Matthew Singer

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: 🕯️ The 35 steamiest erotic thrillers ever made😬 The best thriller movies on Netflix💰 The 60 most nerve-racking heist movies ever🧠 The greatest psychological thrillers ever made 

Halloween has horror, Valentine’s Day has romcoms and Christmas movies are a genre unto themselves. In cinematic terms, Easter is the odd holiday out. The day doesn’t really have a definitive movie, unless you count The Passion of the Christ, and that’s really more of a horror flick if we’re being honest. If you’re looking for something appropriate to watch with the family, it can be like searching for an egg in the Amazon. Don’t fret, though: we’ve done the searching for you. In this basket of treats, we’ve got rascally rabbits new and old, a toe-tapping musical starring two Hollywood icons, a burglar-busting dog, a rom-com about Beatrix Potter and, of course, the Peanuts gang. Recommended: 👪 The best family movies of all-time🤣 The best funny family movies🧒 The best movies for toddlers🐶 The best animal movies for kids

Moms deserve more than a single day of recognition. It’s a 24/7, 365-day-a-year occupation, after all. But if you’re going to pick one day to spoil your beloved momma, make it Mother’s Day. And what better way to do so than granting them a responsibility-free night on the couch with a movie that reminds them what a privilege it is to be someone’s mum? Whether she’s into coming-of-age comedies, tear-jerking family dramas or just needs reassurance that she’s a better parent than Joan Crawford, there’s something here that’ll make every mother smile. Just don’t forget the wine. Recommended: 🤰 The 50 most iconic movie mums👨 The 15 best Father’s Day movies to watch with your dad🔥 The 100 best movies of all-time

Netflix changed the game, and then the game changed on Netflix. A decade ago, the company broke the TV mold with House of Cards, the first significant original series from a streaming platform. In the years since, the many other services that followed their lead have stepped up their own original output, and it’s often hard to remember which bingeable phenomenon belongs to which brand. But when you sit down and really look at the legacy, it becomes clear that Netflix still has the strongest catalog out there. Even if the returns have diminished a bit in recent years, the studio is still pumping out more high-quality content than you possibly have time for. So we’ve gone ahead and put together a list of the 40 Netflix originals series you absolutely must binge before you die or cancel your subscription… whichever comes first. And before you get all upset about the absence of Black Mirror and Cobra Kai, we’ve left out shows that originated elsewhere before the platform picked them up. We’re also sticking to scripted series - though you can check out our favourite Netflix true crime docs here. Recommended: 🎥 The 35 best movies on Netflix right now🔥 The 25 best movies on HBO and Max right now👽 The best sci-fi shows streaming on Netflix

When South Korean director Bong Joon Ho collected his Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film for Parasite, in 2019, he teased the audience for its hesitancy to embrace international filmmaking. ‘Once you overcome the one-inch tall barrier of subtitles’, he said, ‘you will be introduced to so many more amazing films’. Indeed, many of the greatest movies ever made were produced in non-English-speaking countries, and there is no need for any fan of cinema to be intimidated by them.  |Sure, you may encounter big themes and a fair bit of philosophy. But you’ll also find pulse-racing action flicks, silly comedies, charming musicals and stylish thrillers, as well as movies that might feel oddly familiar because, well, they probably directly influenced the movies you already love. In compiling this list of the best foreign films of all-time, We omitted silent films and determined that the movies had to be in a language that wasn’t English: so goodbye Britain and Australia, we’ll see you elsewhere. Other than those caveats, consider this your travel guide to the wide, wonderful world of international film. Written by David Fear, Keith Uhlich, Andy Kryza, Joshua Rothkopf & Matthew Singer  Recommended: 🔥 The 100 best movies of all-time🇫🇷 The 100 best French movies of all-time, ranked🇰🇷 The best Korean movies of all-time🥋 The 25 best martial arts movies of all-time 

For many budding cinephiles, French movies are the final boss of film fandom. In the popular mind, it’s the most highfalutin of movie cultures, laden with philosophy, avant-garde structures and impenetrable characters. But the truth is, few countries can claim to have exerted as strong and consistent an influence over global moviemaking as France. And sure, a lot of it can be hard for non-scholars to grasp – pioneering New Wavers like Jean-Luc Godard and Agnès Varda prided themselves on it.  Once you start digging into the history of French film, though, you’ll discover pleasures unlike those found anywhere else in world cinema. Jumping in, however, can be difficult – and ranking the greatest French films is no easy task. But whether you’re a Nouvelle Vague obsessive or just a big fan of Amélie, you’re sure to discover something new in this countdown of the best French films of all-time. Written by Tom Huddleston, Geoff Andrew, Dave Calhoun, Cath Clarke, Trevor Johnston, Joshua Rothkopf, Keith Uhlich and Matthew Singer  Recommended: 🔥 The 100 best movies of all-time🌏 The best foreign films of all-time🇬🇧 The 100 best British movies🛏 The 101 best sex scenes in movies of all-time

No one sets out to make a cult film. Well, maybe David Lynch. And Alejandro Jodorowsky. And John Waters. Sure, there are those filmmakers whose output is intended, or expected, to be understood by a small niche audience. Most of the time, though, if someone is going to go through all the trouble of writing, casting, directing, financing and shooting a movie, somewhere in their auteurist heart, they’re wishing to score a leftfield hit – the next ‘little low-budget indie that could.’ Cultdom is often the best they can settle for.  But hey, there are much worse fates for any piece of art. In fact, as time has gone on, and the phrase has become more commonly understood, filmmakers have started to wear ‘cult’ as a badge of honour. And well they should – especially given the company they keep. Putting together this list requires figuring out what exactly defines a ‘cult film’, which is a challenge in itself. As best as we can lock down, it’s a movie in which the fervency of its fans far outstrips its box-office returns. Each of these 40 all-timers fit the bill. Recommended:  🔥 The 100 best movies of all-time👽 The 100 best science fiction movies of all-time😱 The 100 best horror movies of all-time👹 The 50 best monster movies ever made💩 The 40 best bad movies ever made

If you were lucky enough to grow up pre-Y2K, you would have likely known little about Korea beyond the conflict in the back pages of your school history book. But that all changed when, in the aftermath of the 1997 Asian financial crisis, the country doubled down on funding exportable pop culture in an attempt to rebrand the country on the world stage. The gambit, part designed to attract big business and tourism, was a wild success – and now we have K-Pop, K-dramas and kimchi pouring out of our ears. One of the biggest proponents of the ‘hallyu’ wave, though, has always been filmmaking – with Hollywood-style action blockbuster Shiri; brutal revenge thriller Oldboy; and Academy Awards triumph Parasite among the most resounding victories of a national cinema revitalised from the brink of anonymity. We simply can’t get enough of it today. And for good reason: South Korea is a goldmine of original ideas and storytelling talents who show no signs of taking their feet off the gas as the industry thrives. So why not huff on the metaphorical fumes? Our list of the best Korean movies of all time billows below.Recommended:🇫🇷 The 100 best French movies of all-time🇯🇵 The 50 best Japanese movies of all-time🇭🇰 The 100 best Hong Kong movies of all-time🇮🇹 The best Italian movies of all time: from Bicycle Thieves to The Great Beauty

Even in the era of streaming overload, it’s hard to find a platform catering to fans of classic and cult cinema. But what if we told you there's a website out there hiding a trove of incredible films, available entirely for free? And what if we told you it’s called YouTube? That’s right: the site mostly known for cat videos and conspiracy theories also has an incredible selection of movies, many of which are unavailable on other services: arthouse curios, silent era milestones, essential deep-cuts. (If you’re looking for more modern fare, YouTube has a full channel of ad-supported films as well.)  Thing is, they can be hard to find, buried underneath the plethora of DIY home improvement videos and the like. So we’ve dug around and found the 30 best full movies available on YouTube – all of which have been legally uploaded. Recommended: 🎬 100 best movies of all time💣 The greatest thrillers ever made🤘 The best cult classic movies of all-time🌍 The 50 best foreign films of all-time

It’s not easy being a teen. The specifics change from generation to generation, but the struggle is universal: you’re perched between childhood and adulthood, trying to figure out the world and yourself, as your hormones rage and your peers are at their cruellest. So it’s no surprise that filmmakers continually return to their high-school years for inspiration – it’s at once the most dramatic and hilarious time in anyone’s life. Movies exploring the trials, tribulations and emotional turbulence of adolescence have been huge since at least the 1950s, and arguably hit their peak in the ’80s, but they’ve remained a constant in cinema through today. And it isn’t all awkward sex and overblown emotions – though there’s plenty of both, of course. On this list of the best teen movies of all time, you’ll find intimately observed dramas, empathetic love stories and tales of pure horror. Because after all, what’s scarier than puberty?  Recommended:  🤣 The 100 best comedy movies👾 The 50 best ’80s movies💿 The 50 best ’90s movies

A wise, violent man once asked: ‘Do you like scary movies?’ The better question, though, is who doesn’t like scary movies? Is there any feeling more exhilarating than a jolt of fright, especially if it’s in the form of entertainment? Sure, we all have our limits: not everyone is up for watching a demonic clown saw a woman in half. (Although the box office returns suggest a surprising number of people are.) But even the most squeamish scaredy cats enjoy a light bump in the night every now and then, especially when October rolls around. Horror is the midst of a major renaissance moment, commercially and critically. In 2024, some of the biggest, buzziest movies of the year – I Saw the TV Glow, Longlegs, The Substance and the aforementioned box-office shocker Terrifier 3 – belong to the genre. But horror has a long history, dating back to the earliest days of cinema. Looking to have your nerves rattled? These 100 classics are guaranteed to have you hiding behind your couch by the time the credits roll. Written by Tom Huddleston, Cath Clarke, Dave Calhoun, Nigel Floyd, Phil de Semlyen, David Ehrlich, Joshua Rothkopf, Nigel Floyd, Andy Kryza, Alim Kheraj and Matthew Singer Recommended: 🔪 The best new horror movies of 2024 (so far)🔥 The 100 best movies of all time🤡 The 21 Best Stephen King Movies of All Time🩸 The 15 scariest horror movies based on true stories

We’ve all done it. You throw a movie you’ve been dying to see on the TV, throw on a blanket and get yourself comfortable, then wake up on the couch five hours later to the Netflix home screen after falling asleep before the opening credits even finished.  Want to stream something guaranteed to keep you up for the entire runtime? Netflix has plenty of engrossing, high octane thrillers guaranteed to keep your eyes open and your pulse rate high. Of course, it also has plenty of catalogue fodder that’ll make you regret not turning in sooner. So we’ve gathered together the 30 best thrillers currently streaming that you won’t regret watching in the morning. Recommended: 😬 The best thriller films of all-time💣 The 101 best action movies ever made🔎 The best murder-mystery movies of all-time🍆 The 35 steamiest erotic thrillers

Ex-royals, robots and avenging priests are hitting Netflix in March. Admittedly, it’s a bit of a light month on the streamer for standout original content, but it’s not without highlights, the most notable being the sci-fi saga The Electric State, starring Chris Pratt and Stranger Things’ Millie Bobby Brown as survivors of an AI uprising traversing a war-ravaged, alternate-reality version of 1990s America. If you want something more serious, Revelations, a Korean thriller from the director of Train to Busan, looks mighty intense. And if you just want to hang out in Meghan Markle’s kitchen, there’s a show for you, too. Here’s what we’re most looking forward to, followed by a list of everything brand-new coming to Netflix in March. Recommended: 💻 The best Netflix original series to binge📺 The must-see TV shows of 2025   Image: Netflix"With Love, Meghan"   With Love, Meghan Aside from the initial documentary about their break from the royal family, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s $100 million Netflix production deal hasn’t exactly set the streaming world aflame. It’s hard to imagine this HGTV-style lifestyle series, hosted by the Duchess of Sussex, will attract anyone who doesn’t already obsess over the pair’s every move, but if you’re in the market for tips on harvesting honey or preparing a crowd-pleasing bruschetta, maybe you’ll get something out of it. Premieres March 4   Image: Netflix"Just One Look"   Just One Look Author Harlan Coben’s airport thrillers are ideal s

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

Mike White’s HBO sensation The White Lotus is back and not since Chevy Chase’s ’80s heyday have vacations gone wrong quite this spectacularly.Second 3 sees another party of unsuspecting but largely fairly deserving wealthies disembarking for a week or so of passive-aggression, skullduggery, and in the odd case, death. Friendships will fray, cobras will be unleashed and uptight westerners will unravel in the serene surrounds of a Thai resort. And we’ll all be there every step of the way. As with previous seasons the location is the story. This time White is taking us further east: to Thailand and a White Lotus resort where devices must be popped in a bag and the healing power of spiritual therapy allowed to do its thing. Season 1 took us to Hawaii, season 2 introduced the Sicilian White Lotus. Now it’s time for a tour of White Lotus Thailand and its ultra-luxe locations. Photograph: Fabio Lovino/HBO(Left to right) Christian Friedel, Carrie Coon, Michelle Monaghan, Leslie Bibb and Lek Patravadi in season 3 of ‘The White Lotus’ Where is White Lotus season 3 filmed? The third season takes its cast – Michelle Monaghan, Parker Posey, Carrie Coon, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Jason Isaacs, Cate Le Bon et al – to The White Lotus Resort in Thailand. According to Mike White, it was nearly set in another a couple of thousand miles to the east. ‘Originally, [Thailand] was kind of a stalking horse because I wanted to shoot in Japan,’ says the showrunner. ‘I've spent more time there and I jus

The devastating wildfires that have been sweeping through suburbs of Los Angeles since Tuesday continue to threaten life and livelihoods across the city—as well as inflicting enormous destruction of property.     In a city famous as a headquarters for film and TV production, the impact has been devastating, with celebrity enclaves like Malibu and Pacific Palisades hit especially hard by the blaze. Studios have been evacuated, and TV productions and award season events deferred. Here’s what it all means for the world of pop culture and moviemaking. 1. Are L.A.’s cinemas and studios threatened by the wildfires?  As the Sunset Fire broke out in the Hollywood Hills on Wednesday evening, the TCL Chinese Theatre—popularly known as Grauman’s Chinese Theatre—and the current home of the Oscars, the Dolby Theatre, were included in the evacuation zone. The blaze was largely extinguished overnight, however, and the evacuation warning lifted.   The L.A. premieres for Pamela Anderson’s award-nominated The Last Showgirl, Unstoppable, Wolf Man and the long-awaited second season of Apple TV+’s Severance were called off. Even a New York premiere—of Jamie Foxx and Cameron Diaz’s Netflix action-comedy Back in Action—was cancelled too. Meanwhile, popular studio attractions were also closed during the week, due to the proximity of the fires. Universal Studios closed its gates to the public on Wednesday, before reopening today. Universal Studios Hollywood and Universal CityWalk will be

Well, here we are. America has arrived at the moment of truth – the most important presidential election in our lifetime. Sure, they seem to say that about every election, but in this case, it’s probably true, given that democracy itself is seemingly hanging in the balance. Whether or not the results actually end up confirming the country’s slide into totalitarianism, it’s a big deal regardless.   Need to prepare yourself? These movies should help put things in perspective. Not all of them are about presidential politics per se, but they are focused on the democratic process and the machinations and maneuverings that accompany it. We’d like to say they’ll calm your inevitably frazzled nerves, but the truth is, if you’re making a movie about an election in the United States, it’s probably lined with a good bit of cynicism. But as you’ll see, cynicism can be a good thing, especially if you’re hoping for the best and preparing for the worst. Recommended: 🔥 The 100 best movies of all-time😬 The best thriller movies of all-time🤔 The 24 best movies based on true stories Photograph: Warner Bros. 1. All the President’s Men (1976) Ah, the days when committing crimes could actually bring down a presidency. Watergate was barely out of the headlines when Alan Pakula turned the most famous act of reportage in American political history into the greatest journalism procedural ever made. Embellishing little, Pakula sticks to the facts – and to the newsroom of The Washington Post – and

Horror, fittingly, is the unkillable genre. Just when you think it’s peaked – the exploitation-heavy ’70s, the slasher ’80s, the post-ironic ’90s – it gets a new leash of life and lurches back at you, claw hammer in hand. Like the transmogrifying alien in The Thing, there’s something in its bloodstream that keeps its scares relevant, keeps them reflecting our fears back at us in ways that are too damn frightening to resist. Halloween, however, requires a very specific kind of horror film: it’s a time when spooks and scares, ghosts and ghouls take precedence over subtext and smarts. With that, and the genre’s recent purple patch in mind, here’s a few films from the last year or two that will scare you witless this week and enhance that gothic vibe. (If you’ve got younger viewers in the house, give this more family-friendly list a go instead.) Our pick of the top Halloween movies for 2024 Photograph: A24 1. Heretic Hands up: who had Hugh Grant down as this year’s answer to the Jigsaw Killer? The erstwhile romcom softboi shows new, darker shades in a fiendishly clever horror-thriller with big ideas and even bigger shocks. It’s not Grant’s first villainous turn – hello, Daniel Cleaver and that cannibal in Cloud Atlas – but when his seemingly hospitable would-be convert lulls a pair of guileless Mormon missionaries into a hellish labyrinthine, it’s a ride you really don’t want to miss. In theaters now Photograph: Signature Entertainment 2. Terrifier 3 Who knew there was such

You’ve carved a pumpkin – looks great, top work – you’ve stocked up on candy and decked out the front porch like it’s the set of a Tim Burton movie. But there may be one variable still lingering over your Halloween: what to watch with the little ones? What’s needed is something that offers kids a frisson of spookiness and some gentle scares, but nothing that’s going to freak them out and require you to spend three hours sitting by their bedside reassuring them that Pazuzu isn’t real. Oh, and something that’s genuinely fun for grown-ups too. Here’s our pick of ten Halloween faves that hit that ghoulish sweet spot. (Oh, and grown-ups should head for this more R-rated list.) The top Halloween movies for kids Photograph: Disney 1. Coco (Disney+) Give your Halloween a celebratory vibe with an effervescent Pixar animation that sends its young musical hero into the afterlife for a race-against-the-clock adventure featuring skeletons as far as the eyeball can see. No culture does death with as much vibrancy and joy as Mexico, and this riff on the Day of the Dead celebrations is a suitably kaleidoscopic treatment of the great beyond. The actual Día de Muerto falls on Saturday, November 2, so what better time to cue it up? Photograph: Disney+Frankenweenie 2. Frankenweenie (Disney+) Nothing’s worse than the loss of a beloved family pet. Enter Tim Burton’s stop motion animation to raise the spooky possibility of reincarnating the little guy with the help of a massive electrical cha

On Netflix, movies and TV shows come and go almost daily. Sometimes, you may not even know something is there to stream before it’s too late. In other cases, you might be halfway through a series, or planning to watch a movie at the end of the week, and then poof: gone. Don’t get caught unaware. Below, you’ll find a full list of everything leaving Netflix in November 2024, with our six picks for the flicks you must watch before they cycle off, including Tom Hanks as a grumpy old man, Tom Cruise as a live-action video game character, Ryan Gosling as a real American hero, and Keanu Reeves as Johnny Utah. Get watching, and live without regret. Recommended: 🎬 The 35 best movies on Netflix right now🇳 The 44 best Netflix original series to binge🦚 The 20 best movies to watch on Peacock right now🎥 The 25 best movies on HBO and Max right now Photograph: Dennis Mong/Sony Pictures A Man Called Otto Tom Hanks plays against type as a gravelly-voiced old grouch who just wants to be left alone long enough to hang himself and join his wife in the afterlife. Of course, his meddling neighbours won’t allow that to happen, and the movie becomes just the sort of hard-to-resist heartstring-tugger you expect to see Tom Hanks in.  Leaves Nov 5   Photograph: Warner Bros."Edge of Tomorrow" Edge of Tomorrow ‘Starship Troopers meets Groundhog Day’ is the easiest pitch for this entertaining sci-fi blockbuster. Tom Cruise is a post-apocalyptic bureaucrat conscripted to fight against the alien hord

Sports are the pinnacle of human drama, and the Olympics are the peak of sporting events. Logically, then, movies about the Olympics are some of the most stirring, thrilling and plainly inspirational you’ll find. We’re not saying they’re the best sports movies necessarily – we’ve got a whole other list for that – but when it comes to whipping viewers into a patriotic froth, the best films about the global games do it better than almost anything else. Of course, there is a dark side to the Olympics, both socially and historically, as reflected in top-shelf movies like Munich and Foxcatcher. But for the sake of this list, and stoking excitement for the upcoming Paris games, we’re sticking with the thrilling, the soul-stirring and the inspirational movies to tackle the Olympics – in both their summer and snowier guises. Here are nine of our favourites. Recommended: ⚾ The 50 best sports movies of all-time🥊 The 10 best boxing movies of all-time📹 The 66 best documentaries of all-time Zátopek (2021) Every country has its Olympics heroes. In the Czech Republic it’s Emil Zátopek, a long-distance runner who defied the odds to win triple gold at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics. As charted in this stirring and colourful biopic, Zátopek (Václav Neužil) had the kind of mischievous eccentricity and drive you probably need to run endlessly in giant loops – and a romantic spirit that manifests in a touching romance with Dana, a champion javelin thrower. Well worth, ahem, tracking do

Rejoice, film fans – August is over! The end of summer is famously regarded as an end-of-summer dumping ground for major studios, and this year seemed particularly dismal. But with September comes slightly cooler temperatures and definitively movies as award season begins in earnest. This month’s slate is light on blockbusters or marquee releases but contains several smaller affairs you may end up hearing about come Oscar time, including Celine Song’s quietly heartbreaking modern romance ‘Past Lives’, the intensely intimate ‘Passages’ and Pedro Almodovar’s Pedro Pascal-and-Ethan Hawke-starring ‘queer Western’, Strange ‘Way of Life’. And hey, if you just want to see Denzel Washington shoot some bad guys, there’s always ‘The Equalizer 3’!     Photograph: MUBI Passages A long-tenured French couple (Franz Rogowski and Ben Whishaw) have their relationship thrown into chaos when the former has an affair with a younger woman (Adèle Exarchopoulos) in this typically small-yet-intense drama from director Ira Sachs. Having previously set his films in New York, Sachs utilises the Parisian backdrop to such a degree it becomes a character unto itself.  In cinemas Sep 1  Foto: Cortesía Konnichiwa Festival The First Slam Dunk Basketball anime style, Takehiko Inoue’s adaptation of his own mega-selling manga series ‘Slam Dunk’ is 20 years in the making and currently smashing box-office records in Japan and South Korea. It arrives on these shores as the fifth highest grossing anime e

Already a smash hit in the US, all eight episodes of ‘The Bear’ have finally arrived on Disney+ in the UK and Ireland. The FX dramedy, set in the kitchen of a blue-collar Chicago sandwich shop and starring the about-to-be-huge Jeremy Allen White, has generated a tonne of buzz since its first dropped on Hulu across the Pond.Created by Christopher Storer, it centres on an up-and-coming chef who inherits his family’s struggling greasy spoon following the sudden death of his brother. It’s earned critical raves for its breakout cast and sharply observed writing, which manages to convey a lot about grief and masculinity despite dealing with some not particularly articulate characters. And it’s already been renewed for a second season. So if you want to keep up with the zeitgeist, you’ll probably want to jump in as soon as it lands on the streamer. And if you’re wondering if it’s worth the four-hour investment, here are the five best reasons to watch. Photograph: Matt Dinerstein/FXWhite with Liza Colon-Zayas as Tina 1. Jeremy Allen White is basically a young Nicolas Cage First and foremost, ‘The Bear’ heralds the arrival of Jeremy Allen White. Okay, perhaps that’s a weird thing to say, given that he just wrapped up a ten-year stint as a lead on the US version of Shameless. But in his first true star vehicle, White shines as Carmen ‘Carmy’ Bezatto, aka Bear, a hot-shit young chef with hypnotic eyes and a wounded demeanour. White spent two weeks in culinary school to prepare for the

Damien Chazelle is returning to La La Land… But the director’s new movie is about a much different Los Angeles than that of his 2016 musical. In his upcoming Babylon, the 37-year-old filmmaker travels back to the Golden Age of Hollywood, a particularly grand and debauched time in the entertainment industry. It’s Chazelle’s first movie since 2018’s Neil Armstrong biopic First Man and the first he’s written since La La Land made him the youngest Best Director winner in Oscar history. And according to Chazelle, it’s his most ambitious project yet. ‘It was definitely the hardest thing I’ve done,’ he tells Vanity Fair. ‘Just the logistics of it, the number of characters, the scale of the set pieces, the span of time that the movie charts – it all conspired to make it particularly challenging, but it was a challenge that was pretty exciting to take on.’ Chazelle says he’s had the idea for Babylon in his head since even before his breakthrough film, 2014’s Whiplash, but didn’t yet have the clout to do something so ‘massive’. He finally started working on the script in 2018, but then the pandemic stalled production. After screening teaser footage for a convention audience earlier this year, Babylon is finally nearing release – and it looks like another Oscar contender. Here’s everything we know about Babylon.   Photo Credit: Scott Garfield| Margot Robbie plays Nellie LaRoy in Babylon from Paramount Pictures. When does Babylon come out? It hits theatres in select US cities on Decemb