Benjamin Lee

Nonnas review – fact-based Netflix restaurant comedy is a warm surprise

Vince Vaughn plays a grieving son who decides to open an Italian eaterie with grandmothers in the kitchen in a simple but charming crowd-pleaser

There’s a great deal of warmth both in and out of the kitchen in Netflix’s remarkably charming new food comedy Nonnas, a simple yet satisfying fact-based crowd-pleaser landing just in time for Mother’s Day across many countries in the world. It’ll make for an easy post-lunch choice for families gathering this weekend, providing the sort of mechanically proficient pleasures that used to be far more common back in the 80s or 90s. The platform has tried, and mostly failed, to resurrect the kind of endlessly played, easily rewatchable cable movie favourite and while this still might not be quite as fondly remembered in the decades to come, it’s a better simulation than most.

James Foley, director of Fifty Shades sequels and Glengarry Glen Ross, dies aged 71

The film-maker, whose credits also included many Madonna music videos, died of brain cancer

Director James Foley, whose credits included Glengarry Glen Ross and the Fifty Shades sequels, has died aged 71.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, his death was confirmed by his representative who said he died “peacefully in his sleep earlier this week following a years-long struggle with brain cancer”.

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Clown in a Cornfield review – perky yet run-of-the-mill slasher fare

An adaptation of the 2020 YA horror sees an evil clown pick off local youths and while there are a handful of interesting ideas, this is pretty standard late night fodder

One would be forgiven for assuming there was a lot more to early summer slasher Clown in a Cornfield other than, well, a clown in a cornfield. Because ever since an inevitable premiere at SXSW in March, an impressively maintained buzz has followed – special drive-in screenings, an ambitiously wide release, the bullish positioning of a New Horror Icon – giving us enough naive hope that in an overcrowded genre (there’s estimated to be double the amount of wide release horrors this year compared to 2024), this one might be worthy of the hype.

The Who announce ‘bittersweet final tour’ of US and Canada

The Song Is Over tour will serve as ‘a truly grand finale of their illustrious six-decade career’, the rock band said

The Who have announced a final farewell tour of the US and Canada.

The British rock band, who played their first American concerts back in 1967, will kick off The Song Is Over tour in August in Florida. The tour will go on to include dates in locations including New York, Toronto and Seattle before ending in Las Vegas.

Summer of 69 review – charming, if overfamiliar, teen sex comedy

Awkward teenager strikes deal with stripper played by SNL’s Chloe Fineman in moderately entertaining throwback

In Summer of 69, a comedy that premiered at SXSW in March, poor Bryan Adams doesn’t even get a mention. Rather than coasting on the nostalgia summoned by his 1985 hit, the title is instead a reference to the top-and-tail sex position (Adams has claimed, much to the annoyance of his co-writer, that the song was also referring to the same thing).

Michael Pitt arrested for alleged sexual assault and attack on ex-girlfriend

Boardwalk Empire and Dawson’s Creek actor accused of multiple domestic violence charges

Boardwalk Empire actor Michael Pitt has been arrested on sexual assault and domestic violence charges.

According to the New York Post and Variety, the 44-year-old has been accused of multiple assaults by an ex-girlfriend stemming from four incidents taking place between 2020 and 2021.

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Sharp Corner review – Ben Foster unravels in smart, darkly compelling thriller

Actor plays a father desperate to prove his worth in an entertainingly nasty look at dangers of entitled mediocrity

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: happy family moves into dream home but discovers it’s actually a nightmare.

It’s a setup so numbingly common that it’s started to border on parody. From smug moving day pizza on the box-strewn floor to hearing louder and louder bumps in the night to arguing over when and how to leave, it’s a descent that’s propped up far too many genre films. At the start of Sharp Corner, which quietly premiered at last year’s Toronto film festival, you’d be forgiven for expecting yet more of the same. But here, the threat is far more unusual and the nature of the unravelling far less predictable, the plot direction mirroring the title before it even comes into view.

The grisly return of Final Destination: ‘What are the everyday experiences we can ruin for people?’

Twenty-five years after its first release, the horror franchise that made mundane life seem fraught with danger returns with a bloody but oddly moving prequel

‘My inbox is filled with the most horrible ways people can die,” says Craig Perry, the producer – or, as he would prefer, “curator” – of the Final Destination franchise. Over 25 years, his films have punctured, skewered, crushed, flattened and decapitated men, women and children in a series of horrifying “accidents” and Perry has been a witness to them all. His friends clearly want him to witness many more.

Tonys 2025: George Clooney and Nicole Scherzinger land first nominations as Othello snubbed

Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal have both been left out of this year’s nominations for their Shakespeare revival while Audra McDonald makes history

George Clooney and Nicole Scherzinger have been nominated for their first Tonys this year while Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal have been snubbed.

The Oscar-winning actor was included in the leading actor in a play category for Good Night and Good Luck, an adaptation of the 2005 film which he also starred in and directed. The show received five nominations in total.