Michael Pennington obituary
Distinguished classical actor and co-founder of the English Shakespeare Company who brought sardonic dash and physical grace to his many stage roles
Amandaland to Olof Dreijer: the week in rave reviews
Lucy Punch’s middle-class antihero is back, and one half of the Knife presents an album of dazzlingly inventive psychedelia. Here’s the pick of the week’s culture, taken from the Guardian’s best-rated reviews
An AI version of Milton’s Paradise Lost is fundamentally unworthy of one of the great works of art
Pulp Fiction co-writer Roger Avary wants to bring the epic poem to the big screen using the power of artificial intelligence. It can’t be any good
The Odyssey: new trailer for Christopher Nolan’s classical Greek epic released online
Trailer offers glimpses of Matt Damon as mythological hero Odysseus, Tom Holland as his son Telemachus and Anne Hathaway as his wife, Penelope
The Sheep Detectives review – Hugh Jackman gives a flock in baa-rking mad cosy crime caper
Jackman plays the farmer in this Babe-style feelgood family film about plucky sheep who help solve a murder
Double Indemnity review – leaden drama turns crime classic into a very cold case
James M Cain’s hard-bitten novella gained bleak power on screen but this version, giving Mischa Barton her UK stage debut, loses its flinty edge
Primavera review – Vivaldi’s Four Seasons is school-of-Salieri backdrop for period musical biopic
The composer has a musical relationship with a teenage violinist in this lifeless adaptation of a novel by Tiziano Scarpa
‘Women want to experience pleasure’: how the female gaze caught the attention of film, TV and fiction
From passionate romantasy novels to premium television dramas, culture is bringing the agency, desires and interior lives of women to the fore. It’s proving good for business, but is this a permanent revolution?
The man who saw the future: the legacy of cultural theorist Mark Fisher
Touching on everything from late-stage capitalism to Adele, the work of the late writer is proving increasingly influential. Now a documentary on him is looking to live up to his ideals
‘This craving to go viral is tiresome’: the artists sick of the pressure to promote on social media
From Stewart Lee in his wolf costume to Werner Herzog’s big steak sizzle-up, artists are now under huge duress to ‘chase the algorithm’ and reach audiences. Many of them are hitting burnout – and hitting back
The Guardian view on dystopias for our times: the American nightmare
Editorial: Margaret Atwood’s The Testaments and the Oscar-winning film One Battle After Another are grim parables of today. But they are not without hope
Critics assemble! Here’s my list of the greatest superhero movies of all time
Creating a definitive hierarchy never fails to spark endless debate – but who doesn’t want to give it a shot? Don your capes and shields, and let the arguments begin…
Gillian Anderson and Cara Delevingne to hit Cannes as auteur heavyweights dominate festival lineup
The 79th edition of the film festival will see work by Pedro Almodóvar, Hirokazu Kore-eda and László Nemes considered for the coveted Palme d’Or
Stand By Me review – Rob Reiner’s nostalgic look at friendship and the loss of innocence still grips tight
The 40th anniversary re-release of the film about four boys on a quest to see a dead body is a masterclass in directing, storytelling and acting
The Stranger review – lustrously beautiful and superbly realised modern take on the Camus classic
François Ozon’s adaptation of the 1942 novella L’Etranger passionately honours the original text while bringing a contemporary perspective to its themes of empire and race