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© Maggie Shannon for The New York Times
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Fire Island director Andrew Ahn’s update of Ang Lee’s seminal 1993 film works hard to differentiate itself but it’s awkwardly stuck between serious and silly
Many remakes are utterly pointless, whether they’re disregarding what made a movie good or interesting in the first place, or paying such slavish homage that a second version becomes redundant, rather than a worthy variation. If nothing else, the contemporary reconfiguration of The Wedding Banquet passes the remake test handily. Ang Lee’s original 1993 film is about a bisexual Taiwanese immigrant, living happily with his male partner, who hastily arranges a lavish (and, emotionally speaking, fake) wedding to a woman to please his visiting parents; director/co-writer Andrew Ahn, who shares screenplay credit with original co-writer James Schamus, relocates the story from 1993 Manhattan to 2025 Seattle, and contends with a whole different set of social rules and actual laws in the process.
Ahn is so acutely aware of how times have changed, in fact, that he seems reluctant to mine the new situation for comedy. Lee (Lily Gladstone) and Angela (Kelly Marie Tran) are unmarried but committed lesbians about to go through their second expensive round of IVF. They can afford to live in the Seattle area largely because Lee has inherited her family home, where she yearns to start a family of her own; the couple also rents out a converted garage to Angela’s longtime bestie Chris (Bowen Yang) and his boyfriend Min (Han Gi-chan). Min, who comes from money, has been in the US on a student visa that’s about to expire, and his grandparents want him to return to Korea and help run the family business. A green card is just a marriage proposal away, but commitment-resistant Chris is hesitant to marry, especially for convenience. So Min makes a counter-proposal: he’ll secure some of his family money to pay for Lee and Angela’s IVF, and in exchange, Min will marry Angela, for a green card and for familial show.
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© Photograph: Luka Cyprian/AP
© Photograph: Luka Cyprian/AP
To celebrate the Oscar-winning actor’s birthday this week, we look back at the highlights of a six-decade career, from early classics such as Doctor Zhivago and Billy Liar to later roles in Finding Neverland and Away From Her.
There are many things wrong with Kenneth Branagh’s galumphing slab of actor-manager Shakespeare, but Christie as Gertrude is not one of them. Her casting might have been conducive to the Oedipal side of the Danish prince’s feelings towards his mother – if only the director’s bombastic performance had allowed room for it.
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© Photograph: Landmark Media/Alamy
© Photograph: Landmark Media/Alamy
Moscow and Minsk ambassadors excluded over concerns they could ‘exploit’ event for anti-Ukraine propaganda
The ambassadors of Russia and Belarus will not be invited to the German parliament’s commemorations of the 80th anniversary of the second world war’s end over concerns they could “exploit” the event for anti-Ukraine propaganda.
The ceremony in the Bundestag lower house on 8 May marking the allies’ defeat of Nazi Germany will include several representatives of the diplomatic corps in Berlin but bar the envoys from Moscow and Minsk based on “the government’s assessment on the invitation of representatives”, a parliament spokesperson said.
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© Photograph: Annegret Hilse/Reuters
© Photograph: Annegret Hilse/Reuters
Italian PM’s summit with US president has provoked trepidation among some European allies
• Europe live – latest updates
Giorgia Meloni will attempt to burnish her credentials as a possible bridge between the EU and the US during a high-stakes summit with Donald Trump in the White House on Thursday, the first European leader to meet the US president since he announced and then paused some of his planned trade tariff hikes.
Italy’s far-right prime minister, who has nurtured friendly relations with Trump, arrived in Washington on Wednesday night. The pair will have lunch at 12pm local time before the meeting in the Oval Office, which will be attended by a pool of White House reporters and Italian journalists.
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© Photograph: Alessandra Tarantino/AP
© Photograph: Alessandra Tarantino/AP
Most of 51 brands tested, including those for children, contained dangerous heavy metal
Toothpaste can be widely contaminated with lead and other dangerous heavy metals, new research shows.
Most of 51 brands of toothpaste tested for lead contained the dangerous heavy metal, including those for children, or marketed as green. The testing, conducted by Lead Safe Mama, also found concerning levels of highly toxic arsenic, mercury and cadmium in many brands.
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© Photograph: Stanley Marquardt/Alamy
© Photograph: Stanley Marquardt/Alamy
Orforglipron also reduced blood sugar levels in participants with type 2 diabetes
A significant trial of a daily weight-loss pill has found that it helped people to shed the pounds and reduce their blood sugar levels, making it a contender to join the new wave of drugs that combat obesity and diabetes.
People who took a 36mg pill of orforglipron lost an average of 7.3kg (16lbs) over nine months, according to results from a phase 3 clinical trial reported by the drug’s manufacturer, Eli Lilly, on Thursday.
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© Photograph: Darron Cummings/AP
© Photograph: Darron Cummings/AP
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