Sam Neill at the 2010 Vancouver International Wine Festival (Wikipedia) By THE NEW YORK TIMES Sam Neill, the versatile New Zealand screen actor who appeared in more than 150 productions over a five-decade career, and who was perhaps best known for his star turn as the adventuresome paleontologist Dr. Alan Grant in the “Jurassic Park” series, died Monday in Sydney. He was 78. His family announced the death in a post on Instagram but did not provide further details. Neill was d

By SARAH BAHR Rory Henry, a 2-year-old in Fort Worth, Texas, is in the grip of an obsession. She’s watched Disney’s animated Polynesian princess movie, “Moana,” around 40 times in the past year and a half. She has a pig toy in the shape of Pua, Moana’s sidekick. A karaoke microphone that plays a song from “Moana 2.” And “Moana” dresses, sunglasses and hair clips. Rory’s mother, Stacey Henry, 38, and her father have to be careful about using the “M word” around the house, Henr

“The Pitt” By JOHN KOBLIN Last year, “The Pitt” pulled off a surprise best drama win at the Emmy Awards, besting shows with bigger budgets, stars and ratings. This year, “The Pitt” will enter the Emmy Awards in September as a juggernaut. The HBO Max medical series collected 25 Emmy nominations Wednesday, the most of any show and nearly double its haul from last year. The show’s stars, Noah Wyle and Katherine LaNasa, winners from last year, were nominated again, along with six

Attendees at Rededicate 250, a Christian-focused prayer rally, on the National Mall in Washington, May 17, 2026. Rededicate 250 promoted the idea that the United States was founded as a Christian nation. (Alex Kent/The New York Times) By JENNIFER SCHUESSLER While the nation’s 250th birthday may have passed, the pitched partisan battles over how to tell the country’s history — in particular the founding story of 1776 — are hardly over. On July 4, hours before President Donald

The “Jackass” style is heavily influenced by lo-fi underground skate videos from the 1980s and ’90s, in which skaters in a crew showed off their tricks to music. By ALISSA WILKINSON That the “Jackass” franchise is perhaps the most successful documentary series of all time is indisputable. Its best-known star, Johnny Knoxville, has the concussions to prove it. Twenty-five years in, as “Jackass: Best and Last” hits theaters, it’s still a little tricky to pin down what exactly

Michael Caine (Wikipedia) By ALEXANDRA ALTER In a new audiobook edition of the “Odyssey,” Homer’s nearly 3,000-year-old epic poem, the voice of British actor Michael Caine delivers the story’s soaring opening lines in his distinctive, gravelly staccato. “Tell me, O Muse, of that sagacious man who, having overthrown the sacred town of Ilium, wandered far and visited the capitals of many nations, learned the customs of their dwellers, and endured great suffering on the deep,” C

Neil Sedaka at his home in West Hollywood, Calif., on June 25, 2025. At 86, the singer and songwriter is seeing his albums reissued as he occasionally takes the stage to celebrate his decades-old resurrection. (Philip Cheung/The New York Times) By BOB MEHR After the man in a dark cashmere sweater and tortoiseshell glasses sat down at a piano and leaned into the microphone, his first words were a declaration: “Sedaka’s back … again!” It was late March and the lounge at Vitello

“The Last One for the Road” By DEVIKA GIRISH This month’s titles include Pride Month picks from Brazil, Sweden and Croatia; a soccer drama from Ireland; and a comedy from Italy. ‘Saipan’ For those seeking filmic appetizers to go with their World Cup viewing, Mubi currently has an entire program of international movies devoted to soccer, including renowned gems like Bill Forsyth’s “Gregory’s Girl” (1980), Corneliu Porumboiu’s “Infinite Football” (2018) and Alexandre Koberidz

For the most part ... Supergirl is just another young, alienated extraterrestrial grappling with some eternal existential hurdles, some seriously far out. (Warner Bros. Pictures) By MANOHLA DARGIS A few times early in “Supergirl,” its heroine looks like a mess — a beautifully styled and scrupulously photographed one, true, but a wreck nevertheless. She likes to party hard, this chick, and will slam down drinks as heedlessly as any bro on a bender before crawling into bed alon

“Disclosure Day” (Universal Pictures) By STEPHANIE GOODMAN The year’s barely half over and already it’s been an unusual one for moviegoers. Generation Z filmmakers have scored megahits with their feature debuts (“Obsession,” “Backrooms”), expected megahits have done just OK (“The Mandalorian and Grogu”) and established hitmakers like Steven Spielberg have proved divisive. I asked New York Times chief film critic Manohla Dargis and Times movie critic Alissa Wilkinson to recomm