She told me that she doesn't want her daughter to be forgotten... [and] …

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How the distress call of a Palestinian child was turned into an Oscar contender
type: item
date: 2026-01-16T07:00:44.000Z
creator: James Mottram
subject: Movies
subject: Interview
description: Director Kaouther Ben Hania speaks to RadioTimes.com about her immensely powerful new film The Voice of Hind Rajab – which is built around the real audio from a January 2024 distress call in Gaza.
encoded: When Kaouther Ben Hania first heard the voice of Hind Rajab, it was life-changing. In January 2024, trapped in a car in Gaza City and under fire from Israeli forces, the 5-year-old Palestinian girl put in a call to paramedics from the Palestinian Red Crescent Society. Left utterly terrified, with her relatives all dead around her, tragically, Hind did not survive the onslaught. Later investigations discovered 355 bullet holes in the black Kia she was in. The 70-minute audio of her distress call went viral, as Hind became a symbol for the thousands of children killed in the appalling conflict that escalated in Gaza after the terror attacks of October 7, 2023. "The first time I heard her voice, it impacted me a lot," says Ben Hania. "There was a feeling of helplessness around what is happening in Gaza. And since she was asking for help, this feeling of helplessness was amplified. And I thought this is something that cinema can translate." A Palestinian story "should be told by Palestinian actors" The Tunisian director behind the Oscar-nominated titles The Man Who Sold His Skin and Four Daughters was prepping another film at the time, but she knew she had to switch focus. "There was the urgency to tell this story," she says. Setting her other project aside, Ben Hania conceived of a radical idea: to build a film around the audio. All set in the Red Crescent call centre, the film casts actors as the volunteers there, reacting to Hind’s real cries for help as they scramble to save her. Naturally, Ben Hania spoke to Hind’s mother early in the process. "I told myself, ‘You can’t do this movie if you don't have the approval of Hind's mother.’ It's her child. Losing a child is one of the hardest things, I think, for a parent. So if she didn’t want me to do it, I wouldn’t do it.” As distressing as it was, Hind’s mother approved the idea. "She told me that she doesn't want her daughter to be forgotten... [and] she told me, ‘I want justice for my daughter. If this movie can help…

Hamnet review: Jessie Buckley is superb in family drama that's much more than 'Shakespeare in Grief'
type: item
creator: James Mottram
subject: App
subject: App features
description: This masterpiece adapted from the novel of the same name by Maggie O'Farrell is expecting to be a major awards player.
encoded: ★★★★★ Hamnet is in cinemas from Friday 9 January. Add it to your watchlist While it’s tempting to call Hamnet “Shakespeare in Grief”, that’s rather doing Chloé Zhao’s masterly study of loss a disservice. The last time the Bard so significantly appeared in a film was the 1998 Oscar-winner Shakespeare in Love, by John Madden. But while that was a fictionalised story around the creation of Romeo and Juliet, this is an authentic-feeling, intimate family drama, far removed from that glossy romance. Paul Mescal plays the Bard – only ever once referred to as William Shakespeare in the entire movie. Early on, he meets and falls for Agnes (Jesse Buckley), a free-spirited soul at one with her rural surroundings. Rumour has it she’s the daughter of a forest witch – according to Will’s mother Mary (Emily Watson). He’s also frowned upon, with Agnes’ brother Bartholomew (Joe Alwyn) calling the aspiring playwright a “pasty-faced scholar”, adding: “What use is he?” Seemingly, though, nothing can hamper their love, and Will and Agnes produce three children – including a delightful boy, Hamnet (Jacobi Jupe). Theirs is a secluded life in the countryside, far from London, where Will eventually wins a contract to make gloves for the theatre. In these early scenes Zhao (Nomadland) brilliantly evokes the simple pleasures and hardships of life in this time, her camera perfectly in tune with the heartbeat of nature. Adapted from the novel by Maggie O’Farrell, who co-wrote the script with Zhao, it’s a fictional imagining of Shakespeare’s inner life, as the story seeks to look behind the celebrated playwright. This is a young man torn between the love for his family and a career in the theatre that blossoms the more time he spends around creatives in the city. “There are people waiting for me in London,” he cries, words he will soon regret. Depicting the Stratford-upon-Avon countryside in earthy tones, where inhabitants are so close to nature they’re caked in dirt, it’s an utterly bewitching …

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Hamnet review: Jessie Buckley is superb in this masterly study of loss
type: item
date: 2026-01-05T12:19:45.000Z
creator: James Mottram
subject: Movies
subject: Review
description: This masterpiece adapted from the novel of the same name by Maggie O'Farrell is expecting to be a major awards player.
encoded: While it’s tempting to call Hamnet ‘Shakespeare in Grief’, that’s rather doing Chloé Zhao’s masterly study of loss a disservice. The last time the Bard so significantly appeared in a film was the 1998 Oscar-winner Shakespeare in Love, by John Madden. But while that was a fictionalised story around the creation of Romeo and Juliet, this is an authentic-feeling, intimate family drama, far removed from that glossy romance. Paul Mescal plays the Bard – only ever once referred to as William Shakespeare in the entire movie. Early on, he meets and falls for Agnes (Jesse Buckley), a free-spirited soul at one with her rural surroundings. Rumour has it she’s the daughter of a forest witch – according to Will’s mother Mary (Emily Watson). He’s also frowned upon, with Agnes’ brother Bartholomew (Joe Alwyn) calling the aspiring playwright a “pasty-faced scholar”, adding: “What use is he?” Seemingly, though, nothing can hamper their love, and Will and Agnes produce three children – including a delightful boy, Hamnet (Jacobi Jupe). Theirs in a secluded life in the countryside, far from London, where Will eventually win a contract to make gloves for the theatre. In these early scenes Zhao (Nomadland), brilliantly evokes the simple pleasures and hardships of life in this time, her camera perfectly in tune with the heartbeat of nature. Adapted from the novel by Maggie O’Farrell, who co-wrote the script with Zhao, it’s a fictional imagining of Shakespeare’s inner life, as the story seeks to look behind the celebrated playwright. This is a young man torn between the love for his family and a career in the theatre that blossoms the more time he spends around creatives in the city. “There are people waiting for me in London,” he cries, words he will soon regret. Depicting the Stratford-Upon-Avon countryside in earthy tones, where inhabitants are so close to nature they’re caked in dirt, it’s an utterly bewitching portrait of 16th Century living. It’s also a world where illness is commonp…

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Avatar: Fire and Ash review – Yet another marvel of CG craftsmanship from James Cameron
type: item
creator: James Mottram
subject: App
subject: App features
description: The third entry in the epic sci-fi franchise embraces all-out conflict – but perhaps doesn't quite justify its length.
encoded: ★★★★☆ Avatar: Fire and Ash is in cinemas from Friday 19 December 2025. Add it to your watchlist It’s time to go back to Pandora. Journeys to director James Cameron’s fictional alien planet have already inspired two of the highest-grossing movies of all time, Avatar (2009) and Avatar: The Way of Water (2022). Only a fool would bet against this third chapter, Avatar: Fire and Ash, doing the same. With this Cameron’s third Avatar movie in a row, it’s a bold, brash return to this mo-cap created, CG-realised world, where you have little choice but to surrender yourself to the visual onslaught. View Green Video on the source website If The Way of Water was more of a hang-out movie, where Cameron introduced the ocean-dwelling Metkayina clan, Fire and Ash is a full-on all-out conflict. Set a year on from events of the preceding movie, the focus is once again Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), the former Marine who became one of the blue-skinned Na’vi people after transferring his consciousness permanently into his avatar. He and his family, including wife Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña), now live with the Metkayina – including Kate Winslet’s free-diving, pregnant Ronal – after leaving their own Omatikaya clan. With the script again penned by Cameron and husband-and-wife team Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver, this time the story introduces the Mangkwan clan, also known as the Ash People, a volcano-dwelling group led by the fearsome tribal leader, Varang (Oona Chaplin). The best antagonist in the Avatar franchise so far, brilliantly brought to life by Chaplin, the red-and-white-coloured Varang is power-hungry creature, at one with the elements. She forges an uneasy alliance with Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang), Jake’s nemesis – the fallen military commander resurrected as an avatar "recombinant". Or as he puts it here, “I guess I don’t die that easy". He is going gung-ho to take down Sully, as the human-led military group RDA look to colonise Pandora, despite humans still being unable to …

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Avatar: Fire and Ash review – Another marvel of CG craftsmanship from James Cameron
type: item
date: 2025-12-16T14:00:31.000Z
creator: James Mottram
subject: Movies
subject: Sci-fi
subject: Review
description: The third entry in the epic sci-fi franchise embraces all-out conflict – but perhaps doesn't quite justify its length.
encoded: It’s time to go back to Pandora. Journeys to director James Cameron’s fictional alien planet have already inspired two of the highest-grossing movies of all time, Avatar (2009) and Avatar: The Way of Water (2022). Only a fool would bet against this third chapter, Avatar: Fire and Ash, doing the same. With this Cameron’s third Avatar movie in a row, it’s a bold, brash return to this mo-cap created, CG-realised world, where you have little choice but to surrender yourself to the visual onslaught. If The Way of Water was more of a hang-out movie, where Cameron introduced the ocean-dwelling Metkayina clan, Fire and Ash is a full-on all-out conflict. Set a year on from events of the preceding movie, the focus is once again Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), the former Marine who became one of the blue-skinned Na’vi people after transferring his consciousness permanently into his avatar. He and his family, including wife Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña), now live with the Metkayina – including Kate Winslet’s free-diving, pregnant Ronal – after leaving their own Omatikaya clan. With the script again penned by Cameron and husband-and-wife team Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver, this time the story introduces the Mangkwan clan, also known as the Ash People, a volcano-dwelling group led by the fearsome tribal leader, Varang (Oona Chaplin). The best antagonist in the Avatar franchise so far, brilliantly brought to life by Chaplin, the red-and-white-coloured Varang is a power-hungry creature, at one with the elements. She forges an uneasy alliance with Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang), Jake’s nemesis – the fallen military commander resurrected as an Avatar "recombinant". Or as he puts it here, “I guess I don’t die that easy". He is going gung-ho to take down Sully, as the human-led military group RDA look to colonise Pandora, despite humans still being unable to breathe the air on the surface of the planet. It is Quaritch who introduces Varang to “weapons of metal”, watching her eyes widen as …

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Scarlett Johansson on becoming more comfortable with herself and why it would be "reductive" to politicise her directorial debut
type: item
date: 2025-12-12T07:00:29.000Z
creator: James Mottram
subject: Movies
description: The A-list actor has stepped behind the camera for new film Eleanor the Great which stars June Squibb as a 94-year-old Jewish widow who does something terrible.
encoded: At this year’s Cannes Film Festival, in the Un Certain Regard strand, three major actors made their directorial debuts. While Kristen Stewart and Britain’s Harris Dickinson went full arthouse with their films – respectively, addiction drama The Chronology of Water and homeless study Urchin – Scarlett Johansson took another path. Eleanor the Great is a comedy-drama about a 94-year-old Jewish widow who does something terrible. It’s funny, poignant and stars the wonderful June Squibb, whose late-career blossoming since films like Nebraska and Thelma has been a sheer delight. “This film appeared to me to have a commerciality to it, which is important,” says Johansson, and she should know. Since she started acting three decades ago, her films have accumulated more than $15 billion at the box office. While this is chiefly down to her role as Black Widow in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, appearing in multiple films from Iron Man 2 to Avengers: Infinity War, this year saw her help relaunch Universal’s prestige dinosaur franchise with Jurassic World: Rebirth, grossing $868 million at the box office. Johansson knows a hit when she sees one. Curiously, she’s been wanting to direct almost as long as she’s been acting. “When I was a teenager, I thought that I would direct and probably not act,” she tells me. “I mean, because I think I didn’t have an insane passion for acting when I was a teenager.” It’s an interesting answer to the question ‘How long have you wanted to direct?’ Most actors build their way gradually towards going behind the camera. But the precocious Johansson has always harboured those dreams, even as an adolescent growing up in New York. It’s also intriguing to hear that acting was not her cultural North Star back then, despite making her debut opposite Bruce Willis in the 1994 comedy North and rising to prominence alongside Robert Redford in The Horse Whisperer four years later, when she was 13. “I did [have a passion to act] when I was really young,” she cont…

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Blue Moon review: Ethan Hawke and Andrew Scott shine in tender portrait of an artist
type: item
date: 2025-11-28T12:00:21.000Z
creator: James Mottram
subject: Movies
subject: Review
description: The new film from Richard Linklater focuses on American lyricist Lorenz Hart after his split from songwriting partner Richard Rodgers.
encoded: "He was the saddest man I ever knew." This quote from Mabel Mercer begins Blue Moon, Richard Linklater’s snapshot of Lorenz Hart. The American lyricist spent 25 years partnered with the younger Richard Rodgers, in which time they wrote such standards as My Funny Valentine and Blue Moon (a song that Manchester City fans have adopted as they own). But it was Rodgers’s next partnership, with Oscar Hammerstein, that is the one still remembered to this day. Set chiefly across one night, Blue Moon takes place on the cusp of this changing of the guard. It’s March 1943, and Rodgers (Andrew Scott) and Hammerstein (Simon Delaney) have just unveiled their first collaboration, Oklahoma!, to 1600 enthusiastic audience members in New York. With the critics ecstatic, Hart (Ethan Hawke) leaves early to head to the after-party at famed midtown restaurant Sardi’s. Drinking heavily, he props himself up at the bar (run by Bobby Cannnavale), awaiting the arrival of Rodgers. "Am I bitter?" he announces. Of course he is. He knows that the "inoffensive" Oklahoma! will run and run. But he hates this "cornball" take on an Americana that never even existed. "Who wants inoffensive art?" he splutters. Speaking with all the grace and incision of Oscar Wilde, Hart has talent to burn; but it’s his struggles with alcohol that will be his undoing. Sponsored by Vue Save up to 30% on the latest releases at Vue in 2025 Are you a movie lover who always wants to be up to date with the latest releases? Then you're in luck, as RadioTimes.com readers can enjoy new films at Vue for less. Customers will receive up to 30% off films with Vue Pass, as long as they have a RadioTimes.com account. It's a great time for new releases, with films such as Wicked, Nosferatu, The Brutalist and Moana 2 taking UK cinemas by storm. Head to your nearest Vue to catch these movies and more for up to 30% less if you're signed up as a RadioTimes.com member. Save up to 30% with Vue Pass The film comes scripted by Robert Kaplow, w…

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Jay Kelly review: George Clooney's comedy drama is glossy and navel-gazing – but Adam Sandler excels
type: item
creator: James Mottram
subject: App
subject: App features
description: Noah Baumbach’s new Netflix film plays like a loving tribute to its lead star.
encoded: ★★★☆☆ Jay Kelly is in cinemas now and on Netflix from December 2025. Add it to your watchlist George Clooney skates close to his own life – or at least tries to make us think he is – in Noah Baumbach’s new film Jay Kelly. The story of a famous actor undergoing a late-career crisis, it’s an inward-looking navel-gaze that starts well but veers dangerously close to indulgence. Clooney pays the titular star, just wrapping up his latest movie, a corny-looking thriller called 'Eight Men from Now'. A multiple divorcee, he’s got two weeks before his next opus rolls, and he wants to spend it with younger daughter Daisy (Grace Edwards), only to discover she’s heading to Europe for the summer. Then two things happen to give him pause for thought. Peter Schneider (Jim Broadbent), the director who gave him his big break as a young actor, dies. And, at the funeral, he meets Tim (Billy Crudup), an old acting class buddy. As they catch up over a beer, it becomes clear Tim holds a grudge that Jay ‘stole’ his role at an audition way back when and they fight in the car park. The next day, and now sporting a black eye, Jay decides to ditch the new movie and fly to Paris to intercept Daisy. And so he takes a private plane with his entourage, including long-time manager Ron (Adam Sandler) and publicist Liz (Laura Dern), as well as his hair stylist (Emily Mortimer) and other assorted hangers-on. His excuse? That he’s going to attend a career tribute in Tuscany, one he previously rejected. The film’s central sequence, and its most amusing, sees Jay and his team on board a public train to Italy. With no first class, he has to sit with the “plebs”, as Stath Lets Flats’ Jamie Demetriou – one of the passengers – puts it. Amazed to see such a mega-star in the wild, they flock around him. “When I see you, I see my whole life,” cries one man, delighted, like something out of Fellini’s 8½. Behind the scenes, Ron and Liz are trying to firefight an escalating situation, as Tim looks to sue Jay for t…

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10 Questions with George Clooney and Adam Sandler
type: item
creator: James Mottram
subject: App
subject: App features
description: The real-life Hollywood pals bring their bromance to the screen in new movie Jay Kelly
encoded: Add Jay Kelly to your watchlist Both fixtures on the Hollywood A-list, George Clooney and Adam Sandler have careers going back to the late 1980s. With that wealth of experience, it’s no wonder Clooney, 64, was cast as the titular movie star in Noah Baumbach’s sparkling new comedy-drama Jay Kelly, while Sandler, 59, plays his long-suffering manager, Ron, for ever trailing after him. They’re an unlikely pair, but they make quite the double act… George, your character Jay Kelly is a famous movie star. In your own life, did you ever consider if fame was really for you? GEORGE I don’t think you have the luxury of saying, “Well, I don’t know if I’m really up for fame” when you’re a young actor just trying to get a job. You’re not really thinking about fame. Have your careers and ambition changed over the years? George I have eight-year-old kids, so I had to change my career choices. Directing means 10 months on the road, so it’s not something I can do any more, because I want to be home. ADAM You’ll be back in 10 years! GEORGE It’s a lot easier to make those decisions later in life when you’ve succeeded. It’s a lot harder for people who have to make those decisions when they’re trying to make their mark. There’s certainly decisions that are made easier when you’re 64 and too old to be having young children. Adam, how have you juggled the work/life balance? ADAM I was raised in a family-comes-first home. I have an enormous amount of guilt if I’m not with my family. If I’m away too long, I’m feeling it the whole time. So, prioritising family came easy. You’re familiar faces — how do you cope with being recognised? ADAM I jump in there. I live my life and don’t really change much. It’s a different energy when you walk into a restaurant, everybody knows you and says hello. But then that calms down, and life feels good. Which of each other’s performances have you admired? GEORGE I was so blown away by The Meyerowitz Stories. There’s a gentleness and a vulnerability that’s very…

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Jay Kelly stars George Clooney and Adam Sandler reveal how age has changed ambitions and talk correcting past mistakes
type: item
date: 2025-11-24T17:01:02.000Z
creator: James Mottram
subject: Movies
subject: Interview
subject: Magazine
subject: Netflix
description: The real-life Hollywood pals bring their bromance to the screen in new movie Jay Kelly.
encoded: This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. Both fixtures on the Hollywood A-list, George Clooney and Adam Sandler have careers going back to the late 1980s. With that wealth of experience, it’s no wonder Clooney, 64, was cast as the titular movie star in Noah Baumbach’s sparkling new comedy-drama Jay Kelly, while Sandler, 59, plays his long-suffering manager, Ron, for ever trailing after him. They’re an unlikely pair, but they make quite the double act… George, your character Jay Kelly is a famous movie star. In your own life, did you ever consider if fame was really for you? GEORGE CLOONEY: I don’t think you have the luxury of saying, “Well, I don’t know if I’m really up for fame” when you’re a young actor just trying to get a job. You’re not really thinking about fame. Have your careers and ambition changed over the years? GEORGE: I have eight-year-old kids, so I had to change my career choices. Directing means 10 months on the road, so it’s not something I can do any more, because I want to be home. ADAM SANDLER: You’ll be back in 10 years! GEORGE: It’s a lot easier to make those decisions later in life when you’ve succeeded. It’s a lot harder for people who have to make those decisions when they’re trying to make their mark. There’s certainly decisions that are made easier when you’re 64 and too old to be having young children. Adam, how have you juggled the work/life balance? ADAM: I was raised in a family-comes-first home. I have an enormous amount of guilt if I’m not with my family. If I’m away too long, I’m feeling it the whole time. So, prioritising family came easy. You’re familiar faces – how do you cope with being recognised? ADAM: I jump in there. I live my life and don’t really change much. It’s a different energy when you walk into a restaurant, everybody knows you and says hello. But then that calms down, and life feels good. Which of each other’s performances have you admired? GEORGE: I was so blown away by The Meyerowitz Stories. There’s …

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Wicked: For Good review – Oz saga conclusion will satisfy its extensive army of devotees
type: item
date: 2025-11-18T17:00:32.000Z
creator: James Mottram
subject: Movies
subject: Review
description: Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo are back in top, lung-busting form in another wondrous, multi-colour extravaganza.
encoded: After last year’s Wicked: Part I, we’re back for some more Ozploitation. Jon M Chu’s two-part adaptation has already been a wild ride, tapping into the perennial enthusiasm for the long-running stage show by Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman, which itself came inspired both by Gregory Maguire’s 1995 novel and, of course, Hollywood Golden Age musical The Wizard of Oz. Part I conjured a healthy $756 million global box office, followed by ten Oscar nominations and two wins. There’s no reason to think Wicked: For Good won’t perform the same trick, or better it, with Chu bringing events to a rousing close. While he infuses enthusiasm into every frame, the same can be said for his leading ladies. Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo are back in top, lung-busting form as, respectively, the pink-hued Glinda the Good and Elphaba, the green-skinned witch who has been cast out of Oz, thanks to the machinations of the Wizard (Jeff Goldblum, wickedly charming as ever), the ultimately carney-man. Now in exile, the demonised Elphaba’s name has been stained by the Wizard, in league with her one-time tutor, the former Dean of Sorcery at Shiz University, Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh, still wearing that delicious Mr Whippy ice-cream hair-do). The slightly vapid Glinda, meanwhile, thinks they need to be trademarking the word "good", while she’s also caught up in preparations for her impending wedding to Prince Fiyero (Jonathan Bailey), who has been charged with capturing Elphaba. Early on, we see her deftly flying her broomstick and causing disruption as workers build the famed Yellow Brick Road – and that won’t be the only reference to The Wizard of Oz. Wicked: For Good weaves around events of the 1939 movie, as a certain house from Kansas comes tumbling from the sky. Chu, wisely, never makes this about Dorothy, Toto and the others, but rather places them in the backdrop – a move that respectfully doesn’t trample on the memory of the iconic star of the original, Judy Garland. There are…

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Wicked: For Good review – A conclusion of the Oz saga to surely satisfy its extensive army of devotees
type: item
creator: James Mottram
subject: App
subject: App features
description: Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo return in top, lung-busting form for another wondrous, multi-colour extravaganza.
encoded: ★★★★☆ Wicked: For Good is in cinemas from 21 November. Add it to your watchlist After last year’s Wicked: Part I, we’re back for some more Ozploitation. Jon M Chu’s two-part adaptation has already been a wild ride, tapping into the perennial enthusiasm for the long-running stage show by Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman, which itself came inspired both by Gregory Maguire’s 1995 novel and, of course, Hollywood Golden Age musical The Wizard of Oz. Part I conjured a healthy $756 million global box office, followed by ten Oscar nominations and two wins. There’s no reason to think Wicked: For Good won’t perform the same trick, or better it, with Chu bringing events to a rousing close. While he infuses enthusiasm into every frame, the same can be said for his leading ladies. Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo are back in top, lung-busting form as, respectively, the pink-hued Glinda the Good and Elphaba, the green-skinned witch who has been cast out of Oz, thanks to the machinations of the Wizard (Jeff Goldblum, wickedly charming as ever), the ultimately carney-man. Now in exile, the demonised Elphaba’s name has been stained by the Wizard, in league with her one-time tutor, the former Dean of Sorcery at Shiz University, Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh, still wearing that delicious Mr. Whippy ice-cream hair-do). The slightly vapid Glinda, meanwhile, thinks they need to be trademarking the word "good", while she’s also caught up in preparations for her impending wedding to Prince Fiyero (Jonathan Bailey), who has been charged with capturing Elphaba. Early on, we see her deftly flying her broomstick and causing disruption as workers build the famed Yellow Brick Road – and that won’t be the only reference to The Wizard of Oz. Wicked: For Good weaves around events of the 1939 movie, as a certain house from Kansas comes tumbling from the sky. Chu, wisely, never makes this about Dorothy, Toto and the others, but rather places them in the backdrop – a move that respectfully doesn’t …

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Dragonfly review: Brenda Blethyn is at her very best in frequently heartbreaking film
type: item
date: 2025-11-05T14:25:47.000Z
creator: James Mottram
subject: Movies
subject: Review
description: This new film from writer/director Paul Andrew Williams is a bleak but captivating study of loneliness and social care set in contemporary Britain.
encoded: Two actors, among the very best of their respective generations, come together for Dragonfly, a bleak but captivating study of loneliness and social care set in contemporary Britain. Brenda Blethyn plays Elsie, an ageing pensioner who lives in a semi-detached bungalow. Elsie has been a widow for 13 years and has one son, John (Jason Watkins), who rarely visits. The only people she regularly sees are the carousel of care workers who bustle in to wash her and fix her tea before scooting off to their next appointment. Next door is Coleen (Andrea Riseborough). She lives alone with her bullish-looking dog, an animal she loves dearly but barely has control over. Her hair scraped back, her skin is pale and, despite her protests to the contrary, she looks far older than her 35 years. Living on benefits, she slouches on the sofa all day watching TV, sinking into a malaise. But gradually, she finds company when she offers to buy provisions for Elsie from the corner shop. From this little acorn, an oak tree of friendship grows, as these two lost souls find solace together. Writing and directing is British filmmaker Paul Andrew Williams, who adds yet another intriguing addition to his body-of-work, one that kickstarted with the visceral London to Brighton almost two decades ago. Williams errs on the darker side in his films, as his last movie, the 2021 hallucinatory revenge tale Bull shows, and Dragonfly is no different. The companionship that Elsie and Coleen conjure is destined to take a disturbing twist, although it’s likely you won’t see it coming until it’s too late. The film toys with social realism, albeit on Williams’s terms. The low-key electronic score by Raffertie, who previously scored Oscar-nominated horror The Substance, occasionally punctuates unsettling shots of Elsie’s home, empty hallways and so on that suggest how little she has left in her life. Shooting in natural light, there’s a gloom that envelops this film, made more poignant when Elsie suddenly cries o…

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Kenny Dalglish reflects on his glory years, the tragedy of Hillsborough and the joy of still attending Anfield
type: item
date: 2025-11-05T10:02:53.000Z
creator: James Mottram
subject: Movies
subject: Exclusive
description: The Liverpool and Celtic legend is the subject of a new documentary from Amy and Senna director Asif Kapadia.
encoded: When Kenny Dalglish took to the stage at London’s Picturehouse Central cinema recently, accompanied by his daughter and Match of the Day presenter Kelly Cates, the Liverpool footballing legend was in wonderfully jovial form. In front of friends and admirers, including ex-player Jamie Carragher and actor Damian Lewis, he was there to present Kenny Dalglish – the new documentary by acclaimed filmmaker Asif Kapadia. The 74-year-old Glaswegian joked that he was the first of Kapadia’s subjects to be alive – a nod to the director’s multi award-winning docs Senna, Amy and Maradona, which took on, respectively, the tragic tales of Formula 1 driver Ayrton Senna, singer Amy Winehouse and football icon Diego Maradona. The man they call ‘King Kenny’ is a very different prospect – at once a man of the people and one of the greatest footballers of his generation. Kapadia’s film steers us through Dalglish’s early years and his time at Celtic before, in 1977, Liverpool manager Bob Paisley paid a British transfer record of £440,000 to bring the striker south of the border as a replacement for the departing Kevin Keegan. As he always does with his documentaries, Kapadia doesn’t feature talking heads, but rather mixes candid audio recordings of his interviewees and compelling archive clips. “There wasn’t a camera, there wasn’t a crew, there wasn’t lots of people, it was quite relaxed,” says Kapadia, who did most of the recordings in Liverpool, sitting Dalglish down with a cup of tea and some Dairy Milk chocolate. Their exchanges were often humorous, Dalglish even telling Kapadia to get a haircut before one recording session. One day, Kapadia couldn’t make it to Liverpool, and Dalglish came down on the train (arriving suited and booted, “for an audio interview!” the director laughs). “Most people don't do that. You have to go to them.“ It’s just one example of how down-to-earth Dalglish is. Can you imagine David Beckham or Cristiano Ronaldo jumping on British Rail without an entourage?…

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'I identify with the creature'
type: item
creator: James Mottram
subject: App
subject: App features
subject: App Oscars 2025
description: As Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein lurches into life, the director reveals how true horror has seen him tackle ‘the real monsters’ – inside and out
encoded: Frankenstein is in cinemas now and on Netflix from 7 Nov. Add it to your watchlist. A director who has given us some of the most indelible monsters in screen history, Guillermo del Toro has had a fascination with the macabre from an early age. Very early. He was no more than two when he saw an episode of TV series The Outer Limits. “I got scared so bad that I started dreaming of monsters in a lucid way,” he recalls. “I would wake up in my room and there would be creatures that were not real… I offered to become their friend if they let me climb out of the crib to go to the bathroom.” Across his childhood in Mexico and a three-decade career in Hollywood, Del Toro has made peace with those monsters. Think of the Pale Man, the humanoid with eyeballs in his palms, in 2006 fascism allegory Pan’s Labyrinth. Or the amphibious captive in 2017’s The Shape of Water, the film that won Del Toro two of his three Oscars (the third was for his beautifully animated Pinocchio in 2022). Now the director is taking on the greatest monster of them all: the Creature at the heart of Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel Frankenstein, in a mesmerising adaptation starring Oscar Isaac and Jacob Elordi. Del Toro was 11 when he first read the gothic classic, a Spanish-language copy he picked up in a supermarket that he still has to this day. But his obsession was fired four years earlier, when he saw Boris Karloff’s unsettling monster in James Whale’s seminal 1931 Frankenstein. He calls it his St Paul on the road to Damascus moment. “I went into some sort of seizure of joy,” he says, when we meet at the Venice Film Festival, where his impeccably crafted Frankenstein received its world premiere. Now 61, he’s dreamed of making this film his entire career – longer, even. “I wanted to make this movie before I had a camera, before I knew what a camera was,” he explains. “There are a few seminal figures in my childhood that loom large. Creature from the Black Lagoon, Phantom of the Opera, Dr Frankenstein, the H…

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Guillermo del Toro reveals his favourite horror films
type: item
creator: James Mottram
subject: App
subject: App features
description: The director of Frankenstein says choosing just a few of his favourite horror films is an impossible task, but he's happy to have a go…
encoded: Add Frankenstein to your watchlist What are your favourite horror films? It’s difficult. It’s like, what are your favourite dishes? You want a burger and a pizza? I can show you great burgers and pizzas. Or if you want a five-star deconstructive molecular cuisine, I’ll give you another list. If I was looking for scary horrors, then I would say the original Ring, Jaws, Alien, Texas Chainsaw Massacre. And I would say Weapons too. Those are very scary to me. If you wanted to think "moving", I would say Creature From The Black Lagoon, Charles Laughton’s Hunchback of Notre Dame, and [the 1931 film] Frankenstein.

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Emotive reason Jacob Elordi was cast as Frankenstein’s Monster revealed by Guillermo del Toro as director also shares his family trauma
type: item
date: 2025-10-28T00:01:30.000Z
creator: James Mottram
subject: Movies
subject: Magazine
subject: Netflix
description: “When I saw them, I said, ‘This is the Creature. No doubt about it.’”
encoded: This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. A director who has given us some of the most indelible monsters in screen history, Guillermo del Toro has had a fascination with the macabre from an early age. Very early. He was no more than two when he saw an episode of TV series The Outer Limits. “I got scared so bad that I started dreaming of monsters in a lucid way,” he recalls. “I would wake up in my room and there would be creatures that were not real… I offered to become their friend if they let me climb out of the crib to go to the bathroom.” Across his childhood in Mexico and a three-decade career in Hollywood, Del Toro has made peace with those monsters. Think of the Pale Man, the humanoid with eyeballs in his palms, in 2006 fascism allegory Pan’s Labyrinth. Or the amphibious captive in 2017’s The Shape of Water, the film that won Del Toro two of his three Oscars (the third was for his beautifully animated Pinocchio in 2022). Now the director is taking on the greatest monster of them all: the Creature at the heart of Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel Frankenstein, in a mesmerising adaptation starring Oscar Isaac and Jacob Elordi. Del Toro was 11 when he first read the gothic classic, a Spanish-language copy he picked up in a supermarket that he still has to this day. But his obsession was fired four years earlier, when he saw Boris Karloff’s unsettling monster in James Whale’s seminal 1931 Frankenstein. He calls it his St Paul on the road to Damascus moment. “I went into some sort of seizure of joy,” he says, when we meet at the Venice Film Festival, where his impeccably crafted Frankenstein received its world premiere. Now 61, he’s dreamed of making this film his entire career – longer, even. “I wanted to make this movie before I had a camera, before I knew what a camera was,” he explains. “There are a few seminal figures in my childhood that loom large. Creature from the Black Lagoon, Phantom of the Opera, Dr Frankenstein, the Hunchback, Pinocchio. And those …

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Meet my parents
type: item
creator: James Mottram
subject: App
subject: App features
description: Ben Stiller has made a film about his parents, who were comedy stars in 1960s USA. But does the film actually say more about him?
encoded: Add Stiller & Meara: Nothing Is Lost to your watchlist Comic double act Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara were huge in the 60s. They regularly appeared on the American variety programme The Ed Sullivan Show, while Jerry went on to play the short-tempered Frank Costanza, George’s father, in Seinfeld, and Anne – who died in 2015 – appeared in movies like The Boys from Brazil and Fame. Now, in his documentary Stiller & Meara: Nothing Is Lost, actor-director Ben Stiller paints a tender portrait of his famous folks. When Jerry died in 2020, Stiller began filming the New York apartment his parents shared. A way to remember the place he grew up in before it was sold, it was the start of something highly personal. “I thought, ‘I want to do something that is going to be some sort of tribute to my parents,’ ” he explains, over Zoom. “This was at the beginning of Covid, and there was no chance to do a memorial for my dad. I just felt like this was a way to connect with him after losing him.” From Jerry’s home movies to cassette recordings, photos and newspaper clippings, the archive was plentiful. Stiller and his sister Amy (also an actor) even found love letters. The silver-haired Stiller, 59, was particularly taken by this intimate insight into his mother and father’s inner life. “When you think of your parents, you don’t think of them in that first blush of young love. And it was amazing to see how much passion they had for each other. I knew my dad was so devoted to my mom his whole life. But to read this frisky back and forth… it was pretty surreal, I have to say.” Stiller has always been close to his parents, lines between family and work blurring. His mother appeared in his 1994 directorial debut Gen X romance Reality Bites and hit comedy Night at the Museum, while his father played the shell-suit-wearing manager Maury Ballstein in Zoolander, Stiller’s cult 2001 comedy about a dumb-bell fashion model. “I wasn’t stupid – they were funny… I was completely using them,” he admit…

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The Mastermind review: Josh O'Connor leads an art-theft film that will stay with you
type: item
creator: James Mottram
subject: App
subject: App features
description: Director Kelly Reichardt offers a crime tale tale starring Josh O'Connor and Alana Haim.
encoded: ★★★☆☆ The Mastermind is in cinemas from Friday 24 October. Add it to your watchlist “Honestly, I don’t think you’ve thought things through enough.” So James Mooney (Josh O’Connor) is told in Kelly Reichardt’s art-theft tale. Unveiled in competition at the Cannes Film Festival, The Mastermind might yet be Reichardt’s most commercial vehicle, although up against her earlier films like Wendy and Lucy, First Cow and Certain Women, all delicate, nuanced and often slow-moving works, that’s hardly saying much. Set in the early 1970s, O’Connor’s James is an unemployed carpenter in Framingham, Massachusetts, married to Terri (Alana Haim) and father to their two boys, Tommy and Carl. In need of money, early on, we see him requesting funds from his mother (Hope Davis). She suggests that his father, a Circuit County Judge (Bill Camp), can’t know. But it’s clear that life hasn’t quite worked out the way James, an art school dropout-out, has wanted. When the film opens, he’s casing Framingham’s art museum, even lifting a small figurine from a glass display case while his kids lark around. However, the real plan he hatches is to steal four Arthur Dove paintings from the building, along with his cohorts. The heist itself is both comical and shocking. Two of the gang, wearing stockings to disguise their features, sneak the paintings past a security guard, who seems to be forever dozing. Things go awry when one, Ronnie (Javion Allen), pulls a gun on a teenage girl who encounters them. Thankfully, no bullets are fired, but suddenly this art theft takes on a deadly slant. Worse is to come as James’ plans to sell the paintings go disastrously wrong, while Gibson is caught for a bank robbery, immediately pointing the finger at James as the mastermind of the museum theft. James has little choice but to go on the run, leaving Terri and the kids at his parents’ house. View oEmbed on the source website Scored with a jazzy, double-bass and percussion-heavy sound, Reichardt’s film is certainly…

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Ben Stiller says new Apple TV film allowed him to ‘process the grief’ of losing his parents
type: item
date: 2025-10-20T23:01:15.000Z
creator: James Mottram
subject: Documentaries
subject: TV
subject: Apple TV
subject: Interview
subject: Magazine
description: Ben Stiller has made a film about his parents, who were comedy stars in 1960s USA. But does the film actually say more about him?
encoded: This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. Comic double act Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara were huge in the 60s. They regularly appeared on the American variety programme The Ed Sullivan Show, while Jerry went on to play the short-tempered Frank Costanza, George’s father, in Seinfeld, and Anne – who died in 2015 – appeared in movies like The Boys from Brazil and Fame. Now, in his documentary Stiller & Meara: Nothing Is Lost, actor-director Ben Stiller paints a tender portrait of his famous folks. When Jerry died in 2020, Stiller began filming the New York apartment his parents shared. A way to remember the place he grew up in before it was sold, it was the start of something highly personal. “I thought, ‘I want to do something that is going to be some sort of tribute to my parents,’ ” he explains, over Zoom. “This was at the beginning of Covid, and there was no chance to do a memorial for my dad. I just felt like this was a way to connect with him after losing him.” From Jerry’s home movies to cassette recordings, photos and newspaper clippings, the archive was plentiful. Stiller and his sister Amy (also an actor) even found love letters. The silver-haired Stiller, 59, was particularly taken by this intimate insight into his mother and father’s inner life. “When you think of your parents, you don’t think of them in that first blush of young love. And it was amazing to see how much passion they had for each other. I knew my dad was so devoted to my mom his whole life. But to read this frisky back and forth… it was pretty surreal, I have to say.” Stiller has always been close to his parents, lines between family and work blurring. His mother appeared in his 1994 directorial debut Gen X romance Reality Bites and hit comedy Night at the Museum, while his father played the shell-suit-wearing manager Maury Ballstein in Zoolander, Stiller’s cult 2001 comedy about a dumb-bell fashion model. “I wasn’t stupid – they were funny… I was completely using them,” he admits …

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height: 1707

10 Questions with Josh O'Connor
type: item
creator: James Mottram
subject: App
subject: App features
description: From fears to ears and stealing art, the actor discusses his new film — and his toe-curling audition for Les Misérables
encoded: Add The Mastermind to your watchlist Southampton-born actor Josh O’Connor, 35, has gone from Lawrence Durrell in the ITV drama The Durrells to repressed farm-hand in God’s Own Country and Prince Charles in The Crown. This month, before starring in the forthcoming Knives Out movie and taking on a lead role in Steven Spielberg’s new top secret sci-fi film, he’s back on the big screen in The Mastermind, playing a failed carpenter who turns to robbing art… unsuccessfully. Over the years, you’ve played characters different to you, like Prince Charles in The Crown and a washed-up tennis pro in the film Challengers. Is it hard taking on new personalities? Actors are all deeply insecure. That’s why we do what we do. If you break down what an actor is being asked to do, to become someone else and step into the shoes of a character that oftentimes barely resembles them, the skill is bringing elements of yourself to that character. With Prince Charles, there was a fear of admitting that there’s a part of me that’s anything like him. Initially, I was like, “No, I can’t, it’s just the ears, it’s the ears!” But then with Challengers, it was different. I knew Luca [Guadagnino, the director] wanted this very confident, chest-out, cocksure guy, and I didn’t recognise that in myself, necessarily. Most of the time, you’re answering out of fear. Work fears aside, what are you most scared of in life? Honestly, I’m scared of everything! What’s the hardest part of acting? The reality is it’s not easy and it is quite difficult and there are times when you feel quite isolated and lonely and you’re not around your friends an awful lot. How were your early years when you started out? I had years of auditioning and not getting roles, and sometimes getting really close to roles, but then not getting them. Are there any experiences that still haunt you? My first ever audition was for the Russell Crowe Les Misérables [2012]. They were auditioning everyone! But I didn’t know that. I don’t have any…

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Josh O’Connor on "awful" audition for movie blockbuster – and why he was afraid of being similar to Prince Charles
type: item
date: 2025-10-13T23:01:00.000Z
creator: James Mottram
subject: Movies
subject: Interview
subject: Magazine
description: From fears to ears and stealing art, the actor discusses his new film — and his toe-curling audition for Les Misérables.
encoded: This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. Southampton-born actor Josh O’Connor, 35, has gone from Lawrence Durrell in the ITV drama The Durrells to repressed farm-hand in God’s Own Country and Prince Charles in The Crown. This month, before starring in the forthcoming Knives Out movie and taking on a lead role in Steven Spielberg’s new top secret sci-fi film, he’s back on the big screen in The Mastermind, playing a failed carpenter who turns to robbing art... unsuccessfully. Over the years, you’ve played characters different to you, like Prince Charles in The Crown and a washed-up tennis pro in the film Challengers. Is it hard taking on new personalities? Actors are all deeply insecure. That’s why we do what we do. If you break down what an actor is being asked to do, to become someone else and step into the shoes of a character that oftentimes barely resembles them, the skill is bringing elements of yourself to that character. With Prince Charles, there was a fear of admitting that there’s a part of me that’s anything like him. Initially, I was like, “No, I can’t, it’s just the ears, it’s the ears!” But then with Challengers, it was different. I knew Luca [Guadagnino, the director] wanted this very confident, chest-out, cocksure guy, and I didn’t recognise that in myself, necessarily. Most of the time, you’re answering out of fear. Work fears aside, what are you most scared of in life? Honestly, I’m scared of everything! What’s the hardest part of acting? The reality is it’s not easy and it is quite difficult and there are times when you feel quite isolated and lonely and you’re not around your friends an awful lot. How were your early years when you started out? I had years of auditioning and not getting roles, and sometimes getting really close to roles, but then not getting them. Are there any experiences that still haunt you? My first ever audition was for the Russell Crowe Les Misérables [2012]. They were auditioning everyone! But I didn’t know that…

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width: 4137
height: 3058