‘I was my high school’s pot dealer, and then I got a Woody Allen movie’

The Independent’s entertainment newsletter [SUBSCRIBE]( [SUBSCRIBE]( June 24, 2023 [View in browser](   Hold me closer, tiny dancer… or should I say tiny sofa, which is where I will be watching Elton John’s historic [Glastonbury]( headline set this weekend. As you may have gathered, I’m one of those people who likes watching it on telly in my front room, with direct access to my Prosecco supply and no fear of inclement weather. If you’re not there either, then have no fear: we’ve assembled a formidable squad to take you through the weekend, delivering the [latest up-to-the-minute news and reviews to the Indy Culture section all weekend](. This week I’ve been catching up with the latest series of Black Mirror, and I can categorically say that “Loch Henry” is the best episode. (Although I never want to go on a staycation to a quaint British village ever again.) Charlie Brooker has delivered many of his usual trademark twists, but some have been slightly questionable, as [Louis Chilton discusses in his new column, The Moment](. Glastonbury Festival takes place this weekend (Alamy/PA) Louis also [wrote brilliantly about how cinema has become very prudish]( – even the supposedly raunchy new comedy No Hard Feelings, starring Jennifer Lawrence, doesn’t have anything new to say about sex. Elsewhere this week, I loved Ellie Harrison’s[funny interview with Accidental Death of an Anarchist star Daniel Rigby]( (the first I’ve read that starts with an anecdote about the interviewee being questioned by police for murder), as well as Martin Chilton’s [riotous encounter with the occasionally grouchy novelist Richard Ford](. I’m planning on paying a visit to the newly revamped National Portrait Gallery this weekend, which is finally open again after three years and £44m of improvements. It’s one of my favourite places ever, and apparently the transformation has made it even more special. In case you missed it, Mark Hudson, our chief art critic, [was one of the first in the world to get a proper nosey around](. Have a lovely sunny weekend, Jessie [@jessiecath](   What to do this weekend Books | [The Hero of this Book by Elizabeth McCracken]( Read it in one sitting, think about it for weeks afterwards: that's the power of this unusual, intimate novel from American author Elizabeth McCracken. It gets inside the mind of a writer who has recently lost her mother, and playfully blurs the boundaries between fiction and memoir, exploring whether we should write about the people we love, and why we sometimes feel we have no choice but to write about them. Jessie Thompson | Arts editor [@jessiecath](   Theatre | [Dear England]( The question of when football will ever come home is not answered by James Graham's highly anticipated new play about Gareth Southgate. But that's not the point – Graham is exploring why the England men's football team has been so beleaguered by failure for so many years now. [Although the play itself disappointed me](, Joseph Fiennes has the waistcoated manager down to a tee. Jessie Thompson | Arts editor [@jessiecath](   Film | [No Hard Feelings]( For an actor so widely recognised as funny and likeable, Jennifer Lawrence has never been particularly funny on screen – largely eschewing out-and-out comedies in favour of lightly amusing dramas like Silver Linings Playbook or nihilistic horror movies such as Mother!. So it’s lovely to see her in something as light and breezy as No Hard Feelings, in which she plays a cash-strapped woman paid to seduce a 19-year-old nerd before he goes off to college. With touches of Risky Business, The Girl Next Door and other ribald sex comedies of yesteryear, this is a breath of fresh air not only for its star but for comedy movies at large. In cinemas now Adam White | Film editor [@__adamwhite](   TV | [And Just Like That]( The Sex and the City revival is back for a second run, and it's still bonkers. The first episode dives straight in with a sex montage, featuring Miranda and Che sploshing around in a pool, and descends into more madness, with some of the dialogue sounding like it was written by AI. It's definitely not great, but I'll definitely be watching every hour of it. Episodes one and two available on NOW Ellie Harrison | TV editor [@Ellie_Harrison](   Theatre | [The Pillowman]( Lily Allen is back on stage in this major revival of Martin McDonagh's 2003 play about a writer of nasty short stories, imprisoned in a totalitarian state. The singer-turned-actor seems out of her depth in a role of this size, but the play itself is brilliant – in my view,[it's a modern classic that's finally found its moment.]( Jessie Thompson | Arts editor [@jessiecath](     [The Saturday Interview – Natasha Lyonne]( [Oscars image]( Natasha Lyonne solves crimes in her new series, 'Pokerface' (Getty) This week,[Adam White spoke to Natasha Lyonne](, the glorious star of Orange is the New Black and Russian Doll. Lyonne talked about her early rise to fame, her struggles with addiction, and her claims to "outsider status". Lyonne in ’Pokerface' (Karolina Wojtasik/Peacock/Sky) Read an extract from our Saturday Interview below… Lyonne speaks in a kind of free-associative whirr, sharing the strangest, funniest stories you’ve ever heard. The 44-year-old actor, writer and director inhabits a few different roles in conversation: film scholar, stand-up comic, wise mentor. “I’m assuming I’m your elder,” she (correctly) guesses at one point. “I’m also gonna go ahead and assume that I’m at least your mother on a technical basis? Or your grandmother? Based on the DNA research we did ahead of the Zoom?” Neither is very likely for our 14-year-age gap. Still, she tells me I shouldn’t be afraid of leaving the house, but also that I should value my solitude. “I think of us both as men of letters,” she says, before recommending I read more books. I’ve been speaking to her for all of five minutes. [Read the full interview here](   Weekend Shelf-Care Weekend Shelf-Care Tess Gunty Last summer, American writer Tess Gunty became the first ever winner of the Waterstones Debut Novel Prize for her intense, unusual and claustrophobic book about a set of unruly residents living in a Mid-West apartment block. It's the ideal dark, addictive summer read. A book I recently read and loved is… If An Egyptian Cannot Speak English by Noor Naga. A novella built from wisdom, humility, desire, glimmering prose and captivating structural architecture. My three fantasy literary dinner party guests would be… Dante Alighieri, Hildegard von Bingen, and Anne Carson. Ideally, I’d watch them have dinner together rather than participate myself. Not finishing books: my stance is… ...is perfectly acceptable. Each person is allotted an average of 30,000 days on Earth, and bad books outnumber good books. Sometimes you have to try a piece of literature at various points in your life before you are ready to welcome it. But when I find myself giving up on a book, it’s important to ask myself: am I giving up on this because it demands something from me that I am refusing to supply? If the required effort would be worthwhile—closer attention, additional research, more patience, more ideological flexibility, greater imaginative collaboration—then I try to persevere. My writing routine is… ...varied. There are a few practices and resources that help me write, but none is absolutely necessary, and I can change the order in which I do them. When the writing is going well, I find that I can write in almost any environment, at any time of day. Only when it’s going poorly do I become reliant on strict rituals and mythologies—the fantasy of control. But most days, I need: a long walk, access to nature, contemporary poetry, coffee and tea, open-ended research, a set of randomly-generated words, access to surrealist paintings, silence, and attentive revision of all previously written material. The revision organically guides me into the next writing session. Sometimes I listen to wordless ambient music or recordings of storms. I am nocturnal by nature and tend to do my best writing between 9pm-5am. The Rabbit Hutch by Tess Gunty is out in paperback this week, published by Oneworld Enjoy a year of unlimited digital access for just £99 £20 ✓ Full access to Premium news analysis ✓ Advert-free reading across web and app ✓ The Independent Daily Edition newspaper ✓ Puzzles, virtual event tickets and more [SUBSCRIBE NOW](   [INDYBEST]( / [BEST BUYS]( [27 best summer dresses for your warm-weather wardrobe]( The search for your perfect holiday, festival, party and pub ensemble starts (and ends) [here](. 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