The Guardian Culture

Joan Jett and the Blackhearts review – rip-roaring rock history, but why is she playing Gary Glitter?

O2 Academy, GlasgowIn her first UK headline show in 16 years, Jett has a terrific knack for a cover version, though she’s a touch nonchalant – and there’s a real misstep‘I’m not a very good storyteller,” shrugs Joan Jett, sporting black leather and trademark poker face. If you’ve come expecting something as sappy as sentimental anecdotes at this anniversary tour celebrating 45 years of her career-defining albums Bad Reputation and I Love Rock’n’Roll, you’d better jog on.The Rock and Roll Hall of

entertainment  Jul 3, 2026

Variety

Spain’s SETT, South Africa’s KAG Launch $28.5 Million Audiovisual Venture

Spanish state investment vehicle SETT and South Africa’s Known Associates Group are teaming on a major audiovisual venture in Spain, encompassing a Madrid-based production company and post-production studios in the Canary Islands and Basque Country. SETT, the investment arm of Spain’s Ministry for Digital Transformation, will commit €12.7 million ($14.5 million) to two public-private ventures […]

entertainment  Jul 3, 2026

Variety

Wes Anderson, Bill Murray Tease Western Project at Cinema Paradiso Event at Paris’ Louvre

Wes Anderson and Bill Murray teased a Western project during a surprise onstage reunion in Paris, with Anderson saying he and Murray have “for many years” talked about making one — potentially with Owen and Luke Wilson. The exchange took place at Cinema Paradiso, the star-studded four-day festival of open-air screenings and live music organized […]

entertainment  Jul 3, 2026

Variety

Peter Mullan, Rebecca Lucy Taylor, Iwan Rheon to Star in Celyn Jones’ Next Feature ‘Mountain’ (EXCLUSIVE)

Peter Mullan (“I Swear”), Rebecca Lucy Taylor (“Teeth nSmiles”) and Iwan Rheon (“Game Of Thrones”) will lead director Celyn Jones’ next film “Mountain.” Jones is known for co-directing Rebel Wilson starrer “The Almond and the Seahorse” as well as co-writing “The Vanishing,” which featured Gerard Butler, and “Set Fire to the Stars,” which saw Elijah […]

entertainment  Jul 3, 2026

Variety

Venice Classics to Feature Roberto Rossellini’s ‘Journey to Italy,’ Roger Corman’s ‘The Wild Angels’ and Dev Benegal’s ‘English, August’

Freshly restored works by Andrej Wajda, Roberto Rossellini, Luis Buñuel, Roger Corman, John Cassavetes and Ann Hui are set to screen as part of the Venice Film Festival’s 19-title Venice Classics lineup. Wajda’s drama about postwar political and social chaos “Ashes and Diamonds,” which Martin Scorsese has called one of his ten favorite films; Rossellini’s […]

entertainment  Jul 3, 2026

Variety

‘Downton Abbey’ Star Michelle Dockery to Return to Stage in ‘Bloodsport: After Helen of Troy’

Michelle Dockery will return to the stage for the first time in seven years to lead the world premiere of Ava Pickett’s new play “Bloodsport: After Helen of Troy” at Stratford East. Dockery, known for playing Lady Mary Crawley in “Downton Abbey,” will star as Helen opposite Laura Aikman as Cee, marking Aikman’s stage debut. […]

entertainment  Jul 3, 2026

The Guardian Culture

The making of Independence Day at 30: ‘I panicked and raced to set to rewrite’

The makers of the blockbusting sci-fi thriller reveal how they made a hit, why Kevin Spacey was almost involved and what went wrong with the sequelThe architects of cinema’s most popular alien invasion have slightly differing accounts of how exactly the original plans for Independence Day came to them. But they both agree that it began with the now-famous image of a massive spaceship looming over a city skyline.Roland Emmerich, the director, recalls explaining the scope of the concept to Dean De

entertainment  Jul 3, 2026

Hollywood Reporter

‘A Happy Family’ Is a Hope-Filled, Thriller-Tinged “Roller Coaster” Unlike Other Social Dramas That Shows a Very Different Side of Switzerland

Writer-director Jan-Eric Mack discusses why warmth, humor and complexity are key to inviting reflection and discussion with his feature debut, the first-ever Swiss main competition film at Karlovy Vary.

entertainment  Jul 3, 2026

The Guardian Culture

What is Paralives? The creative life simulator game that could rival The Sims

With players leaving EA’s series once life there felt like a grind beset by ethical concerns, this quirky new sim promises a better life elsewhereFor 26 years, the life-sims genre has been dominated by one series: The Sims. Originally designed by Will Wright, creator of Sim City, EA’s virtual dollhouse series has grown into a $5bn [£3.8bn] empire with the constant release of new games, expansion packs, and collaborations cementing its place among the bestselling video game franchises of all time

entertainment  Jul 3, 2026

The Guardian Culture

2K88, Lauren Duffus, Rainy Miller & Bianca Scout: Everything Always Changes, for We’re Truly Here review – UK-Poland clan create murky beauty

(Fixed Abode x Unsound)The festival-formed quartet conjures an album of glacial sound design and elegiac grandeur, though it can get too moody for its own goodPolish producer 2K88 makes dark, glitching tracks that honour his country’s rap history and UK bass music. So when Poland’s Unsound festival asked him to team up with a group of British musicians, it made sense that he was drawn to Lauren Duffus, Rainy Miller and Bianca Scout, all of whom craft murky, genre-agnostic sounds best suited to a

entertainment  Jul 3, 2026

The Guardian Culture

Sienna Spiro: Visitor review – will she be the ‘new Adele’? Not with this merely competent debut

(Capitol)Amid signs of greatness, the already hugely popular British singer fails to live up to her potential, lacking vocal agility and lyrical subtletyWe live in a post Die With a Smile world. Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars’ 2024 megahit has nearly 4bn streams on Spotify alone: the people crave traditionalist AM radio ballads. Enter Sienna Spiro, a young soul singer whose ultra-traditionalist sound is backed up by posh pedigree: her father, Glenn Spiro, is a famed Hatton Garden jeweller; her mother,

entertainment  Jul 3, 2026

Variety

‘My Indian Boyfriend: The Golden Mile’ Lands RFT Films for U.K. and Ireland Theatrical Distribution (EXCLUSIVE)

“My Indian Boyfriend: The Golden Mile,” a British romantic drama set against Leicester’s Diwali celebrations, has landed U.K. and Ireland theatrical distribution through RFT Films, ahead of the film’s principal photography this summer. The independent production brings together talent and partners from the U.K., Malaysia, Hong Kong and India. Directed by Vijay Chauhan and produced […]

entertainment  Jul 3, 2026

The Guardian Culture

Forty-one members and counting! Ferg’s Imaginary Big Band, the gigantic Leeds jazz group embracing ‘chaos, imperfection and all that’

With a punkish, antifascist take on the trad jazz sound of Duke Ellington, this noisy outfit are epic in every way. But how on earth do they make a living?Fergus Quill picks me up from Leeds station in his Nissan Micra – 152,000 miles on the clock, double bass expertly slotted between seats – and drives me to meet his band.I’m expecting a handful of people, but for the next half an hour, members of Ferg’s Imaginary Big Band just keep arriving, until the tables outside Headingley’s Hyde Park Book

entertainment  Jul 3, 2026

The Guardian Culture

‘So full-frontal, you feel like a voyeur for looking’: Lindsey Mendick: Where You End and I Begin review

Carl Freedman Gallery, MargateWith snogging snails, conjoined lovers and her own pug Telly as Jesus, the ceramicist sculpts a mangled mythology of her own relationshipsIf you’re worried that romance may be dead, just one look at Lindsey Mendick’s new exhibition will reassure you that it’s very much alive. It’s just a bit damaged and mangled. Well, mangled is an understatement. The English ceramicist paints a portrait of romantic love that’s mutated and twisted, gory and gross. This is love as bo

entertainment  Jul 3, 2026

Variety

U.K. Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy Quits Elon Musk’s X Over ‘Abuse and Misinformation’

Lisa Nandy, the U.K.’s Culture Secretary, said Thursday that she is leaving X, and that the Department for Culture, Media and Sport will follow suit. In what could be her final post on the platform, Nandy wrote: “I’ve decided to leave this platform and my department will too. A platform originally designed for free speech […]

entertainment  Jul 3, 2026

Variety

‘Brothers for Life,’ ‘Thousand Dollar Baby’ Lead Skyline Media, Galaxy Play’s International Sales Slate (EXCLUSIVE)

Vietnam-based sales agent Skyline Media and streaming platform Galaxy Play have struck a partnership that will send Galaxy Play Originals into international markets for the first time, with Skyline Media named exclusive international sales agent for more than 20 original miniseries. The deal was unveiled during DANAFF Industry Days at the fourth Danang Asian Film […]

entertainment  Jul 3, 2026

The Guardian Culture

On the Mark by Florence Hazrat review – a fascinating history of punctuation

This lavishly researched book shows that dots and dashes are an essential component of style, whether you’re a medieval monk or Donald TrumpHow do you feel about exclamation marks? Otherwise known as gaspers, screamers, dog’s cocks, or shrieks. In his Modern English Usage, Fowler said that using too many betrays an “uneducated or unpractised writer”. Martin Amis called them “joke badges”, and Theodor Adorno “soundless cymbal-crashing”. The novelist Elmore Leonard specified that you were allowed

entertainment  Jul 3, 2026

The Guardian Culture

Together with Harry: the wit, flair and fun of Styles’s fans in Polaroids

Gareth Cattermole took a Polaroid camera to one of the singer’s 12 record-breaking Wembley Stadium shows to capture the fans’ creativity, humour and sense of community***Harry Styles is performing for a record-breaking 12 nights at Wembley Stadium, which follows 10 in Amsterdam. He will go on to do four nights in São Paulo, six in Mexico City and a mammoth 30 nights in New York, ending with four in Melbourne and two in Sydney, Australia. Continue reading...

entertainment  Jul 3, 2026

The Guardian Culture

Coleridge-Taylor and Dvořák Violin Concertos album review – shrewd pairing, with Gill Shaham fluid and imposing

Shaham/Virginia Symphony Orchestra/Jacobsen(Canary Classics)The US violinist’s plush tone and laser-focused intonation enriches the solo line in these two violin concertos, with the Virginia Symphony light on its feet Pairing Samuel Coleridge-Taylor with his musical idol Dvořák is a shrewd idea. The British composer, of Sierra Leonean heritage, usually finds his Violin Concerto coupled with a little-known English work. Here, juxtaposed with one of the 19th century’s most popular concertos, it mo

entertainment  Jul 3, 2026

Variety

AI-Created Indian Musical Microdrama ‘Mohini – Khud Se Pyaar’ Unveils Debut Track ‘Angaat Aalay Ka’ (EXCLUSIVE)

“Angaat Aalay Ka,” the opening song from the AI-created musical microdrama “Mohini – Khud Se Pyaar,” has been released by India’s Equinox Virtual, the company conceived by producer and storyteller Amita Madhvani. Rooted in the western Indian state of Maharashtra’s folk traditions, the song arrives at a pivotal moment in the drama’s narrative – when […]

entertainment  Jul 3, 2026