Barbie sequel at risk as salary talks with Robbie, Gosling and Gerwig hit impasse

Warner Bros faces losing rights to the blockbuster sequel if deals with the film’s stars and director are not agreed by December

The Ribbon Hero review – do-gooder princess battles giant flying earwigs in update of classic yarn

Yûki Igarashi’s adaptation of Osamu Tezuka’s influential manga is a conservative (if impressively animated) reimagining that dulls the source material’s pioneering elements

‘A gentle poetry in the everyday’: why The Straight Story is my feelgood movie

The latest in our ongoing series of writers picking their most beloved comfort films is a tribute to David Lynch’s gentlest movie

Memory review – a cinematic exorcism through a child’s eye view of terror in the Chechen wars

Vladlena Sandu’s extraordinary portrait of an upbringing during the 1990s Chechen wars blends surreal tableaux with flights of imagination to lament a collective loss of innocence

The right hates The Odyssey because of its ‘wokeness’ – but it missed an even bigger threat to its worldview

The new film extols the value of a rules-based world order. That’s far more radical than any casting decision says Labour MP and classicist Peter Swallow

Atlas of Disappearance review – forensic quest for thousands of forgotten victims of the Spanish civil war

Researchers employ technology in a bid to identify and retrieve remains in Spain’s Valley of the Fallen, in Manuel Correa’s emotional documentary

Finally, we have a PM for the digital age. But real change requires more than just being good on camera

Connection with voters on screen only pays off when it’s matched with bold policies in the real world – as it has for Zohran Mamdani in New York, says Guardian columnist Nesrine Malik

‘Am I 68? 69?’ Irvine Welsh on growing old, getting clean, bashing out his new novel – and flirting with guns

Three decades after he channelled his heroin addiction into the cult classic Trainspotting, the Scottish author has discovered the joys of yoga, breathwork and standing desks. But is he quite as ‘Zen’ as he claims?

‘The greatest arms I’ve ever seen’: Matt Damon’s muscular female stunt double Devyn Dalton

Canadian stuntwoman is only 4ft 6in and stood in for star to make the giant Laestrygonians appear even bigger

What do you wish you could buy in vending machines?

The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions commits the cash and presses the buttons on a vital consumer dilemma

Why we’re all obsessed with Jimothy the raccoon, the internet’s animal of the moment

From Grumpy Cat to Moo Deng, viral animals have long united people online. Are they becoming our only source of collective enjoyment, asks freelance journalist Elle Hunt

Stock market turmoil sheds stark light on the opaque AI economy

Investors scramble to make sense of a shock Chinese challenge to the dominance of western chipmakers

From The Wizard of Oz to Trainspotting: 25 films to watch before you turn 25

As AI slop takes over our screens, what better antidote for enquiring minds than a magical film? We ask directors, producers and critics to pick one must-see movie for each year – from infancy to young adulthood

UK’s state investments agency hit by data breach

Security lapse leaves sensitive information and contact details of 51 government officials exposed for 40 hours

The brief life and sudden death of Zyzz: why did the bodybuilding influencer die at just 22?

Long before looksmaxxers, Aziz ‘Zyzz’ Shavershian was famous online for posting workouts and rage-bait – until he died in Thailand in 2011. A new documentary reveals what really happened