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‘He’s a son of a bitch – but he’s usually right’: why did Seymour Hersh quit the film about his earth-shattering exposés?

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He is the prickly, hotheaded journalist who uncovered the My Lai massacre in Vietnam and torture at Abu Ghraib prison. Making Cover-Up, a film about his astonishing life and countless scoops, was never going to be easy One morning last month, Seymour Hersh set off to buy a newspaper. The reporter walked for 30 minutes, covered six blocks of his neighbourhood, Georgetown in Washington DC, and didn’t see a single sign of life. No newsstands on street corners selling the glossies and the dailies. No self-service kiosk where you can slide in a dollar and pull out a paper. “Finally, I found a drugstore that had two copies of the New York Times in the back,” Hersh recalls. He bought one for himself. He can’t help but wonder whether anybody bought the second. Hersh was born in Chicago in 1937, the year the Hindenburg airship blew up and the aviator Amelia Earhart disappeared over the Pacific. That makes him a man of hot metal, the media’s ancient mariner, with metaphorical newsprint on his ...
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EXCLUSIVE: Viineet Kumar Siingh, Saurabh Shukla join Manoj Bajpayee, Rajkummar Rao for Shoojit Sircar’s MYTHO-HUMOUR film

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Shoojit Sircar has carved a niche for himself with his films like Vicky Donor (2012), Piku (2015), October (2024), Sardar Udham (2021) and the recently released flick, I Want To Talk (2024). Bollywood Hungama has now learned some exciting information about his next film, which is going to be the first-ever mytho-humour entertainer. A source told Bollywood Hungama, “It marks Shoojit Sircar’s much-awaited return to humour. The acclaimed filmmaker, known for bringing warmth, wit and sharp observation to films such as Vicky Donor and Piku, is now stepping into an entirely new space with his first-ever Mytho Humour entertainer.” In industry circles, the project has begun to make noise, for all the right reasons. The source said, “A massive, elaborate set is being constructed by Sardar Udham’s National Award-winning production designer, Mansi Dhruv Mehta. Inspired by a key chapter from the Mahabharat, the world being built blends mythology with a contemporary and satirical lens.” Adding t...
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Cover-Up review – atrocity exposer Seymour Hersh, journalist legend, gets a moment in the spotlight

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Hersh’s record on uncovering the big stories, from My Lai to Abu Ghraib, speaks for itself. This documentary watches him at work: dogged, nonconformist and combative Renowned investigative journalist Seymour Hersh was never played in a film by Robert Redford or Dustin Hoffman, like the Washington Post’s Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein. But as this documentary portrait argues, he’s probably more important than either. Hersh has a longer record of breaking big stories, from the My Lai massacre in Vietnam to torture by US army personnel at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq – the latter a historic scoop underscored by the stomach-turning photos which Hersh brought to light. Hersh is asked if Abu Ghraib would have been the story it was without those pictures and replies: “No pictures, no story.” Well, maybe. But his other scoops had no pictures of this kind. One incidental thing Abu Ghraib showed was how ubiquitous digital photography became at the beginning of the century; how easy it was to take...
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Kartik Aaryan’s parents buy Rs 10.83 crores office in Vile Parle, add to family’s expanding Mumbai holdings

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Kartik Aaryan’s family has expanded its real-estate footprint in Mumbai with another major acquisition, as the actor’s parents purchased a premium commercial unit in Vile Parle. The deal marks yet another significant property investment linked to the actor in recent months, highlighting a clear trend of strategic expansion. According to documents accessed by Zapkey and reported by NDTV Profit, Kartik’s parents, Mala Tiwari and Manish Tiwari, bought the office space for Rs 10.83 crores. In addition to the purchase price, the family paid Rs 65 lakh as stamp duty. The registration of the sale was completed on November 27, 2025. The commercial unit spans 1,228 sq ft of carpet area and comes with two dedicated parking slots, making it a substantial addition to their growing real-estate portfolio. The property was acquired from Notan House Pvt. Ltd. As per the developer’s website, the building offers convenient accessibility to multiple transport hubs — located about 1.6 km from Vile Parle...
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Jodie Foster, who began her career aged three, calls acting ‘a cruel job’ she never would have chosen

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Actor, who started working in commercials before making her first film at six, calls acting a job that was ‘chosen’ for her Jodie Foster has spoken out about parents who encourage their children to act, saying she “know[s] how dangerous it is”. Speaking at the Marrakesh film festival, Foster said that she “would never have chosen to be an actor, I don’t have the personality of an actor. I’m not somebody that wants to dance on a table and, you know, sing songs for people.” Continue reading... from Film | The Guardian https://ift.tt/bspl0X4 via IFTTT
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Folktales review – taking on tyranny of social media as teens learn to live like hunter-gatherers

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In this documentary, high schoolers camp out in subzero temperatures, making their own fires and driving sledges in the wild The Pasvik Folk high school in remote northern Norway teaches teenagers to grow as young adults and escape the pressures of toxic social media by challenging them to get back in touch with their “stone age brain” and live like hunter-gatherers in the snowy wild. This is the subject of a documentary from Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady. Over winter months of almost continuous darkness, the teens cleanse themselves with tasks such as camping out in subzero weather, making their own fires and driving sledges with huskies. Prior to all this of course is presumably a solemn promise to do without their phones, tablets and laptops, although there are no scenes of the kids actually having to surrender these gadgets (this isn’t rehab, after all). They have to swim in icy water; and they make it look like fun. What doesn’t look like fun is the camping out and there is one t...
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Dreamers review – deep sense of empathy powers emotionally vivid refugees’ drama

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A traumatised Nigerian woman seeking asylum in Britain meets a kindred spirit in Joy Gharoro-Akpojotor’s evocative tale This poignant drama was clearly made on a dinky budget that probably stretched to barely more than crisps and squash on the catering tables. And yet thanks to subtle, considered performances, a finely milled script, inventive craftsmanship and a deep sense of empathy for the precarious lives of refugees, it packs a considerable wallop. The story starts with reticent, clearly traumatised Nigerian Isio, played by Ronke Adekoluejo, who is subtle throughout in a role that could easily have been done with too broad a brush. Isio arrives at a women’s shelter for asylum seekers in the UK where she is assigned to share a room with Farah (a luminous Ann Akinjirin), who is already a few steps ahead of Isio in the legal process that permits applicants to appeal twice. (If the second appeal isn’t approved, applicants are immediately deported.) Although Isio is a bit standoffish...
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British public’s verdict is in: Die Hard is not a Christmas movie

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Survey also reveals Britons’ favourite festive film, views on tear-jerkers and family cinema trips When Macaulay Culkin recently said he didn’t consider Die Hard to be a Christmas film – wading into one of pop culture’s most heated holiday debates – he was booed by a live audience . But it looks like the British people are behind the actor, with a survey revealing that Home Alone is the UK’s favourite festive film, while Die Hard has officially been voted not a Christmas movie. Continue reading... from Film | The Guardian https://ift.tt/Twg3Krm via IFTTT
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Scarlett Johansson says she was pressed to remove Holocaust narrative from directing debut

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A backer of Eleanor the Great, about a woman who pretends to be a Holocaust survivor, dropped out after Johansson refused to make changes Scarlett Johansson has said she was pressed to remove Holocaust references in her feature directing debut Eleanor the Great , which stars June Squibb as an elderly woman who pretends to be a Holocaust survivor. Speaking to the Daily Telegraph , Johansson said that during the film’s pre-production phase, one of the film’s backers threatened to pull out unless the plot elements relating to the Holocaust were cut out. Continue reading... from Film | The Guardian https://ift.tt/p1avwOB via IFTTT
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EXCLUSIVE: Shabana Azmi joins the cast of Awarapan 2; to be seen in a pivotal role in the Emraan Hashmi-starrer

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Awarapan 2 is surely one of the highly awaited films of 2026, thanks to the craze and popularity of the first part. Moreover, lead actor Emraan Hashmi’s star power got a boost recently with a cameo in The Ba***ds Of Bollywood. And now, the excitement for Awarapan 2 has gone many notches higher as Bollywood Hungama has learned that none other than Shabana Azmi has joined the star cast. A source told Bollywood Hungama, “Shabana Azmi has come on board for Awarapan 2. The role is apt for her and she was more than happy to bag the coveted part. It’s an interesting and powerful creative decision by producer Vishesh Bhatt that significantly intensifies the film’s emotional core and conflict. Interestingly, this marks Shabana Azmi’s first-ever collaboration with Vishesh Films.” The source also said, “Also, Awarapan 2 marks her first on-screen pairing with Emraan Hashmi, creating a new and formidable dramatic tension audiences have never seen before. Moreover, the casting is in sync with the ...
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Onlookers review – snapshots of a south-east Asian country shaped by tourism

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Through static compositions and observational detail, the documentary explores how Laos’s visitors and residents inhabit the same spaces in very different ways Shot in Laos, Kimi Takesue’s idiosyncratic documentary gazes upon sights and vistas that would not be out of place on travel postcards. Minimal in its camera movements, the film looks at glimmering golden temples, waterfalls cascading down silver rocks, and processions of monks moving through lush landscapes. It also shows what is absent from glossy brochures, namely the intrusion of tourists. The disruption to the local rhythm of life is at once visual and aural: we see throngs of wandering visitors, their casual clothes of shorts and T-shirts a stark contrast to the ancient architecture. Their occasionally rowdy leisure activities are intercut with more mundane moments from the locals’ everyday lives, like schoolchildren heading to class or laywomen offering alms to monks by the roadside. There’s a sense of tension between t...
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