Hamnet review – Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley beguile and captivate in audacious Shakespearean tragedy

Chloé Zhao’s film version of Maggie O’Farrell’s myth-making novel powerfully reimagines the agonising loss of a child as the source of Hamlet’s grand stage drama

How far can James Cameron’s Avatar saga go after its billion-dollar box office triumph?

Cameron warned that Avatars 4 and 5 might end up as novels if third instalment Fire and Ash bombed. But noise about its slow start is beginning to look like a ritual movies in the series must go through before the money pours in

‘Pinnacle of westerns’: the Oscar-winning writer of Forrest Gump on staging High Noon – with songs by Springsteen

He’s written screen smashes like Dune and Killers of the Flower Moon. As Eric Roth plunges into theatre, he talks about classic westerns, being sacked by Robert Redford – and why writing for Martin Scorsese is a dream

Timothée Chalamet and Jessie Buckley in Oscar surge as they win Critics Choice awards

The Marty Supreme and Hamnet stars are jockeying for pole position for the big Hollywood prize after a night in which One Battle After Another and Adolescence were also recognised

‘I find it all a bit comforting’: why Zodiac is my feelgood movie

The first 2026 entry in our ongoing series of writers calling attention to their comfort films is David Fincher’s thriller

Dreams Travel With the Wind review – communing with the spirits to preserve Indigenous culture in Colombia

This intensely personal film follows Colombian director Inti Jacanamijoy’s grandfather to the ancestral lands of the Wayuu people

Mickey Rourke launches fundraiser to pay $60,000 in rent after threat of eviction

The 73-year-old Oscar-nominated actor was issued with an eviction notice in December

UK arts groups offer therapeutic support to performers as they challenge myth of tortured artist

‘You don’t have to be tortured to make great art,’ says founder of mental health support organisation Artist Wellbeing

Evangeline Lilly reveals she has brain damage after hitting her head in fall

Marvel, Lost and Hobbit actor says ‘almost every area in my brain is functioning at a decreased capacity’ after she fainted and fell face-first into a boulder

Sex object, animal rights activist, racist: the paradox that was Brigitte Bardot

A fantasy figure for men and women, a victim of press intrusion, a defender of animals … the French actor was also a mouthpiece for racial hatred whose views grew uglier over time

The hill I will die on: Films and TV shows are better if you read the spoilers first

Please note, this piece absolutely includes spoilers for Cruel Intentions, a film made 26 years ago. Do read on, says assistant Opinion editor Jason Okundaye

Miranda Otto: ‘It can be a gift when things go absolutely the wrong way’

The stage and screen actor on turning gaffes into gifts, the impact of Eowyn, and the stew scene that Lord of the Rings fans won’t stop asking about

The Guide #224: Bondage Bronte, to more comeback tours – what will be 2026’s big cultural hitters ?

This first newsletter of the new year looks at some of the big questions we hope will be answered in the next 12 months, across film, TV, music and games

The Traitors to Dry Cleaning: the week in rave reviews

Claudia Winkleman returns with the regular version of the hit gameshow, while the left-field indie quartet spread their wings. Here’s the pick of the week’s culture, taken from the Guardian’s best-rated reviews

From Song Sung Blue to Theatre Picasso: your complete entertainment guide to the week ahead

Let a musical based on a documentary about a Neil Diamond tribute band warm your cockles – or take a new look at the work of the Spanish master