Robert Pattinson hits out at ‘studio movies’ released in wake of Covid

Arts & Culture, Film & TV

Your support helps us to tell the storyFrom reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it’s investigating the financials of Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, ‘The A Word’, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.Your support makes all the difference.Read moreRobert Pattinson has revealed he almost gave up on Hollywood due to the types of films released in the wake of COVID-19.The Twilight star, 38, who is set to star in Parasite director Bong Joon-ho’s forthcoming sci-fi Mickey 17, admitted he was “almost turned off” by the film industry in recent years. Pattinson told Vanity Fair: “The last few years for the film industry, starting with COVID and then the [SAG-AFTRA] strikes, everyone was constantly saying cinema is dying. And quite convincingly.”He added: “I was literally almost turned off. It actually started to get a little worrying.”The Batman actor continued: “In terms of scripts, I mean, every actor for two years was saying, ‘What is happening? Nothing’s cool.’”Pattinson added films made during this period were “very studio” but in more recent months there have been “really cool parts everywhere”.The Twilight said there has been a “flurry of very ambitious movies” released of late, adding he enjoyed Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel’s thriller Armand, Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist and Sean Baker’s Anora.Robert Pattinson has revealed he almost gave up on Hollywood due to influx of ‘studio’ movies

On voting rights, eight legal battles to watch in 2025

2024 Election

This article was originally published in Bolts Magazine. Conservative judges have chipped away at voting rights and put the Voting Rights Act through renewed stress over the last decade. They’re now set to gain new allies with the incoming Trump administration and GOP majorities in Congress. At the same time, GOP-led states are devising new restrictions on voter registration and ballot access,…

The midnight book release is back, with readers flocking to events for Onyx Storm

Arts & Culture, Books

People packed into bookstores, bars and breweries on Monday night, some dressed in costume and all filled with excitement over a brand new release: not of an album or TV show, but of the latest installation of their favourite book series. Rebecca Yarros’s Onyx Storm, the third book in a series that started with the wildly successful BookTok sensation Fourth Wing in 2023, officially hit the shelves on Tuesday. But hundreds of eager fans got their hands on copies at midnight at release events across the country, some shelling out up to $100 for the experience. The author herself attended a sold-out midnight release held in New York City, just one of over 1,100 events planned across the U.S. and Canada. That’s nearly three times as many as those held for the second book, Iron Flame. It’s a “seismic” release, according to Jamie Broadhurst, vice-president of marketing for Raincoast Books, the Canadian distributor of the publishing house behind the series, Entangled Publishing. “All these fans coming out for midnight parties — it’s like the old days,” Broadhurst told CBC News. “Onyx Storm is gonna be one of the — if not the biggest — one of the biggest releases of the year. So it’s pretty cool.”Slow Burn Books co-owners Shannon MacNaughton (far left) and Nicola MacNaughton (far right) pose with their team and new copies of Onyx Storm after their midnight release event in Calgary, Alberta.

The Age Of Political Correctness Is Waning

2024 Election

Consider Elon Musk’s tweet from January 2025: “They prioritised DEI over saving lives and homes.” He was responding to the Los Angeles Fire Department’s four-year-old ‘racial equity action plan,’ which, in his view, contributed to the spread of the fire. Similarly, consider the recent controversies surrounding ‘grooming gangs’ in Britain. These were labelled as Asian…

Molly-Mae slammed as she’s filmed eating chicken nuggets while driving £180k Mercedes

Arts & Culture, Film & TV

Influencer Molly-Mae Hague, has faced criticism from road safety organisations after being seen eating chicken nuggets while driving her £180,000 Mercedes-AMG G 63 Magno Edition. The incident occurred in Mollly’s new docuseries, shortly after her public separation from Tommy Fury, her partner of five years, with whom she shares a daughter, Bambi. Road safety advocates…

Meet Mahama’s new presidential staffers that include a former CPP top executive

2024 Election

President John Dramani Mahama has made 10 more key appointments to the Office of the President. The appointment, which was announced on Tuesday, January 21, 2024, included Ghanaians with vast experiences in various fields, including communication, diplomacy, governance and security. Below is a profile of the new presidential staffers: Joyce Bawah Mogtari – Presidential Adviser…

Presence review – Soderbergh’s ghost’s-eye movie plays it cool with an unhappy family

Arts & Culture, Film & TV

Steven Soderbergh has made a ghost story with a screenplay from Hollywood veteran David Koepp. It sticks to a single location – the haunted family home – and the main character is the handheld camera’s ghostly point-of-view. It is the mute witness to everything that happens, roaming wordlessly around the house: up and down the stairs, in and out of the bedrooms, and evidently forbidden to go out back into the garden or out front on to the porch. We see what it sees.Presence is conceived on elegant and economically spare lines, dialogue scenes are presented blankly, shot mostly from a distance (the ghost detached and hanging back) and interspersed with blackouts; it is well-acted, disciplined and intimate as a play. But for me it is marred by an early, unsubtle moment of overt supernatural creepiness, which signals a retreat from ingenuity and restraint. Perhaps it was a commercial concession to the idea that, for all the cool underplaying and periodic, uncanny sudden-chill moments in which a character will glance warily into the lens, the audience has to be reassured that this is a scary horror movie; it has to be shown what happens when an invisible ghost picks something up and carries it to the other side of the room. Surging strings on the soundtrack further underline the scariness.The ghost can be read as a metaphorical expression of the family’s own terrible unhappiness and dysfunction. At the start the house is empty as they all move in: Chris (Chris Sullivan) and Rebecca (Lucy Liu) and their teenage children, swim team champ Tyler (Eddy Maday) and younger, sensitive Chloe (Callina Liang). Assertive Rebecca loves the house because it puts them in a school area where her beloved Tyler will bloom as a sports megastar; she neglects Chloe, Chris’s favourite, who is depressed over certain tragedies which have befallen her friends. The house could be a little too expensive for them; Rebecca, who drinks too much, has maybe cut some financial and legal corners to get a loan or for other reasons. We (and the implacably judging ghost) see her having secret, tense phone conversations and deleting emails. Then Chloe begins her fateful romance with Tyler’s friend Ryan (West Mulholland).Of course, there is a difference between characters getting freaked out for a millionth of a second by suspecting the ghost’s invisible presence and the ghost freaking them out for a considerably greater length of time by actually intervening in their lives. And the ghost’s behaviour is arguably not consistent; having protected Chloe from something terrible early on, it is perhaps not entirely clear, in the moment, why the ghost doesn’t do this a second time when Chloe is in danger again, in exactly the same way. Well, it could be that the ghost will risk everything to create the final, terrible denouement.Presence is flawed. It doesn’t match, say, David Lowery’s A Ghost Story or, further back, Alejandro Amenábar’s superlative The Others. But Soderbergh directs it all with flair and pace: low budget, high intelligence in the way we expect from him.

British Business Bank marks a decade of transformative impact on the economy and smaller businesses across the East Midlands

Business News

Watch more of our videos on ShotsTV.com and on Freeview 262 or Freely 565Visit Shots! nowSince it was established in 2014, the British Business Bank has supported 14,000 smaller businesses in the East Midlands which are expected to create 13,000 additional jobs and sustain almost 161,000 existing positions.This cements the Bank’s role as a critical driver of growth and employment in the UK and its regional economies since its inception.Published today, the British Business Bank’s The Power of 10: 10 Year Impact Report, reveals smaller businesses supported by the Bank are projected to generate £5bn in additional turnover. Through their growth, it is estimated they will boost the East Midlands economic output by around £2bn over the lifetime of their finance.Ensuring access to finance reaches all UK Nations and regionsLouis TaylorThe British Business Bank has successfully supported businesses across the UK, with 84% of businesses supported based outside London, underscoring its commitment to delivering fair access to finance in all Nations and regions. This support has generated significant economic benefits, contributing over £2bn in Gross Value Added (GVA) to the East Midlands and sustaining more than 161,000 jobs, with an additional 13,000 jobs expected to be created as a result.Programmes such as the Regional Angels Programme and £1.6bn Nations and Regions Investment Funds, of which the Midlands Engine Investment Fund II is part, have driven investment in regional innovation clusters, helping to retain high-growth businesses in these areas.Leveraging private sector investmentOver the past decade, the Bank has leveraged more than £4 of private sector investment and lending guaranteed for every £1 of public funding deployed, demonstrating its ability to act as a catalyst for private funding.Its network of over 200 delivery partners, which includes banks, fintech providers, and venture capital funds, has been instrumental in addressing structural market gaps and enabling innovation across the UK.The British Business Bank’s Midlands Engine Investment Fund II, which recently announced that it has committed more than £17m to the region’s smaller businesses since its launch in February 2024, has leveraged £10m of additional investment from the private sector in just ten months. Louis Taylor, CEO, British Business Bank, said: “The Power of 10: 10 Year Impact Report highlights the transformative role the British Business Bank has played in driving economic growth and shaping the financial landscape for smaller businesses across the UK. “From improving access to finance across the UK’s Nations and regions to backing innovation and championing sustainable growth, we are proud of the impact we’ve achieved over the past decade. Looking ahead, we remain committed to supporting smaller businesses, unlocking private sector investment, and helping the UK meet its economic goals.“The catalytic impact of the British Business Bank and impressive track record crowding in private funding will become even more crucial as we establish the British Growth Partnership, subject to regulatory approval, unlocking the huge potential of UK pension funds and other institutional investors in venture capital funds and the UK’s innovative businesses.”Breaking down barriers in access to finance for under-represented groupsThrough its Start Up Loans programme, the Bank has ensured that traditionally under-represented groups in the East Midlands have gained greater access to finance.To date, 38% of these loans have been awarded to female founders, while 27% have supported entrepreneurs from Black, Asian, or Other Ethnic Minority backgrounds. This focus on inclusivity reflects the Bank’s commitment to unlocking potential and diversifying access to finance and creating opportunities for underserved groups.Looking to the future, the Bank is expanding access to funding for female entrepreneurs and will invest £50m into female-led funds through its existing programmes. This investment will support the aims of the Invest in Women Taskforce, which is an industry-led, government-backed initiative committed to increasing access to finance for female entrepreneurs. Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said: “Over the past decade, the British Business Bank has empowered smaller businesses to thrive, creating opportunities and driving growth across the UK.“They’ve supported more than 2 million jobs, created £97 billion in additional turnover, and delivered £32 billion in funding – its impact is clear. As part of our Plan for Change, this Government remains committed to building a high-growth economy, and the Bank’s success shows how public investment and private ambition can deliver lasting value for the nation.“The work of the British Business Bank is essential in our mission to grow the economy and improving living standards by supporting small businesses to flourish.”Continue Reading