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Leviticus review – queer desire is a deadly curse in haunting horror

Sundance film festival: Conversion therapy has gory results in a smart and surprisingly romantic debut feature from Australian writer-director Adrian Chiarella

Something rather nasty is unfolding in Sundance horror Leviticus. If you asked the god-fearing residents of the isolated Australian town at its centre, they would say it’s the curse of homosexuality, quietly infecting the youth. If you asked the gay teens themselves, they would say it’s something far more horrifying.

In writer-director Adrian Chiarella’s indelible debut feature, queer desire is not only a danger to one’s safety from the bigots that you live, work and pray with, but it’s also a supernatural affliction. We first see teens Naim (Joe Bird) and Ryan (Stacy Clausen) as they engage in a clandestine hang, that familiar dance of a play-fight leading into a kiss. For Naim, it’s a new world opening up, a reason to believe there might be something to be happy about in an otherwise dull new town with his warm yet clueless single mother (Mia Wasikowska). But when Naim sees Ryan engaging in a similar tryst with Hunter (Jeremy Blewitt), the son of the local preacher, he allows his heart to overrule his head and does something he’ll live to regret.

Leviticus is screening at the Sundance film festival and is seeking distribution

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© Photograph: Ben Saunders

© Photograph: Ben Saunders

© Photograph: Ben Saunders

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The Moment review – Charli xcx struggles through defanged Brat summer satire

Sundance film festival: There’s a smart idea at play here, with the star playing a hellish version of herself fighting against corporate forces, but there’s not a lot else

In April 2025, the pop singer Charli xcx posted a TikTok reflecting on nearly a year of her seminal album Brat: “It’s really hard to let go of Brat and let go of this thing that is so inherently me and become my entire life, you know?” she said. “I started thinking about culture, and the ebbs and flows and lifespan of things … ” She acknowledged that over-saturation is perilous, and that maybe she should stop, but “I’m also interested in the tension of staying too long. I find that quite fascinating.”

The frank, informal admission fit with Brat, a pop culture-shifting album that channeled, with stunning immediacy, the imperious ego and bristling insecurity of an artist keenly aware of her own precarious level of fame. Her ambivalence was understandable – Brat rapidly turned Charli, who spent over a decade as a fixture of pop’s so-called middle class, into a main pop girl, an artist played at midwest sorority weddings and used by a US presidential campaign. But her interest in “the tension of staying too long” also felt a little trite, the type of smart-sounding musing that dead-ends in self-awareness. Brat summer was heady, hedonistic, fun – a meme, an aesthetic, a vibe, a moment. That said moment passes? Well … yeah.

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© Photograph: © A24

© Photograph: © A24

© Photograph: © A24

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The moment I knew: ‘He put down the camera and asked permission to kiss me’

Susan Hayes and Craig got to know each other through an online game. When they finally met in person, it felt like a real-life romance novel

When 2023 rolled around, I was ready for a change. I’d spent the Covid years locked down in Victoria, Canada. I had quit my day job at the end of 2019 to write full-time and travel, only for the world to shut down.

During those long, lonely years, I kept myself distracted by playing an online game. Nothing fancy, just a phone game about surviving a zombie apocalypse. It was a bit of fun and a way to connect with people from around the world. One of those people was a fellow named Craig.

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© Photograph: Supplied

© Photograph: Supplied

© Photograph: Supplied

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Blink-182’s Mark Hoppus: ‘Bass players are just cool. We’re the one that brings it all together’

The bass player and singer on naming his chickens, selling his Banksy and surviving cancer

You used to keep chickens named after women from Blink-182 songs. Which was your favourite?

There was Wendy, Holly, Josie … I forget the others. We lived in London, but also had a 25-acre farm out in Somerset with a Georgian farmhouse that was built in 1750. A guy from the British Beekeeping Association, who worked at the local church, would come over and help me open up my hives and harvest the honey. It was crazy how much honey we got – up to 150 jars a season. It was the best honey I’ve ever tasted.

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© Photograph: Scarlet Page/The Guardian

© Photograph: Scarlet Page/The Guardian

© Photograph: Scarlet Page/The Guardian

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I Want Your Sex review – vampy Olivia Wilde almost saves Gregg Araki’s tame dom-sub romp

Sundance film festival: As a provocative artist using sex to wield power, the actor is electric but the writer-director’s return to his campy, dayglo roots is largely underwhelming

While Sundance is traditionally focused on the importance of looking to the future of American film, a lineup filled with more first-timers than any other major festival, this year has been all about looking back. There are misty eyes over the loss of founder Robert Redford along with host state Utah and also for the many films that have premiered here over the years. Alongside more retrospective screenings than one usually expects, even the new films have a touch of old Sundance to them.

On opening day, Rachel Lambert’s small town drama Carousel conjured up memories of quiet character driven indies of the late 90s and early 00s and then, on a Friday full of packed out premieres, I Want Your Sex took us back to the era’s more in-your-face acts of provocation, made by renegade outsiders who would have otherwise struggled to find a place in the industry. It’s the new film from Gregg Araki, a film-maker who was at the forefront of this particular wave, one of Sundance’s most loved enfants terribles. He’s premiered most of his films here, from “heterosexual movie” The Doom Generation to magnum opus Mysterious Skin to all-time stoner comedy Smiley Face to 2014’s misbegotten drama White Bird in a Blizzard, his last film until now.

I Want Your Sex is screening at the Sundance film festival and is seeking distribution

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© Photograph: Lacey Terrell

© Photograph: Lacey Terrell

© Photograph: Lacey Terrell

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‘Displaying the cloth like this showed its true beauty’: Aung Chan Thar’s best phone picture

A beautiful lake, gorgeous fabric: how could the Myanmar photographer resist?

When Aung Chan Thar was 25, he was selected to represent Myanmar as part of Asean Centre for Biodiversity’s (ACB) Young Asean Storytellers programme. A cohort of 20 young artists and writers visited Asean Heritage Parks in their own countries to tell stories of biodiversity, nature and culture.

Aung first travelled to Inlay Lake Wildlife Sanctuary, known for its floating gardens, in 2022. “The Intha people live around the lake and build floating houses: structures made from bamboo on stilts,” Aung says. “Fishing is a common occupation; they use their feet to paddle their boats. So is the production of colourful cloth.”

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© Photograph: Aung Chan Thar

© Photograph: Aung Chan Thar

© Photograph: Aung Chan Thar

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Comment suivre l’ascension vertigineuse de la tour Taipei 101 par Alex Honnold en direct

Netflix diffuse dans la nuit du 24 au 25 janvier 2026 un événement en direct sans précédent : Alex Honnold va escalader la tour Taipei 101, un des plus hauts gratte-ciel du monde, sans corde ni filet de sécurité. Horaires, plateforme, déroulement : voici tout ce qu'il faut savoir pour suivre cette ascension à haut risque.

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Attaqué par deux éditeurs, ce célèbre moddeur préfère tout effacer plutôt que de passer au gratuit

Cyberpunk 2077 Takemura

La situation s'aggrave pour Luke Ross. Déjà en conflit avec CD Projekt Red pour son mod VR payant de Cyberpunk 2077, le moddeur a été rattrapé par une seconde plainte venant de l’éditeur 505 Games. Craignant un bannissement sur Patreon, il a préféré supprimer l’intégralité de ses créations plutôt que de céder sur la gratuité.

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