In 2025, British actor Simon Pegg was interviewed in the Criterion Closet , a renowned series where notable people from the filmmaking industry are invited to browse and discuss their favourite movies. One of Pegg’s ‘closet picks’ was David Lynch’s seminal thriller Blue Velvet , a dark and unnerving mystery set in the heart of middle America. Pegg says that his daughter hated the movie when he showed it to her, but then spoke about how he was delighted that she didn’t like it

I first became a cinephile at a time when going to the movies was impossible.  Like many other people, I kept myself busy during the COVID-19 pandemic by indulging in the best, and worst, movies that streaming services had to offer.  It was my first real involvement with the ‘canon’ of Hollywood productions. I sobbed at The Pursuit of Happyness , cried with laughter at Mean Girls , had my breath taken away by Top Gun,  and couldn’t refuse the offer to watch The Godfather  wit

“Turn the volume up!” was the emphatic cry from Zohran Mamdani to (a likely enraged) Donald Trump as he celebrated his victory in New York City’s 2025 mayoral election. Mamdani, who rode a wave of grounded progressivism rooted in affordability all the way to City Hall, could not have chosen a more apt phrase to mark the moment. As he left the stage to the Bollywood classic Dhoom Machale,   it became strikingly clear that it is indeed time to turn the volume up on the potentia