Category: 5. Entertainment

When we talk about the movies we love, every voice deserves a spotlight. So after publishing our official list of the best movies of the 21st century, compiled from the votes of 500-plus filmmakers, actors and other movie-industry professionals, we turned to New York Times readers, who cast more than 200,000 ballots of their own.

Here, you’ll find several blockbusters that fell short of the original 100 — “Sinners,” “Barbie,” not one but two “Dune” movies — and small international gems like “Drive My Car” and “The Handmaiden,” too. “Midsommar” and “Mean Girls” entered the chat, while a surprising number of rankings (“Mulholland Drive,” “The Social Network”) stood firm.

Maybe you’ve already seen them all. If not, you can click through and save the movies you want to watch as you go — they’ll be easily accessible on your watch list. You can also still create a ballot here to share with friends; it won’t count toward the final tally, but there’s no expiration date on a good debate.

The Reader Top 100

Plus, for fun, here are the next 400 movies, as ranked by our readers.

101. Synecdoche, New York  102. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World  103. Punch-Drunk Love  104. Nope  105. American Psycho  106. Poor Things  107. The Lives of Others  108. Hot Fuzz  109. Challengers  110. Inside Out  111. The Devil Wears Prada  112. In Bruges  113. Donnie Darko  114. Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)  115. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse  116. Requiem for a Dream  117. Best in Show  118. Melancholia  119. Sicario  120. Manchester by the Sea  121. Prisoners  122. First Reformed  123. The Banshees of Inisherin  124. Roma  125. Frances Ha  126. The Substance  127. Incendies  128. The Piano Teacher  129. Drive  130. Moulin Rouge!  131. Shrek  132. Paddington 2  133. The Big Short  134. Chicago  135. Adaptation  136. The Witch  137. Coco  138. Toy Story 3  139. 1917  140. The Pianist  141. Anora  142. Ex Machina  143. Avatar  144. Casino Royale  145. A Separation  146. A Serious Man  147. Moonrise Kingdom  148. Burning  149. Jojo Rabbit  150. Shrek 2  151. Dunkirk  152. Finding Nemo  153. Under the Skin  154. Spider-Man 2  155. Carol  156. 28 Days Later  157. I Saw the TV Glow  158. Shaun of the Dead  158. Catch Me If You Can  160. About Time  161. Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith  162. The Favourite  163. Slumdog Millionaire  164. Inland Empire  165. Avengers: Infinity War  166. Black Panther  167. Godzilla Minus One  168. Your Name.  169. Shutter Island  170. The Batman  171. Juno  172. Mission: Impossible – Fallout  173. Sideways  174. The Martian  175. Babylon  176. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story  177. The Irishman  178. Coraline  179. Legally Blonde  180. School of Rock  181. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri  182. The Act of Killing  183. Mamma Mia!  184. Mysterious Skin  185. Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy  186. 12 Years a Slave  187. La Chimera  188. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl  189. Midnight in Paris  190. Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World  191. Collateral  192. The Lobster  193. Decision to Leave  194. Conclave  195. Monster  196. Napoleon Dynamite  197. Volver  198. How to Train Your Dragon  199. Silver Linings Playbook  200. Borat  201. Atonement  202. Shoplifters  203. The Nice Guys  204. Wicked  205. Step Brothers  206. Dogville  207. Silence  208. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban  209. Snatch  210. Nickel Boys  211. Marie Antoinette  212. John Wick  213. Caché  214. The Fall  215. Minority Report  216. Skyfall  217. Tropic Thunder  218. Dancer in the Dark  219. Gravity  220. The Great Beauty  221. The Perks of Being a Wallflower  222. Lincoln  223. Speed Racer  224. Flow  225. RRR  226. The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou  227. The Shape of Water  228. Titane  229. Good Time  230. 500 Days of Summer  231. Let the Right One In  232. Nightcrawler  233. Joker  234. The Hangover  235. The Wind Rises  236. Sound of Metal  237. The Bourne Identity  238. The King’s Speech  239. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford  240. Paprika  241. The Brutalist  242. Monsters, Inc.  243. Another Round  244. Argo  245. Kill Bill: Vol. 2  246. Amour  247. All of Us Strangers  248. Love Actually  249. The Hurt Locker  250. Training Day  251. Big Fish  252. Baby Driver  253. I’m Still Here  254. Hell or High Water  255. Zero Dark Thirty  256. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire  257. Amores Perros  258. A.I. Artificial Intelligence  259. Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives  260. Talk to Her  261. The Hateful Eight  262. The Fabelmans  263. It’s Such a Beautiful Day  264. Green Book  265. A Beautiful Mind  266. Marriage Story  267. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone  268. The Hunt  269. Million Dollar Baby  270. Goodbye, Dragon Inn  271. The Revenant  272. Us  273. Grizzly Man  274. Mommy  275. Edge of Tomorrow  276. Burn After Reading  277. Tenet  278. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty  279. The Tale of The Princess Kaguya  280. CODA  281. Sorry to Bother You  282. Climax  283. Iron Man  284. Beau travail  285. Wet Hot American Summer  286. Miami Vice  287. Inherent Vice  288. Crazy, Stupid, Love.  289. Annihilation  290. The Boy and the Heron  291. Cast Away  292. Asteroid City  293. Holy Motors  294. Lilo & Stitch  295. Cold War  296. The Notebook  297. Bottoms  298. Sing Sing  299. It Follows  300. The Hours  301. Dogtooth  302. The White Ribbon  303. Bridget Jones’s Diary  304. Logan  305. The Darjeeling Limited  306. Millennium Actress  307. The Raid: Redemption  308. Train to Busan  309. Booksmart  310. All Quiet on the Western Front  311. Twilight  312. Nomadland  313. Certified Copy  314. The Virgin Suicides  315. The Gleaners & I  316. Werckmeister Harmonies  317. Guardians of the Galaxy  318. Mystic River  319. Ford v Ferrari  320. District 9  321. Spring Breakers  322. Cars  323. The Death of Stalin  324. Nosferatu  325. Love Exposure  326. The Hunger Games  327. V for Vendetta  328. Licorice Pizza  329. Gangs of New York  330. 20th Century Women  331. BlacKkKlansman  332. Tangerine  333. Promising Young Woman  334. Hidden Figures  335. Soul  336. Ponyo  337. Margaret  338. The Secret in Their Eyes  339. The Dark Knight Rises  340. Captain America: The Winter Soldier  341. Elf  342. Hundreds of Beavers  343. The Iron Claw  344. The Intouchables  345. True Grit  346. Saw  347. Suspiria  348. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy  349. Spider-Man  350. Batman Begins  351. Nobody Knows  352. Erin Brockovich  353. A Star Is Born  354. Crazy Rich Asians  355. The Green Knight  356. Birth  357. Forgetting Sarah Marshall  358. Brooklyn  359. Toni Erdmann  360. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo  361. Kung Fu Hustle  362. Tropical Malady  363. Memoria  364. The Wild Robot  365. The Avengers  366. The Killing of a Sacred Deer  367. Moana  368. What We Do in the Shadows  369. Triangle of Sadness  370. How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days  371. Sexy Beast  372. Remember the Titans  373. Zoolander  374. 25th Hour  375. Sing Street  376. Frozen  377. Tangled  378. Pulse  379. Into the Wild  380. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button  381. West Side Story  382. Ghost World  383. The New World  384. Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story  385. The Beast  386. An Elephant Sitting Still  387. Raw  388. The Help  389. Hunt for the Wilderpeople  390. The Lego Movie  391. Pitch Perfect  392. Battle Royale  393. The Wrestler  394. A History of Violence  395. Hero  396. Before Midnight  397. Hedwig and the Angry Inch  398. Life of Pi  399. Enter the Void  400. Jennifer’s Body  401. Hot Rod  402. The Power of the Dog  403. Minari  404. Pain and Glory  405. Billy Elliot  406. The 40-Year-Old Virgin  407. Gran Torino  408. Bones and All  409. Gosford Park  410. Shin Godzilla  411. Columbus  412. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2  413. Black Hawk Down  414. Paterson  415. Puss in Boots: The Last Wish  416. Snowpiercer  417. A Ghost Story  418. Isle of Dogs  419. Wedding Crashers  420. Once  421. A Prophet  422. Mandy  423. The Wailing  424. Cloud Atlas  425. Signs  426. The Imitation Game  427. La ciénaga  428. Elephant  429. Palm Springs  430. Marcel the Shell with Shoes On  431. Blue Valentine  432. The Princess Diaries  433. The Town  434. Petite Maman  435. Millennium Mambo  436. 2046  437. Beau Is Afraid  438. Tokyo Godfathers  439. Blue Is the Warmest Colour  440. tick, tick… BOOM!  441. The Father  442. The Fast and the Furious  443. Eighth Grade  444. Force Majeure  445. American Fiction  446. Only Lovers Left Alive  447. Avatar: The Way of Water  448. The Cabin in the Woods  449. Aruitemo aruitemo  450. Fast Five  451. 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days  452. Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping  453. Munich  454. Unbreakable  455. Inside Man  456. Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi  457. Beasts of the Southern Wild  458. Infernal Affairs  459. O.J.: Made in America  460. Ida  461. Mother!  462. Pacific Rim  463. The Turin Horse  464. The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie  465. Irréversible  466. Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby  467. John Wick: Chapter 4  468. Persepolis  469. Hacksaw Ridge  470. Under the Silver Lake  471. Sunshine  472. Emma.  473. Creed  474. The Other Guys  475. Les Misérables  476. Happy as Lazzaro  477. 13 Going on 30  478. A Silent Voice: The Movie  479. 3 Idiots  480. Wild Tales  481. Lady Vengeance  482. Beautiful Boy  483. If Beale Street Could Talk  484. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga  485. High Fidelity  486. Bohemian Rhapsody  487. The Menu  488. May December  489. Pearl  490. Close  491. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire  492. Everybody Wants Some!!  493. The Holiday  494. I’m Thinking of Ending Things  495. Dallas Buyers Club  496. Downfall  497. Evangelion: 3.0+1.01 Thrice Upon a Time  498. Morvern Callar  499. Long Day’s Journey Into Night  500. The Farewell  

Foo Fighters have released their first brand new music after a difficult period for the band during which frontman Dave Grohl announced he had fathered a child outside his marriage, and drummer Josh Freese was let go from the group.

Today’s Song, which features artwork by Grohl’s daughter Harper, is a typically anthemic Foo Fighters track with Grohl full of existential angst: “I woke today screaming for change / I knew that I must / So, here lies a shadow / Ashes to ashes / Dust into dust.”

Grohl wrote a lengthy letter alongside the release, retelling the story of the band and acknowledging former band members, including Freese: “It should go without saying that without the boundless energy of William Goldsmith, the seasoned wisdom of Franz Stahl, and the thunderous wizardry of Josh Freese, this story would be incomplete, so we extend our heartfelt gratitude for the time, music, and memories that we shared with each of them over the years. Thank you, gentlemen.”

Freese said in May that he was “not angry – just a bit shocked and disappointed” when he was told that Foo Fighters wanted “to go in a different direction with their drummer”. Foo Fighters did not comment on Freese’s departure.

Freese was the replacement for Taylor Hawkins, who died in 2022 aged 50. Grohl paid tribute to Hawkins in his letter, saying: “Your name is spoken every day, sometimes with tears, sometimes with a smile, but you are still in everything we do, everywhere we go, forever.”

A new drummer has not been announced; a statement alongside Today’s Song says: “Foo Fighters are Dave Grohl, Nate Mendel, Pat Smear, Chris Shiflett and Rami Jaffee.”

Grohl is married to Jordyn Blum, the mother of three of his daughters. In September 2024 he said in a statement: “I’ve recently become the father of a new baby daughter, born outside of my marriage. I plan to be a loving and supportive parent to her. I love my wife and my children, and I am doing everything I can to regain their trust and earn their forgiveness.”

In his announcement of Today’s Song, Grohl perhaps made an oblique reference to these widely publicised struggles, using the metaphor of a lobster shedding its shell. “The point being that life’s challenges have a way of signalling the need for change and growth, so when that time comes, you retreat, rebuild, and resurface stronger than before.”

The admission of infidelity somewhat tarnished the image of a man who was often described as “the nicest man in rock”. Foo Fighters cancelled a headline festival performance and retreated from the public eye for a time, though Grohl reunited with Nirvana bandmate Krist Novoselic in January for a benefit concert after the LA wildfires.

Foo Fighters will return to live music in October, playing four concerts across east Asia and another in Mexico City in November. Their most recent album is 2023’s But Here We Are.

Earlier this week they released I Don’t Wanna Hear It, a cover of a song by punk band Minor Threat, with instrumentals recorded in 1995 but vocals recorded earlier this year.

Even with our thick-of-Covid desperation for anything that felt big at a time when life felt too small, there was more to The Old Guard than the average churned out Netflix mockbuster. Released in the hell of July 2020, it came with the requisite boxes ticked (big star, international locations, franchisable setup) but felt closer to the real thing than most, proving to be a hit for those eager for escapism, scoring one of the streamer’s biggest launches to date.

But like many Netflix films, its cultural impact was negligible, popular for a weekend or three but failing to live on in any notable way after, consumed with speed and forgotten at a similar pace. A sequel was inevitable yet unnecessary, and while one was given a green light at the start of 2021 and started production in 2022, it’s taken another three years to see the light of day. Not only does The Old Guard 2 bear the bruises of such a cursed post-production process but it’s also weakened by such a distance from the first, forcing us to remember something most of us had resigned to the ether (it’s telling that to promote the sequel, Netflix has recruited its stars to recap the first film).

It’s not as if we’re dealing with a straightforward action flick either, the mythology of The Old Guard, based on Greg Rucka’s comic book series, requires enough convoluted exposition for us to pull up the original’s Wikipedia plot description to understand just what the hell is going on in the follow-up. Should something intended to be a summer lark really feel like such hard work?

It’s made mostly tolerable by Charlize Theron, an actor and a movie star we just don’t see enough of and when we do, it’s quite often not what we want to see her in. Theron, who gave us one of the greatest character studies of the 2010s in Jason Reitman’s vastly underrated Young Adult, has decided to remain boringly unchallenged as of late, slumming it in flimsy franchise fodder (her last non-genre role was playing Megyn Kelly in 2019’s dubious #MeToo dud Bombshell, although that could be conceivably classed as horror). She returns to play Andy, a once immortal warrior who (and I had to remind myself of this) was made mortal in the first film, a danger that should technically add suspenseful stakes to her extravagant fight sequences (but alas). This time around, an old comrade returns from centuries of punishment (Ngô Thanh Vân) and partners with a humanity-hating immortal (Uma Thurman) causing Andy and her team to take action.

While it should, in an era of increasingly bloated runtimes, be a boon to have it all wrapped up in under 97 minutes (sans end credits, far shorter than the 125-minute original), The Old Guard 2 is a panicked rush to wrap things up, poorly developed and confusingly plotted, a swift and savage franchise-killer. Along with last week’s M3gan 2.0, which bombed at the box office after a 2.5 year gap, it serves as a reminder to studios why speed and simplicity are both essential for sequels in an attention economy where films just don’t have the same media footprint they once had. In the time it took to beat this one into shape, it seems like those involved have also forgotten what made the first one work, the replacement of director Gina Prince-Bythewood with Victoria Mahoney leading to a considerable drop in action sequence effectiveness while the original’s rather groundbreaking queerness has now been almost entirely excised. The first film had a surprising, swooning kiss from immortal lovers played by Marwan Kenzari and Luca Marinelli, but this time around, their foreheads briefly touch instead. There’s also a coy confusion over just what the relationship is between Andy and her one-time partner, who are gay in the comics, but are presented as, ahem, longtime companions here, the film acting as an amusingly abrupt end to Pride month.

Theron is an actor who’s tirelessly working even when the script isn’t asking her to, but this is a waste of not only her but also a returning Chiwetel Ejiofor, as well as Thurman who has moments of slithering fun as the villain but she’s used so sparingly, it’s akin to a cameo role. The last act sets her up to be a bigger part in the third film but, slight snag here, there hasn’t been any official confirmation of The Old Guard 3, something that might shock viewers given the baffling cliffhanger ending. It’s not as if some b-plot threads are left dangling but instead, the entire film is left shoddily unfinished, a truly heinous decision that threatens to turn the series into the new Divergent (a cancelled fourth film leaves that franchise forever incomplete). Perhaps that might be for the best.

The Pokémon Trading Card Game: Scarlet & Violet—Black Bolt and Scarlet & Violet—White Flare expansions release July 18, 2025, bringing us back to the Unova region and highlighting all 156 Pokémon originally discovered there across both halves of this dual release. Reunite with your favorite Pokémon, uncover inspiring and undeniable power with the region’s Legendary and Mythical Pokémon, and be on the lookout for special illustrations! Scarlet & Violet—Black Bolt and White Flare have unique card sets, so as we begin to uncover the Pokémon and Trainers you’ll find in each, keep in mind which expansion has your favorites.

N is known not only for his ability to speak with Pokémon but also for his unrivaled genius. Take advantage of his tactical know-how with N’s Plan, a Supporter card that can surprise your opponent by moving up to 2 Energy from your Benched Pokémon to your Active Pokémon.

Pure excellence. Have you ever imagined watching a sweet sunset, surrounded by crashing waves and countless Wingull? Samurott certainly doesn’t have to.

Carracosta could only be obtained after reviving a Cover Fossil in the Pokémon Black, Pokémon White, Pokémon Black 2, and Pokémon White 2 video games, making it a pretty rare Pokémon on your first journey through the region. In the Pokémon TCG, this Stage 2 Pokémon can really stonewall your opponent with its Mighty Shell Ability. You can effectively wall Pokémon with Special Energy attached, forcing your opponent to use cards like Prime Catcher and Boss’s Orders to move it out of the Active Spot.

Fun fact: This is the second Zoroark card with the Mind Jack attack! The Zoroark from the XY—BREAKthrough expansion was iconic not only for its Stand In Ability that allowed it to switch into the Active Spot but also for its potential to do up to 160 damage (or 250 with Sky Field in play). This Zoroark has a similar flavor, doing up to 150 damage (or 240 with Area Zero Underdepths in play). Its other attack, Foul Play, is reminiscent of Mew ex’s Genome Hacking attack, copying one of your opponent’s Active Pokémon’s attacks for —which makes this Zoroark an especially tricky companion.

Remember Kyurem from the Black & White—Noble Victories expansion? This is it now…but not quite. That Kyurem was known for its Glaciate attack, which did 30 damage to all of your opponent’s Pokémon. This Kyurem ex hits your opponent’s Active Pokémon hard, and it still does damage to all your opponent’s Benched Pokémon—this time, it’s 10 damage for each Prize card your opponent has taken, possibly up to 50 damage! And just look at that bone-chilling artwork; it’s on another level.

These cards are just the beginning of what will be available across both Scarlet & Violet—Black Bolt and Scarlet & Violet—White Flare. Seek and collect all your favorite Pokémon when both expansions become available July 18, 2025.

@Joey2Steezy

How do I get to Cardiff for the Oasis gigs?

Andrea Riseborough, Peter Dinklage, Renée Zellweger and – inevitably – the late Sean Connery will be among the big names on show at the Edinburgh international film festival, which announced its programme today.

A clutch of world premieres at the festival includes a remake of trash classic The Toxic Avenger, starring Dinklage alongside Kevin Bacon, Elijah Wood and Julia Davis, while Riseborough appears opposite Brenda Blethyn in Paul Andrew Williams’s Tribeca festival hit Dragonfly. Zellweger appears in a behind-the-scenes role, with the world premiere of her directorial debut, an animated short film called They. And in what appears something of a coup, the festival will screen 4K restorations of Connery’s six “official” James Bond films: Dr No, From Russia With Love, Goldfinger, Thunderball, You Only Live Twice and Diamonds Are Forever.

Connery’s name is now firmly imprinted on the festival, with its main feature-film prize named after him and screenings of short films developed through the Sean Connery Talent Lab, an offshoot of the actor’s foundation and the National Film and Television School Scotland. Festival director and CEO Paul Ridd said: “The legacy of Scotland’s biggest global star is central to what we’re trying to do, connecting it with the future generation of film talent and all the philanthropic work the Connery Foundation do across film and various other causes is of vital importance to us. To have access to those six wonderful James Bond films and showing them on the big screen is very special.”

The 2025 edition marks the third event since the dramatic collapse of the Centre of the Moving Image, the festival’s then parent organisation, in October 2022, which also resulted in the closure of Edinburgh’s celebrated Filmhouse cinema and its sister cinema in Aberdeen. Helped by the wider international festival that takes over the city every August, a short-notice scratch event was put together for the summer of 2023, while Ridd was installed as the head of a new organisation for 2024, which returned the festival to something comparable to its former status. And in a piece of good news for both the festival and the city itself, the Filmhouse in Edinburgh reopened in June after a high-profile campaign.

Ridd says the festival is looking to consolidate its revival. “We are thinking about this as year one with last year being year zero. We were really pleased with what we brought together last year, so for 2025 we are looking at what worked previously and not deviating really away from that. What’s different, I guess, this year is that we’ve had a significantly higher volume of submissions sent to us, which is fantastic.”

This year the festival’s competition (for the “Sean Connery prize for feature film-making excellence”) comprises 10 world premieres, including Campbell X’s “queer road movie” Low Rider, Swedish documentary Once You Shall Be One of Those Who Lived Long Ago about a physically collapsing mining town, and In Transit, a drama about an artist and her model starring Jennifer Ehle. An Out of Competition section includes high-profile films such as the Dardenne brothers’ Young Mothers, a study of a centre for pregnant teenagers, Jan-Ole Gerster’s Islands, with Sam Riley as a washed-up tennis coach, and The Memory Blocks, a new film from experimental documentary-maker Andrew Kötting.

The festival is also leaning into a resurgence of interest in archive and back catalogue films; alongside a retrospective of westerns by famed genre director Budd Boetticher (including 1957 classic The Tall T), Edinburgh is staging a series of screenings of films nominated by their in-person guests, all of whom will introduce their picks as well as taking part in an In Conversation event. The Last King of Scotland director Kevin Macdonald, who will appear alongside his brother, Trainspotting producer Andrew Macdonald, has chosen Soviet war classic The Cranes Are Flying; Candyman’s Nia DaCosta will talk about Doug Liman’s 90s drug deal comedy thriller Go; and Ben Wheatley, whose new film Bulk is leading the festival’s Midnight Madness strand, has gone for Ealing comedy classic The Man in the White Suit.

Equally as important as the programme was the decision to move the festival back to its August time slot, having been shifted to June in 2008 as a strategic decision by the UK Film Council, then in charge of industry policy, as a way of giving space between the Edinburgh and London film festivals (with the latter taking place in early October). This has reunited the film festival with the energy of the international and fringe festivals, as well as potentially adding some purchase in the autumn awards season. Ridd says: “I’m very conscious that August is a strategic position for a lot of film distributors to launch their films going into that awards period. So I think August is a pure positive for us.”

He adds: “This is a beautiful city, and you’ve got all of this other art going on all around you. It’s a unique feeling and I know what a big opportunity that represents to us, to emulate that spirit of discovery.”

Ridd says he is particularly pleased with the reopening of the Filmhouse, even if the umbilical connection between the festival and venue is no longer there. “We’re a completely new organisation, which has emerged Phoenix-like from a difficult situation. But it’s obviously had a significant impact on the city, and I think everyone’s very, very excited to see it back.”

The Edinburgh international film festival, which previously announced Sundance hit Sorry, Baby and Irvine Welsh documentary Reality Is Not Enough as its opening and closing films, runs from 14-20 August.

Grab your gal pals! Romy and Michele: The Musical will premiere off Broadway this fall, with performances beginning October 14 ahead of an October 28 opening at Stage 42.

The show is adapted from cult classic 1997 movie Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion, which stars Mira Sorvino and Lisa Kudrow about two unsuccessful best friends invited to their 10-year reunion. They invent fake careers for themselves to impress the people who once bullied them, but it spectacularly backfires.

“Romy and Michele have been icons of friendship, fashion, and individuality from the moment we first met them,” said producers Barry Kemp and Stephen Soucy in a statement. “Bringing their story to the New York stage is the perfect home for their bold and quirky spirit to be reborn. We can’t wait for audiences to enjoy this hilarious and heart-filled new musical.”

Robin Schiff, who wrote the original screenplay, has adapted it for the musical, which also features an ’80s and ’90s-inspired original pop score by Gwendolyn Sanford and Brandon Jay (Orange Is the New Black), direction by Tony Award nominee Kristin Hanggi (Rock of Ages), and orchestrations by Keith Harrison Dworkin.

Cast and additional creative team members for the production have yet to be announced.

Check back for information on Romy and Michele: The Musical tickets on New York Theatre Guide.

When we think about what makes an audiobook memorable, it’s always the most human moments: a catch in the throat when tears are near, or words spoken through a real smile.

A Melbourne actor and audiobook narrator, Annabelle Tudor, says it’s the instinct we have as storytellers that makes narration such a primal, and precious, skill. “The voice betrays how we’re feeling really easily,” she says.

But as an art form it may be under threat.

In May the Amazon-owned audiobook provider Audible announced it would allow authors and publishers to choose from more than 100 voices created by artificial intelligence to narrate audiobooks in English, Spanish, French and Italian, with AI translation of audiobooks expected to be available later in the year – news that was met with criticism and curiosity across the publishing industry.

In Australia, where there are fewer audiobook companies and where emerging actors like Tudor rely on the work to supplement their incomes, there is growing concern about job losses, transparency and quality.

While Tudor, who has narrated 48 books, isn’t convinced that AI can do what she does just yet, she is worried that the poor quality may turn people away from the medium.

“I’ve narrated really raunchy sex scenes – AI doesn’t know what an orgasm sounds like,” she says. “Birth scenes as well – I’d love to know how they plan on getting around that.”

The audiobook boom

According to a 2024 report by NielsenIQ Bookdata, more than half of Australian audiobook consumers increased their listening over the past five years. Internationally there was a 13% increase in US audiobook sales between 2023 and 2024; in the UK audiobook revenue shot up to a new high of £268m, a 31% increase on 2023, the Publishers Association said.

As demand for audio content grows, companies are looking for faster – and cheaper – ways to make it. In January 2023 Apple launched a new audiobook catalogue of audiobooks narrated by AI. Later that year Amazon announced that self-published, US-based authors with works on Kindle could turn their ebooks into audiobooks using AI “virtual voice” technology – and there are now tens of thousands of these computer-generated audiobooks available through Audible.

And in February this year, as part of a more general shift towards audiobooks, Spotify said it would be accepting AI audiobooks to “lower the barrier to entry” for authors hoping to find more readers.

Audible says its aims are similar: to complement, not replace, human narration, allowing more authors and more titles to reach bigger audiences. In the US Audible is also testing a voice replica for audiobook narrators, to create dupes of their own voices that will “empower participants to expand their production capabilities for high-quality audiobooks”.

“In 2023 and 2024, Audible Studios hired more [human] narrators than ever before,” an Audible spokesperson told the Guardian. “We continue to hear from creators who want to make their work available in audio, reaching new audiences across languages.”

But robot narrators will always be cheaper than humans – and people in the voice acting and book industries fear a move to AI could pose a threat to workers.

Volume or quality?

Dorje Swallow’s career as a narrator took off after he began voicing novels by the Australian bestselling crime author Chris Hammer – and the actor has now narrated about 70 audiobooks. Swallow believes AI narration is a tool created by people who “don’t understand the value, technique and skills” required to produce quality audiobooks.

“We’ve done the hard yards and then some to get where we are, and to think you can just press a button and you’re going to get something of similar, or good enough quality, is kind of laughable,” he says.

Simon Kennedy, the president of the Australian Association of Voice Actors, says there has always been a battle over how much a narrator deserves to be paid in Australia. For every finished hour of an audiobook, a narrator might spend double or triple that time recording it – and that doesn’t include an initial read to understand the book and its characters.

“My personal opinion is that [introducing AI narrators] is going for volume over quality – and it’s looking to cheapen the process,” he says.

Kennedy founded the Australian Association of Voice Actors in 2024 in response to the threat being posed by AI. In a submission to a parliamentary committee last year the organisation said 5,000 Australian voice acting jobs were at risk.

He was hardly surprised about Audible’s announcement but says he thinks it’s a “pretty dumb move”.

“An audiobook narrator has such a special and intimate relationship with the listener that to try and do anything that is less connective is a foolish move,” he says.

As for the opportunity to clone their own voices, he says voice actors should have the right to engage – but they shouldn’t expect “any near the same pay rate, and they risk turning their unique timbre – their vocal brand – into a mass-produced robot voice that listeners get sick of listening to pretty quickly.”.

“If an emotionless narration at a consistent volume is all you need for ‘high-quality’, then sure,” he says. “But if engaging, gripping, edge-of-your-seat storytelling is your version of high-quality, then don’t hold your breath for AI to give you that.”

Another major concern is Australia’s lack of AI regulation. While the EU has its own AI Act, and China and Spain have labelling laws for AI-generated content, Australia is falling behind.

“There are no laws to prevent data scraping or non-consenting cloning of voices, or of creating deepfakes of people,” Kennedy says. “There are also no labelling laws or laws to mandate watermarking of AI-generated content and its origins; no laws to mandate transparency of training data; and no laws to dictate the appropriate use of AI-generated deepfakes, voice clones or text.”

This year the Burial Rites and Devotion author, Hannah Kent, was one of many acclaimed Australian writers shocked to discover their pirated work had been used to train Meta’s AI systems. She says while her initial reaction to the introduction of AI into creative spaces tends to be “refusal and outrage”, she’s curious about Audible’s AI announcement – specifically its plans to roll out beta testing for AI to translate text into different languages.

“I think it’s fairly obvious that the main reason to use AI would be for costs, and I think that’s going to cheapen things in a literal sense and cheapen things in a creative sense – in that sense of us honouring the storytelling, artistic and creative impulse,” Kent says.

Tudor and Swallow believe big companies will struggle to replace human narration completely, partly because many Australian authors will oppose it.

But whether or not listeners will be able to tell the difference remains to be seen.

“The foot is on the pedal to drive straight into dystopia,” Tudor says. “Can we just listen to people instead of robots?”