Phil de Semlyen

2025 update: In this update, we've added one of the best blockbusters of the last decade, Top Gun: Maverick, the movie that finally brought audiences back to theaters post-pandemic and which firmly outclasses the 1986 original with some of the most thrilling flight sequences ever put on film.  Everyone loves a good action movie. Sure, film school snobs may turn up their noses, but even hardcore cineastes cannot live on indie dramas and experimental art flicks alone. No matter how cultured you are, there’s a part of your lizard brain that loves explosions and shootouts and badass one-liners – and it needs to be satisfied. And the only thing that will scratch the itch is watching something get blowed up real good.  The truth is, action is a deeply misunderstood genre. Action flicks needn’t be dumb or epic or even particularly loud to succeed. Some find beauty in violence. Others might dropkick you right in the heart. Heck, some even have character development. So light that fuse, clip that wire and batten down the hatches – these are the most pulse-pounding, heart-racing, edge of your seat action movies of all-time.  Recommended: 🔥 The 100 best movies of all-time💥 The 18 greatest stunts in cinema (as picked by the greatest stunt people)🥋 The 25 best martial arts movies of all-time🌊 The 33 best disaster movies of all-time

Even after a couple of vintage years for new music, 2025 has been special. Sure, we didn’t get a clear-cut ‘song of the summer’, but artists have been instead putting out defining works in a longer format. The past 12 (well, 11) months have featured all manner of extraordinary album releases.  Belted-to-the-rafters country pop, plunderphonic majesty, ecstatic dance music, intimate electronic world-building, history-collapsing art rock, triumphant hip-hop… these are just a few of the sounds and styles that have been executed marvellously in 2025. Here are the year’s finest 25 albums, chosen by Time Out editors and contributors.

Updated December 2025: From winter blockbusters to festival sleepers, these are the movies our critics think define 2025 so far. Expect prestige dramas, horror gems, wild indies and some surprise streaming hits – all watched and ranked by Time Out’s film team. Quick Picks: 2025’s best films by genre: 😂 Best comedy: The Naked Gun 😱 Best horror movie: Weapons 🥋 Best action movie: One Battle After Another🎭 Best drama: Nickel Boys🪆 Best family film: Flow What even was the year in movies? A roller coaster is the most obvious cliche, full of exhilarating successes, puzzling disappointments and news stories that’ve left us wondering if there’s even going to be much of a movie industry left in the next few years. Artistically, it was a top-heavy 12 months, producing one surefire Best of the Decade candidate, with a few others not far behind, then a vast middle-class of films that max out at ‘very good’. As always, though, if you’re willing to do the work, you’ll find dozens of small and medium-sized gems to fill you with hope for the future of moviemaking as an artform, no matter what happens to the business itself. Here are the movies that made us gasp, swoon and shout the loudest in 2025. This list is updated regularly as new 2025 releases hit cinemas and streaming, with monthly overhauls to make sure we never miss a thing.

We’ve all heard the phrase ‘TV’s golden age’ enough times over the past couple of decades to get wary of the hyperbole, but this year does seem to be shaping up to be a kind of mini golden age for the TV follow-up. Severance, Andor, Wednesday and Poker Face have all built on incredibly satisfying first seasons with equally masterful second runs. The third season of The White Lotus has proved that, whether you love it or find it a touch too languorous, there’s no escaping Mike White’s transgressive privilege-in-paradise satire. Likewise for season 7 of Charlie Brooker’s dystopian-flavoured sci-fi Black Mirror. More recently, HBO’s Task hit the spot with a blue-collar crime series that wasn’t afraid to get down and dirty. Watercooler viewing is everywhere at the moment, and that’s not going to change anytime soon, with Stranger Things coming to an end and about a zillion other things still come. Here’s everything you need to see... so far.  Best TV and streaming shows at a glance: 📍 The Pitt (Emmy Best Drama winner) – watch on HBO Max in the US📍 Adolescence (Best Limited Series winner) – watch on Netflix worldwide📍 Severance season 2 (multiple acting wins) – watch on Apple TV worldwide📍 The Studio (Best Comedy winner) – watch on Apple TV worldwide📍 Andor season 2 (Emmy-winning writing) – watch on Disney+ worldwide 

Urgently in need of some cool pressie inspo for your nearest and dearest? Don’t worry about it! Our London gift guide is here, and it features loads of lovely pressies to suit just about any Londoner you can imagine.  From nifty gadgets to stylish accessories, covetable homeware to kids’ gifts, our editors have got every base covered, including plenty of sustainable options and handmade bits from some of London’s coolest indie brands and makers.  Need even more present inspiration? Check out our roundup of London’s best Christmas hampers for 2025. Time Out’s 2025 Christmas Gift Guide at a glance 🏰 Best for tech nerds: Nothing headphones 💷 Best for foodies: Allday Goods knife 🔬 Best for style queens: Peachy Den scarf and mitten set 🎡 Best for cool blokes: Percival martini cap 🎨 Best for youngsters: Ty Beanie Bouncers RECOMMENDED: More Christmas fun in London. 

December update: The horror year is almost at an end – and it's been a cracker – but before anyone puts a ribbon on, Silent Night, Deadly Night’s psycho Santa (and his axe) wants a quiet word... Unlike many of its monsters, vampires and virus-y Alphas, the horror genre is alive and well. It is, you might even say, well-endowed. Because anyone who loves that shivery sensation of being spooked witless in a cinema is being a lot better served than anyone searching for big laughs. The biggest stories in horror this year – Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu, Ryan Coogler’s Sinners, Zach Cregger’s Weapons – have packed in audiences and birthed a million memes along the way, but don’t sleep on the following flicks either. Best horrors of 2025 at a glance: 📍 28 Years Later – Netflix (US); also on Prime Video/Apple TV+📍 Nosferatu - US: streaming on Prime Video; US & UK: rent/buy on PVOD📍 Sinners – US: streaming on Max; UK: rent/buy on PVOD📍 Weapons – Rent/buy now on Prime Video/Apple TV (PVOD); still in some cinemas📍 Final Destination: Bloodlines – Max (US); US & UK: rent/buy on PVOD

We know what you’re thinking: ‘Best kids Christmas movies? Aren’t all Christmas movies basically for kids?’ Oh sure, plenty are. But assuming every film with a yuletide theme is good for the young ones is where parents can get in trouble. You may end up streaming a movie where Santa Claus is a serial killer, or a Hallmark romcom that’ll bore them silly.  So, no, the phrase ‘Christmas movies for kids’ is not as redundant as it might sound. And clearly, picking the right movie to get the smallest members of the household into the holiday spirit requires both care and wisdom. These 30 movies, though, are like hot cocoa for the little ones’ souls. Want to get on your child’s nice list? Stream one of these, and your stocking will runneth over. Recommended: 🎅 The 50 best Christmas movies of all-time🎁 The best Christmas specials of all-time🎄 The best animated Christmas movies for the whole family🤣 The 35 best family comedies for your next movie night👶 The best movies for toddlers👪 The 50 greatest animated movies to watch as a family

Let’s be real: you’ll probably spend most of those lazy days between Christmas and New Year watching Yuletide classics, eating chocs, and forgetting how your legs work. But there’s a lot to be said for starting your Crimbo movie viewing long before the pressies get doled out. In November and December, venues across the city start putting on special xmas screenings of festive favourites, and they're the perfect excuse to get into the spirit of the season, whether you're a grumpy Grinch or a troublingly perky Elf.  These Christmas specials are full of added incentives to peel you off your sofa, too, including special snacks, live orchestras and sing-a-longs. So it's high time you put a cinema trip on your festive to-do list. Here are the best Christmas movie events the capital has to offer in 2025. RECOMMENDED:🎄 Read our full guide to Christmas in London.🍿 The 50 greatest Christmas movies.

December 2025: December is a great time of year for exploring London’s museums. Sure, it’s one of the city’s peak tourism seasons – as visitors descend to check out the city’s Christmas markets, do some gift shopping on Oxford Street, go ice-skating and visit Hyde Park Winter Wonderland – but with all the festive distractions, the capital’s iconic institutions can be quieter than you might think. If you have time in amongst all the Christmas chaos, it’s a great chance to catch up on some of the autumn’s huge openings, from Wes Anderson at the Design Museum to Marie Antoinette Style at the V&A. Elsewhere, you can check out the special Christmas performances at the Charles Dickens Museum, head to the Natural History Museum to see its t-rex sporting a jazzy Christmas jumper, or stop by Dennis Severs’ House and the Museum of the Home to find out how Christmas was celebrated in years gone by. Museums are one of the things that London does best. This city boasts grand institutions housing ancient treasures, modern monoliths packed with intriguing exhibits, and tiny rooms containing deeply niche collections – and lots of them are totally free to anyone who wants to come in and take a gander. And with more than 170 London museums to choose from, there's bound to be one to pique your interest, whatever you're in to.  Want to explore the history of TfL? We’ve got a museum for that. Rather learn about advertising? We’ve got a museum for that too. History? Check. Science? Check. 1940s c

At the end of the year, minds naturally cast themselves back to a 12 months at the cinema full of euphoric highs (Sinners, One Battle After Another) and crushing lows (Tron: Ares, Captain America: Brave New World anyone?). But what’s that stomping over the horizon in a mech suit? It’s another outsized ‘Avatar’ movie, here to hoover up all the box office and remind us that the year isn’t over until James Cameron says it is. Of course, Hollywood lore tells us never to bet against Cameron, but don’t bet against a number of December’s quieter releases either, including this year’s Palme d’Or winner and a heartsore gem for lovers of Joachim Trier’s line in Scandi lyricism.   RECOMMENDED:📽️ The best films of 2025📺 The best TV shows of 2025 you need to stream🏵️ The 100 greatest movies of all time

You know the feeling when you step out of a film screening and, for a brief moment, it seems like you’re stepping out of a fictional world and into real life? What if you could prolong that magical feeling for just a little bit longer? Cinemas don’t always need to be another part of the grey fabric of a city, they can also be in some genuinely cinematic – and properly remote – locations. Don’t believe us? Here are the world’s most isolated picture houses for film buffs and adventurers alike.  RECOMMENDED:📽️ The 50 most beautiful cinemas in the world.

Murder mysteries are back. The question is, how were they ever allowed to leave? They’ve been part of cinema stretching back to the 1930s. Beyond mere tradition, few genres are able to engage your mind and pull you through the screen in quite the same way. It’s all about immersion: it’s simply human nature to want to solve a puzzle. And no matter how charismatic the sleuth up on the screen is, we always see them as a proxy for ourselves – and we always try to one-up them by figuring things out before they do.   And yet, somehow, the classic whodunnit had, until recently, felt long out of fashion. Like we said, though, over the last few years, murder mysteries have made a comeback, owing in large part to Rian Johnson’s Knives Out and its sequels, Glass Onion and Wake Up Dead Man. That led to remakes of Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile to streaming series like Poker Face to Only Murders in the Building. So we felt it was time to round up the genre’s classics, along with its hidden gems. Here are 41 of the best. Contributors: Phil de Semlyen, Matthew Singer, Annette Richardson, Ashanti Omkar Recommended:🕵️ The 100 best thriller films of all time🔪 The best true crime documentaries on Netflix in the US🔥 The 100 greatest films ever made

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

American cinema’s fake-it-til-you-make-it brigade – Catch Me If You Can’s Frank Abagnale Jr, Moses Pray in Paper Moon, Rizzo in Midnight Cowboy, Uncut Gems’ Howard Ratner, Barry Lyndon and all those other hustling antiheroes – has a dazzling new addition. But, with his skittish chutzpah and pathological lack of self-doubt, Timothée Chalamet’s ever-calculating ping pong player Marty Mauser has something most of those others lack: real talent to back up the front.  In Josh Safdie’s sports movie-cum-crime caper, Marty is a gifted but impoverished ping-pong player who’s only an inch or two from conquering all. By the terms of his own cutthroat world, he’s a loser who lives within touching distance of glory. One more push could make all the difference. Or get him killed.  Safdie, who co-writes with Uncut Gems’ Ronald Bronstein, spins this sorta-kinda true story into a mile-a-minute affair with a twinkle in its eye. (Marty is based on late ’40s table tennis champion Marty Reisman, whose nickname, ‘the Needle’, spoke to his jabbing wit as much as his wiry frame.)  And what a confederate Safdie has in Chalamet. The Dune star has been immodestly talking up his performance on the film’s press tour and, to borrow from Tropic Thunder, it seems a lot like a case of not dropping character until the DVD commentary. And let’s pray there is one because there’s a lot to unpack in this puckish figure whose pioneering outlook is articulated by Daniel Lopatin’s synth score and some ’80s bangers –

A blunt-speaking matriarch’s rapid decline in palliative care over a series of December days may not sound like the last word in festive viewing, but that is where this debut directorial effort from Kate Winslet takes us with almost indecent jolliness. It’s an advent calendar with a dose of morphine and a forced smile behind every window, a stark-yet-saccharine affair that sells out its own attempts at pathos with thin characters and jokes about goose-ducken. Only a cast of elite thesps keeps it from sinking into ignominy.  With the Lee actress directing from a screenplay written by her 21-year-old son Joe Anders, the Winslet family is clearly a lot more in tune with its emotions than the film’s angsty Gloucester clan. Helen Mirren is June, the vinegary but loving mum to three wildly different daughters: buttoned-up success story Julia (Winslet); stressed-out mum Molly (Andrea Riseborough), whose dotty husband (Stephen Merchant) is driving her to the brink; and New Age whirlwind Helen (Toni Collette). Even closer to home are distracted husband Bernie (Timothy Spall), avoidant in the face of this looming and seismic loss, and heavy-laden son Connor (Johnny Flynn), who finds both panic and purpose in his mother’s latest, and possibly final, collapse.The waxen June and her family decamp to an empty fairy-tale hospital given a romcom glow by cinematographer Alwin H Küchler (Steve Jobs) to arrange care rotas and relitigate old grudges, while the boisterous grandkids prep the mise

There have been better animated sequels and more epic ones, but has there ever been a fluffier follow-up than this bouncy, buoyant caper starring at least half the nature world? To Zootropolis’s bickering duo of frenemies-turned-partners, idealistic bunny cop Judy Hopps (voiced by Ginnifer Goodwin) and sly street fox Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman), part 2 throws in a venomous pit viper called Gary De’Snake (Ke Huy Quan) for slithering but cute sidekick antics and a message of prejudice-busting teamwork.  Gary’s gentle nature is wildly at odds with the lethal neurotoxins that course through his fangs, a neat central tension. The well-meaning serpent just wants a hug but stands to accidentally kill anyone who gets too close. Bateman and Goodwin are perfect as the snarky-and-sweet central duo, and Everything Everywhere All at Once star Ke ups the loveability levels in a voice cast that packs in cameos from Ed Sheeran, Dwayne Johnson and even Disney CEO Bob Iger (voicing weatherman Bob Tiger and presumably immediately ready to green light Zootropolis 3). Shakira returns too, to bash out a song as a pop star gazelle. The plot doesn’t measure up to the first Zootropolis’s ingenious Chinatown stylings, and younger viewers may need a grounding in noir storytelling to follow the action. But the quest for a McGuffin that will reunite Gary De’Snake and his ostracised viper brethren with their territorial birthright opens up a new map book to this colourfully imaginative world. The reptile k

F Scott Fitzgerald famously wrote that there are no second acts in American lives. The novelist might have changed his tune if he’d happened across a young model called Lee Miller back in the New York of the late 1920s.Even back then, in her pixie-cropped fashionista era, the New Yorker must have exuded an unquenchable thirst for discovery and reinvention. Fast forward 30 or so years and she’d been a muse for Man Ray and the Surrealist movement, starred in films, become a famous photographer, decamped to Paris, Cairo and London, traversed war-torn Europe as a daredevil journalist and finally, haunted by the conflict, holed in a cosy corner of Sussex to host arty parties and pioneer avant garde recipes like ‘onion upside down cake’ and ‘marshmallow Coca-Cola ice cream’. She died fêted as a celebrity chef. Second act? She had a folio’s worth.  All of those eras are up on the Tate Britain’s walls for the duration of the gallery’s blockbuster exhibition. Dividing Miller’s extraordinary career chronologically, it’s a time-travelling experience as well as a showcase of her technical and compositional skills. ‘Before the Camera’, shows her as a beautiful young model in NYC in 1926, the daughter of a keen amateur photographer. Walk through a dozen or so rooms and there she is, in Hitler’s bathtub, world-famous and hollowed out, returning to self-portraiture to capture a shattered continent in one image.   If the shimmery black-and-white portraits she took – from a playful Charlie Cha

Wicked stans, musical theatre diehards and anyone tempted to drop the word ‘goosify’ into conversation should add about 12 more stars to the above rating, skip my thoughts and settle in for another two-and-a-half more of Elphaba and Glinda belting out anthems of empowerment while Jonathan Bailey’s army officer Fiyero suffers a crisis of conscience in the background.  Still here? Well, whisper it but the concluding part of John M Chu’s musical epic will be a disappointment for anyone who hasn’t sipped the green and pink Kool-Aid. Rather than an elegant dash for the finish line, Wicked: For Good magnifies the shortcomings of the stage musical’s underpowered second half with sluggish pacing, awkward scenes and storytelling that packs all the visceral punch of Glinda’s bubble machine. Where the first movie had urgency and a sense of peril to propel it forward – not to mention a host of bona-fide bangers – part two is more of a wheelspin downhill. Once again, Wicked’s kingdom of Oz is a luridly over-designed world (were we too harsh on Oz: The Great and Powerful?) where human fondant fancy Glinda the Good (Ariane Grande) is torn between loyalty to the Wizard (Jeff Goldblum) and love for old pal Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo, a powerhouse again).   The witch, having broomsticked away at the end of Wicked, is deep into her Ewok era, living in the trees of Oz to hide from Wizard’s troops and flying monkeys. Goldblum is his usual cheerily mercurial self, but the Wizard cuts a detached figure

It’s weird, in the year 2025, that it seems necessary to point out that the Nazis were bad. But Nuremberg, an old-fashioned and satisfyingly complex morality tale in the guise of a courtroom drama and spy thriller, does that job in impressive style. Supercharged by James Vanderbilt’s smart script and snappy direction, and with an on-form cast, it plots a course through the immediate aftermath of World War II and into the legal nightmare of holding its German perpetrators to account.  If Russell Crowe seemed a cartoonish choice to play avuncular Nazi second-in-command Hermann Göring, he delivers his best performance since The Nice Guys a full decade ago, paradoxically dialling things back to prove that he’s not a faded force. Rami Malek returns to something like Bohemian Rhapsody form as the American psychologist, Douglas Kelley, sent to the Allies’ high security Nuremberg prison to evaluate him and his fellow Nazis.  Appearances are deceptive throughout this psychologically acute and entertaining dramatisation of the Nuremberg war trials of 1945. Göring seems jovial and harmless; Kelley seems in control of their sessions in the Nazi’s small cell. Straight-arrow American prosecutor Robert H Jackson (Michael Shannon) and his gin-sipping British counterpart (Richard E Grant) seem to have a copper-bottomed plan to send Göring and his fellow war criminals (including the deeply odious Robert Ley and Julius Streicher) to the gallows. ‘Eisenhower is not for hanging anyone without a t

What happened to the fun? Along with co-writer Simon Pegg, Edgar Wright burst onto the scene as the brains behind Spaced, Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, all zip and fizz and crash zooms and witty edits, soundtracks that might have taken years to pull together, and fan-thrilling Easter eggs and cameos.  Unexpectedly, his sci-fi action film could have been made by any number of less gifted filmmakers. There’s little sign of that tightly calibrated, cinephile-fuelled pop-art house style that made his name in this update of Stephen King’s The Running Man (published under his pseudonym Richard Bachman to critique early Reagan-era saturation TV).It’s a movie that got up on the wrong side of the bed and compensated with four quadruple espressos. Like Arnie’s spandex-and-sass 1987 version (not to mention The Hunger Games, The Squid Game, The Long Walk and any number of other variants on the theme,) it’s a parable of a near-future underclass giving blood to entertain the masses and hopefully win big in the process. But unlike Schwarzenegger’s version, Wright isn’t playing much of this for laughs. His lead, Hit Man’s Glen Powell’s Ben Richards, may be the most pissed-off protagonist since Mel Gibson’s thunderous heyday. It’s a movie that got up on the wrong side of the bed and compensated with four quadruple espressos Unable to provide for his wife Sheila (Jayme Lawson) and their sick bubba, and fired from a series of (literally) toxic jobs, he signs up for a deadly reality TV show r

Two bungalows with a shared partition, a dog, and a couple of Oscar nominees at the top of their formidable games: Paul Andrew Williams’s pared-back and bruising three-hander is a realist drama with deep undercurrents that whirlpool into a denouement you will not see coming.  On a nondescript street in an unnamed town a few metres from a set of traffic lights that seem forever stuck on red, Brenda Blethyn’s elderly, arthritic pensioner Elsie muddles along, assisted by a series of box-ticking private carers and the occasional call from her distant, middle-aged son John (W1A’s Jason Watkins). Those comings and goings are observed by her wiry, sardonic neighbour Colleen (Andrea Riseborough). The distance between these two lonely souls – a stretch of lawn with a lone splash of colour provided by Elsie’s flowerbed – shortens in increments as Colleen and her beefy bull terrier Sabre pile over to help with the shopping and pick up the slack. Soon, Elsie is providing that most British sign of welcome and sticking the kettle on.Blethyn is a two-time Oscar nominee and Riseborough, of course, earned one as For Leslie’s working-class alcoholic, and they are both absolutely stellar as two strangers finding a gentle connection. Both communicate different forms of brittleness – physical for one, psychological for the other – with immense skill, but leave space for a third kind: the idea that their connection is also alarmingly fragile. Colleen’s manner and lack of back story plant the idea

Measured rather than playing to the gallery, The Choral is Brassed Off in a minor key – an elegant, Yorkshire-set exploration of music as a spiritual morale-boost in the darkest times. With Ralph Fiennes gravely essaying the controversial choirmaster at its heart, it does a lovely job of swerving the obvious notes but misplaces its stirring crescendo. In fairness, the setting isn’t a joyous one. We’re in the fictional mill town of Ramsden in 1916, a Yorkshire community rocked by steady losses on the Western Front. Word from France comes in the form of death notices delivered by postie Lofty (Oliver Briscombe) to bereft mothers. The town is divided between those eager to do their bit and those who fear that they or their young loved-ones will soon be called on to die in the trenches. The local choral society is busy trying to lift the town’s spirits with a production of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion. Except local patron and mill owner Alderman Duxbury (Roger Allam) is stuck trying to replace the departing choirmaster who’s just joined up. And when everyone twigs than Bach was, in fact, a Hun, the question becomes moot. It won’t do to be getting cosy with German culture in a time of war – although, as their new musical director Dr Henry Guthrie (Fiennes) points out, that would rule out Haydn, Beethoven and most of the other options too. Guthrie’s own German past soon marks his card too, although he claws back some patriotic points by suggesting a modernised version of Elgar’s ‘The

The jury’s out on popcorn and the case has been made against phone use (time to criminalise?), but where do we stand on big, ugly, drenching-the-cinema-floor sobbing? Chloé Zhao’s (Nomadland) Tudor tearjerker makes the debate suddenly germane. ‘Take tissues’ is a hopeless cliché. Tissues won’t do. You’ll need towels.  With Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal delivering the performances of their careers, Hamnet tells the story behind Shakespeare’s great tragedy – Hamlet – and much more besides. The wild power of motherhood; the fearsome responsibility of parenting; the jolting anxiety of nurturing something precious in a time of death; the drive for creative expression. Zhao holds all these primal but relatable forces in check before unleashing them in an emotionally totalising final reel. Devotees of Maggie O'Farrell’s 2020 novel, a deeper dive, of course, into the deep wells of bewitching force-of-nature Agnes Hathaway (Buckley) and her genius-in-the-making husband William Shakespeare (Mescal), will be reassured that the author has collaborated with Zhao for an adaptation that’s the right kind of lean. Gone are narrative curlicues that enrich on the page but would clutter on screen: early dating strife; Shakespeare’s journeys to London; the establishment of The Globe; a whole flea-cam interlude that follows the plague carrier from Asia to Stratford-upon-Avon and would look awesome in a David Cronenberg film. Hamnet is a movie that finds power in simplicity.  And Zhao trusts that

An award-winning slice of life set on Paris’s margins set over 48 helter-skelter hours, Souleymane’s Story is the latest in a series of social realist dramas to tackle Europe’s migrant crisis from the perspective of African migrants. The Dardennes’ Tori and Lokita (2022), Alice Diop’s Saint Omer (2023), and Matteo Garrone’s fantastically-tinged Io Capitano (2024) have shared the stories behind the sensationalist headlines – and here’s another one to bring deep humanity and insight to this political football. Io Capitano followed two Senegalese kids on the Saharan people-trafficking route to Italy. Here, French director Boris Lojkine could almost be picking up where Garrone left off. His twenty-something protagonist, Souleymane Sangaré (Abou Sangaré), has travelled the same path – from Guinea this time – and we meet him as a cog in Paris’s exploitative gig economy, cycling frantically to deliver food orders to apartments across the city and thrusting bags of takeaway into the hands of Parisians who barely notice him. Lojkine, who co-wrote the naturalistic screenplay with Delphine Agut, has unearthed a real talent in newcomer Sangaré. A Guinean who travelled to France in similar circumstances, he obviously understands Souleymane and his fraying emotions intimately. But it takes more than first-hand experience to inhabit a character with this much subtlety and skill. Souleymane is introduced in a flash-forward to the interview with France’s asylum affairs people that will decide

Christmas is here and with it, an array of classic movies to watch the old-fashioned way: live on the telly. And this year, those wise TV elves have delivered a bumper sack of big-screen magic from their cosy cabin in the North Pole. Seriously, isn’t is nice to let somewhere else pick the film for you once in a while? On the schedule this month are perennial favourites (Die Hard, Jaws) and recent hits (Oppenheimer, Across the Spider-Verse) that have finally made their way onto terrestrial TV. But we’ve taken a magnifying glass through the listings to find a few deeper cuts too. Have that remote handy... 🎄 The best Christmas films of all time Photograph: Sony Pictures Releasing Sense and Sensibility Emma Thompson’s Oscar winning screenplay brings all the wit and wisdom of Jane Austen’s great novel to this Ang Lee masterpiece. With Alan Rickman, Hugh Grant and Kate Winslet all in top form, it’s guaranteed bliss on a frosty afternoon in.  2.50pm, Dec 20. BBC Two Photograph: 20th Century StudiosDie Hard Die Hard Yes, it is. Merry Christmas! 9.10pm, Dec 20. Channel 4 Photograph: United Artists‘Apocalypse Now‘ Apocalypse Now: Final Cut The definitive version of Francis Ford Coppola’s trippy Vietnam War classic? Discover it afresh with the final edit the auteur put together for the film’s 40th anniversary in 2019. War is hell; this is film heaven.11.50pm, Dec 20. Channel 4  Photograph: Disney The Little Mermaid (2023) This hit live action redo of Disney’s Hans Christian A

One of the UK’s oldest cinemas has reopened for the first time in five years.Liverpool’s historic Woolton Picture House is back up and running with a special run of Christmas movies after closing during the pandemic, reports the BBC.  It’s only a temporary revival – the cinema reopened last Friday and will close again after Christmas eve – but the hope is to raise funding to reopen the 1927 venue on a permanent basis.  The campaign is being led by Kevin Fearon and his partner Gillian Miller, who co-manage Liverpool’s Royal Court theatre together. The pair aim to raise £700,000 to buy and refurbish the venue. They’ve raised £150,000 so far. ‘I think this should be funded by people who want this cinema to be open, so we shouldn’t be taking out of the public purse,’ says Mr Fearon. The old picture palace has had a bumpy ride since the turn of the century. The shutters went up in 2006 before a local entrepreneur came to the rescue, reopening the single-screen cinema less than a year later in time for its 80th birthday. It was used in 2009 John Lennon biopic Nowhere Boy – John gets taken to the cinema by his mum to watch an Elvis Presley newsreel. The pandemic led to its closure on a more permanent basis in 2020, but this month’s reopening, and the campaign to save it, is cause for optimism. With its classic interiors and trademark intermission during every screening for punters to re-up at the ice-cream kiosk, it’s easy to see why it’s so cherished by Liverpudlians.Head to the of

Paul Thomas Anderson’s countercultural thriller One Battle After Another, already tipped for Oscars, has dominated the nominations for this year’s London Critics’ Circle Film Awards. The critically acclaimed political epic picked up nine nominations, including Film of the Year, Best Actor for Leonardo DiCaprio and Director of the Year for Anderson, while Benicio del Toro and Sean Penn will go head-to-head in the Best Supporting Actor category.   Hamnet also scored highly with the UK critics’ body, picking up eight nods, including Film of the Year. Jessie Buckley was nominated for Actress of the Year and Chloé Zhao collected a Director of the Year nomination, although Paul Mescal missed out in the Actor of the Year bracket. Ryan Coogler’s musically-charged vampire horror Sinners was another favourite with voters, collecting seven nominations, while Josh Safdie’s Marty Supreme picked up six.  Other notable nominees include an Actor of the Year nod for Timothée Chalamet for Marty Supreme, and four nominations each for Oliver Laxe’s Sirāt, Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value and Kelly Reichardt’s The Mastermind.  Photograph: BBC Film‘Sentimental Value’ ‘At a time when A.I. and homogeny seems to be the shorthand answer to everything, it’s encouraging to see the films that our members voted for are teeming with human life, creativity and unique perspectives,’ says Jane Crowther, London Critics’ Circle film section chair. ‘Boasting bold, vital stories, real experiences and artistry,

The world’s brickiest toy manufacturer has gone dark with its newest set. LEGO’s newly announced ‘Stranger Things: The Creel House’ is a detailed diorama of TV’s creepiest house: Henry ’Vecna’ Creel’s ’50s mansion. The perfect expansion pack for anyone mourning the end of the hit show in the new year, it’s 2,593 pieces worth of Easter eggs like Steve’s BMW, the WSQK van and Will’s bike, as well as tinier items like Max’s cassette tape and Henry’s Mind Flayer sketch  The Stranger Things set goes on sale priced £249.99 ($299.99) on January 4, four days after the finale of the hit Netflix horror series lands on the platform. Photograph: DANIEL STERNERUD/NetflixThe Duffer brothers with the LEGO Creel House In other Stranger Things news, an immersive – and highly mysterious – experience is coming to London on Saturday, December 20. Details are still under wraps but you can sign up for tickets here. And if you’re looking for more Hawkins-adjacent content, this time with a festive flavour, head for Waterloo Station (or Manchester Piccadilly) for an Upside Down Christmas tree at Waterloo Station. A real-life version of Hawkins’ radio station, WSQK ‘The Squawk’, will be broadcasting ’80s tunes night and day until January 1 (listen on the Global Player or tell your smart speaker to ‘play the Squawk’). Volume 1 of Stranger Things’ fifth season is streaming now, Volume 2 drops on Christmas Day and the finale arrives on New Year’s Eve. A huge immersive Stranger Things event is coming t

One of the UK’s most historic film studios has announced plans for a new movie museum. Elstree Studios, home to Alfred Hitchcock's Blackmail, The Shining and Star Wars, will open a permanent immersive experience in Borehamwood to showcase that rich screen history. The Hertfordshire production base has been given the go-ahead – and £2 million in funding – for an immersive new film experience that’s scheduled to open in December 2026. ‘The Elstree Immersive Experience (EIE) will be a ground-breaking, multi-sensory and interactive visitor attraction, designed to celebrate Elstree’s world-famous film and TV heritage,’ says the team behind the plans. ‘Its core purpose is to celebrate Elstree’s century-long cinematic legacy through the integration of cutting-edge immersive technologies. The Elstree Immersive Experience is needed to celebrate, protect and showcase Elstree’s world-famous film and TV heritage, while driving skills, education and economic growth for the region.’ The Immersive Experience is expected to create 60 jobs.  It will offer movielovers another permanent studio attraction to visit – alongside Leavesden’s Warner Bros. Studio Tour. Plans for a visitor attraction at Pinewood, announced in 2021, have yet to come to fruition. Visitors from central London can expect a 25-minute train ride to Elstree & Borehamwood Station from St Pancras. Six other London locations with Star Wars history. 101 places all movie lovers should visit. 

A new exhibition is taking visitors behind the scenes of one of 2026’s hottest Oscar favourites.Hamnet, Chloé Zhao’s adaptation of Maggie O'Farrell’s bestselling novel, stars Paul Mescal as William Shakespeare and Jessie Buckley as Agnes Shakespeare, his wife. The Hamnet exhibition is called ‘Even as a Shadow, Even as a Dream’ and runs at 6 Fitzroy Square from December 9-20. Curated by Simindokht Dehghani, the exhibition will capture the film’s locations, from the forests of Stratford-Upon-Avon to the stage of the Globe Theatre, plus artwork and writings from Zhao and actor Jessie Buckley. Visitors can expect an immersive deep-dive in the film’s Tudor world, with props and set pieces on display, as well as photography, sketches, drawings and writings. Trust us, the detail behind Zhao’s world-building is staggering.  Tickets are free and available to book via Eventbrite site – although there’s availability for walk-ins too.  The exhibition is open from 10am-9pm between Tuesday and Saturday each week.  Hamnet is out in UK cinemas on January 8. Read our five-star review here.

Anyone who hasn’t been actually in the Upside Down will have clocked that the final season of Stranger Things is now underway and keeping the fan-osphere abuzz with viral moments and unexpected twists. And Netflix has just announced a free fan event to keep the excitement levels high. On Saturday December 20, fans will be invited into a secret London location ‘to relive the nostalgia of Hawkins, Indiana, and join together for One Last Adventure. Expect immersive surprises, familiar memories, and the chance to step inside the world you’ve loved.’ Hit the link to register for free tickets. Photograph: Netflix And for Stranger Things completists, there’s more to see and do this month. There’s an Upside Down Christmas tree at Waterloo Station, and a real-life version of Hawkins’ radio station, WSQK ‘The Squawk’, will be broadcasting ’80s tunes night and day until January 1 (listen on the Global Player or tell your smart speaker to ‘play the Squawk’). Volume 1 of Stranger Things’ fifth season is streaming now, Volume 2 drops on Christmas Day and the finale arrives on New Year’s Eve. The best TV and streaming shows of 2025. Our verdict on Stranger Things: The First Shadow at Phoenix Theatre.

London just got a lot more Stranger Things-ier. The hotly-awaited final season of Netflix’s smash-hit horror, sci-fi and ’80s coming-of-age drama show gets underway on Thursday, and anyone passing through one of London’s busiest train stations will know about. An ‘Upside Down’ Christmas tree has been unveiled at Waterloo Station – as well as Manchester Piccadilly – with Hawkins-themed baubles and ornaments for commuters to enjoy. (To stress, the tree itself isn’t upside down, unless you’re standing on your head.)And this unexpected burst of Demogorgon festivity is far from the only activation for Stranger Things fans to look out for this week. A real-life version of Hawkins’ radio station, WSQK ‘The Squawk’, is broadcasting ’80s tunes night and day until January 1 (listen on the Global Player or tell your smart speaker to ‘play the Squawk’). A WSQK van will be hitting the road to plug the station and the show. Decked out in Stranger Things regalia, it’ll be touring from Manchester, Liverpool and Brighton from November 28 and into December, broadcasting live and dishing out merch.  And there’s a secret new immersive fan experience in London to look out for, too. It’s all still under wraps, but Netflix promises fans ‘immersive surprises, familiar memories, and the chance to step inside the world you’ve loved’. Keep an eye out on the NetflixUK socials for news.  The best TV and streaming shows of 2025 (so far).Our verdict on Stranger Things: The First Shadow at Phoenix Theatre.

Stanley Kubrick. Barbie. Tim Burton. Wes Anderson. What do these names have in common, apart from the makings of an incredible dinner party line-up? Answer: they’ve all been recent subjects of sell-out Design Museum exhibitions. Anderson, one the 21st century’s great cinematic stylists, is the latest auteur to be sharing his props, art, designs and archive with the world via ‘Wes Anderson: The Archives’. A collaboration between the Design Museum and Paris’s la Cinémathèque française, it’s the first major museum exhibition devoted to Wes Anderson’s work and will feature more than 30 years’ of the Texan’s archival materials and a comprehensive pan through his filmography.  Photograph: Matt Alexander/PA Media Assignments There’ll be more than 700 objects to peruse, includingl storyboards, polaroids, sketches, paintings, handwritten notebooks, puppets, miniature models and costumes. Highlights include a model of the Grand Budapest Hotel, Margot Tenenbaum’s Fendi coat from The Royal Tenenbaums and stop motion puppets from The Life Aquatic and Fantastic Mr Fox. Photograph: Matt Alexander/PA Media Assignments There’ll be also be a rare chance to see where it all started, with Anderson’s 1993 short Bottle Rocket, the film that would become his feature debut, screening at the exhibition.  The exhibition opens on Friday, November 21 and runs until July 26, 2026. Head to the Design Museum website for more info and to book tickets.The 50 best things to do in London right now.

Luca Guadagnino ficou impressionado pela primeira vez com os poderes de estrela de sua protagonista de After the Hunt quando ela interpretou Shelby, a efervescente beldade sulista de "Flores de Aço", de 1989. Agora, três décadas e meia depois, o autor italiano finalmente teve seu encontro profissional quase um “meet-cute” com Julia Roberts em um canto tranquilo de uma festa glamourosa em Los Angeles. “Foi na casa de uma pessoa muito importante em Hollywood”, ele lembra. “Essa pessoa maravilhosa nos apresentou, sentamos no sofá e nunca paramos de conversar.” Mesmo para um cineasta da estatura e experiência de Guadagnino, houve nervosismo a dissipar durante aquelas horas de conversa com o ícone de Hollywood. Mas, ele diz: “Ela fez eu me sentir confortável em um segundo. Com o tempo, criamos um vínculo por muitas coisas.” A primeira conversa deles se concentrou em um roteiro muito comentado da estreante Nora Garrett, que Guadagnino estava decidido a filmar após seu duplo lançamento em 2024, "Queer" e "Rivais", quando outro projeto havia desmoronado. Ambientado no mundo fechado, porém politicamente febril, de Yale, "Depois da caçada" gira em torno de um punhado de personagens com segredos a esconder e fachadas bem ensaiadas para protegê-los. Photography: Greg WilliamsJulia Roberts and Luca Guadagnino Julia Roberts interpreta Alma, uma professora de filosofia temperamental que compete com seu amigo (e talvez algo mais), Hank, interpretado por Andrew Garfield. A aluna prodígio Ma

Luca Guadagnino was first struck by his After the Hunt star’s A-list powers when she played Steel Magnolias’ effervescent Southern belle Shelby in 1989. Now three-and-a-half decades on, the Italian auteur finally got his professional meet-cute with Julia Roberts in a quiet corner of a glitzy LA bash.  ‘It was at the house of a very important person in Hollywood,’ he remembers. ‘This wonderful person put us together, we sat on the couch and we never stopped talking.’  Even for a filmmaker of the pedigree and experience of Guadagnino, there were nerves to banish during those couple of hours chatting with the Hollywood icon. But, he says, ‘she made me feel familiar in a second. Over time we bonded over many things.’  Their first chat zeroed in on a buzzy screenplay by rookie screenwriter Nora Garrett that Guadagnino was set on making after his 2024 one-two of Queer and Challengers when another project unravelled. Set in the cloistered but politically febrile world of Yale, After the Hunt focuses on a handful of characters with secrets to hide and well-practised facades to hide them behind. Roberts plays Alma, a spiky philosophy professor competing for tenure with her friend (and maybe more) Hank, played by Andrew Garfield. Star pupil Maggie (The Bear’s Ayo Edebiri) is the third point in a triangle that’s compromised and complicated by uneven power dynamics (in both directions – Maggie’s wealthy parents are Yale donors). Photography: Greg WilliamsJulia Roberts and Luca Guadagnin

És estrany que l'any 2025 sembli necessari assenyalar que els nazis eren dolents. Però Nuremberg, un conte moral fet a l'antiga i satisfactòriament complex sota l'aparença d'un drama judicial i un thriller d'espies, fa aquesta feina amb un estil impressionant. Impulsada per un guió intel·ligent i una direcció àgil de James Vanderbilt, i amb un repartiment en plena forma, la pel·lícula traça un recorregut a través de les conseqüències immediates de la Segona Guerra Mundial i s'endinsa en el malson legal de demanar-ne comptes als perpetradors alemanys. Si bé Russell Crowe semblava una elecció caricaturesca per interpretar el segon responsable del comandament nazi, Hermann Göring, en el fons paternal, ofereix la seva millor actuació des de Dos bons nois de fa una dècada. Paradoxalment, frena la seva actuació per demostrar que no és una força esvaïda. Rami Malek torna a un estat de forma similar al de Bohemian Rhapsody com el psicòleg americà Douglas Kelley, enviat a la presó d'alta seguretat de Nuremberg per avaluar Göring i els seus companys nazis. És estrany que l'any 2025 sembli necessari assenyalar que els nazis eren dolents Les aparences enganyen al llarg d'aquesta dramatització psicològicament aguda i entretinguda dels judicis de guerra de Nuremberg del 1945. Göring sembla jovial i inofensiu; Kelley sembla tenir el control de les seves sessions a la petita cel·la del nazi.  El fiscal americà honest, Robert H Jackson (Michael Shannon), i el seu homòleg britànic (Richard E G