A ridiculously titled film about a couple who stumble upon a stash of money is absurd and cliched but mostly entertaining

One of the most surprising reveals of last October’s unprecedented Netflix data dump was the astounding popularity of cheap psycho-thriller Secret Obsession. While the streamer proudly touted new films from Alfonso Cuarón, Paul Greengrass and the Coens in the same period, it was a no-star, dim-plotted slab of schlock that netted more viewers, with an estimated 40m households eager to find out just how secret that obsession really was. Modelled after a Lifetime TV movie (with a Lifetime TV director at the helm), it was an important victory for Netflix because it revealed a substantial audience for tiny-budgeted thrillers with generic titles, a bracket they could easily fill at little expense.

Related: The Half of It review – charming Netflix teen comedy takes on Cyrano

A talented trio of young actors enliven a familiar yet engaging tale of a queer love triangle at high school

There’s a satisfying ease to Netflix high school comedy The Half of It, a charming twist on the Cyrano de Bergerac formula that deserves slightly more attention than most of the streamer’s other made-to-order sleepover pics. A teen market that had been underserved by studios has now been exhaustively cornered by the company but often without much care or inventiveness, a conveyor belt of content that prioritises quantity over quality. It’s refreshing then to see a film such as this emerge from the same production line, slickly ticking all the same boxes but with a noticeable uplift in enthusiasm, grafting its own identity on to the boilerplate format.

Related: Never Have I Ever review – Netflix teen series slowly finds its voice

Moonlight’s Ashton Sanders gives a compelling lead performance as a young man trying to escape his father’s shadow

It’s an unusually stacked week for new films on Netflix (one they might regret when pre-pandemic content starts to dry up) with a teen comedy, a B-thriller and a romantic documentary all launching before the weekend, a feast for viewers at home but a glut that could overshadow one of their finer offerings quietly releasing alongside. All Day and a Night, a tough-minded drama from Black Panther co-writer Joe Robert Cole, might not be quite worthy enough for their awards slate (although it’s a damn sight more compelling than The Two Popes …) but it’s a step up from what one might expect of an unhyped May movie from the streamer. Think of it as a classier boutique release, deserving of a higher shelf placement.

Related: The Half of It review – charming Netflix teen comedy takes on Cyrano

The actor, best known for playing Gollum in the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit films, will read the entire JRR Tolkien novel

Andy Serkis is to give a continuous, live reading of The Hobbit – lasting around 12 hours – in aid of charity. The actor, best known as Gollum in the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit films, will read the entire book from start to finish with no breaks.

Money raised from the performance will be split equally between NHS Charities Together and Best Beginnings.

The Hollywood Reporter says numerous attendees returned from the late-January festival with coronavirus symptoms

A new report suggests that January’s Sundance film festival, the annual gathering of cinephiles in Park City, Utah, may have been a key early hub for coronavirus in the US. The article, in the Hollywood Reporter, cites numerous attendees who experienced Covid-19-like symptoms either during or immediately after the festival. None were believed to have been tested for the disease.

Sundance this year attracted about 120,000 people to the small mountain resort, to watch films and party in confined spaces. The snowy conditions that make Park City perfect for skiing mean that socialising indoors is common, as are some flu-like symptoms as a result of the low temperature and high altitude.

In another blistering attack on Donald Trump, the actor says the New York governor is doing what a president should do

Robert De Niro has said he would be keen to play New York state governor Andrew Cuomo in a future movie about the coronavirus epidemic, as the actor made another blistering attack on Donald Trump.

Appearing on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, De Niro expressed his admiration for Cuomo, saying: “He’s doing what a president should do.” He added: “I could see [a President Cuomo]. I am for Biden, and want everything to go well for Biden, but at least we have a person who is very capable, a very capable backup, if you will … he’s doing a great job, he’s doing what any president should do.”

The director of King of New York, Bad Lieutenant and The Funeral recommends film and TV for a coronavirus age, in the hope that ‘the light becomes more evident in the darkness’

• Read the rest of our Lockdown watch series
• The best arts and entertainment during self-isolation

The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)

Mark Twain once described golf as "a good walk spoiled." With all due respect, the father of American literature likely would have had a much different take had he joined me ...

You know who you are. You know what you did. And to the driver who killed Nathan Beaulieu’s dog in a cowardly hit-and-run, the Winnipeg Jets defenceman wants you to ...

Screenshots showing repugnant and insulting remarks — some misogynistic, some racist, others hinting at drug use and sexual conquests — from a private group chat between several hockey players, including ...

Complacency is not a word in Kelsey Wog’s vocabulary. Every season, the fourth-year Bisons swimmer finds a way to take her game to the next level and break records along the ...

Football is back. It returned on a warm, cloudless Friday night in Jeonju, South Korea, a mid-sized city about 200 kilometres directly south of Seoul. The United States beat Mexico here ...

Go ahead and applaud taking down a group of boorish hockey “bros” for their despicable behaviour. But you might want to hold off on a full-fledged victory lap. Brendan Leipsic said ...

For the first time since taking over as commissioner of the Canadian Football League in July of 2017, Randy Ambrosie was finally forced to publicly reveal the financial truth about ...

The White House is making "contingency plans" for a second wave of coronavirus after emails reportedly contradict their claims that Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines to safely reopen the economy were set aside because medical experts did not approve of them.

"I just couldn't be more proud of you and the prospect of your presidency," Newsom told Biden Friday during a campaign event.

Water utility workers in El Paso, Texas were forced to unclog pumps over 20 times in 24 hours after residents refused to heed their call to refrain from flushing personal protective equipment and other coronavirus-related items down the toilet.

The winners and results of last night's Mega Millions lottery, plus how to avoid falling victim to a lottery scam.

The service, which protects political leaders including the president, said in March there was only one case, but new documents show that the disease is more widespread than believed.

Restaurants and drive-in movie theatres are allowed to reopen in Las Vegas today, with casinos hoping to reopen by Memorial Day.

The president appeared outside the Kremlin walls to praise the Soviet effort in what is known in Russia as the Great Patriotic War.

Jameela Jamil also came to Teigen and Kondo's defense, calling Roman "distasteful" and "cliche" for criticizing women of color for being successful in business.

"ARK: Survival Evolved" Crystal Isles is coming to PC soon, alongside a huge anniversary event on all platforms. Get the full details here.

Out of 200 employees tested at a German meat processing plant, 151 tested positive Thursday for coronavirus, triggering an "emergency mechanism" to delay the easing of social distancing restrictions.

Bill Maher said Republicans "don't care" about Tara Reade's sexual assault allegations, saying such claims are simply used as a "unilateral weapon" against Democrats.

Half of the legendary Las Vegas magic duo died on Friday following complications from COVID-19.

Harrell had been working as an executive producer on a TV miniseries about Uptown Records with BET.

Trump administration whistleblower Rick Bright teared up while ripping the Trump's response to the coronavirus: "We could've done something and we didn't."

More than 20 million Americans lost their jobs in the last month, and unemployment among African-Americans has hit 16.7 percent.

In fact, why not join them?

Video games can fill the productivity and social void in this unusual time

From yoga apps to an intelligent jumprope

The Magic Keyboard isn't perfect, but it pushes the iPad toward the inevitable future of computing, writes TIME's tech critic

Tips and game suggestions for gaming first-timers and veterans alike

Comfort, however, can be an issue

SARS-CoV-2, a novel coronavirus that causes the COVID-19 disease, can infect enterocytes in the intestine and multiply there, according to a study by researchers from the Netherlands. Patients with COVID-19 show a variety of symptoms associated with respiratory organs — such as coughing, sneezing, shortness of breath, and fever — and the disease is transmitted [...]

A planet’s global magnetic field arises from a so-called dynamo — a flow of molten metal within the planet’s core that produces an electrical current. On Earth, the dynamo is what makes compass needles point north. In a paper published in the journal Science Advances, a team of researchers from Canada, the United States and [...]

A team of researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has demonstrated that single-celled microorganisms such as Escherichia coli and Saccharomyces cerevisiae that normally do not inhabit hydrogen-rich environments can survive and grow in a 100% hydrogen atmosphere. “There’s a diversity of habitable worlds out there, and we have confirmed that Earth-based life can [...]

A team of researchers from Utrecht University, the Erasmus Medical Center and Harbour BioMed has identified a human monoclonal antibody that neutralizes SARS-CoV-2 and SARS-CoV-1 coronaviruses in cell culture. Named 47D11, this cross-neutralizing antibody targets a communal epitope (antigenic determinant) on these viruses and may offer potential for prevention and treatment of COVID-19. “This research [...]

A species of plant that grew about 400 million years ago (Early Devonian period) produced a spectrum of spore sizes, which is an essential innovation necessary for all advanced plant reproductive strategies, including seeds and flowers. The Devonian period is one of the most important time periods for the evolution of land plants. It witnessed [...]

Multiwavelength observations from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and Gemini Observatory combined with close-up views from NASA’s Juno spacecraft reveal that lightning strikes and huge storm systems that create them in Jupiter’s atmosphere are formed in and around large convective cells over deep clouds of water ice and liquid; the observations also confirm that dark [...]

Facebook’s dedicated Gaming app is now live on Android, months before its planned June release. The social media giant pushed the app out two months prior to its scheduled unveiling amid a global pandemic that’s left people all over the world isolated at home, rapidly burning through entertainment options. The New York Times announced the […]

Epic Games is finally settling its feud — kind of — with Google and putting Fortnite onto the Google Play Store, but the studio sounds pretty pissed about it. When Fortnite launched on mobile in 2018, Epic Games very notably sidestepped the Google Play Store and pushed users to download the title directly from their […]

The idea of an in-game Travis Scott concert might seem a little silly — particularly if, like me, you’re not really a Fortnite player. Yes, the popular multiplayer game has hosted other promotional events for movies and music. But even if all this COVID-19 imposed isolation has left you hungry for live performances, why not […]

Now that the COVID-19 pandemic has forced millions into isolation, video games are seeing a surge in usage as people seek entertainment and social interaction. When we surveyed gaming-focused VCs in October, Andreessen Horowitz partner Jonathan Lai predicted that “next-generation games will be bigger than anything we’ve seen yet,” eventually reaching “Facebook scale.” This month, […]

Twitch is doubling down on esports in this new era of social distancing as a number of traditional sporting events have been cancelled. The company this week introduced a new esports directory on its site that will make it easier for viewers to find live matches, information on players, games with active competition leagues, a […]

While Jackbox clearly owes a great deal of its current popularity to the shelter-in-place policies, they've also been honing their craft for years. It's worth looking at what makes them work.

Modern Games is a new studio working to create games that combine physical and digital play. The company was founded by husband-and-wife team Justin and Amanda Kifer — serial entrepreneurs who previously launched companies including Citizen Local (acquired by MyLife in 2011) and Fidgetly, a fidget spinner company that also created a motion controller for […]

2020 and 2021 will be one of the periodic transitional eras in gaming as Sony and Microsoft debut their shiny new consoles, the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X. To ease the process (and spur adoption of the next generation), EA may make its upcoming titles free to “upgrade” to your chosen console. On an […]

A couple of weeks ago, we noted some new NPD numbers pointing to a very good March for the Switch. Nintendo’s financials this week bear out the predicted surge in popularity for the three-year-old console. The company has sold 21 million Switch units in the past year, handily beating a 19.5 million forecast; 6.2 million […]