movies
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Half Way review – dispatch from the frontline of the homelessness purgatoryDaisy-May Hudson’s documentary about her family’s journey into the depersonalising trauma of the rehousing system has the quiet desperation of I, Daniel Blake -
Jackie finally puts first ladies front and center on the big screenPablo Larraín’s film challenges how presidents’ wives are perceived in the American public imagination – as supporting roles to their male counterparts
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French film board again under fire after Sausage Party rated 12Catholic and right-wing bodies decry move enabling pre-teens to see foul-mouthed Seth Rogen cartoon featuring a foodstuffs orgy scene -
La La Land leads Critics' Choice nominations; Arrival and Moonlight in second placeDamien Chazelle’s movie musical picks up 12 nods from the US Broadcast Film Critics Association, as Denis Villeneuve’s sci-fi and Barry Jenkins’s drama get 10 apiece
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Historical erotica becomes available at British Film InstituteOnline collection called The Pleasure Principle includes Victorian Lady in Her Boudoir, Britain’s oldest erotic movie
best films of 2016
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The 50 best US films of 2016: 50-11A countdown of the Guardian film team’s favourite movies released in the US this year
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Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard fail to find Blitz spiritRobert Zemeckis lacks his usual fizz in this tourist visit to a heritage-wartime past, in which Pitt and Cotillard look and act like strangers
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Disney's Polynesian princess movie can't help itselfCulturally accurate and with a pleasing ‘know who you are’ message, this South Pacific adventure tale nevertheless settles into empowerment cliches
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Warren Beatty as Howard Hughes: a strangely compelling vanity projectThe legend’s odd and energetic film is a mix of fun, sadness and fatigue, and while not everything falls into place, it has its share of entertainment
video & audio
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How to See Through Fog: a portrait of a mining town in its darkest days – videoThomas Hyland’s powerful and evocative film tracks the story of mining town Queenstown, its people and their football team through shock, grief and change
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Marion Cotillard on starring with Brad Pitt in Allied: 'Chemistry creates itself' – video interviewThe star of new wartime thriller Allied joins director Robert Zemeckis to talk about the crucial ingredients of on-screen chemistry
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Toni Erdmann: UK trailer for Oscar favourite German comedy – videoThe critics’ favourite at this year’s Cannes film festival, Maren Ade’s three hour German comedy is about the fractious relationship between a businesswoman and her prank-loving father
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Silence trailer: Martin Scorsese's Japan-set epic starring Andrew Garfield – videoA passion project in the works since 1990, Silence is Martin Scorsese’s adaptation of the 1966’s novel by Shūsaku Endō
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Western Sahara: the last colony in Africa – videoWomen at the Dakhla refugee camp explain how they are using film activism to empower their community
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David Oyelowo: 'There's resistance to films with black protagonists' – video interviewDavid Oyelowo and Rosamund Pike, the stars of Amma Asante’s new film, A United Kingdom, discuss the project’s origins
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Too many sequels, too much money: why did so many comedies flop in 2016?Studios trying to create franchises out of average originals, market tested laughs and a lack of originality made this year’s biggest comedies stilted and boring
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For haters only: watching Steve Bannon's documentary filmsBefore he became Donald Trump’s most trusted adviser, the businessman labelled a white nationalist by critics had a career making rightwing movies
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Why Dumbledore must not be the token gay person in Fantastic BeastsThere was a mixed reaction when JK Rowling revealed the Hogwarts headmaster’s sexuality in 2007. Now she has a second chance to get this right
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Cinema trains lens on role of nude scene: artistic, erotic or gratuitous?As Hollywood producers sue Amber Heard for refusing to perform naked, we examine the latest manoeuvres in the long battle between prurience, commerce and art
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Shah Rukh Khan: ‘My success is all down to the women I’ve worked with’He’s a Bollywood hero and the world’s biggest movie star, and in his new film he plays a rumpled sage. He talks about his desire to make people happy, why he’s got no friends, and what he tells his children about religion
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Chesley Sullenberger: an old-fashioned kind of heroChesley ‘Sully’ Sullenberger became a global hero when he landed an airliner on New York’s Hudson river in 2009. Now played by Tom Hanks in a film by Clint Eastwood, he talks about how the experience changed him
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Jim Jarmusch: ‘I shy away from sex in my films. It makes me nervous’After almost 40 years in cinema, the director remains the quintessential leftfield auteur. He discusses how his gentle new film Paterson offers a Zen alternative to blockbuster chaos
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Aaron Eckhart: ‘I’m 48. For 20 years I’ve made mistakes’The actor, who appears alongside Tom Hanks in Sully, admits he has fallen into traps during his career – and is determined to stop his Bleed for This co-star Miles Teller from doing the same
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Nick Cave documentary director Andrew Dominik: ‘He hated a third of my movie’One More Time With Feeling depicts the singer coming to terms with the death of his son. Made to protect Cave from having to do interviews, it was the director’s way of helping out, but ‘terrifying’ nonetheless
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Rosamund Pike: ‘I'm happy being No 2. The guy's usually No 1'Things exploded for her after Gone Girl. So where are all the meaty lead roles? As A United Kingdom is released, Rosamund Pike talks nails, nans and nappies
regulars
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UK box office reportUK box office reportFantastic Beasts still No 1 in UK as A United Kingdom and Allied start strongJK Rowling’s wizarding adventure is still topping the charts, with Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard managing to nab second place despite making just 15% of Beasts’s total
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Charlie Lyne's home entertainmentCharlie Lyne's home entertainmentCaptive: Netflix's big-budget answer to CrimewatchThe streaming platform’s latest show relives dramatic hostage scenarios - but will it be able to salvage the tacky crime scene re-enactment genre?
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Silent but deadly!Silent but deadly!Sunset Boulevard: what Billy Wilder's satire really tells us about HollywoodThe scathing black comedy offers up bitterness and grotesquery but also a revealing, and complicated, look at the end of the silent era
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Guy Lodge on DVDs and downloadsGuy Lodge on DVDs and downloadsFinding Dory; Jason Bourne; My Scientology Movie and more – reviewPixar’s Dory is the catch of the day, while Isabelle Huppert is on a roll with Valley of Love
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Week in geekWeek in geekWhy Dumbledore must not be the token gay person in Fantastic BeastsThere was a mixed reaction when JK Rowling revealed the Hogwarts headmaster’s sexuality in 2007. Now she has a second chance to get this right
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John PattersonJohn PattersonFor haters only: watching Steve Bannon's documentary filmsBefore he became Donald Trump’s most trusted adviser, the businessman labelled a white nationalist by critics had a career making rightwing movies
you may have missed
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From The Great Escape to Sholay: what makes a film a national favourite?Whether they tackle war, Soviet monotony or working-class suffering, the movies that countries take to their collective hearts tend to transcend age and class. We run through nine local treasures – and a few that fall just short
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The Driller Killer and the humanist behind the blood and sickening crunchFar from a mere ‘video nasty’, Abel Ferrara’s gory gem shatters our complacency and forces us to confront our moral choices
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Come Together review – Wes Anderson's H&M; Christmas ad is short and sweetAdrien Brody channels George Clooney in The Grand Budapest Hotel director’s festive new TV advert that’s sentimental but full of tasty treats
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'I had to pull over and take half a Xanax': the toll of documenting US gun violenceAmid a deluge of documentaries and feature films on gun violence, directors discuss what it’s like to deal with the pain and pressure of the divisive topic
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The sizzling secrets of on-screen chemistry: from Dirty Dancing to La La LandHollywood’s got it down to a science. Audience demographics, judgment and projected fantasies can all help create that all-important spark. Just look at Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling, says sex therapist and former actor Pamela Stephenson Connolly
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Liberation Day review – the hills are alive as North Korea embraces rock'n'rollThis extraordinary documentary charts the antics of the first western band allowed into the country – to perform thunderous versions of songs from The Sound of Music
Rogue One: could Disney want to cap the success of Star Wars spin-off?