Venice film festival 2024 roundup – Nicole Kidman gets carnal and Lady Gaga goes crazy

In a festival rich in impressive female leads, Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton bonding for Almodóvar, while a strong documentary lineup ranges from Trump to Yoko Ono

Pedro Almodóvar: ‘Life needs fiction to make it bearable’

The Spanish film-maker on the raw, real life experiences behind his first collection of short stories – and why his mother is his inspiration

From Starve Acre to Roy Lichtenstein: a complete guide to this week’s entertainment

Matt Smith and Morfydd Clark star in a creepy new folk horror, and there’s an exhibition of iconoclastic works by the king of pop art

In Camera writer-director Naqqash Khalid: ‘The film industry is a circus’

His new film lampoons performative representation in showbusiness – and if it rubs people up the wrong way and ends up being his first, and last, movie? Well, he says, he’s OK with that

Kim Cattrall: ‘I’ve had a life’s experience – I want to bring it on board’

Kim Cattrall made her name as the devil-may-care Samantha in Sex and the City, but her new CIA audio series tells a different story of female empowerment. She talks about life on screen, and finding love at the BBC

Hard Truths review – a Mike Leigh classic of day-to-day disillusionment and courage

Marianne Jean-Baptiste is exceptional as a woman in the terrifying endgame of depression in this deeply sober and compassionate drama, not without flashes of fun

The Penguin Lessons review – Steve Coogan and feathered friend dip into 70s Argentina

Tom Michell’s feelgood memoir could have been a winning buddy movie – it just needed a little less bird and a bit more politics

The Cut review – Orlando Bloom goes through hell in sordid boxing thriller

The actor gives a physically committed performance as a retired boxer cutting weight with dangerous speed in a silly and overcooked drama

Lisa Westcott obituary

Oscar and Bafta-winning hair and makeup artist who worked on Les Misérables, Shakespeare in Love and The Madness of King George, and spent 26 years at the BBC

Norman Spencer, David Lean’s collaborator and UK’s second oldest man, dies aged 110

The producer, screenwriter, production designer and actor worked on some of the most acclaimed films of British cinema including Blithe Spirit, The Bridge on the River Kwai and Lawrence of Arabia

Nutcrackers review – Ben Stiller finds little joy in middling Christmas comedy

The actor returns to the big screen for his first leading role since 2017 yet David Gordon Green’s charmless throwback comedy fails to justify why

Can Travis Knight’s He-Man movie do for boys what Greta Gerwig’s Barbie did for girls?

It’s hard to imagine Masters of the Universe ploughing quite the same meta-infused furrow but in the right hands, it might be ripe for forward-thinking, culturally adept satire

Surréalisme review – monstrous, deviant, glorious fun as the movement hits 100

From Ernst to Dalí, from Maar to De Chirico, this is a dazzling riot of creativity, celebrating the artistic potential of the unconscious – and shoes

Out of the ruins: film inspired by slum clearance in Nigeria opens in Toronto

Made by the city’s Agbajowo Collective, The Legend of the Vagabond Queen of Lagos is a cry of protest at evictions

Joram to Source Code: the seven best films to watch on TV this week

A captivating thriller about a man on the run with a baby, and Jake Gyllenhaal has to stop a train from blowing up in a glorious time-loop whodunnit