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Fri 15 May 2026

Spotlight

Are you sitting uncomfortably?

How Backrooms upended the horror movie

It was just a creepy picture on the internet. Now it’s the year’s freakiest film. Its 20-year-old auteur Kane Parsons and stars Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsve take us through the terrifying labyrinth
Kane Parsons, top left, and, right, Renate Reinsve and Chiwetel Ejiofor.
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Picks of the week

John Lithgow embraces Olivia Colman from behind in a scene from Jimpa.
Olivia Colman
‘Oh my God, did my dad and I fight’: triggers, trans rights and sexual regret
Kelly Rowland appears to be in an animated conversation with a security guard on a red carpet.
Spit, vomit and a banned baby
Cannes controversies – ranked!
Woman smiles in black and white portrait
‘I told him, “Go ahead, do it”’
Juliette Binoche on how a strangling attack as a teen inspired her directorial debut
Nathalie Allison, Alexandre Desjonqueres and Sofia Benner Nihrane.
‘Do you want all the scenes to be penetrative?’
How working with an intimacy coordinator made my film better
Portrait of Carla Simón
Carla Simón
'In Spain people use words like shame and blame. But my parents just had bad luck‘
Los Angeles Special Screening Of A24's "Backrooms"SANTA MONICA, CALIFORNIA - MAY 07: Actor and filmmaker Curry Barker attends the Los Angeles Special Screening of A24's "Backrooms" at the Aero Theatre on May 07, 2026 in Santa Monica, California. (Photo by Amanda Edwards/Getty Images)
‘I never thought people might feel threatened by us’
YouTuber Curry Barker on his big horror ascent
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Peter Bradshaw's film of the week

The Christophers

Ian McKellen and Michaela Coel are the double act of the year

★★★★★
Steven Soderbergh and Ed Solomon provide a vision of haughty Englishness up there with Gosford Park and Phantom Thread
An elderly bearded man paints a portrait on an easel while a young woman in an apron watches.
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This week's reviews

Awful truth … Bojtorján Barábas and Grégory Gadebois in Orphan.
Orphan
László Nemes’ fable of resentment and rage in post-uprising Hungary
★★★☆☆
Film Review - NormalThis image released by Magnolia Pictures shows Bob Odenkirk in a scene from "Normal." (Magnolia Pictures via AP)
Normal
Fargo meets The Firm in cheerfully weird Bob Odenkirk small-town thriller
★★★☆☆
Ciao UFO
Ciao UFO
Hong Kong tear-jerker is less ET than time-hopping chronicle of housing estate kids
★★★☆☆
A person wearing glasses and an orange patterned shirt sings into a microphone while playing an electric guitar on stage.
Queer as Punk
Joyous portrait of Malaysian LGBTQ+ rebels making noise
★★★☆☆
The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo
The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo
Haunting queer fable burns with love and menace
★★★★☆
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We recommend

Cairo Conspiracy (aka Boy from Heaven)

Stirring spy thriller set on an Egyptian campus

★★★★☆
Egypt’s religious and secular institutions both breed mistrust in Tarik Saleh’s superbly realised paranoid nightmare
WALAD MIN AL JANNA Boy from Heaven film still
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