Asif Kapadia to direct 70 Up, last chapter of influential ITV documentary series Film-maker says it is ‘incredible honour’ to pick up baton from Michael Apted who died in 2021

This is such excellent news. The flagship TV documentary series. The ideal choice of skipper to steer it home
www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio...

The United States is destroying itself | Rebecca Solnit The daily news can’t adequately convey the administration’s sabotaging of our government, economy, alliances and environment

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Upward Bound by Woody Brown review – extraordinary debut from a non-speaking autistic author This garrulous, charming story of a young man stuck in a daycare centre for disabled adults offers a vital insider’s perspective

Upward Bound by Woody Brown. This is a fabulous first novel
www.theguardian.com/books/2026/a...

A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will. However, now that we have Complete and Total Regime Change, where different, smarter, and less radicalized minds prevail, maybe something revolutionarily wonderful can happen, WHO KNOWS? We will find out tonight, one of the most important moments in the long and complex history of the World. 47 years of extortion, corruption, and death, will finally end. God Bless the Great People of Iran!

Trump just openly stating his intention to commit genocide at this point: "A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again."

‘Coke and booze didn’t help my creativity’: Joe Eszterhas on his wild times – and his supernatural, anti-woke Basic Instinct reboot He was the screenwriting colossus behind Flashdance, Jagged Edge, Showgirls and more. Now clean, ‘Hollywood’s Shakespeare’ talks about today’s scared studios, his refugee trauma – and taking acid with...

Joe Eszterhas on alcohol, cocaine and Basic Instinct, the unholy Easter trinity
www.theguardian.com/film/2026/ap...

"I'll be 70 in 2026 if we're all still here"

Lovely & strange to revisit High Hopes with its gaswork-studded Kings Cross & defiant last-stand socialism - like finding 1980s England preserved in an air pocket. One of the great film couples (Ruth Sheen, Phil Davis). One of the great final scenes

Start the fire. Walk away. Tell the world they’re on their own.

“Jessica excepted” (subs cut the last line)

Amélie was deeply irritating in 2001. Today it seems eerily ahead of its time The constant charm offensive of Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s lavish French confection soothed the population in the immediate wake of 9/11. Now it’s back in cinemas – and just as sick-inducing, writes Xan Bro...

Wrote about 25 years of Amelie, send help. This week's @the-independent.com column here
www.independent.co.uk/arts-enterta...

Opinion | Is It 1914 in America?

Is It 1914 in America? www.nytimes.com/2026/03/29/o...

Opinion | Trump Cannot See That the Opposition Is Real

Jamelle Bouie on the gaping fatal flaws of a narcissistic presidency
www.nytimes.com/2026/03/25/o...

Paul Thomas Anderson endured one snub after another. Now the Oscars have finally seen sense | Xan Brooks In honouring One Battle After Another, Academy voters finally welcomed Hollywood’s prodigal son into the fold

Rounding up Paul Thomas Anderson's win at the Academy Awards. An interesting director who made an interesting film for these extremely distressingly interesting times
www.theguardian.com/film/2026/ma...

‘I don’t wish anyone to fall down a sewer. Except sometimes’: TikTok sensation and Oscar-nominated star of Weapons Amy Madigan As her nightmarish turn as orange-wigged child-catcher Aunt Gladys takes her to Oscars night, the actor talks about surviving ‘brutal’ Hollywood, the fury that almost drove her from the US – and still...

Also delighted that Amy Madigan took the best supporting actress Oscar for her role in Weapons, a full 40 years after her last nomination. Re-posting my interview with her from last month - she was just excellent
www.theguardian.com/film/2026/fe...

Why One Battle After Another should win the best picture Oscar Paul Thomas Anderson’s capering clash between a demented repressive regime and ragtag freedom fighters is both cartoonish and deadly serious – and perfectly tuned to its times

Reliably informed* that it was this article that did it
(*not informed by anyone ever)
www.theguardian.com/film/2026/ma...

Yes, agreed, he was terrific.

Why One Battle After Another should win the best picture Oscar Paul Thomas Anderson’s capering clash between a demented repressive regime and ragtag freedom fighters is both cartoonish and deadly serious – and perfectly tuned to its times

Stumping for the PTA www.theguardian.com/film/2026/ma...

‘Our bond is private. Some things have to stay between us’: Paolo Sorrentino and Toni Servillo on smoking, cinema and secrets A drama about a president at the end of his career, La Grazia is the director’s finest film since The Great Beauty. As he reunites with his longtime collaborator, the pair discuss ageing, loyalty and ...

Managed to catch Sorrentino & Servillo between cigars, like a patient wildfire photographer staking out two lions in the scrub www.theguardian.com/film/2026/ma...

Epstein Files Are Missing Records About Woman Who Made Claim Against Trump

Growing sense over the past week that this whole elaborate Epstein-Trump-Russia house-of-cards is about to come crashing down. Terrible glorious inevitability to it now www.nytimes.com/2026/02/25/u...

With N-word incident, Bafta have shot themselves in the foot | Catherine Shoard In not editing out Tourette syndrome campaigner John Davidson’s shouted tics, Bafta have allowed their successful diversity drive to be overshadowed

Left in the N-word, cut out "Free Palestine". Jesus wept, Bafta, that's not firefighting, that's arson.
www.theguardian.com/film/2026/fe...

‘He couldn’t be happier’: celebrating William Eggleston’s incredible photography A new exhibition brings together new dye-transfer prints of the classically American photographer’s work

www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...

Hoping he sent him Secret Honor instead

‘I don’t wish anyone to fall down a sewer. Except sometimes’: TikTok sensation and Oscar-nominated star of Weapons Amy Madigan As her nightmarish turn as orange-wigged child-catcher Aunt Gladys takes her to Oscars night, the actor talks about surviving ‘brutal’ Hollywood, the fury that almost drove her from the US – and still...

Nice to interview an Oscar nominee who's been in this circus for years & simply can't be doing with the endless pomp & glad-handing. Could have chatted with Amy Madigan for hours, which would have driven her nuts, "Haven't you people seen enough?"
www.theguardian.com/film/2026/fe...

Jesse Jackson, Civil Rights Leader Who Sought the Presidency, Dies at 84

Jesus, a trio of American titans in the space of 24-hours. Duvall, Fred Wiseman & now Jackson - feels like an alternative Mount Rushmore just collapsed
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/17/u...

Frederick Wiseman, prolific documentary film-maker, dies aged 96 Recognised with an honorary Academy Award in 2016, Wiseman directed and produced almost 50 films with a lifelong commitment to curiosity and naturalism

So long to Frederick Wiseman, the dogged, quiet legend of documentary cinema, who found his films by making them
www.theguardian.com/film/2026/fe...

Robert Duvall, Apocalypse Now and Godfather star, dies aged 95 From the classic To Kill a Mockingbird to blockbuster Gone in 60 Seconds, the Oscar-winning actor’s films spanned a remarkable range

Argh rats, what a loss, like an enormous bank of lights just went out. Duvall seemed elemental, I kind of hoped he'd shine forever
www.theguardian.com/film/2026/fe...

How Martin Scorsese turned New York into the coolest scum-ridden hellhole on earth Movies like ‘The French Connection’, ‘Midnight Cowboy’ and ‘Death Wish’ depicted the Big Apple as a scuzzy metropolis of filth and grime. And despite the reported fury of the New York Mayor’s Office, ...

This week's Indie column, on Taxi Driver, John Lindsay & the 'bad apple' genre of 70s movies that first stained & then saved New York
www.independent.co.uk/arts-enterta...

Trump Allies Near ‘Total Victory’ in Wiping Out U.S. Climate Regulation

Trump’s ecocide squad: Russell Vought, Jeffrey B Clark, Mandy Gunasekara, Jonathan Brightbill & Myron Ebell. Knew the science & did it anyway www.nytimes.com/2026/02/09/c...

Your Life Without Me by James Meek review – angel of destruction haunts a domestic drama A plot to blow up St Paul’s Cathedral is seen through the lens of family tragedy

I was thoroughly absorbed by James Meek's Your Life Without Me, a family saga dressed up as a terrorist plot. It's about destruction & renewal, the need (or urge) to rip it up & start again
www.theguardian.com/books/2026/f...

Paul Thomas Anderson and Jonny Greenwood demand Phantom Thread music removed from Melania film Director and composer of 2017 drama allege breach of agreement after score reused in controversial documentary

I hadn't clocked the use of the Phantom Thread score in Melania, but the soundtrack also features [checks notes] Gimme Shelter, And Then He Kissed Me, Spandau Ballet's True & Everybody Wants to Rule the World. Were all of these properly cleared & approved?
www.theguardian.com/film/2026/fe...

Adam Shatz · Another Country: Visions of America Is America a dream or a nightmare, a democratic paradise or a bastion of white supremacy and religious intolerance? Is...

The full transcript of Adam Shatz’s LRB winter lecture is lengthy, knotty & worth every second. What America means, in theory & in practice - & specifically what it means now www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...