
Ed Sheeran is coming to Australia! Global megastar reveals when his Loop Tour will arrive Down Under
The global superstar, who was last here at the beginning of 2023 for his Mathematics Tour, announced on Tuesday via Frontier Touring and MG Live that he would be playing a slew of shows across the country as part of his Loop Tour.
The A Team hitmaker is set to tick off New Zealand first, performing at stadiums across Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, before making his way over the Tasman.
Ed will kick of the Australian leg of his tour in Perth at Optus Stadium on January 31, before heading to Sydney 's Accor Stadium for two shows on February 13 and Valentine's Day.
Then, the 34-year-old will be heading to Brisbane 's Suncorp Stadium for two shows on February 20th and 21st, followed by two shows at Melbourne 's Marvel Stadium on February 26 and 27.
From A-list scandals and red carpet mishaps to exclusive pictures and viral moments, subscribe to the DailyMail's new showbiz newsletter to stay in the loop.
Ed will then finish up his tour in Adelaide at the Adelaide Oval on March 5, marking over a month of touring across the country.
The tour is set to bring a brand-new live show to Aussie fans, bragging music from his much-anticipated album Play.
The album coming out on Friday September 12 this year.
The Thinking Out Loud hitmaker let slip in June that he'd be returning to Australia in early 2026 - three years after his record breaking tour Down Under.
The British star recently made the casual revelation in a TikTok comment, setting off a frenzy among fans already preparing for the next stadium spectacular.
The tour bombshell was picked up by Nova 96.9 radio host Smallzy, who shared the exchange to his Instagram Story with the hilarious caption: 'BRB selling organs to buy concert tickets'.
In the now-viral TikTok, a fan asked the singer: 'How does coming back to Australia soon sound to you?'
Ed, without skipping a beat, replied: 'Start of 2026'.
The tour is set to bring a new live show to Aussie fans, bragging music from his much-anticipated album Play, which is coming out on Friday September 12 this year
Telstra Plus Members can access presale tickets from Friday July 25 here, while Frontier Members can access presale tickets from Monday July 28.
Tickets go on sale to the general public on Tuesday July 29 here.
With smash hits like Shape of You, Perfect and Photograph each pulling in more than two billion Spotify streams, Sheeran remains one of the most successful artists of his generation.
He currently boasts 100 million monthly listeners on the platform, making him the third-most followed artist globally.
Over the years, the former busker-turned-global superstar has collaborated with music royalty including Adele, Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber and Beyoncé - cementing his place in pop history.
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The Guardian
40 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Miles Franklin 2025: your guide to the shortlist of Australia's biggest literary prize
All dull awards shortlist books that are alike; every important award recognises books that are remarkable in their own way. This is what makes them worth paying attention to, what makes following them fun – and this year's Miles Franklin award shortlist is no exception. All six books hail from different publishers. Each book is markedly different in genre, style and form. The self is an uncertain site in all these books – one where concepts like nationhood, sexuality, class and ethnicity are negotiated. There is a portrait of coming-of-age and Tongan community, a bawdy historical novel told by a self-styled horse thief, and an interlinked short-story cycle that turns on the omens and aftershocks of a serial killing. And three very different novels of ideas playfully reference other texts (as well as themselves) – and draw attention to how they are made. Notably, Fiona McFarlane's Highway 13 is the first work of linked stories to be shortlisted for the prize, which is awarded to 'the novel of the highest literary merit'. But the shortlist is not, curiously enough, diverse in length: none of the entries break 400 pages, though Burruberongal writer Julie Janson's Compassion comes close. 'I was never good at philosophy,' quips Abraham Quin, Chinese Postman's occasional narrator. After being humiliated by his philosophy tutor at university, he learns to see himself in the third person as well as the first, to move 'easily between the two'. This gives us the basic shape of Castro's narrative, which takes the form of a series of ruminations, in either Quin's voice or a close third-person perspective. So: philosophy's out. Quin is also 'through with all that novel-writing'. Despite this protest, Castro's book is best described as a philosophical novel or a novel of ideas. Chinese Postman is largely plotless, though Quin's email correspondence with a Ukrainian woman named Iryna Zarębina gives it a flexible spine. Quin has a penchant for maxims, particularly when their content is scatological. 'Shit', in his telling, is 'a symptom of lowly creation's failure to survive as gods'. It is, for him, a substance 'without hierarchy', in which 'All are equalised'. Reflections of this kind are Quin's way of 'composting' – rather than composing – his thoughts. For those who read for the sheer delight of allusive, tricky, irreverent sentences, Chinese Postman will be the most exciting work on the shortlist. Compassion is the shortlist's only realist historical novel. Set between the years 1836 and 1854, it is a story of maternal reconciliation and paternal reckoning told largely from the point of view of a Darug woman named Duringah, who escapes abuse and traverses Darkinjung and Awabakal country (as well as the country of many other clans and nations) in order to return home. Compassion is a sequel: it continues the dramatised life story of Janson's ancestors from her 2020 novel, Benevolence, which centred on Duringah's (now-estranged) mother, Muraging. In turning to Duringah, who takes up the alias Eleanor James, Compassion flirts with conventions drawn from an array of literary and popular genres, including colonial romance, revisionist history, melodrama and the picaresque. Duringah outwits and eludes colonial authorities with palpable glee. But Compassion has its heartfelt scenes, too. Duringah's arrival at a mission station, where Koori women sing a church hymn, serves as the occasion for a moment of reverence and some of Janson's best writing. Their voices, 'pure like bells', summon memories of 'singing the country with a corroboree'. Yet this memory culminates in a plea for quiet, lest their songs become a 'beacon for vengeful white men'. This tension – between the desire to speak up, and the risks of doing so – lies at the heart of Janson's truth-telling project. Winnie Dunn once remarked in an interview that she considers 'all forms of writing' to be 'autobiographical fiction'. This has clearly informed her work as an editor for the Sweatshop Literacy Movement, as well as her debut novel. Semi-autobiographical writing, as Dirt Poor Islanders well knows, always takes place in productive tension with the right to privacy – of the writer's family and their broader community. The novel's first chapter thinks this through when Dunn's Tongan-Australian avatar, Meadow Reed, locates her family members in the blotches, beauty spots and wrinkles on her grandmother's face. This intimate moment is promptly interrupted by their racist neighbour Shazza, who tells the pair to 'eff off to Fiji'. This suggests Dunn's keen awareness of the risk of telling stories grounded in personal experience before an ignorant, even hostile, audience. Dirt Poor Islanders refuses to be cowed by this risk. Like two of her clear influences, Melissa Lucashenko and Michael Mohammed Ahmad, Dunn responds by doubling down. Meadow unapologetically narrates scenes of cockroach eating and chicken plucking, force feeding and constipation, menstruation and childbirth. 'From nits having sex on my head', thinks Meadow, 'to maggots wriggling in lumps of lard to cockroaches crawling in cereal boxes and cushion crevices, I asked, 'Y'.' Dunn's answer? A sanitised self is barely half an identity – and 'No one could live as half of themselves'. Ghost Cities is an ingeniously structured novel that takes tyranny as its central theme. At its heart are two dictators – an emperor and a director – both prone to issuing capricious edicts to terrorise their hapless subjects. Both come to preside over labyrinthine cities, implied to be millennia apart. The emperor reigns over the Imperial City, the director over a ghost city named Port Man Tou, peopled by ill-paid actors. The cities are opposed, respectively, by Lu Shan Liang and Xiang Lu, whose names resemble their author's. The novel's wacky, erratic plot plays out across alternating chapters through two timelines, their narratives routinely contorted by the whims of their respective dictators. At one point, Xiang Lu mentions he is partway through Vladimir Nabokov's early novel, Invitation to a Beheading. Nabokov's burlesque of tyrannical logic is one of many texts Ghost Cities is in dialogue with. But Ghost Cities most strikingly resembles another Nabokov novel, Pale Fire. Both novels have a long poem at their centre (in loose iambic pentameter); both feature half-comic assassination attempts. They share an ear for the comedy of translation and an eye for the absurd. Ghost Cities both embraces and defies its emperor's directive to abandon 'the pursuit of beauty' for art that favours 'furrowed brows and scholar-like interpretation'. In its zany intertextuality, it displays a level of intellectual ambition rarely found in recent fiction. The 12 stories that make up Highway 13 are all loosely connected to a single man, Paul Biga, the perpetrator of a series of brutal highway murders, whose facts reference (but don't mirror) those of the convicted backpacker murderer Ivan Milat, arrested in 1994. Interestingly, Highway 13 is the only book shortlisted not to make extensive use of first-person narration. The settings range from 1950 to 2028, and span Australia, the US and Europe. They extend a preoccupation with the uncanny that runs through McFarlane's body of work. Stylistically, McFarlane errs on the side of minimalism. These are stories of considerable subtlety and restraint. Highway 13 endeavours to surprise – not at the level of the individual sentence, but in what its sentences imply. It invites us to notice: when the bodies of stink beetles are dumped in a garden corner where 'ants had made feasts of the softer flesh', we can't help but see in their decomposing corpses the shadow of a crime. Highway 13 is more concerned with the murders' distant precursors (in the lives of others) and long-term ramifications (the way it resurfaces after the event) than in finding narrow causes. It tactfully avoids too-obvious parallels between the fictional Paul Biga and real Ivan Milat. In these ways, McFarlane creates space for her marvellous collection to linger with the living, with those bound to each other in their respective presents by fragile forms of love. Theory and Practice takes place primarily in St Kilda, Melbourne, in 1986. It is narrated by a female university student, unnamed for most of the novel, who is writing her thesis on Virginia Woolf. 'Theory', she observes with distaste, has 'conquered the humanities', especially the English department where she studies. When compelled to read theorists, rather than the novels she loves, she feels 'headachey and crushed'. Even the work of feminist and postcolonial theorists, which she draws on to help explain her life as a Sri Lankan woman from Sydney, leaves her ambivalent. 'Practice', on the other hand, describes her life as it is lived. In this novel, practice decidedly wins. The narrator is vexed by casual lovers – she is having an affair with a fellow student in a 'deconstructed relationship' – and hypocritical professors. She's also outraged by a diary entry in which Woolf describes Ceylonese freedom fighter EW Perera as a 'poor little mahogany coloured wretch'. Theory and Practice is at its best when it embraces its title's distinction, which it elsewhere compellingly glosses as the distinction between 'realism and reality', through a cast of characters adept at talking their way out of our attempts to interrogate them. The Miles Franklin literary award will be announced on 24 July This article was originally published by the Conversation. Joseph Steinberg is a Forrest foundation postdoctoral fellow in English and literary studies at the University of Western Australia


The Sun
40 minutes ago
- The Sun
Home and Away star, Olympians and MAFS groom's ex sign up for revamped Celeb SAS as show shake up is revealed
CELEBRITY SAS have signed up THREE major stars for the next series of the show after a ground-breaking show twist was confirmed. The hit Channel 4 programme has been busy selecting its celebrity recruits for the seventh series of the show - with filming taking place in Morocco. 4 4 4 Earlier this week, The Sun told how in a huge new move the UK and Aussie editions would be merged with major stars from both countries coming together for the series which will be aired simultaneously on Channel 4 in the UK and the Seven Network in Australia. Now, we can exclusively reveal three of the stars who will be appearing on the next run. Home and Away hunk Axel Whitehead will be appearing on the show after rising to international fame for playing Liam Murphy on the show between 2009 and 2013. The actor also appeared briefly in fellow Aussie soap Neighbours in 2020. He will be joined by two Olympic swimmers - including one with a famous reality star ex. 29-year-old Swimming champ Mack Horton and fellow Olympian, Emily Seebohm will also be on the cast. Emily shares a child with MAFS heartthrob Ryan Gallagher although the pair are no longer together. Ryan is best known for his time on the hit reality show as well as his brief romance with Geordie Shore star Charlotte Crosby during their time on the Aussie version of I'm A Celebrity. A source told The Sun of the three latest recruits: 'Bosses are working hard to make sure they sign an exciting variety of Aussie talent for the new series because of the format change. 'Soap fans will be no stranger to Axel after his time in both Home and Away and Neighbours, so he's a great coup for the show. Watch as Celeb SAS Who Dares wins star Bianca Gascoigne QUITS show right at the very end of series 'And Olympic champions Emily and Mack are both extremely fit and strong after years of professional swimming. They're going to take the challenge very seriously.' Two other Aussies have so far been revealed for the programme including soap star and singer Natalie Bassingthwaite and Jessika Power, who rose to fame on Married At First Sight Australia. Jess has since relocated to England appearing on British shows including Celebs Go Dating and Celebrity Ex On The Beach. Other UK stars who are understood to have signed up for the next series include Love Island winner Dani Dyer and Strictly hunk and rugby player, Ben Cohen. Gladiators star Phantom AKA Toby Olubi will also be proving his stuff on the show alongside TikTok star Jack Joseph, 25. England cricketer Graeme Swann, Love Island champ Gabby Allen and TikTok star Cole Anderson James are also understood to be on the line-up. 4


The Guardian
2 hours ago
- The Guardian
Guardian writers on their ultimate feelgood movies: ‘Radical in its own way'
'Feelgood' movies are often thought of as big-hearted romantic comedies, comforting classics, or childhood favourites that still hold up decades later. In our series, My feelgood movie, Guardian writers reflect on their go-to flick, and explain why their pick is endlessly rewatchable. This list will be updated weekly with further picks. Want more options? Here is our earlier list of the 10 best escapist movies and 52 comforting, rewatchable titles. Director: Paul Feig Starring: Melissa McCarthy, Rose Byrne and Jude Law Why our writer loves it: 'Spy is radical in other respects: it remains the only major Hollywood spy film that features a middle-aged woman as the lead. I know because every so often, in search of a feelgood film, I rewatch what can be inelegantly described as 'female-fronted spy comedies' … [p]rojects like these are few and far between; I guess Hollywood does not think there's enough of an audience for them. To that I say: join us. The delights are profound; the sense of freedom intoxicating; the costumes and the gadgets and the intrigue sexy and absurd and larger-than-life – and an exciting new adventure, that great siren song to the desk-bound, is always just around the corner.' (Rebecca Liu) Read the full review Spy is available on Hulu in the US and Disney+ and Netflix in the UK and Australia Director: Campbell Scott and Stanley Tucci Starring: Tony Shalhoub, Stanley Tucci and Marc Anthony Why our writer loves it: 'Big Night doesn't yield over much to anxious tension on the one hand or madcap hijinks on the other. This, to me, is what makes it feel so good. There are real stakes to this meal for these characters, but co-directors Tucci and Campbell Scott care enormously that you have a good time at their party. They never want you to refill your own glass.' (Andrew Holter) Read the full review Big Night is available to watch on Hoopla in the US and to rent digitally in the UK and Australia Director: Chris Smith Starring: Mark Borchardt, Mike Schank and Tom Schimmels Why our writer loves it: 'I feel buoyant and inspired every time I watch the film. It's such a beautiful example of how much talent exists out there in the world, in unconventional places, that never gets a shot or a look in.' (Daniel Dylan Wray) Read the full review American Movie is available to rent digitally in the US and Australia and on Amazon Prime in the UK Director: Wong Kar-Wai Starring: Brigitte Lin, Takeshi Kaneshiro and Tony Leung Chiu-wai Why our writer loves it: '[T]he quirky romantic comedy also manages to be his most joyous and uplifting offering.' (Rebecca Liu) Read the full review Chungking Express is available on Max and The Criterion Channel in the US and to rent digitally in the UK and Australia Director: Wes Anderson Starring: Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray and Olivia Williams Why our writer loves it: 'I am elated each time I watch this poignant, wise and wildly funny film – and, yes, there is a happy ending.' (Rebecca Liu) Read the full review Rushmore is available on Hoopla in the US or to rent digitally in the UK and Australia Director: Richard Ayoade Starring: Craig Roberts, Sally Hawkins and Paddy Considine Why our writer loves it: 'It might be a curious choice to name a film that traverses a troubled home life, too-much-too-young sexual experiences, and bullying as my 'feelgood' movie, but within its equally dark and peppy 97 minutes is a story about writing your own rules. Adapted from the Joe Dunthorne novel, Submarine is touching, sweet and, crucially, very funny.' (Sophie Williams) Read the full review Submarine is available to watch on Amazon Prime in the US and UK and to rent digitally in Australia Director: Gurinder Chadha Starring: Georgia Groome, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Karen Taylor Why our writer loves it: 'That's the magic of Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging for our generation. It reminds us of the joyous madness of our school days, when everything was awkward, messy and packed with heart.' (Anya Ryan) Read the full review Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging is available on Hoopla and Kanopy in the US or to rent digitally or on Amazon Prime and Paramount+ in the UK Director: Jean-Pierre Jeunet Starring: Audrey Tautou, Mathieu Kassovitz and Rufus Why our writer loves it: 'After completing several good deeds, Amélie falls in love with the elusive Nino (Mathieu Kassovitz), a sex shop employee who likes to collect strangers' photobooth pictures … Although Amélie's kindness might be the apotheosis of whimsy, it's radical in its own way – a quiet protest against the indifference and self-interest that seem to rule city life.' (Katie Tobin) Read the full review Amélie is available to rent digitally in the US Director: John Guillermin Starring: Paul Newman, Steve McQueen and William Holden Why our writer loves it: 'Among the many reasons I'm long overdue for therapy would be that I consider a feature about a bunch of people trapped in a burning skyscraper a feelgood movie. But there it is: the stunning effects (which hold up to this day), the sprawling, larger-than-life cast and accompanying who-will-make-it-to-the-end? suspense, the earnest, cheeseball dialogue – whenever I feel anxious or down, something about The Towering Inferno offers solace.' (Matthew Hays) Read the full review The Towering Inferno is available to buy digitally in the US and rent digitally in the UK Starring: Ben Johnson, Joanne Dru and Harry Carey Jr. Directed by: John Ford Why our writer loves it: 'Wagon Master's great appeal lies in the feel of the thing. 'Be gentle', Travis encourages a restless horse, and that spirit pervades the film. It is Ford's gentlest picture and arguably his most beautiful, both on the surface and beneath it. The film is a plea for tolerance – most of its characters having just been run out of town – that is augmented by a thousand perfect details in word and image: the dialogue spare and true, Ford's camera going to a square dance and focusing first on the wooden planks shifting in the dirt.' (Rick Burin) Read the full review Wagon Master is on Tubi in the US and on BBC iPlayer in the UK Starring: Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw and Richard Dreyfuss Directed by: Steven Spielberg Why our writer loves it: 'What makes a film 'feelgood'? If it's not a romcom, or otherwise setting out to impart warm fuzzies, familiarity plays a big part. I've seen Jaws so many times that watching it now truly feels like sinking into a warm bath.' (Elle Hunt) Read the full review Jaws is available to rent digitally in the US and is on Amazon Prime in the UK Starring: Stars Nancy Allen, Bobby Di Cicco and Marc McClure Directed by: Robert Zemeckis Why our writer loves it: 'Even at the height of their parasocial hijinks, Zemeckis never treats girlhood obsession with a hint of mockery or condescension. Rather, it's an affectionate celebration of what it means to be a fan – its heady thrills and innate universality – as hilarious as it is relatable. I wasn't born anywhere near the 60s, but every time I rewatch I Wanna Hold Your Hand, I feel like I missed out on all the fun.' (Miatta Mbriwa) Read the full review Starring: Hilary Duff and Adam Lamberg Directed by: Jim Fall Why our writer loves it: 'Nostalgia clouds the mind but I do think this movie is genuinely funny … While the film is undeniably a trite tableau of teen movie cliches, it avoids the harshest and grossest ones that were popular at the time. No one is mocked for having an eating disorder or stalked oh-so-romantically. It is aspirational in the silliest sense – while other movies might've inspired you to flirt like this or dance like that, nothing in The Lizzie McGuire Movie could be copied: you're either in danger of being mistaken for an Italian pop star or you're not. This means it didn't make 11-year-old me feel bad about herself, and it still makes adult me feel good.' (Amelia Tait) Read the full review The Lizzie McGuire Movie is available to watch on Disney+ in the US and UK Starring: Veronica Lake and Joel McCrea Directed by: Preston Sturges Why our writer loves it: 'Sullivan's Travels reminds us there's something inherently incorruptible about clinging to the scraps of happiness we're given.' (Alaina Demopoulos) Read the full review Sullivan's Travels is available to rent digitally in the US and UK Starring: Tony Hancock Directed by: Robert Day Why our writer loves it: '[T]there is something rather wonderful about seeing Anthony Aloysius St John Hancock in full and living colour, operating at the height of his powers, the man who his writers described as 'the best comic actor in the business'. And of course the film is a wonderful portal to a vanished world, a net-curtained Britain just on the cusp of its transformation by 60s pop culture. Lucian Freud called The Rebel the best film ever made about modern art; well, he should know, but for me it's more than that – there's an extra joy in remembering the hours I spent tittering at it with Dad as we lolled on the three-piece suite back in my gormless teenage years. If anything makes me feel good, it's that.' (Andrew Pulver) Read the full review Starring: Paul McGann and Richard E Grant Directed by: Bruce Robinson Why our writer loves it: 'The tape went back to Blockbuster. I bought my own. I took it to college and watched it drunk and sober, with friends and alone, in halls and in my desperate pit of a house. Through early adulthood, into fatherhood, on DVD then streaming. To watch Withnail is to discover it again.' (Martin Pengelly) Withnail and I is available on Max and the Criterion channel in the US and on Channel 4 in the UK Read the full review Starring: Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan Directed by: Nora Ephron Why our writer loves it: You've Got Mail 'may be naive and soppy, but as a single person it keeps me optimistic that genuine connection may still be found by logging on to your computer (or unlocking your iPhone)'. (Alim Kheraj) Read the full review You've Got Mail is available on Hulu in the US and on Now TV in the UK Starring: Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan Directed by: Rob Reiner Why our writer loves it: 'I sometimes ask myself whether I should love When Harry Met Sally as much as I do. I mean, isn't the film a bit reductive when it comes to gender? Maybe. Yet at the same time, it's a romantic comedy that's actually romantic and actually funny, something few romcoms can boast today. But the reason it's my feelgood film is because I discovered it at a time when I needed it most.' (Henry Roberts) Read the full review When Harry Met Sally is available to rent digitally in the US and UK Starring: Shah Rukh Khan, Kajol and Amitabh Bachchan Directed by: Karan Johar Why our writer loves it: 'Scenes from this movie are seared in mind and I often quote its lines in my daily life – such is its hold on me. I am a complete sucker for the drama, the music, the pageantry, the familiar (though outdated) movie tropes, the costumes, the sets – after all, I grew up watching Bollywood movies (SRK is the love of my life, he just doesn't know it). It is a heaping dose of nostalgia that instantly uplifts my mood and restores my spirit, no matter how in the doldrums the world around might seem.' (Tasneem Merchant) Read the full review Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham is available on Netflix and Amazon Prime in the US and UK Starring: Michael Keaton, Glenn Close and Robert Duvall Directed by: Ron Howard Why our writer loves it: 'Perhaps it's all just borrowed nostalgia for the half-remembered 90s, to remix James Murphy's lyric. But I see it as a feelgood film that makes you feel good because it never shouts about it; there's no need to force joy, it's just there in all that messy exuberance. The maddening life happening relentlessly, the people at work in the loud city, the thrill of chasing down a story – this is what is actually joyful.' (Larry Ryan) Read the full review The Paper is available to rent digitally in the US and UK Starring: Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore Directed by: Frank Coraci Why our writer loves it: 'One thing I love most about The Wedding Singer is the soundtrack that includes You Spin Me Round (Like a Record), Blue Monday and Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic. Barrymore sings a bit of 99 Luftballons into her oversize headphones. Sandler gets to perform his own compositions: Somebody Kill Me ('I was listening to the Cure a lot when I wrote this') and Grow Old With You – the latter he performs on a plane to stop Barrymore from marrying the evil Glenn. The ending features a brilliant cameo from 1998 Billy Idol playing 1980s Billy Idol, who wakes from his booze-addled slumber to shove Glenn in the airplane toilets. ('Excuse me, sir. I have to serve the beverages.')' (Rich Pelley) The Wedding Singer is available to rent digitally in the US and on Amazon Prime in the UK Read the full review Starring: Meryl Streep, Amanda Seyfried and Pierce Brosnan Directed by: Phyllida Lloyd Why our writer loves it: 'Mamma Mia! isn't a movie – it's a holiday. It's a film so divorced from subtext and intricacy that its only ask for viewers is to bask in the Greek sunshine as the sounds of Abba wash over them … It was never meant to be taken seriously; it's a film without pretense. Much of what he complains about is precisely what makes Mamma Mia! the perfect cinematic comfort blanket.' (Jeffrey Ingold) Mamma Mia! is available on Max in the US and on Now in the UK Read the full review Starring: Divine, David Lochary and Mary Vivian Pearce Directed by: John Waters Why our writer loves it: 'The will to create a movie for the specific purpose of appalling anyone unaware of its true meaning turned Pink Flamingos into the ultimate litmus test. You either got its sick jokes or you didn't. But those who did got something far more lasting than a laugh. We got a one-way ticket to an underground populated by parallel dissidents, an entire community of the unruly and free. That's a lot to gain, which is why, even decades after I first saw Pink Flamingos, I return to it whenever I need to be reminded there's a universe of possibilities out there not reflected in the world we know now.' (Jim Farber) Read the full review Starring: Meryl Streep and Albert Brooks Directed by: Albert Brooks Why our writer loves it: 'Life-affirming' is perhaps an overused adjective, but few movies have successfully illuminated the human condition as well as this one. Fear is commonplace in our daily lives, but Albert Brooks's film might hold the key to ridding the worries of anxiety-ridden people such as myself. As the new year often brings about feelings of regret and unease, Defending Your Life is the warmest hug you can receive.' (Oliver Macnaughton) Defending Your Life is available to rent digitally in the US and the UK Read the full review Starring: Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant Directed by: Roger Michell Why our writer loves it: 'What is so wonderful about the film is how effortless it all seems. The story isn't complex; there are no gunfights or CGI raccoons; the greatest jeopardy in the film involves Grant having to catch Roberts before she goes back to America – a problem that reads as plausibly insurmountable in 1999 but today would be remedied with a few WhatsApps. But, despite the illusion of effortlessness, getting everything right in this way is deceptively tricky. Has a single romcom ever managed to marry all of the necessary elements – cast, script, timing, an intangible magic – so perfectly? (No. The answer is no.)' (Ralph Jones) Notting Hill is available on Netflix in the US and Channel 4 in the UK Read the full review Starring: Michelle Pfeiffer and Matthew Modine Directed by: Jonathan Demme Why our writer loves it: The movie is a long list of quirky pleasures, including a 'starter kit of premium 80s college rock (New Order, Pixies, the Feelies), well-placed family dog reaction shots, and an FBI agent who dresses himself like Wallace in the Wallace & Gromit shorts. Few of the laughs in the film feel like punchlines or payoffs to some heavily orchestrated joke. Demme's approach is more low-key and breezy, cruising confidently on the assumption that his DayGlo gangland will be fun enough without him having to push too hard. He catches a rhythm and does the mambo Italiano. It feels like your feet never touch the floor.' (Scott Tobias) Married to the Mob is available on Hoopla, Kanopy and Pluto in the US and Amazon Prime in the UK Read the full review Starring: Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker Directed by: Brett Ratner Why our writer loves it: 'Rush Hour taps into something that stirred my heart then and now: an ease settles into the two actors, Chan and Tucker's joviality feeling so genuine that the east-meets-west tropes evolve into characters who have something real at stake, and who are also having fun.' (Tammy Tarng) Rush Hour is available on Netflix in the US and Amazon Prime in the UK Read the full review Starring: Steve Martin, Diane Keaton and Martin Short Directed by: Charles Shyer Why our writer loves it: 'Why do I come back to this film again and again? As a girl and younger woman I was emphatically against marriage (though I've since softened) and watched it more as a comedy horror than anything aspirational. The only aspect of the Bankses' life I'd want is the kitchen. And yet watching Franck and the family put on their ridiculous show makes me want to be part of it. I love ritual, and ceremony, and Steve Martin, and Martin Short, and Diane Keaton.' (Laura Snapes) Where to watch: Father of the Bride is available on Hulu and Disney+ in the US and on Disney+ in the UK and Australia Read the full review Starring: James Woods and Louis Gossett Jr Directed by: Michael Ritchie Why our writer loves it: 'Diggstown is the perfect feelgood movie – a breezy but exciting genre mashup with enough of a hangout vibe that you can have it on in the background, but also enough stakes that you will inevitably end up giving it your full attention.' (Zach Vasquez) Where to watch: Diggstown is available on Amazon Prime Read the full review Starring: Cher and Christina Aguilera Directed by: Steve Antin Why our writer loves it: 'Many of those who panned Burlesque on its release would feel punished by this cosmically appointed choice of comfort movie. A sequined patchwork quilt of all manner of backstage musicals and melodramas from various eras of Hollywood – starring, in a naked reach for cross-generational gay fandom, dual divas Christina Aguilera and Cher – the film inspired critical comparisons to A Star is Born, Cabaret and Showgirls, most of them unflattering. It made $90m at the global box office: not a flop but not a palpable hit either, least of all for a film where the feather budget alone could have funded a modest indie drama. Antin, whose long but scattered pre-Burlesque career ran the gamut from acting to screenwriting to stunt work to producing Pussycat Dolls reality shows, hasn't directed another film since. The world, by and large, hasn't mourned.' (Guy Lodge) Where to watch: Burlesque is available to watch on Netflix in the US, on Sky Cinema in the UK and ABC iView and Amazon Prime in Australia Read the full review Starring: Chris Rock and Bernie Mac Directed by: Chris Rock Why our writer loves it: 'I've come back to this film so many times after the election for laughs, only to wind up seeing the whole picture as a clearer allegory for Kamala Harris's defeat than Obama's victory. Like Harris, [Chris Rock starring as Mays Gilliam, a small-time politician turned presidential hopeful] was a party sacrifice, offered up to make a certain loss look less bad on the cards, thrown into the fray at the 11th hour, plugged into a humming campaign apparatus, and touted as a history maker. It really makes you think about how close comedy is to horror.' (Andrew Lawrence) Where to watch: Head of State is available to stream in the US on Freevee, Tubi, Paramount+ and MGM+, in the UK on Paramount+ and on Amazon Prime in Australia Read the full review Starring: Heath Ledger, Shannyn Sossamon and Paul Bettany Directed by: Brian Helgeland Why our writer loves it: 'To me, watching a feelgood film is an intensely nostalgic exercise. That's because whenever a film is special or timely enough to take up lodging in your heart, rewatching it is also an act of remembering an old version of yourself. A Knight's Tale is shaded by the genuine sadness of Ledger's death only seven years after its release, but when I watch it I also remember the way it used to make me feel, as a girl who loved the jousting because her older brother did, all the while secretly cherishing an action film for being so brazenly sentimental.' (Francesca Carington) Where to watch: A Knight's Tale is available on Amazon Prime in the US and available to rent digitally in the UK and Australia Read the full review Starring: Rosa Salazar, Christoph Waltz and Jennifer Connelly Directed by: Robert Rodriguez Why our writer loves it: 'My feelgood movie for when humanity lets me down is Alita: Battle Angel, a movie where much of humanity hangs out in a city-sized junkpile. And though I don't press play with this aspect particularly in mind, it's nice to imagine a future where things have gone terribly wrong (that just seems realistic at this point) yet unforeseen triumphs still emerge from the tech-nightmare garbage heap. There are plenty of more time-honored films that take a more direct path to temporary bliss, including sci-fi movies better-equipped to restore faith in humanity.' (Jesse Hassenger) Where to watch: Alita: Battle Angel is available to watch on Hulu in the US, on Netflix and Disney+ in the UK and on Disney+ in Australia Read the full review Starring: Wendy Hiller, Roger Livesey, Pamela Brown Directed by: Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger Why our writer loves it: 'I Know Where I'm Going! offers up such portentous moments of mystical and romantic significance lightly, alongside comical asides and colourful eccentricity. It's a disarming strategy, which tends to leave the audience every bit as bewitched as (the film's main character) Joan. In this corner of the universe, anything might be possible, even an ancient curse.' (Pamela Hutchinson) Read the full review for I Know Where I'm Going! Where to watch: I Know Where I'm Going! is available to watch on Tubi, Amazon Prime and the Criterion Channel in the US and is available to rent digitally Australia and in the UK and watch on BBC iPlayer Read the full review