Category: 5. Entertainment

When he gets to his London office on the morning this piece is published, Jesse Armstrong will read it in print, or not at all. Though the building has wifi, he doesn’t use it. “If you’re a procrastinator, which most writers are, it’s just a killer.” Online rabbit holes swallow whole days. “In the end, it’s better to be left with the inadequacies of your thoughts.” He gives himself a mock pep talk. “‘It’s just you and me now, brain.’”

Today, the showrunner of Succession and co-creator of Peep Show is back at home, in walking distance of his workspace. He could be any London dad: 54, salt-and-pepper beard, summer striped T-shirt. But staying offline could feel like a statement too, given Armstrong is also the writer-director of Mountainhead, a film about tech bros. Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Open AI’s Sam Altman, guru financiers Peter Thiel and Marc Andreessen: all these and more are mixed up in the movie’s characters, sharing a comic hang in a ski mansion. Outside, an AI launched by one of the group has sparked global chaos. Inside, there is snippy friction about the intra-billionaire pecking order.

Mountainhead feels like a pulled-back curtain. But Armstrong also resisted another rabbit hole: spending time in Silicon Valley for research. He tried that kind of thing before. Contrary to rumour, Succession never did involve backdoor chats with the children of Rupert Murdoch. Once the show became a phenomenon, though, he did meet with masters of finance and corporate media, picking their brains for insights at luxe New York restaurants. “And they’d be charismatic, and namedrop the 20 most famous people in the world, and I’d feel this buzz of excitement by association. Then later I’d look at my notes, and what they’d actually said read like complete inane bullshit. ‘Make the move!’ ‘Be the balls!’”

So Armstrong returned to his office and, more generally, his kind. “I’m a writer,” he says, “and a writer type. And I’m happy with other writer types.” In America, when Succession exploded, you could sense an assumption the mind behind it must be an English Aaron Sorkin: a slick character as glamorous as the world he wrote about. Instead, here was the dry figure who compares making Mountainhead to an early job at budget supermarket Kwik Save. (Both, he says, boiled down to managing workload.)

Rather than stalk Sam Altman, he read biographies and hoovered up podcasts. Amid the oligarchs’ tales of favourite Roman emperors, he kept finding a common thread: a wilful positivity about their own effect on the world. “And it must be delightful to really believe, ‘You know what? It’s going to be fine. AI’s going to cure cancer, and don’t worry about burning up the planet powering the AI to do it, because we’ll just fix that too.’”

Part of the trick, he says, is perspective. At a certain level, money and power give life the feel of an eternal view from a private plane. “Whereas reality is standing in the road, dodging cars, thinking ‘Oh God! This is fucking terrifying!’”

Success and Succession have not made Armstrong an optimist. But they did give him the professional heft to direct Mountainhead as well as write it, and to do so at unprecedented pace. Film and TV move achingly slowly; it was last November that he decided he wanted to make a movie about the junction of AI, crypto and libertarian politics. By May, he was preparing for it to come out.

He says now he wanted Mountainhead to be “a bobsleigh run. Short, and slightly bitter, and once you’re on, you’re on.” His voice quickens recalling a first meeting with Steve Carell, who he wanted to play Randall, “the group’s dark money Gandalf”. This was January. Without a script, Armstrong could only tell the actor the story he’d loosely planned. Carell sat in silence. “I thought, ‘Well, this has gone very badly.’” Then he said yes. “At which point it was like, ‘Fuck. This is actually going to happen. Now I have to write it.’”

By March, the film was being shot in a 21,000 sq ft mansion in Deer Valley, Utah, then on the market for $65m. Carell aside, the cast included Cory Michael Smith, Ramy Youssef and Jason Schwartzman. For Armstrong, directing his first feature on a berserk turnaround was made easier by a deep fondness for actors. Standing in front of a camera, he says, paralyses him with self-consciousness. “So I honestly find what they do magical.”

His own lack of talent as a performer proved important to the younger Armstrong. Between 1995 and 1997, he worked as an assistant to Labour MP Doug Henderson. It was an interesting time to have the job, with Tony Blair about to enter Downing Street. Is there a Sliding Doors world where a rising star assistant becomes an MP himself? One where, by now, Jesse Armstrong is home secretary?

He shakes his head for several seconds. “I just wasn’t good at the job. Fundamentally, I didn’t understand politics.” He knows it sounds odd, having later written for insidery Westminster comedy The Thick of It. “But I couldn’t do the acting. I didn’t get it. I always thought like a writer, so in meetings where I should have been building my career, I’d just be thinking, ‘That’s weird. That’s funny. Why did you say that?’” (Armstrong once wrote for the Guardian about a meeting with then Conservative minister Ann Widdecombe, in which she sat under two posters: one a lurid anti-abortion message, the other Garfield.)

Instead, he segued into comedy, and soon after Peep Show, the beloved squirm of a sitcom co-written with Sam Bain. At first glance, Succession is the obvious prequel to Mountainhead, a former newspaper empire giving way to tech superpower. But Armstrong sees a closer link between his new film and Peep Show: “Because it’s about men, and male hierarchies, and the pathos of men trying to connect.”

He is tickled by the thought of his own story world, in which characters from different projects collide. “You can see Super Hans arriving at Mountainhead on a scooter, delivering the ketamine.” Then he pauses, suddenly anxious. Could he make sure I’ll mention Bain if I talk about Peep Show? “Because it was always Sam’s show as well.” And Hans owed so much to actor Matt King too, he says, “and then, of course, there’s David Mitchell and Robert Webb.”

Should Armstrong ever make an Oscar acceptance speech, we will be there a while. Making sure due credit is given is of a piece with his near-pathological modesty. (He is a keen footballer. Which position? “Terrible.”) Being fair-minded matters too. He adds a postscript to his memory of leaving Westminster. “I’d also say I don’t in any way feel superior to people who do make a career in politics. I still believe we need good, professional politicians.”

Turning back to Mountainhead, his even-handedness reaches a kind of event horizon. Armstrong , it transpires, feels sorry for Elon Musk. “Musk has done huge damage in the world, particularly with Doge, but I have a lot of sympathy for him.” The owner of X was brutally bullied as a schoolboy and according to a 2023 biography, had a difficult relationship with his father. “This is a traumatised human being,” says Armstrong. Still, not every bullied child ends up making apparent Nazi salutes onstage. “Yeah. That wasn’t great.”

But there are other sides to Armstrong. For all the hints of bumble and awkwardness, he has also had the discipline to build a stellar career. And the more measured he is in person, the more Mountainhead feels like the work of a grinning Id, rising up to take a scalpel to his subjects, with their pretensions to philosophy, and dark indifference to life. (“I’m so excited about these atrocities,” a character beams as the world goes violently awry.) But his sympathy has its limits. “I do think the cocoon they’re in makes it hard for them to remember other people are actually real. But they’ve also been quick to give up trying. And some definitely feel the superior person shouldn’t have to try anyway.”

More to the point, though, Armstrong finds the tech moguls funny. Much of the grimness of a Musk or Thiel is also brilliantly ridiculous: the epic lack of self-knowledge, the thinness of skin. Having studied them as he has, would he expect his real-life models to be enraged by the film? “Oh no. They’d instantly dismantle it in a way that would be 50% completely fair, and 50% totally facile. But they wouldn’t see any truth to it.”

Still, Mountainhead is something very rare: a movie that feels as contemporary as TikTok. For Armstrong, after Succession and now this, you might think stories about the moment had become addictive. He frowns. Is a period piece next, in fact? Victorian bonnets? “Maybe. Genuinely maybe. Because I’m not actually that drawn to ripped-from-the-headlines ideas.” The frown deepens. “Am I not? I don’t know. I’m losing faith in my own answer, because I evidently am. I mean, I’m not going to claim I don’t like writing about right now. But honestly, at the same time – I’d be pleased to get out of it.”

Meghan Markle has announced her latest foray into lifestyle branding, with the Duchess of Sussex expanding As Ever product line now set to feature a “thoughtful” collection of wines.

A press release on Tuesday described the first wine to become available as “a light, fresh, and effortlessly celebratory 2023 Napa Valley Rosé, thoughtfully curated by Meghan, Duchess of Sussex”.

“This debut rosé marks the beginning of As Ever’s thoughtful expansion into wine, with a Méthode Champenoise Napa Valley sparkling wine planned for the near future and additional varietals to follow,” it said.

Meghan’s team also set the stage for where the wine might be best consumed: “Designed for summer’s best moments – from lunches that turn into dinners and sun-drenched weekends where the only thing louder than the music is the laughter.”

The manufacturer, Fairwinds Estate in Napa valley, located six hours drive from the Montecito home Markle shares with Prince Harry, also makes wine for Barry Manilow, the estate of John Wayne and the TV series Yellowstone.

Other celebrities who have also put their names to wine in recent years include Cameron Diaz (Avaline), director Francis Ford Coppola, Post Malone ( Maison No 9) and the ever-entrepreneurial Snoop Dogg, with 19 Crimes Cali Red.

Some celebrities have done well with alcohol ventures, including Brad Pitt, whose Miravel rosé brand is valued at around $200m, and George Clooney’s Casa Amigos tequila brand, established in 2103 and sold for $1bn four years later.

The bespoke or craft wine business is rapidly growing. Estimated at $35bn globally in 2019, it is projected to reach almost $49bn by 2027.

Meghan’s growing list of As Ever products includes a crepe mix, a shortbread mix with flower sprinkles, apricot spread in “keepsake packaging”, a limited edition orange blossom honey, and various teas. All products on As Ever’s website were sold out as of Tuesday morning, along with the reassuring message to consumers: “More coming soon.”

NEW YORK — Their reunion? It’s smooth like butter. The K-pop septet BTS will return in spring 2026 with a new album and world tour.

Members Jin, RM, V, Jimin, J-Hope, Jung Kook and Suga made the announcement Tuesday during a livestream on Weverse, an online fan platform owned by BTS management company Hybe. It was the first time all seven members have broadcast live together since September 2022.

“We’ll be releasing a new BTS album in the spring of next year. Starting in July, all seven of us will begin working closely together on new music,” the band said in a statement. “Since it will be a group album, it will reflect each member’s thoughts and ideas. We’re approaching the album with the same mindset we had when we first started.”

They also announced a world tour, their first in nearly four years. The news arrives a few weeks after BTS superstars RM, V, Jimin and Jung Kook were discharged from South Korea’s military after fulfilling their mandatory service.

In South Korea, all able-bodied men aged 18 to 28 are required by law to perform 18-21 months of military service under a conscription system meant to deter aggression from rival North Korea. Six of the group’s seven members served in the army, while Suga, the last to return, fulfilled his duty as a social service agent, an alternative to military service.

Jin, the oldest BTS member, was discharged in June 2024. J-Hope was discharged in October.

South Korea’s law gives special exemptions to athletes, classical and traditional musicians, and ballet and other dancers if they have obtained top prizes in certain competitions and are assessed to have enhanced national prestige. K-pop stars and other entertainers aren’t subject to such privileges. However, in 2020, BTS postponed their service after South Korea’s National Assembly revised its Military Service Act, allowing K-pop stars to delay their enlistment until age 30.

Reuters

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PA Media

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PA Media

In 1920, a young Armenian painter named Vosdanig Manuk Adoian emigrated to the US, fleeing from the Armenian genocide. After four years living with relatives in Massachusetts, he moved to New York City and changed his name to Arshile Gorky in honour of the celebrated Russian poet Maxim Gorky.

A new publication titled Arshile Gorky: New York City, edited by Ben Eastham, examines Gorky’s artistic evolution against the backdrop of New York as a Modernist mecca, straddling Surrealism and Abstract Expressionism. In the book, writers and art historians explore Gorky’s Manhattan years, including Adam Gopnik who, in the essay “Gorky Again”, reflects on the relationship of the artist’s paintings to time and place. Here, he turns our focus to an important double portrait and Gorky’s experience as an Armenian immigrant to the US.

Extract from ‘Gorky Again’ in Arshile Gorky: New York City

What Arshile Gorky and the other great immigrant observers of America had in common is that each pursued a passion in the modern sense, making art against the grain of commerce, while each underwent a passion in the mythical Greek sense—had some moment of struggle or pain that resolved in art, and, often, in the closest thing artists get to immortality: a place in the collective memory. In the artist’s last interview [1948], he again describes himself as Russian, but also as an “early American”, who, according to his interviewer, “dislikes being called a foreigner and says he is more like one of the first settlers because he can appreciate the advantages of being in America to a far greater extent than those who were born here by ‘lucky accident’”.

With Gorky we sense a classic immigrant’s plight: a desire to restore and recuperate the recipes and precise tastes and qualities of a lost, more savoury and less homogenised past, while making it live within the scale and ambition of American reality. Scale alone becomes a vital form of assimilation: do it big and you do it American. To do “Poussin over entirely from nature” was Cézanne’s cry; to do the artisanal, puzzling, irregular Old-World particularism—a world wrought, as Gorky itemised, from the shape of apricots and baker’s bread—over in a landscape of grand generalisations and unlimited horizons, that was the dream that [Willem] de Kooning and Gorky shared.

And so, we keep coming back to Gorky’s prime, begetting picture, a masterpiece of the American immigrant experience, which is to say of the American experience: The Artist and His Mother (around 1926-36). Taken from a formal photograph, remade over more than a decade, [it is] the foundation of his art. We see boy and mother and know that she will die, unthinkably, of starvation in his arms, as part of the [Armenian] genocide, and never see her son again. The image sits so sharply within our consciousness, no matter how often we return to it, because it offers something not illustrative but iconic, part of now-vanishing stories of loss redeemed by possibility. From starvation and persecution and the wistful enforced formality of the Old World, comes, after a long voyage, energy and hope—and with the hope, a residual longing for the older world, and a need to picture all that happened between the departure and the painting. Gorky’s kind lives as a series of passionate pilgrimages made by improbable arrivals and painters who, however necessarily absurd in their effect at moments, struggled against unimaginable hardship to realise their images.

Gorky’s last written words before his painfully premeditated suicide [he took his own life in 1948]—“good-bye my ’loveds,” in one version—were a cry of the heart of a suffering man who loved his daughters, as well as a literary reference to a phrase [the Russian poet and playwright Alexander] Pushkin is reported to have written before he died following a duel. The curse of history and the hope of renewal, old and new drawn together in pain. All artists die in a duel, perhaps the duel of talent against the world. We honour them not by placing them back in history, but by reminding ourselves that what we call history is just what they did, which was everything they could.

• Arshile Gorky: New York City, Ben Eastham (editor) and various contributors incl. Adam Gopnik, Hauser & Wirth Publishers, 244pp, £32 (pb)

CNN
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Netflix is taking a bite out of our cultural obsession with sharks with the new documentary, “Shark Whisperer.”

The project focuses on free-diving conservationist Ocean Ramsey (her real name), who recounts her “fascination and kinship with one of the ocean’s most feared predators,” according to Netflix.

“Her passion for sharks, who she feels are gravely misunderstood and unfairly maligned, became her life’s work,” a story on the streamer’s Tudum site states. “Over 100 million sharks are killed each year, imperiling the survival of a species that is integral to a balanced marine ecosystem, and critical to a healthy Earth.”

While some view sharks as scary and “monsters,” Ramsey and her partner and videographer, Juan Oliphant, advocate for the safety of the sharks and are working on improving their image.

“I’m not a crazy person,” Ramsay says in a trailer for the project as she swims near several large sharks. “I’m hyper aware of what they’re capable of.”

The new doc, from Oscar-winning director of “My Octopus Teacher,” James Reed, is not without controversy, however.

“Ramsey’s approach to her activism has drawn criticism by both members of the scientific community and the public at large; Ramsey’s detractors say she is putting herself, other humans, and the sharks at risk by seeking media attention,” according to Tudum.

Ramsey advocates for the protection of sharks through her social media platforms, which have more than 2 million followers on Instagram alone.

“Shark Whisperer” is currently streaming on Netflix.

Netflix

Happy Gilmore 2

Film, US, 2025 – out 25 July

Next up in sequels nobody asked for: the return of Adam Sandler’s cavalier golfer Happy Gilmore. Dennis Dugan’s 1996 comedy classic achieved the unthinkable by making the sport momentarily interesting. Kyle Newacheck’s belated follow-up tells a good ol’ fashioned comeback story, in which Gilmore reluctantly rises to a new challenge, here with the narrative justification that our over-the-hill hero needs moolah to send his daughter to ballet school. Expect many on-the-green outbursts and an inevitable golf ball to the groin.

Too Much

TV, UK, 2025 – out 10 July

The new comedy series from Lena Dunham – which she co-created, co-wrote and directed – follows Jessica (Megan Stalter), a bubbly New Yorker who moves to London and attempts to start again after a messy breakup. Initially disappointed that the big smoke doesn’t match the dreamy city in her head, she adjusts her expectations and encounters a potential love interest in a musician, Felix (Will Sharpe). I’ve watched the first two episodes; expect a moreishly paced, character-driven show told with energy and sass.

Nosferatu

Film, US, 2024 – out 26 July

The director Robert Eggers has a great way of taking cobweb-covered storylines – think witches, mermaids, vengeful Vikings – and injecting them with new life, with a visual style that is more painterly than flashy. A remake of FW Murnau’s great silent film fits Eggers’ oeuvre like a glove, opening up a space for more handsome gothic imagery, moody lighting and chunky moustaches. Lily-Rose Depp’s plays Ellen Hutter, a newlywed who draws intense attraction from the reclusive and downright vampiric Count Orlok (Bill Skarsgård).

Honourable mentions: The Sandman season 2 volume 1 (TV, 3 July), Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (film, 8 July), Sneaky Pete seasons 1-3 (TV, 10 July), The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (film, 12 July), Untamed (TV, 17 July), Glass Heart (TV, 31 July).

Stan

Project Nim

Film, UK/US, 2011 – out 13 July

James Marsh’s fascinating cradle-to-the-grave documentary follows Nim, a chimpanzee who was raised to be a human in a bold (some might say completely insane) experiment undertaken in the 1970s. Living with a bohemian US family, Nim was breastfed by his adopted human mother, taught to go to the toilet, and even smoked reefers. The aim was to test whether chimps could, through sign language, communicate like people. To say it didn’t go well is something of an understatement; Nim’s story is terribly sad and the film is fascinating throughout.

The Square

Film, Australia, 2008 – out 1 July

The oeuvre of Australian director and stuntman Nash Edgerton (brother of Joel) includes the great hitman series Mr Inbetween, some ripping music videos for Bob Dylan, and this smashing, tautly paced neo-noir. A pair of lovers – David Roberts’ Raymond and Claire van der Boom’s Carla – cook up a plan to run off with a big bag of cash procured by Clara’s husband. Things go terribly wrong, triggering a classic, very well told story of two people in over their heads.

Honourable mentions: Venom: Let There Be Carnage (film, 1 July), Buried (film, 3 July), Black Swan (film, 5 July), Queer (film, 6 July), The Final Quarter (film, 8 July), Looper (film, 10 July), The Institute (TV, 14 July), The Dark Emu Story (film, 23 July), Mother and Son season 1 (TV, 25 July), The Day After Tomorrow (film, 26 July), The Accidental President (TV, 27 July).

SBS on Demand

Another Country

Film, Australia, 2015 – out 1 July

Arriving in time for Naidoc Week, which runs from 6 July to 13 July, Molly Reynolds’ fascinating documentary explores David Gulpilil’s home community of Ramingining in the Northern Territory. Extensively narrated by the late and great actor, the remote town becomes a microcosm through which the film can explore “what happened to my culture when it was interrupted by your culture”. As I wrote in my original review: “The richness of the film arises from the earthy elegance of Gulpilil’s narration matched with the uncluttered beauty of Reynolds’ photography.”

Boogie Nights

Film, US, 1997 – out 18 July

Paul Thomas Anderson’s porn industry-set period drama, which begins in the late 70s, is an epic rise-and-fall narrative chock-full of drugs and bonking. Mark Wahlberg plays Eddie Adams, a busby who is discovered by a porn director, Jack Horner (Burt Reynolds), and turned into an adult movie star on account of his very substantial, erm, work ethic.

The film is equally funny as sad, and great at evoking big and small picture details – peppering a large multi-year arc with all sorts of small, memorable moments. Reynolds is irresistible as the veteran quasi-artist, who longs to make a porno with a great story, and Philip Seymour Hoffman is amazingly awkward as a stammering boom operator.

Honourable mentions: Mad Dog Morgan (film, 1 July), The Goonies (film, 1 July), May December (film, 1 July), Gulpilil: One Red Blood (film, 1 July), After Hours (film, 1 July), Under the Bridge (TV, 1 July), Gravity (film, 4 July), The Big Steal (film, 4 July), Sasquatch Sunset (film, 4 July), Ablaze (film, 6 July), The Piano Teacher (film, 11 July), Harry Brown (film, 12 July), Gremlins (film, 15 July), The Sommerdahl Murders seasons 1-5 (TV, 17 July), The Cranes Call (TV, 24 July), The Embers (TV, 24 July).

ABC iview

Laurence Anyways

Film, Canada, 2012 – out 1 July

Xavier Dolan’s aesthetically daring drama follows a transgender high school teacher, Laurence (Melvil Poupaud), as she undergoes the transitioning process, navigating relationship issues with her girlfriend, Fred (Suzanne Clement), and encountering discrimination at work. The film looks beautiful but, like in much of Dolan’s work, it’s an unusual, askew kind of beauty, with a knack for visual embellishments that take you by surprise. My only complaint is that, at 168 minutes, it’s far too long.

Honourable mentions: Do Not Watch This Show (TV, 4 July), Patience (TV, 4 July), That Blackfella Show (TV, 5 July), Penn & Teller: Fool Us season 11 (TV, 14 July), The Mysterious Benedict Society (TV, 14 July).

Amazon Prime Video

Better Man

Film, Australia/US, 2024 – out 26 July

Never have you seen a monkey snorting so much blow. Michael Gracey’s take on the life of Robbie Williams is a biopic with a difference, featuring the singer-songwriter being played by a CGI chimpanzee. This novelty has a curious, othering effect, helping the film feel fresh despite rehashing a familiar star-is-born template. Williams experiences a downwards spiral of sex and drugs from which he will, of course, eventually emerge, important life lessons learned. Check out the Rock DJ scene for an example of its thrilling visual staging.

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Blue Velvet

Film, US, 1986 – out 1 July

Rewatching this lurid classic from David Lynch feels like re-experiencing an old nightmare, our fears and twisted visions lighting up the screen. The same can be said of many of his films, though this one is different because its key visual motif is a severed ear, which represents … hmm … well … good luck ascertaining meaning from a Lynch production. (To quote Roger Ebert’s review of Mulholland Drive: “There is no explanation. There may not even be a mystery.”)

The story has shades of hard-boiled noir, the life of a college student, Jeffrey Beaumont (Kyle MacLachlan), intersecting with a femme fatale, Dorothy Vallens (Isabella Rossellini), and her abusive boyfriend, Frank Booth – played by Dennis Hopper with his signature brand of vein-bulging mania.

Honourable mentions: Rocky 1-6 (film, 1 July), Creed (film, 1 July), Creed II (film, 1 July), Twister (film, 1 July), Heads of State (film, 2 July), Ballard (TV, 9 July), The Chosen: Last Supper (TV, 13 July), Blade Runner (film, 26 July), The Equalizer (film, 26 July).

Disney+

Jaws @ 50: The Definitive Inside Story

Film, US, 2025 – out 11 July

It’s hard to overstate the impact of Jaws, which ushered in the era of the “summer blockbuster” and changed the face of cinema. Steven Spielberg’s film has been revisited, reinterpreted and appreciated ad nauseum – and now, to mark its 50th birthday, a documentary arrives promising to tell the “definitive inside story.” Speilberg et al discuss how the film was made and a conga line of high-profile appreciators heap praise on it including JJ Abrams, Emily Blunt, James Cameron, George Lucas and Jordan Peele.

Honourable mentions: ZOMBIES 4: Dawn of the Vampires (film, 11 July), Transformers 1-5 (film, 16 July), Bumblebee (film, 16 July), Washington Black (TV, 23 July).

Max

Sinners

Film, US, 2025 – out 4 July

Ryan Coogler’s already legendary vampire movie is set in 1930s Mississippi and stars Michael B Jordan in two lead roles, as gangster twins Smoke and Stack. Inspired by the legend of Robert Johnson – the highly influential blues musician who, according to folklore, sold his soul to the devil – the buzz surrounding this genre-flipping film has been pretty damn effusive.

Numerous Guardian writers have lined up to praise it. Peter Bradshaw called it a “gonzo horror-thriller mashup” told with “energy and comic-book brashness”; Wendy Ide a “wild, untrammelled and thrillingly unpredictable” film; and Andrew Lawrence a “a Jim Crow period piece that frames the Black experience in America as a horror show”.

Billy Joel: And So It Goes

TV, US, 2025 – out 19 July

This two-part documentary looks back on the life and career of Billy Joel, featuring commentary from the Piano Man himself plus insights from old friends and associates. I’ve watched the first part, which is long (almost two and a half hours), dense and conventionally structured, but quite well paced. It’s more warts-and-all than most authorised films, touching on various challenges in the subject’s life including his mental health and romantic indiscretions.

Honourable mentions: Dear Ms: A Revolution in Print (film, 3 July), Batman Ninja vs Yakuza League (film, 3 July), The Lego Movie (fillm, 5 July), The Hunger Games 1-4 (film, 5 July), Superman Through the Years (film, 8 July), Cabin in the Woods (film, 8 July), Back to the Frontier (TV, 10 July), Joker (film, 12 July), Bookish (TV, 16 July), Chespirito: Not Really on Purpose (TV, 28 July).

Binge

Arrested Development seasons 1-5

TV, US, 2003-2019 – out 29 July

Perhaps no popular television series has broken the “show, don’t tell” screenwriting dictum as spectacularly as this great, Ron Howard-narrated sitcom about an affluent US family undergoing a series of crises. Jason Bateman provides the anchoring presence as Michael, the most reasonable of the Bluth clan, who are a nasty, narcissistic and incompetent bunch – a dangerous combination for them, and a very good one for the audience. The fifth and last season took a dive so feel free to stop at the fourth.

Sold! Who Broke the Australian Dream

TV, Australia, 2025 – out 21 July

The producers of ABC’s 7.30 made a terrible decision when they cut the comedian Mark Humphries from the program; the man is rare talent. He fronts this sometimes laugh-out-loud funny investigation into Australia’s housing affordability crisis. It’s unpacked diligently, with everybody acknowledging that there’s no magic bullet solution, only measures (including cutting negative gearing) that might help a little. At several points the ABC journalist Alan Kohler appears, in a suit, in a bath, clutching a glass of champagne – a homage to Margot Robbie’s appearance in The Big Short?

Honourable mentions: Vertigo (film, 1 July), Rear Window (film, 1 July), Sabrina (film, 1 July), The Game (film, 1 July), Emilia Perez (film, 4 July), Suits seasons 1-9 (TV, 17 July), Nosferatu (film, 26 July).

Apple TV+

The Wild Ones

TV, UK, 2025 – out 11 July

In this six-part documentary series, a small team of adventurers head into remote areas of the world on a mission “to find and film some of the most endangered animals on the planet and help scientists save them”. A noble expedition, to be sure, with what looks like (going by the trailer) a bit of grandstanding and chest-thumping.

Honourable mentions: Foundation season 3 (TV, 11 July), Snoopy Presents: A Summer Musical (TV, 18 July).

“Agli Amici Rovinj”  confirms two Michelin stars

This restaurant always offers a high level, which for two years has been awarded the deserved 2 stars. Emanuele Scarello (Agli Amici, Udine **) and resident chef Simone de Lucca confirm the quality of this offer and continuity in the excellence of service. Technique, presentations, products, all distinctive elements of a very fine cuisine, aiming at enhancing the istrian productions mostly.  Service, wine pairing, design, every element of the offer shows professionalism and experience, with a wonderful position in the middle of the bay.

 

Two New One Michelin Star shine in Croatia

Krug – Split

A few steps from the Split seafront, the entire Krug experience is centered on the kitchen, located in the center of the room and around which an L-shaped table-counter develops that allows guests to interact directly with the chefs. Each dish is presented by the chefs, who tell the story and inspiration, thus enhancing the identity of the place. The cuisine is contemporary, with a strong focus on the product and deeply linked to the territory, reinterpreted with creativity. Almost all the raw materials come from the sea or the surrounding hinterland, while for the vegetables we work in close contact with local growers. Where possible, everything is prepared in-house: from bread to butter, to fermented products. Fish and meat are aged in special open refrigerators, located directly in the room. Special mention goes to the sommelier, whose expertise is reflected in a wide and curated wine list, capable of perfectly accompanying each course.

 

Cap Aureo – Rovinj

Chef Jeffrey Vella’s cuisine stands out for its strong personality, careful valorization of the territory and the use of selected raw materials within a 50 km radius. Its common thread naturally combines the flavors of coastal Croatia with the intense aromas of the hinterland. The menu, which the chef defines as a true “journey”, accompanies the guest through the seasonal first fruits with paths of varying lengths, leaving the diner the freedom to build his own gastronomic experience. Among the recommended dishes, the monkfish with mushroom sauce and the lamb – very tender, it melts in the mouth – served with a delicious broad bean sauce. The wine list is curated and well structured: on one side the traditional labels, mainly Croatian, on the other the “vintage cellar”, a selection of great international crus of excellent vintages, designed for true connoisseurs. The service is elegant but informal, capable of immediately putting you at ease. The view of the old city crowns a high-level gastronomic experience.

 

Two new Bib Gourmands join the selection

Konoba Pescaria – Mošćenička Draga

Overlooking the small port of one of the most romantic villages in Kvarner, this restaurant enjoys a splendid view from its small terrace: boats, beach and sea compose a relaxing and suggestive picture. Naturally, the cuisine is mainly seafood, simple and tasty. What could be better than starting with a carpaccio of the catch of the day and then continuing with “scampi alla busara”, a preparation that seems to have originated in these areas? The prices are generally fair, with the exception, understandably, of the most prized shellfish.

 

K.užina – Split

Situated in a quiet street near Split’s main square, the restaurant has a fantastic location: central yet quiet. It may be unnoticeable from the outside, but the interior is characterized by elegant details and the courtyard has a large, quiet terrace. The restaurant offers a wide à la carte selection, capable of satisfying all tastes. The small, open kitchen is managed by a talented chef, whose proposal is fresh and carefully prepared, with dishes that combine regional and modern influences. The presentation is pleasant, the portions are generous and the quality-price ratio is interesting. The service, always friendly and attentive, makes guests feel welcome and cared for.

 

The other new addresses in the selection 2025 are:

 

MICHELIN Special Awards

Through its special awards, the MICHELIN Guide aims to celebrate and highlight the incredible diversity of professions and skills that make up the restaurant industry, and to recognize its most talented and inspiring professionals.

 

The MICHELIN Young chef Award: Gabriela Filca new resident chef @ Nebo by Deni Srock, 1 Michelin Star, born in 2001, Gabriela showed a very technical cuisine with a gentle touch assuring a smooth change in a very modern cuisine at Nebo where Croatian products are empathized by modern preparations.

 

The MICHELIN Service Award: Vera Korak, owner and in charge of the front of house service at Korak, 1 Michelin Star in Jastrebarsko, ambassador of her family business as well as perfect connoisseur of the territory, showing care and welcoming skills making sure the guest feel at home at all times.

The MICHELIN Sommelier Award: Dinko Lozica, at the LD restaurant, 1 Michelin Star in Korcula, suggested for the capability of exploring local and international wines with attention and devotion for quality and a strict, friendly relationship with producers that helps celebrating their wines with even more intensity.

 

The MICHELIN Guide Croatia 2025 at a Glance:

A total of 99 recommended restaurants, including:

 

The full selection of The MICHELIN Guide Croatia 2025 is available on the MICHELIN Guide website https://guide.michelin.com/ae-du/en and on the MICHELIN Guide app, available free of charge on iOS and Android. 

The MICHELIN Guide is a benchmark in gastronomy. Now, it’s setting a new standard for hotels. Visit the MICHELIN Guide’s official website, or download the MICHELIN Guide mobile app (iOS and Android), to discover every restaurant in the selection and book an unforgettable hotel.

When Gill Hicks takes to the stage, she says with a small laugh that she hopes she can get through just the opening number, “without breaking down in a heap”. It will be emotional. Wryly titled Still Alive (and Kicking), the show is Hicks’s own way to mark the 20th anniversary of the suicide bombings on London’s public transport that killed 52 people, and injured more than 700 – Hicks, a survivor, lost both her legs. In her show, she weaves her story of survival and resilience around singing the jazz standards she has always loved.

She has already performed a version of it in Australia, where she now lives, but for its London outing she hopes around 20 members of the medical and emergency teams who attended that day will be in the audience. “They are extraordinary,” she says, “and their actions not only saved my life that morning, but I honestly believe they have saved me every single day since.”

That July morning, Hicks was on her way to work when one of the four suicide bombers who targeted London detonated his bomb in her tube carriage, somewhere between King’s Cross and Russell Square. Hicks is believed to have been the last survivor pulled from the wreckage some 40 minutes later, her injuries so bad that when she arrived at hospital she was simply labelled: “One unknown, estimated female”.

Before that, lying in the dark smoke-filled carriage, having used her scarf as a tourniquet around what was left of her legs to stop the bleeding, Hicks remembers making what she describes as a contract. She would get the chance to live, and she would make it count. “That’s really helped me continue to get up every day regardless of the situation I’m in. There’s a purpose and an absolute sense that there’s things to be done that help remind us of our shared humanity.”

She had lived in London for more than 20 years, working in architecture and design, then after the bombings dedicating her time to organisations that promoted peace, before moving to Australia in 2013, the same year she had her daughter. The last time Hicks came to London was in 2015 to commemorate 10 years since the bombings. But she doesn’t associate the city with trauma. That has been a conscious choice, she says. “That’s the one power that we all have, to be able to choose how we react and how we respond. Part of the honour of life for me is constantly choosing to live from a place of gratitude and positivity.”

Twenty years, she says, is long enough to consider the depth of the impact on her. “With the nature of my disability, I’m never detached from what’s happened,” she says. Forgiveness hasn’t felt necessary, or even possible given the man who blew up that tube carriage died in the blast, “so he’s taken away this exchange. It’s also made me feel I don’t have to really consider my feelings about him. I have to instead focus on what I do with my life, and how do I honour my life?” She is also always aware of those who didn’t come home that day.

The idea of “healing” or “recovery” is difficult – “My legs won’t grow back. I live in quite a lot of constant pain” – but for Hicks, the arts have been part of reclaiming her sense of self. She was a jazz musician before the bombings, but she never thought she would be able to sing or perform again. Her injuries left her with hearing loss, and one functioning lung. “It took me months to learn how to speak again,” she says. “When something like this type of life-altering event happens, it’s so easy to lose yourself, because your identity is skewed. Suddenly you’re a disabled person, so that’s one label. You’re a double amputee, that’s another. You’re a survivor, or are you a victim? I’ve been given a new life, but it’s this constant struggle of how do I do this?” The arts, including her vibrant paintings (which will be projected during the show) and working with the violinist Julian Ferraretto (also part of the show) represented “this beautiful piece of life before, that came back but with a different meaning, so it’s actually more powerful”.

Instead of thinking about the hate and extremism of that catastrophic moment, Hicks prefers to focus on the love and compassion she was shown in the months and years afterwards. She tracked down as many people involved in her care as she could, “to look into their eyes and say thank you.” Several, including one of the first paramedics who entered Hicks’s carriage, have become close friends.

This is what she wants her show to bring to people. “Through the addition of music, it becomes a real celebration of not only life, but of who we are as human beings – the extraordinary, unconditional love that I was shown as a person without identity, ‘One unknown, estimated female.’ To think that my body wasn’t just passed from one person to the next, it was absolutely held with love and intention for survival. Who I am today is because of how powerful that love and care was on that morning. I think the undercurrent for me of 20 years is: how do I tell that? How do I be the reminder?”