‘He annotated my letter from Spielberg’: readers pay tribute to Sam Neill
From teeing up a marriage to inspiring a career and giving 144 bottles of wine to his birthday band, the star’s admirers share their fondest memories
A voyage of discovery: an idiot’s guide to reading The Odyssey
Christopher Nolan’s film adaptation of the ancient Greek epic has sparked a new appetite for an old classic. Here are the translations, podcasts and audiobooks that make the Homeric world more approachable
‘The minute I had success, I stopped taking drugs’: John Waters on 60 years of screen carnage
As Hairspray and his ‘angriest movie’ Desperate Living are rereleased, the ‘Pope of Trash’ reflects on dead dogs, dirty rats, ‘that lunatic RFK’ and why there are no novelty dances any more
Sam Neill’s cause of death revealed to be pneumonia
Neill’s longtime representative says the actor’s family agreed to release the information due to ‘inaccuracies and outright falsehoods’ in media
The Odyssey review – Nolan goes god-tier with breathtaking epic of men, monsters and moral metamorphosis
Doing full justice to the Homeric legend, Christopher Nolan amasses an epic cast to convey the true cost of war with film-making of thrilling ambition
George Lucas likens AI sceptics to luddites clinging to horses and carts
Star Wars director calls AI technology ‘the future’ of film-making and says ‘there’s nothing you can do about it’
A Close Shave/A Matter of Loaf and Death review – Wallace and Gromit knit together a cracking double bill
These two half-hour classics of stop-motion pack in nods to more earnest cinema but are never distracted from producing pristinely beguiling family entertainment
Ali G is back. I really wish he wasn’t
Back in the day, he was funny. But that day was 24 years ago – and the character sits uncomfortably in a post-shame world, writes Arwa Mahdawi
Animal Farm review – Andy Serkis’ Orwell adaptation slaughters the classic farmyard satire with sugar
The passionate allegory on Stalinism is outrageously reduced to happy-ending panto in this defanged animation featuring the voices of Seth Rogen, Laverne Cox and Glenn Close
The Day She Returns review – another Hong Sang-soo round of slow, reflective boozing really hits the spot
No film-maker shows more day-drinking than Hong, and this study of an actor returning from a career break is the same again – as mysteriously addictive as ever
Confessions of a Shopaholic: a charming Isla Fisher romcom worth taking to the checkout
The PJ Hogan-directed film may not have the polish of The Devil Wears Prada but it has new relevance in the buy now, pay later era
‘It wasn’t a dream, it was a threat’: the film festival celebrating pan-Africanism’s rich and complex history
Project a Black Planet: Film, a new season of screenings at the Barbican in London exemplifies how the movement was an act of solidarity, resistance and fierce creativity
Jane Campion remembers Sam Neill: ‘He was radiating peace, beaming love’
The Piano director shares her memories of the actor on set – and the last time she saw him in hospital
Synthetic Sincerity review – Marc Isaacs’ AI interrogation grapples with identity and existence
A combination of fact and fiction leaves the celebrated documentarian’s puzzling project about software training wanting for depth
They Fight review – boxing drama is an emotional gutpunch
Anchored by an indelible André Holland performance, the film finds tenderness and warmth amid its gritty Washington DC backdrop