This Is Ballroom review – pulsating documentary tells story of Brazilian ballroom

Paris is Burning gets a South American update in a film that shows the Brazilian scene as a space of solidarity and tension

How to feel optimistic in the face of crisis? Ask the kids fighting slug-like aliens

The Animorphs books taught my generation about digging deep in the face of an existential threat. We need that spirit now more than ever, says Guardian Europe writer Alexander Hurst

What happens when medical students rely on AI – and never develop their own judgment?

AI’s danger isn’t just in experts losing the ability to reason. It’s that trainees may never learn how to do so in the first place

Lesbians, latex and $2,000 condoms: why are this summer’s movies so obsessed with sex?

From One Night Only to The Invite, a wave of new movies are a raunchy antidote to gen Z celibacy

RL Stine’s Pumpkinhead review – horror from Goosebumps writer has kid confined inside large fruit

Based on a short story by the Goosebumps author, this derivative but tautly plotted tale over-relies on Scooby-Doo-style sleuthery, and its truly unsettling turn comes too late

‘I am left grinning’: why The Dish is my feelgood movie

The latest in our series of writers picking their most loved comfort films is a 2000 Australian gem featuring the late Sam Neill

Messy is chic again. But is the world ready for my kind of crumpled grubbiness?

All my clothes are stained and creased and my house is cluttered, so I should be thrilled by this moment. But it’s naive to think we are about to be tolerant of the real mess of life, writes Emma Beddington

Ancestral Visions of the Future review – visceral cine-memoir is a haunting return to Lesotho

Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese pairs his literary-grade voiceover with propulsive, prophetic images to interrogate his identity and that of his colonialism-carved homeland

Harry Potter fans force relocation of £430m undersea cable to avoid Dobby’s ‘grave’

Power cable linking UK and Ireland now passes near Bronze Age human burial remains instead of fictional grave on Welsh beach

It’s not just the Odyssey effect: poetry is booming because it’s the only language for these times of violence and chaos

From Homer’s epic to conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza, we can see how poetry fills the gap when ordinary ways of writing or speaking aren’t enough, says Guardian chief culture writer Charlotte Higgins

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 review: your passport to a folding phone future

Novel squat Android opens to an iPad-like screen for video or multitasking, with plenty of power and battery life

Mermaid Beach review – Wales gets its mermaidcore moment in teen-empowerment tale

When discontented Lily becomes a fantastical sea creature her low-budget transformation is strikingly unconvincing, rather in tune with the whole film

UK manufacturers face rising hacking risk as survey shows 30% were hit last year

Big companies describe being under constant threat but only half have a plan in place to respond to an attack

Movie paradise? How Malta became a magnet for big film shoots

EU’s smallest country has played ancient Rome, the Land of Spells and Bay of Pentos and draws more than 30 productions annually

Zuckerberg faces questions over why superyacht reportedly declined to help stranded boat

Small cruise ship rescued skiff in south-east Alaska even though Meta billionaire’s $300m megayacht was closer