Review

Amazon’s $75m documentary about the first lady is a shameful waste of time and money

Once again, the director’s Nouvelle Vague is a love letter to a cultural milieu and an enchantment in its own right

A collection of mementoes and testimonies at the War Childhood Museum in Sarajevo is a timely reminder of the devastating effects of war on children

A lost duck dish is one of the reasons Iraqis are flocking to east London restaurant Logma

Exhibitions in London and Paris show a big-time director whose remarkable attention to detail comes from thinking small

Predator: Badlands and Star Trek: Starfleet Academy show some franchises improve when they stop pandering to ageing fans

At the heart of Park Chan-wook’s dark satire is the question of, when faced with the loss of status, how far will the modern man will go to restore it?

ROTUS: Receptionist of the United States is a searingly smart and unexpectedly dark piece of political satire. It’s also uncomfortably plausible

The writer’s Reith Lecture, just reprinted, caused controversy in 1993 – but its conclusions seem oddly prescient

A joint exhibition at Tate Britain reveals the story of two geniuses who did some of their best work in the worst weather

Nia DaCosta takes the reins in this no-holds-barred exploration of cults, superstition and what happens to humanity when reason collapses

The high finance drama used to tease and torment by making us care about scumbags. Now it’s genuinely thrilling and terrifying too

From Saturday Night Live to Star Wars, the 1970s reinvented Japan’s warrior elite – now the subject of a major exhibition – as pop mythology

There is not a shred of sentimentality in Chloé Zhao’s magnificent adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s 2020 novel. This is where its brilliance lies

From the Beckhams to Eddie Murphy and Charlie Sheen, they promise truth but deliver reputation-laundering dressed up as intimacy

His disappointing Netflix special Mortality jabs at straw men and suggests a comedian slipping out of touch

A sleepy Alpine mountain retreat offered shelter for surrealists, LSD prophets and weary hippies

The veteran artist’s World on Fire Timeline maps a century of crisis and resistance

Chloé Zhao’s film is deeply felt and beautifully made – but misses the essence of what made the playwright so great

Lifelong devotees of John le Carré need not worry, the saga of Jonathan Pine is in safe hands with screenwriter David Farr

Zendaya and Nolan return, Blade Runner expands and Peaky Blinders concludes. What our editor-at-large is most looking forward to in 2026

The star who began in children's theatre in a Norwegian forest is Oscar-bound with Sentimental Value

The white stuff in big movies isn’t real - sometimes it’s bleached cornflakes, sometimes fire extinguisher foam.. and it used to be asbestos

A superb revival of When We Are Married gleefully demolishes 25 years of pious respectability

Not even Minnie Driver can save a misfiring move to Rome for a series optimised for social media

Our writers on their cultural highlights of the year

The Room in the Tower is his eighth festive special for the BBC: long may he continue

Back in Berlin 24 years after their 9/11 gig, the band’s blistering paranoia is still in very much in evidence

An extraordinary Florence show brings together the friar-artist’s sacred visions and the Medici politics that shaped them

A hit job on Keir Starmer does no one any favours – but shows how the party’s old grievances have led to its failure in power

In Margate, the woman who is arguably Britain’s greatest artist takes on the elements – and wins

In Noah Baumbach’s Jay Kelly, it is Sandler who steals the show with his best performance since Uncut Gems (2019)