Drama

Padre Pio, real-life monk, mystic and one of the big holy hitters of 20th-century Italian Catholicism (Shia LaBeouf), lends his name to this chest-beating, teeth-gnashing period drama from Abel Ferrera. But Pio’s story feels oddly sidelined in a picture that attempts to balance the monk’s ecstatic spiritual suffering with the events surrounding the first free election in a provincial Italy still reeling from the first world war. In effect, this results in a film composed of two barely connected story strands, cobbled…

There’s a half smile that flickers over the face of Andrew Scott, an involuntary wince of a thing, with lips clamped shut and those dark, dark eyes glittering with unshed tears. It’s technically a smile, but I can’t recall seeing anyone look sadder. The actor has a rare gift for peeling back the skin of a character with a single glance, drawing us into decades of kaleidoscoping pain and loss. It’s a gift that has rarely been put to better use than in Andrew Haigh’s gorgeous, shattering and deeply personal fifth feature…

A dramedy that chronicles a tour of the Holocaust? Wait a minute, does that ring a bell? Nitesh Tiwari's Bawaal with its disastrous use of Auschwitz as a metaphor for relationship issues immediately comes to mind. None of that embarrassment occurs in A Real Pain, the new film by actor-director Jesse Eisenberg, which marked its World Premiere at the Sundance Film Festival this year. For all its playfulness and humour, A Real Pain strikes an intimate balance between the horrifying history of the Holocaust and the…

When Marc Sebastian heard about a nine-month cruise around the world, his first thought was that it sounded like the perfect premise for a reality TV show.  “Put cameras on that goddamn ship,” Sebastian said in a TikTok that’s now been viewed 7 million times. “There’s gonna be mutiny. There’s gonna be blood. Someone is going overboard, I wanna watch. Alternatively, put me on the cruise. I’ll go. I’ll cause chaos. I’ll wreak havoc and I’ll record everything.” Marketed as “the most epic world cruise ever to set…

A common pitfall of dating and life in general is the ever-present question of who pays for what. From social responsibility to gender norms to differences in income, every person has their own formula at play.TikTok user thewaterboy shared a video of a first date where the woman was quite unhappy that he insisted on splitting the bill. Commenters shared their thoughts and how they would have acted in this situation. We reached out to thewaterboy via Instagram DM and will update the article when he gets back to us.More…

We often welcome our guests wholeheartedly, but some may be trickier to accommodate than others. And even if your own family is staying with you, disagreements are bound to arise.For redditor Pocketlobster88, it was his mother demanding attention who made their days in their household more difficult. She even went as far as to knock on their bedroom door when he was having some private time with his partner.His wife finally had enough and decided to fix the problem by leaving a sign on the door that guaranteed to keep…

Camila Cabello turned heads at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, the film festival founded by actor and director Robert Redford in 1978; it is one of the most coveted and highly regarded independent film festivals in the world. The versatile singer and actress Camila Cabello stars as the girlfriend of the lead character and revealed she didn’t have to audition for the part in a film directed by Chiwetel Ejiofor named “Rob Peace.” The film premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival on January 22. The director of…

Reading Kiley Reid’s fiction feels a bit like watching a prestige TV series. There are expansive casts of characters, many of whom happen to be good-looking. The plots are pacy and compelling, motored by flashbacks and cliffhangers and twists, while also dealing with social issues – particularly race and class – that add intellectual heft. Dialogue is hyper-realistic, often written out phonetically (“Ohmygod” is a favourite) so that you can hear it aloud in your head. No wonder the screen rights for Reid’s debut novel,…

The dead are returning in the chilly Norwegian drama Handling the Undead, a sad, somber attempt to guide the zombie genre from midnight movie to arthouse. It works in parts, as a study of the ache and irrationality of grief, asking its characters how much they’re willing to accept and deny in order to see their loved ones again. But the first-time director Thea Hvistendahl’s patience-insisting slow burn can be testing, like watching a block of ice slowly melt, a story told in the smallest of drips, some of which sink in…

Three major series hit your screens this week — Apple TV+’s wartime drama “Masters of the Air,” Netflix’s grisly drug thriller “Griselda” and Paramount+’s prequel to the crime classic “Sexy Beast.” Which ones should you spend time on? Read on. “Masters of the Air”: Everything about Apple TV+’s big-budget World War II epic (the Hollywood Reporter estimates its budget at $250 million, but who’s counting?) shouts from the heavens it’s a prestige title, from the glossy, overly produced opening credits that ramble on way too…