Phil de Semlyen

London is absolutely world-class when it comes to museums. Obviously, we’re biased, but with more than 170 of them dotted about the capital – a huge chunk of which are free to visit – we think it’s fair to say that there’s nowhere else in the world that does museums better.  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 cinema memorabilia, grotesque eighteenth-century surgical instruments, or perhaps a wall of 4,000 mouse skeletons? Check, check, check! Being the cultured metropolitans that we are, Time Out’s editors love nothing more than a wholesome afternoon spent gawping at Churchill’s baby rattle or some ancient Egyptian percussion instruments. In my case, the opportunity to live on the doorstep of some of the planet’s most iconic cultural institutions was a big reason why I moved here at the first chance I got, and I’ve racked up countless hours traipsing around display cases and deciphering needlessly verbose wall texts in the eleven years since. From iconic collections, brilliant curation and cutting-edge tech right down to nice loos, adequate signage and a decent place to grab a cuppa; my colleagues and I know exactly what we want from a museum, and we’ve put in a whole lot of time deliberating which of the city’s institutions are worth your time. So here’s our take on the 25 best ones to check out around London, ranging from world-famous cultural

Damn, 2024 came through with some absolute bangers. We had Brat summer with hit-after-hit from Charli xcx, but we also saw Sabrina Carpenter sing silly little outros to her sleeper hit Nonsense, Taylor Swift quite simply refusing to leave the charts (by any means necessary) and Chappell Roan catapult into fame faster than you can say ‘Pink Pony Club’. The past year really was for the pop girlies. But what are the songs that defined the year? Well, aside from the above, we’ve seen chart-topping country boy crooners, instantly iconic rap takedowns and joyously twee indie – all making 2024 a pretty stellar year for new music. I was tasked with building our ranking of the best songs of 2024 and compiled this list by asking our amazing international team of writers and editors to contribute their year-defining tracks. Expect to find a global list of tunes, from personal favourites to chart-toppers that simply can’t be ignored. 

It was the best of times and worst of times for Hollywood in 2024. The first half of the year was marked by a string of box office disappointments, followed by blockbusters no one saw coming – if you claim to have known Inside Out 2 would become the highest-grossing animated film of all-time, show us the receipts, please. The lesson is that it’s always hard to predict what the year in movies will look like, financially, thematically and otherwise. And so, as we look forward to the cinema of 2025, we won’t try to concoct some grand narrative about what it all means. We’ll simply say, there are many reasons to be excited. In January alone, the docket includes a new American epic, a long-​awaited biopic of one of the greatest artists of the 20th century, a fresh take on the wolfman and Nicole Kidman lustily drinking milk. Elsewhere, there are major legacy sequels, remakes, blockbuster spinoffs, long-awaited projects from big-name auteurs – and waiting for us at the end, Wicked: For Good and the third Avatar movie. Which of them will come to define the year? Who knows? But as always, we’ll be watching. RECOMMENDED:  🎥 The biggest family movies coming out in 2025📺 The best TV shows of 2024 you need to stream🔥 The 50 best movies of 2024

Durante la primera mitad de 2024, la discusión principal en torno a las nuevas películas de Hollywood giraba en torno a por qué nadie las iba a ver. ¿Por qué el público no fue en masa a ver a Ryan Gosling conducir coches acrobáticos y coquetear con Emily Blunt? ¿Por qué fracasó 'Furiosa' cuando la última película de Mad Max tuvo tanto éxito? Fue especialmente desconcertante, dado que el año pasado, la taquilla mundial parecía finalmente recuperarse del estancamiento posterior a la pandemia. La fortuna de los estudios está mejorando, sin embargo, gracias a algunas de las principales películas infantiles y del monstruoso éxito de 'Del revés 2' y 'Deadpool & Wolverine'. Entonces, ¿qué tal si dejamos de lamentarnos y empezamos a apreciar lo que ha sido un año bastante fantástico, tanto en lo que se refiere al mainstream como a las películas de autor? Además, ha sido un año particularmente bueno para el cine catalán, con filmes como 'Casa en flames' y 'El 47', que han pulverizado los récords de audiencia de los últimos años. NO TE LO PIERDAS: Lo mejor de la cartelera de cine de Barcelona

Cuando miramos hacia el cine de 2025, tenemos muchos motivos para emocionarnos. Solo en enero, el calendario incluye un nuevo título épico americano, una biografía muy esperada de uno de los grandes artistas del siglo XX, una nueva versión del hombre lobo y Nicole Kidman bebiendo leche de manera apasionada. Además, hay secuelas de sagas importantes, remakes, spin-offs de grandes éxitos, proyectos muy esperados de grandes autores y, hacia el final, 'Wicked: For good' y la tercera película de 'Avatar'. ¿Cuál de ellas terminará definiendo el año? ¿Quién lo sabe ahora? En cualquier caso, lo veremos en pantalla grande. 🎥 Las mejores 51 películas para ver en familia📺 Las mejores series para ver este mes🔥 Las mejores películas de 2024  

Mirant el cinema que ens arriba aquest 2025, tenim molts motius per emocionar-nos. Ja al gener, el calendari inclou un nou títol èpic americà, una biografia molt esperada d'un dels grans artistes del segle XX, una nova versió de l'home llop i Nicole Kidman bevent llet de manera apassionada. A més a més, hi ha seqüeles de llegendes importants, remakes, spin-offs de grans èxits, projectes molt esperats de grans autors i, ja cap al final, 'Wicked: For good' i la tercera pel·lícula d'’Avatar’. Quina d'elles acabarà definint l'any? Qui pot saber-ho, ara? En tot cas, ho veurem en pantalla gran.  🎥 Les millors pel·lícules per veure en família📺 Les millors sèries per veure aquest mes🔥 Les millors pel·lícules del 2024 

Durant la primera meitat del 2024, la discussió principal sobre les noves pel·lícules de Hollywood girava al voltant de per què ningú les anava a veure. Per què el públic no va anar en massa a veure a Ryan Gosling conduir cotxes acrobàtics i coquetejar amb Emily Blunt? Per què va fracassar 'Furiosa' quan l'última pel·lícula de Mad Max va tenir tant d'èxit? Va ser especialment desconcertant, tenint en compte que l'any passat, la taquilla mundial semblava finalment recuperar-se de l'estancament posterior a la pandèmia. La fortuna dels estudis està millorant, però, gràcies a algunes de les principals pel·lícules infantils i del monstruós èxit d''Del revés 2' i 'Deadpool & Wolverine'. Llavors, per què no deixem de lamentar-nos i celebrem que ha estat un any fantàstic, tant pel que fa al mainstream com per les pel·lícules d'autor? A més, ha estat un any particularment bo pel cinema català amb films com 'Casa en flames' i 'El 47', que han fet miques els rècords d'audiència dels últims anys. NO T'HO PERDIS: Les millors estrenes de cinema del mes a Barcelona

Hollywood vivió en 2024 algunos de sus mejores y peores momentos. La primera mitad del año estuvo marcada por una serie de fracasos en taquilla, seguida de varios éxitos que nadie vio venir (si dices que sabías que 'Del revés 2' se convertiría en la película de animación más taquillera de todos los tiempos, demuéstralo, por favor). La lección es que siempre es difícil predecir cómo será el año cinematográfico, ya sea desde el punto de vista económico, temático... Por eso, cuando miramos hacia el cine de 2025, no vamos a intentar construir un gran relato sobre lo que significa todo esto. Simplemente, diremos que hay muchas razones para estar entusiasmados. Solo en enero, la cartelera incluye una nueva epopeya estadounidense, un esperado 'biopic' de uno de los mayores artistas del siglo XX o una nueva versión del 'Hombre lobo'. Por lo demás, hay secuelas de grandes películas, 'remakes', películas derivadas de éxitos de taquilla, proyectos esperados de grandes autores y, al final, 'Wicked: For Good' y la tercera película de Avatar. ¿Cuál de ellas definirá el año? ¿Quién sabe? Pero, como siempre, estaremos atentos. RECOMENDADO: Las obras de teatro más esperadas en Madrid en 2025. 

The new year is truly Christmas-come-late for movie lovers. While American theaters are filling within the kind of flotsam and jetsam that didn’t make even the most broad-minded awards conversations, the chances are your local picturehouse will be brimming with an enviable mix of prestige releases and smart genre fare of all kinds. For fans of the latter, there’s Nosferatu, Wolf Man and Steven Soderbergh chiller Presence; for the former, well, where to begin? From Nickel Boys, A Real Pain, The Brutalist, just to name a few, there are some absolute bangers heading your way. Get Santa to leave a gift card under the tree and block out some time for cinema outings. Quite a lot of it, in the case of The Brutalist.RECOMMENDED: 🎄 The 50 best Christmas movies📽️ The must-see films for 2025 you can’t miss📺 The best TV shows of 2024 you need to stream🏵️ The 100 greatest movies of all time

Si 2022 fue el año de Tom Cruise, gracias al éxito de taquilla que supuso 'Top Gun: Maverick', 2023 se perfila como el año de... bien, Tom Cruise otra vez. La llegada de la primera parte de 'Misión: Imposible: Sentencia de muerte' tendría que hacer que las taquillas de los cines vuelvan a llenarse. También hay una segunda entrega que nos entusiasmará: el retorno de Denis Villeneuve a Arrakis con 'Dune: Parte Dos'. Y si nos ceñimos a los números, Ant-Man y los entrañables Guardianes de la Galaxia tendrán una tercera entrega, puesto que la cuarta fase del MCU se convierte en multiversal.En el ámbito más pequeño y artístico, también hay mucho por el cual entusiasmarse. Sundance y Cannes llevarán a nuestras listas de imprescindibles películas desconocidas hasta ahora. Y antes de esto, llegarán a la gran pantalla las nuevas películas de Sarah Polley ('Ellas hablan), Hirokazu Koreeda ('Broker') y Cristian Mungiu ('R.M.N.'). Una cosa es segura: 2023 no será ningún paseo. NO TE LO PIERDAS: Los mejores conciertos de Barcelona en 2023

In 2024, family movies saved Hollywood. Coming off 2023 and the #Barbenheimer phenomenon, the first half of the year was filled with unexpected flops that left studios scratching their heads. Then came Pixar’s Inside Out 2, which exceeded all expectations to become not just the top box-office draw of the year but the highest-grossing animated movie ever made. Then Despicable Me 4. Then Moana 2. Three of the five biggest movies of the year were aimed at kids – and don’t forget the pan-generational appeal of Wicked, either. Will the story continue in 2025? Hard to say. Other than the second half of the aforementioned Wizard of Oz prequel, there aren’t many obvious blockbusters on the immediate horizon. But again, who saw Inside Out 2 or Despicable Me 4 coming? There is, however, plenty to get excited about, from live-action remakes to a brand new Pixar adventure to Spongebob Squarepants. Here are the eight family films your children will be begging to see this year. RECOMMENDED: 🎥 The biggest movies to see in 2025📺 The best streaming shows of 2024🔥 The 50 best movies of 2024

With Hollywood still regaining its footing after a 2020s it’d probably describe as a personal low, the field has been open for streaming shows to monopolise the cultural conversation. And this year it’s been well-established thoroughbreads that have been dominating our social feeds (Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Bear, Industry, Bridgerton, Slow Horses), as well as some unexpected bolters (Baby Reindeer, Rivals, Fallout). And with a second run of Squid Game about to end the year with a big pile of bodies, the pressure to cram in eight or ten episodes’ worth of must-see TV is not relenting anytime soon. Our advice? Shake off the pressure to ‘see everything’ – it’s impossible, short of ripping a hole in the fabric of time – and find the shows that really hit your sweet spot. To help with this, we’ve taken a backwards glance over the best and most all-round enjoyable new binges, curating our definitive list of 2024 favourites. And as any fan of ace Aussie comedy Colin From Accounts will tell you: it’s not always about the number of Emmys on the shelf, as the sheer joy on screen that makes something worth your precious time. Here’s where to start. RECOMMENDED: 🎥 The 50 best movies of 2024🔥 The best TV and streaming shows of 2023📺 The 100 greatest ever TV shows you need to binge

It rivals The Substance as 2024’s most arresting horror film – and it was a killer year for the genre – but you’d hesitate to call Robert Eggers’ deeply sinister, slow-burning new take on the vampire classic ‘fresh’ exactly. Plague, rats, death and moral degradation abound in a tale made with a coolness manifest by none of its out-of-their-depth characters.  The American auteur, crushing it in every film he makes, returns to his horror roots with an even darker vision. The Witch, his debut, a parable of evil penetrating a Puritan family unit in Colonial America, gave us the demonic and meme-able Black Phillip. Nosferatu gives us just blackness, shadows to get lost in (props to cinematographer Jarin Blaschke’s noir lighting) and an undercurrent of lurking villainy that’s articulated in the film’s lulling early stretches by the jittery strings of Robin Carolan’s impressive score.  As with FW Murnau’s 1922 silent adaptation of Henrik Galeen’s Dracula riff, a film spilling over with post-Great War dread, and Werner Herzog’s AIDS-era remake Nosferatu the Vampyre, the plot is set in motion by a humble real-estate deal. Wisborg realtor Herr Knock (Simon McBurney) sends his ambitious young agent Thomas Hutter (Nicholas Hoult) to the Carpathian castle of one Count Orlok, to complete his purchase of a new abode in their seafront town.  Wrong move. The man he meets has none of the doomed romanticism of Klaus Kinski’s vampire, a mole-toothed softboi who was prone to lamentations about ho

The most enjoyable Disney Animation movie since The Lion King (1994) – sorry, Frozen heads – 2016’s Moana dazzled with its kaleidoscopic Oceania seascapes, catchy tunes, and a coming-of-age adventure that tacked smartly around empowerment clichés. Now, eight years later and retooled from a planned Disney+ spinoff series, the sea-quel is here with… well, exactly the same. There’s nothing too much wrong with Moana 2, which ticks all those same boxes for adventure and empowerment. It’s another loving celebration of Polynesian culture, replete with mad-looking sea creatures, hummable songs, and a charming goofy streak. But the lightning that jags from its spectacular climactic tempest doesn’t end up in the bottle this time.  Hawaiian actress Auli'i Cravalho returns as the voice of Moana, now a seasoned wayfarer held in the highest esteem on her Pacific island. She even has her own fanclub – the Moana-be’s – and a direct line to her demigod frenemy from the first movie, Maui (voiced again by Dwayne Johnson). Her dream, pursued on solo journeys across the waves, is to make contact with other Pacific Islanders. It’s Star Trek with starfish.  It’s Star Trek with starfish But that’s not the adventure that Moana 2 takes us on. Instead, returning screenwriter Jared Bush and co-writer Dana Ledoux Miller serve up another deus ex machina – this time a malevolent deity called Nalo – to unleash seismic disorder on the ocean. Moana must embark on another perilous journey to restore the balan

Baboins sauvages. Requins tueurs. Délire à l'opium. La suite de Ridley Scott, musclée, assoiffée de sang et parfois résolument décalée, n’est pas le Gladiator que vous connaissez – ni celui que vous enseignait votre prof d’histoire. Mais malgré ses défauts, c’est une aventure colossale qui ne ménage aucun effort pour vous épater par son ampleur et son spectacle. Là où Gladiator (2000) mêlait habilement scènes de bataille et intrigues politiques subtiles, cette suite fonctionne mieux lorsqu'elle se concentre sur des moments d’action pure, comme lorsqu'une baliste est tendue et envoie une boule de feu en direction de votre tête. L’action dégage une extravagance brutale, une volonté de mettre en lumière la violence comme symptôme de l'effondrement social, avec une dose supplémentaire de membres tranchés et de plaies ouvertes. Seize ans se sont écoulés depuis les événements de ce premier film désormais culte, et notre nouveau héros, Lucius Verus de Paul Mescal, est passé du statut de neveu de Commodus en péril à la fin de Gladiator à celui de père de famille amoureux vivant un exil heureux dans une ville côtière d'Afrique du Nord. La première bataille navale met fin à tout cela. Une flotte de trirèmes romaines sous le commandement du général Marcus Acacius, incarné par Pedro Pascal, s'abat sur la citadelle de Lucius et de sa femme au bord de la mer. Ce qui s'ensuit déchaîne l'enfer à une échelle similaire à celle de la mêlée d'ouverture de Russell Crowe en Germanie dans le premie

Is there a better or more versatile British actor at work than Ralph Fiennes? He can dial things right down in quieter dramas (The Dig), brings a spry verve to comedic roles (The Grand Budapest Hotel), and goes magnificently big when the assignment requires (A Bigger Splash, In Bruges). He’s always precisely as good as the material allows him to be. Sometimes better. Peter Straughan’s eloquent adaptation of Robert Harris’s 2016 Papal thriller allows him to be very good indeed. He’s Cardinal Lawrence, a Vatican functionary charged with overseeing the election of a new Pope when the ailing Pontiff, a much-loved and liberal-minded Holy Father, heads for the Pearly Gates. Rounds of voting – and scheming – await before a new pope is chosen and white smoke comes out of the Vatican chimney. And Fiennes is immaculate. His cardinal carries himself with the burdened obeisance of a man who knows that when he finally gets to heaven, he’ll probably be put in charge of the filing. A fellow cardinal dismisses him as ‘less a shepherd than a manager’. The actor’s reaction is perfect: the half-wince of a man who knows, deep down, that he’s probably right.  Directed with real élan by Edward Berger – going two-for-two on literary adaptions after his take on All Quiet on the Western Front – Conclave is a film for the ’they don’t make ’em like they used to’ brigade. Like a ’70s conspiracy thriller, its schemes and twists play out sotto voce: senior clergymen exchange scuttlebutt between vapes (the

There’s an urban legend – long denied by the band itself – that Pink Floyd’s album The Dark Side of the Moon was recorded to fit over the visuals of The Wizard of Oz, creating a trippy alternative experience known to smug muso types as ‘The Dark Side of the Rainbow’.   Even in their psychedelic Syd Barrett days, the prog legends would have been hard-pressed to record anything to match the tempo set by Jon M Chu’s high-energy repurposing of Stephen Schwartz’s Wizard of Oz origin musical.   You’d need an army of flying monkeys to find a Wicked fan with any grumbles about the results. The Crazy Rich Asians director’s screen version pops with vibrancy and energy, effervescence and sincerity, adding the odd tweak, expanding the occasional storyline, but largely visualising the musical in a way that will delight the many millions who have seen it on stage since its Broadway premiere in 2003. And the songs – especially the ceiling-plaster-loosening Defying Gravity – are belted out via vocal cords you’d pay top dollar to hear in concert, with Cynthia Erivo and a scene-stealing Ariana Grande the powerhouse double-act at the movie’s heart: one providing steel and soul as Shiz University’s ostracised green-skinned student Elphaba; the other with a nice line in perky superficiality as Galinda, a Tracy Flick type whose manifesto for life is captured in a wittily staged Popular. Of course, they’ll grow up to become the Wicked Witch of the West and the Good Witch of the North respectively.

Savage baboons. Killer sharks. Opium hits. Panto villains. Ridley Scott’s brawny, bloodthirsty, and occasionally wildly camp sequel is not your dad’s Gladiator movie – or your history teacher’s. But for all its flaws, it’s a colossally entertaining ride that never stints on its efforts to wow you with its scale and spectacle.    Where Gladiator (2000) deftly intercut its battle scenes with subtly plotted political manoeuvrings, this one works best when it’s just winding up one of its ballistas and launching a fireball at your head. There’s a brutal extravagance to the action, a dedication to the film’s theme of violence as a portent of social collapse that manifests in an extra slather of chopped limbs and slashing wounds.  We’re 16 years on from the events of that now-canonical first film, and our new hero, Paul Mescal’s Lucius Verus, has grown from Commodus’s imperilled nephew at the end of Gladiator to a loved-up family man living in happy exile in a coastal city in north Africa. The opening sea battle puts paid to all that. A fleet of Roman triremes under the command of Pedro Pascal’s upstanding general, Marcus Acacius, descend on Lucius and his wife’s seaside citadel. What follows unleashes hell on a similar scale to Russell Crowe’s opening scrap in Germania in the first film, by way of Kingdom of Heaven’s vast Siege of Jerusalem sequence. Scott has lost none of his feel for combat on this scale.  Most of the movie is set in a ravishingly-replicated Rome, rendered in dus

‘I’m humble now, but it tells you the story of how I became humble.’ With that magnificent faux modesty, Pharrell Williams provides the synopsis for a hero’s journey that’s rendered entirely in Lego animation. On paper, it sounds completely bonkers – The Lego Movie, only a biopic – but it somehow works a treat. Packed with the super-producer’s pop bangers, punctuating its music biz self-importance with consistent silliness, and laden with A-list cameos, including Lego Snoop Dogg, Lego Missy Elliott and most of the noughties hip hop scene (also Lego), it’s a real joyride. Hopefully it’ll inspire a few more docs to deviate from the boring old biopic formula. Pharrell invited 20 Feet From Stardom director Morgan Neville to shoot a standard documentary, complete with a meaty central interview with the man himself, and then bin it and remake the whole thing in Danish bricks. It works for two reasons: the primary colours and charmingly daffy animation technique fits its endearing subject to a tee. His genius, it charts, began with his synesthesia – an ability to see music in colours – and the Lego animation illustrates it better than a regular doc ever could. And it turns out that it’s way more fun hearing A-listers intoning about their musical genius when they’re Lego-fied. A Snoop Dogg cameo has a little Lego figure appearing with a canister of ‘PG spray’ to replicate the moment when Pharrell and his Neptunes/N.E.R.D. co-producer Chad Hugo had a woozy meeting with the weed-smoki

What would Terminator 2’s Judgment Day look like in Aardman’s world? Vengeance Most Fowl, the Bristol animators’ first Wallace and Gromit caper since 2008 short A Matter of Loaf and Death, is the typically charming, inventive and ridiculously English answer to that hypothetical. Much more upbeat, basically, and with more turnips. Instead of killer cyborgs, this tale of revenge and larceny unleashes an army of evil robot gnomes (voiced by Reece Shearsmith) under the control of still-sinister penguin Feathers McGraw. Wallace has levelled up on his inventions, flooding his house with mechanical gadgets, and enabling Nick Park and co-director Merlin Crossingham to deliver their own version of a cautionary tale on the perils of AI – albeit one that’s about as hard-edged as a tea cosy. ‘See how embracing technology makes our lives better!’ Wallace tells his long-suffering pooch, like Lancashire’s answer to a tech bro, before unleashing his new gnome helper, Norbot, on an unsuspecting town. But from behind bars, Feathers is plotting revenge against the duo who foiled his diamond heist in 1993’s The Wrong Trousers. He’s had 31 years to master computer hacking, and is soon taking control of Norbot and wrecking havoc.  It’s Aardman’s ridiculously English answer to Terminator 2 If Vengeance Most Fowl’s core dynamic – the guileless Wallace’s obliviousness to his dependence on his brainy beagle sidekick, and the pooch’s own stifled sense of frustration and hurt – hasn’t changed a jot dow

If you’re looking for this year’s answer to Barbenheimer, head straight for High Street Kensington. Here, the contents of Tim Burton’s drawers, attics and crypts – because he definitely has a crypt – have been arranged into a mind-altering residence at The Design Museum – just downstairs from the venue’s other blockbuster exhibition. Yes, Barbie upstairs, the Corpse Bride down below. Burton’s goth-ucopia has decamped to London just in time for Halloween, after a 10-city world tour. With advance ticket sales breaking records – 32,000 and counting –  the Californian’s adopted hometown is clearly already sold on the chance to eyeball 50 years of ceaselessly imaginative output up close.And eyeballs are everywhere here. They adorn monsters sketched, modelled and doodled by Burton over a career that stretches back to a restless, ambitious youth in the Burbank ’burbs. The opening section charts those ‘Anywhere, USA’ years, where the preternaturally gifted Burton was experimenting with stop-motion animation and pitching kids’ books to Disney. Pages from that book – The Giant Zlig – are on display, alongside a polite but encouraging rejection letter praising the young Burton’s imagination but pointing out its similarity to Dr Seuss’s.   The chance to peer at Edward Scissorhands’ actual scissorhands will be a rush for any movie lover Before transporting visitors into the heart of Burton’s Hollywood era, there’s a room dedicated to formative influences: Ray Harryhausen, Hammer films, G

A film made with cold courage by the victim of a sexual assault, this gripping Japanese documentary plays like a ’70s conspiracy thriller. Eavesdropping devices are ripped out of apartment walls, secret recordings made, the abuse of strangers is fended off, and the full might of a patriarchal state faced down. You can imagine a young Jane Fonda or Faye Dunaway playing its young heroine, journalist-filmmaker Shiori Ito, as she pursues the man who raped her with every means at her disposal.  Depressingly, it’s set much more recently. In 2015, as a young female journalist, Shiori was raped by veteran Washington bureau chief of the Tokyo Broadcasting System, Noriyuki Yamaguchi, in a hotel. The man’s connections ran all the way to Japan’s then-Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, for whom he’d served as biographer. Even as the traumatised reporter went to the police, the wagons were circling. Yamaguchi’s arrest was mysteriously called off at the last minute and criminal charges were never brought against him. Refusing to leave it at that, Shiori published an account of her experiences, going public with her accusation against Yamaguchi with a book called ‘Black Box’ in 2017. A potent metaphor for the secrecy at the heart of Japan’s antiquated and sexist system, the title also hints at its plane-crash impact on the lives of victims like Shiori. Shiori is a fragile but unbowed figure standing in the middle of a typhoon She also picked up a camera, filming her battle to bring the man to just

A month-long feast of contemporary Czech cinema, the Made in Prague Festival is back for another month of high-calibre dramas, comedies, docs and family films. This year is the 35th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution that exchanged Communist autocracy for democracy and led to the presidency of Václav Havel, and the poet-revolutionary is the subject of Petr Jančárek’s documentary, Havel Speaking, Can You Hear Me?, at the ICA on November 14. Look out, too, for Cold War drama Brothers, the country’s 2023 Oscars pick, and spiky family drama Waltzing Matilda, starring The Bourne Supremacy’s Karel Roden. With venues also including Regent Street Cinema, The Garden Cinema, The Gate and the Czech Centre itself, and a welcoming vibe, it’s one of London’s best boutique film fests.

One again, it’s all about gathering together and amplifying diverse, female and LGBTQ+ voices at this boutique west London indie fest – on-screen and in front of it. The Little Venice Film Festival (LVFF) kicks off with a screening of Lucy Cohen’s Cornish coming-of-age drama Edge of Summer at Maida Vale tube station on Tuesday, October 22, before taking in an array of other cool and unexpected London locations over seven days of features and shorts in west and central London. Look out for a day of female-directed screenings at the BBC’s Maida Vale Studios, the UK premiere of new Peter Dinklage Western The Thicket and screenings at Little Venice’s waterside Canal Café Theatre. Tickets are on an RSVP basis, so jump on the link and get RVSP-ing.

‘What would you do if you found out your child isn’t your own?’  That’s the premise of ITV’s new thriller, Playing Nice – an idea guaranteed to send a shudder of horror through any parent.  Starring McMafia’s James Norton and adopted from a novel by JP Delaney, the slow-burning thriller follows two couples who discover that they’ve been raising each others’ three-year-old sons – Theo and David – after a hospital mix-up at birth.  On one side of this dilemma is Pete (Norton), an ex-journalist and Theo’s stay-at-home dad, and his restaurateur partner Maddie (Niamh Algar); on the other: alpha architect Miles (James McArdle) and his affluent wife Lucy (Jessica Brown Findlay), parents to David. Seemingly, at least. The story is adapted from Delaney’s novel by NHS psychiatrist-turned-TV showrunner Grace Ofori-Attah, creator of ITV medical drama Malpractice, and shifts the story from metropolitan London to the altogether more chilly and foreboding Atlantic coast of Cornwall. Read on to find out where this knotty thriller was filmed.  Photograph: ITVNiamh Algar as Maddie What is Playing Nice about? ITV's synopsis runs: ‘Living a waking nightmare, Pete and Maddie are jettisoned into the world of the other couple Miles and Lucy. At first it seems all four are agreed on a solution, but it soon becomes clear that hidden motives are at play – how far can each couple trust the real parents of their child or even each other? As Pete and Maddie are stretched to breaking point, they realise

There’s not a single credible list of great movies out there that doesn’t feature Stanley Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon. It’s prominent on Time Out’s 100 Greatest list and you can find it perched regally at number 45 on Sight & Sound’s pantheon of greats. So what a new year’s treat to discover that Warner Bros. has uploaded the entire 18th-century-set opus to YouTube for movielovers to enjoy – free of charge. Released in 1975 to mixed reviews and middling box office, Barry Lyndon’s standing in the cinema canon has skyrocketed in recent years, driven by filmmaking fans like Yorgos Lanthimos and John Wick’s Chad Stahelski, and its increasing popularity at repertory cinemas like London’s Prince Charles.  ‘Traditionally, [it’s] the sort of film you might see on a Sunday afternoon or maybe midweek evening,’ the Prince Charles’ head of programming Paul Vickery tells The Guardian. ‘Now, it’s become a Saturday night movie. “Oh, we’ve got a three-hour gap in the programme, put Barry Lyndon on.”’ Adapted from William Makepeace Thackeray’s novel about a young Irishman’s (Ryan O’Neal) journey from lovestruck exile to cynical grifter in war-torn 18th century Europe, it’s an elegiac, sharp-witted film, full of painterly compositions and illuminated by John Alcott’s legendary candle-lit cinematography.  Could it even be Kubrick’s best film? Watch it below and decide for yourself: How many of the 100 greatest films of all time have you seen?The 30 films you need to know about in 2025.

  “La prévision est difficile, surtout lorsqu'elle concerne l'avenir”, disait le grand philosophe Pierre Dac. Suivant ce sage conseil, on ne va donc pas se lancer dans une grande théorie sur les films qui vont marquer l’année 2025. Disons simplement qu’il y a de nombreuses raisons de se réjouir et de continuer d’aller dans les salles obscures. Suites attendues, spin-off curieux, créations originales et une tripotée de grands noms, voici une liste de 12 films qu’on a hâte de voir en 2025 ! La Chambre d’à côté  © Sony Pictures Classics / Courtesy Everett Collection Martha, une ex-reporter de guerre jouée par Tilda Swinton, se meurt d'un cancer. Elle demande à son amie romancière Ingrid (Julianne Moore) de prendre soin d’elle en attendant le jour où elle décidera de mettre fin à ses jours. Une fois encore, Pedro Almodóvar signe un film éminemment féministe et sensible sur l’amitié, la vie, le temps qui passe. Sortie le 8 janvier    Un Parfait Inconnu © Searchlight PicturesElle Fanning et Timothée Chalamet Le biopic le plus attendu de l’année ! James Mangold filme les débuts de Robert Allen Zimmerman dit Bob Dylan (incarné par Timothée Chalamet, qui chante et joue de la guitare), jeune chanteur de folk qui débarque au début des 60’s dans le West Village et s’engage dans les luttes sociales de l’époque. Sortie le 29 janvier   Présence © Neon L’horreur surnaturelle, voilà un genre qui manquait à la filmo replète de Steven Soderbergh. Mais comme c’est Soderbergh, Présence n’es

There’s something cosy and old school about watching a movie on the telly – and we’re not talking about any of that Netflix or Prime Video business. Casually flicking through the channels and stumbling upon an old favourite in the wild is special. You didn’t know you needed to watch Die Hard and yet, there it is – brandishing a machine gun in a sweaty vest, beckoning you in. It takes the whole painful business of choice out of your hands and replaces it with two hours of pure enjoyment and a handful of stolen detonators.  But what if you don‘t have to idly flick through the channels in the hope of finding something great to watch? What if, say, someone compiled a bumper list of the best movies on the UK’s terrestrial TV stations between Saturday and New Year’s Day? Well, hello there! We’ve scoured the networks and cherry-picked the finest in free film viewing this Christmas: everything from Christmas classics to, well, regular classics. Red-button all of them and you’ve got your own Criterion cupboard for the year ahead. And if you’d rather hit the streamers, check out the newest festive fare on Netflix, Prime Video and the like here instead. Saturday, December 21 On Her Majesty’s Secret Service 2.15pm, Sat Dec 21. ITV1 What’s Up, Doc?  3.20pm, Sat Dec 21. BBC2 Stardust 3.30pm, Sat Dec 21. Channel 4 Apocalypse Now: Final Cut Midnight, Sat Dec 21. Channel 4 Pan’s Labyrinth 12.45am, Sat Dec 21. BBC2 Photograph: Renown Pictures Sunday, December 22 A Christmas Carol (1951)

Forget Netflix and forget Amazon Prime – give streaming a miss this festive season and recall the era of good old terrestrial telly. We’ve sifted through the TV schedule to let you in on all of the finest films and TV shows being broadcast over the Christmas weekend. With Ncuti Gatwa taking the reigns as the latest Doctor, the final ever episode of beloved sitcom ‘Ghosts’ and an eclectic assortment of movie classics, you’re in for a treat.  So, cosy up with the chocolate variety boxes, the mulled wine and the remote ready to flick through these family favourites, historical epics and all-time greats. Here’s your guide to the small screen this Christmas.  🎅 The best Christmas songs of all time🎄 The best Christmas films of all time🚚 Coca-Cola’s iconic Christmas truck tour is returning to the UK for Christmas 2023: dates and locations 1. The Big Sleep (1946) /Casablanca (1942) 1.05pm-4.35pm, Sat Dec 23. BBC2 2. Paddington (2014) 6.45pm, Sat Dec 23. BBC1 3. Out of Sight (1998) 11.50pm, Sat Dec 23. BBC1 4. It’s a Wonderful Life (1946) 4.30pm, Sat Dec 23. Channel 4 5. Die Hard (1988) 9pm, Sat Dec 23. Channel 4 6. White Christmas (1954) 1pm, Sun Dec 24. BBC2 7. The Sound of Music (1965) 2.50pm, Sun Dec 24. BBC1 8. Call the Midwife  8.15pm, Mon Dec 24. BBC 1   9. The Great Christmas Bake Off 8.15pm, Sun Dec 24. Channel 4 10. Toy Story 4 (2019) 3.10pm, Mon Dec 25. BBC1 11. Sing 2 (2021) 4.30pm, Mon Dec 25. ITV1 12. Home Alone (1990) 5.30pm, Mon Dec 25. Channel 4  13. Doctor Who 

London’s newest cinemas has just flung open its doors for the first time – and it’s a wonderland for east Londoners who love to see films in the most upscale surrounds.  Everyman Stratford International is a three-screen, 253-seat addition to The Turing Building in Stratford. Take a photographic tour below. Photograph: Johnny Stephens Photography The cinema, which opened this week with Moana 2, Conclave, Gladiator II and Wicked on the programme, is the boutique chain’s 47th UK cinema.  Photograph: Johnny Stephens Photography Expect all the usual luxuries, including velvet sofas and armchairs in the screens and a cocktail bar and lounge area outside them. There’s also an outdoor terrace perfect for a pre-movie summer spritz. Photograph: Johnny Stephens Photography As usual with new Everyman openings, there’s a special founder membership package for the first 400 new members to sign-up. Photograph: Johnny Stephens Photography Head to the official site for all the details. Check out the 25 best cinemas in London – as picked by Londoners.The 30 films you need to know about in 2025.

You’ve seen the Harry Potter movies in the cinema. You’ve seen Harry Potter movies on the telly. But have you ever seen them while being shaken about like you’re on one of those trolleys zooming through the dark caverns of Gringotts? Or being lightly drizzled in water as a competitor in the Triwizard Tournament splashes into the Great Lake?  According to Collider, that opportunity is just around the corner for moviegoers across the US in early 2025. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire will be screening in 3D and 4DX formats at big multiplexes in February.Warner Bros. is teaming up with experiential event organiser Fathom Events to re-release the four Harry Potter movies at AMC, Cinemark, Regal, Megaplex and Showcase Cinemas.The dates, which also mark the 20th anniversary of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, as follows: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone: Thursday February 13, 20, and 27Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets: Friday February 14, 21, and 28Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban: Saturday February 15 and 22, and March 1Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire: Sunday February 16, 23 and March 2 According to UK cinema chain Cineworld, the 4DX experience ‘deploys motion-controlled seats that move, vibrate and shake in time with the revelations sought by Harry, his friends and enemies,’ and ‘wind and scent effects establish an even great

The votes are in and Time Out’s top ten streaming shows and TV series of the year has been revealed.  Coming in at number one is Disney+’s adaptation of James Clavell’s period novel Shōgun. The 1600s-set epic, starring a breakout Cosmo Jarvis as an English sailor caught up in Japanese dynastic conflict, and The Last Samurai’s Hiroyuki Sanada and Anna Sawai as a warlord and his highborn interpreter, won a record-breaking 18 Emmys.  Following behind is the magnificent second season of BBC period drama Wolf Hall, The Mirror and the Light. Starring Mark Rylance, it charts the downfall of Tudor grandee Thomas Cromwell under the cruel, capricious reign of Damian Lewis’s Henry VIII. (It airs on PBS in the US from March 23, 2025.)Apple TV’s consistently brilliant spy thriller Slow Horses, Netflix’s overnight smash Baby Reindeer and Sky Atlantic’s high-gloss assassin thriller The Jackal also make the top ten.  Photo: Kurt Iswarienko/FXHiroyuki Sanada in ‘Shogun’ The list in full:  Shōgun (Disney+) Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light (BBC/PBS) Slow Horses season 4 (Apple TV+) One Day (Netflix)  The Jackal (Sky Atlantic/Peacock) Baby Reindeer (Netflix) Colin From Accounts season 2 Black Doves (Netflix) The Boys season 4 (Prime Video) Ripley (Netflix) And head here for the full list for all 40 shows on our best of 2024 list. The 50 best movies of 2024The 100 greatest ever TV shows you need to binge

It’s been a bonanza of a year for new Christmas movies, with Netflix, Paramount+ and Prime Video all releasing new festive efforts ahead of the holidays. The headline act of this year’s new Christmas movies is a certain $250+ million blockbuster called Red One, starring Dwayne Johnson and Chris Evans. You may have spotted it in your local multiplex – though you probably walked past it on your way in to see Wicked, if the movie’s respective box-office figures are anything to go by. Still, Christmas is a time for second chances and a film that’s not worth shelling out $20 for at the cinema can be a different proposition when it’s on a streaming service – in this case Prime Video – that you already subscribe to. Here’s everything you need to know about Red One, and the rest of this month’s seasonal releases. Photograph: Prime Video What is ‘Red One’ and is it any good? This big-budget blockbuster sees Father Christmas (JK Simmons) – aka ‘Red One’ – kidnapped and the North Pole’s security chief (Dwayne Johnson) and a ‘naughty-lister’ called Jack O’Malley (Chris Evans) on a mission to rescue him. It’s directed by Jake Kasdan, the man behind Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, Bad Teacher and the two most recent Jumanji movies. Prime Video and MGM’s big bet this December flopped hard at cinemas and arrives on streaming with mostly negative reviews. Currently languishing at 36 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, it’s firmly on the naughty list for most film critics. ‘This is the big blockbust

How do you pick the greatest Christmas movie of all time? Is it all about prioritising cosy vibes and life lessons or would you want to reward something a bit edgier? Do you need a gang of hi-tech international thieves chasing a cop in a vest around a skyscraper to make the festive period complete, or will a catch-up of The Holiday do the trick with much less bloodshed?  Because Christmas movies come in all shapes and sizes. In fact, you could apply that to the umpteen movie versions of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol on their own – from the Alastair Sim classic, to Robert Zemeckis’s 2009 adaptation with a mo-cap Jim Carrey as Scrooge, to the Jim Henson favourite where Tiny Tim is a small felt frog. Even Ingmar Bergman got in on the act, keeping the existential despair to an absolute minimum in his nostalgic cockle-warmer Fanny and Alexander.   But we want to know what London’s favourite Christmas movie is – and we need your help to find out. We’ve narrowed down the field to 12 evergreen classics, festive films of all kinds spanning the merriment scale from straight-up twinkly (The Holiday) to bittersweet (Carol). Just click on your personal favourite below by December 18 and we’ll tally up the votes and announce London’s favourite Christmas film in the lead-up to the big day. Then everyone has to watch it.  // window.beOpAsyncInit = function() { BeOpSDK.init({ account: "5f69f55f46e0fb0001fde886", clickUrlPrefix: "https://mytrackerurl.com/count?redirect="

How do you pick the greatest Christmas movie of all time? Is it all about prioritising cosy vibes and life lessons or would you want to reward something a bit edgier? Do you need a gang of hi-tech international thieves chasing a cop in a vest around a skyscraper to make the festive period complete, or will a catch-up of The Holiday do the trick with much less bloodshed?  Because Christmas movies come in all shapes and sizes. In fact, you could apply that to the umpteen movie versions of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol on their own – from the Alastair Sim classic, to Robert Zemeckis’s 2009 adaptation with a mo-cap Jim Carrey as Scrooge, to the Jim Henson favourite where Tiny Tim is a small felt frog. Even Ingmar Bergman got in on the act, keeping the existential despair to an absolute minimum in his nostalgic cockle-warmer Fanny and Alexander.   But we want to know what London’s favourite Christmas movie is – and we need your help to find out. We’ve narrowed down the field to 12 evergreen classics, festive films of all kinds spanning the merriment scale from straight-up twinkly (The Holiday) to bittersweet (Carol). Just click on your personal favourite below by December 18 and we’ll tally up the votes and announce London’s favourite Christmas film in the lead-up to the big day. Then everyone has to watch it.  window.beOpAsyncInit = function() { BeOpSDK.init({ account: "5f69f55f46e0fb0001fde886", clickUrlPrefix: "https://mytrackerurl.com/count?redirect=" });

Time Out has five pairs of tickets to give away to followers of its Time Out East London WhatsApp Channel this Friday, December 13. Simply wait for the message to drop and hit the link to enter. First come first serve. Event terms and conditions are available on Squid Game 2 | The Rave’s event website. Squid Game is throwing a massive free party in London this month and superstar South Korean DJ Peggy Gou is headlining. Netflix is taking over London superclub Drumsheds on December 18 and throwing a free rave to mark the arrival of season 2 of the smash-hit Korean dystopian thriller. The event promises ‘live DJs, Korean food and plenty of Squid Game fun’. (NB: food and drinks won’t be free.) Photograph: Netflix The old Tottenham Ikea, now the biggest nightclub in London, will make a suitably industrial setting for the massive free party: its vast main dance floor will be throwing shapes to a line-up of DJs. Not so much ‘Red Light, Green Light’, as big fish, little fish, cardboard box.The line-up of DJs, and exact timings for the night, will be unveiled soon. You just need to be 18 or over – and remember to take ID. To join the waiting list for tickets, head for the official site. You can secure a maximum of two tickets per booking. Photograph: Netflix For the unfamiliar, Squid Game season 1 followed gambling addict Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) into a mysterious contest to win nearly $40 million. The catch? Death awaited the losers in a series of lethal games. Season 2, whi