The Guardian Culture

Shania Twain: Little Miss Twain review – rootsy revival strays from the dirt track to the middle of the road

(Republic Nashville)The country legend’s seventh album revisits her troubled early life but plays it safe with zany humour and fluffy songs about young love‘When I was a kid, I started on stages just like this,” Shania Twain told the 200 fans sardined into a London pub back in June, trailing her seventh album Little Miss Twain. A reintroduction to the Canadian country legend, the record mines memories from her Ontario childhood for hints of the arena-filling star she would soon become.Over wistf

entertainment  Jul 20, 2026

Variety

‘New-Gen’ Universe Launches First Consumer Products Line With Comic-Con Trading Cards (EXCLUSIVE)

New-Gen Universe, Inc. is launching its first consumer products initiative at San Diego Comic-Con, debuting an exclusive collector’s trading card set made with Cryptozoic Entertainment to celebrate its Marvel-distributed comic series. Just 300 convention exclusive boxes exist worldwide for the July 23–26 event, making this among the rarest “New-Gen” collectibles released to date. Designed solely […]

entertainment  Jul 20, 2026

The Guardian Culture

‘Being American feels helpless and scary’: actor Ben Platt on nerves, queer songs and why he couldn’t do it without his husband

The star of Dear Evan Hansen plays a 1960s Greenwich Village crooner in hit queer musical Midnight at the Never Get. It’s the perfect outlet for his anxiety, he saysIn performance, Ben Platt is a mellifluous singer and loose-limbed dancer, with a fizzy back-note of neurotic New York. The stage – most famously, as star of Dear Evan Hansen – is his safe space. In person, in a south London rehearsal room, he is sweet, earnest, nervy. He crosses his legs, knots his arms about him. The chat roams wid

entertainment  Jul 20, 2026

The Guardian Culture

Top 30: from half a million World Cup photos, why I love these the most

Our picture editor chooses his favourite images from the tournament including Lionel Messi’s cathedral, that delicious diving header from Jude Bellingham and a humbling scene in GazaWhat makes a great World Cup photograph? Now there’s a question with myriad answers. Composition, newsworthiness, emotional resonance, expert timing and luck can all contribute to varying degrees. But one thing they all share is the power to capture attention.On the Guardian sport picture desk, we have received more

entertainment  Jul 20, 2026

Variety

Korea Box Office: Na Hong Jin’s ‘Hope’ Rules With 66% Market Share

Local science-fiction survival thriller “Hope” stormed the top of the South Korean box office during the weekend of Jul. 17–19. According to data from KOBIS, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council, the highly anticipated blockbuster generated $11.3 million from 1,504,019 admissions over the three-day window, capturing a dominant 66.62% share of the […]

entertainment  Jul 20, 2026

Variety

‘Shark Tank India’ Sets Season 6 With Parrot Campaign on SonyLIV (EXCLUSIVE)

“Shark Tank India” has unveiled “#DontBeATota,” a campaign taking aim at founders who mistake the language of entrepreneurship for the substance of it, as the show opens its sixth season for entries on streamer SonyLIV. The campaign lands at a moment when terms such as valuation, burn rate and EBITDA have become everyday vocabulary. It […]

entertainment  Jul 20, 2026

Variety

China Box Office: ‘Kung Fu Soccer’ Maintains Dominance as Animated ‘All Wishes Come True’ Debuts in Second

Shenzhen Film Studio’s sports comedy “Kung Fu Soccer” comfortably retained the top spot at the mainland China box office during the July 17–19 weekend, generating RMB501.1 million ($73.7 million) in its second weekend of release, according to data from Artisan Gateway. Directed by Stephen Chow, the hit has reached a cumulative total of $214.3 million […]

entertainment  Jul 20, 2026

The Guardian Culture

A Sudden Flicker of Light by David Thomson review – a brilliantly eccentric history of the movies

From the golden age of Hollywood to harder times today, this is a rapturous account of more than a century of cinemaFilm critic, historian and author of more than 40 books, David Thomson is back with another three-hour free jazz solo on the subject of the movies, though it’s a performance delivered with the magnificent elan of a 1940s big band leader. He’s as brilliant, eccentric, exasperating and absorbing as ever.By “the movies”, incidentally, he means Hollywood, with a side order of establish

entertainment  Jul 20, 2026

The Guardian Culture

Chris Packham takes on a terrifying crime ring: best podcasts of the week

The popular broadcaster investigates what happened after a large pile of murdered animals were dumped outside a primary school in Hampshire. Plus, Lena Headey tackles an idea from an ‘ethical pornographer’Mangled pheasants, mutilated foxes, weeping kids: the third series of the multi-award-winning show about environmental crime opens with a huge pile of murdered animals outside a primary school. The investigation leads to revelations about the world of illegal bloodsports and rural organised cri

entertainment  Jul 20, 2026

The Guardian Culture

Flavours of Iraq review – vivid childhood memories of 80s Baghdad from writer in Paris exile

Powerful animation portrays experiences of a French-Iraqi journalist Feurat Alani, with anecdotes about his father, a prominent leftist exileWith a title translated a little inelegantly from Le Parfum d’Irak to “flavours of Iraq” when “the perfume of Iraq” might have been simpler and better, this film is a powerful, vivid animation co-directed by Léonard Cohen with its author, French-Iraqi journalist Feurat Alani, robustly narrated in Alani’s first-person by the actor Malik Zidi. The animation s

entertainment  Jul 20, 2026

The Guardian Culture

TV tonight: a serial killer’s sick, twisted game in The Dark

Laura Donnelly’s DI Kennedy thinks she has guessed the next victim but can she save him? Plus, sex, chicks and ostriches in Chris Packham’s Evolution9pm, ITV1With the serial killer taking their third victim in the last cliffhanger, it’s been a rough week at work for DI Kennedy (Laura Donnelly) in this sinister detective drama. Local men in their teens and 20s are the targets, and Kennedy thinks she knows who the next one will be – but will she save him? Or is she just playing into the killer’s s

entertainment  Jul 20, 2026

The Guardian Culture

From Gary Lineker’s revenge to the bizarre tale of a missing cat: the best viral TV moments of the World Cup

A pranked England manager, a bored Beckham, a Viking takeover and an unwise Wayne Rooney wager: here are the TV treasures of the beautiful game’s biggest ever tournamentA stodgy final saw silky Spain deservedly beat cynical Argentina. Football wasn’t coming home after all as England suffered semi-final heartbreak again, before salvaging some pride to finish third – their best World Cup finish since 1966. The Tartan Army drank America’s bars dry as their team went out with a whimper. Cape Verde l

entertainment  Jul 20, 2026

The Guardian Culture

‘Everything I know about evil I learned in that small town’: John Carpenter on terrifying the world with Halloween, The Thing and The Fog

At 78, the king of horror and sci-fi movies is as much of a rebel as ever. He talks about creativity, compromise (he’s not a fan) and how he became addicted to moviemakingIn 2024, John Carpenter had a dream that sounds like one of his movies: it involved a portal to the underworld beneath a disused church, monstrous demons and people being turned inside out. “I woke up and thought: wow! What an elaborate story,” he says. “I rarely have cinematic dreams, but this was one of them.” He liked it so

entertainment  Jul 20, 2026

The Guardian Culture

A Ruhr treat: can a giant pigeon and a pink basketball revive Germany’s depressed industrial heartland?

The Manifesta biennale is taking over a dozen tiny churches in German towns ravaged by division and decline – and filling them with ball games, bouncy castles and a radical community spirit After Germany’s Ruhr conurbation – the third-largest urban area in western Europe – was pummelled during the second world war, planners came up with an ingenious idea. About 80% of the sprawl – which incorporates big cities such as Essen and Duisburg, and dozens of smaller towns like Bochum and Gelsenkirchen

entertainment  Jul 20, 2026

Hollywood Reporter

Stephen Chow’s ‘Kung Fu Soccer’ Blasts Past $200 Million at China Box Office

The 'Shaolin Soccer' spinoff grew in its second frame and is now expected earn just shy of $450 million in its full run.

entertainment  Jul 20, 2026

Hollywood Reporter

Jim Gilstrap, Singer on ‘Good Times’ Theme and Stevie Wonder’s “You Are the Sunshine of My Life,” Dies at 70

He also had a solo hit in 1975 with "Swing Your Daddy."

entertainment  Jul 20, 2026

Variety

‘House of the Dragon’ Star Fabien Frankel on Criston Cole’s Suicide Mission and His ‘Nihilism’: ‘He’s Losing the Will to Motivate’

SPOILER ALERT: This article contains spoilers for Season 3, Episode 5 of “House of the Dragon,” now streaming on HBO Max. In tonight’s “House of the Dragon” episode, Ser Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel) proclaims that he’s ready to die — and he’s ready to do so honorably. As the war to capture the Iron Throne rages on, […]

entertainment  Jul 20, 2026

The Guardian Culture

The Odyssey storms global box office with $264m opening

Epic film marks Christopher Nolan’s best opening since 2012’s The Dark Knight Rises when adjusted for inflationThe Odyssey has stormed the global box office, taking US$264m (£196m, A$378m) in its opening weekend, according to studio Universal Pictures.Starring Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway and Zendaya, the blockbuster is an adaptation of Homer’s ancient Greek epic poem, which follows Odysseus, the king of Ithaca, as he makes his perilous 10-year journey home after fighting in the Trojan

entertainment  Jul 20, 2026

Hollywood Reporter

Spain World Cup Champions Gear Unveiled Within Moments of Victory Over Argentina

Fans can already secure official merchandise to commemorate the Spain national team's historic 2026 World Cup win.

entertainment  Jul 20, 2026

Hollywood Reporter

Donald Trump Booed at World Cup Final

As the president walked out onto the field for the presentation of the awards with FIFA chief Gianni Infantino, boos could be heard coming from the crowd.

entertainment  Jul 19, 2026