The actor on singing with Brian Wilson, why War and Peace is the best book ever written and what drew him to his latest film, The Wizard of the Kremlin

You were wonderful as Brian Wilson in Love & Mercy. Did you get any feedback from the great man himself? Fran2016 and Aubrey26
Thank you. I spent a bunch of time with Brian before filming. If you asked him about the world, you might only get a little bit out of him. But if you asked about music, he’d light up. I loved talking with him. I also got to sing with him and his touring band a few times, which was amazing. We filmed in the studio in which they recorded Pet Sounds, and he came on set, which was a trip. I didn’t get much feedback in terms of my performance – it was more getting to know each other and learning about his life.

Which was more challenging in Little Miss Sunshine – the first half where you don’t speak, or the second half where you break your vow of silence? mattyjj
I remember the first few days, filming the dinner table scene where they’re eating chicken and I don’t speak. It felt like the directors were saying: “OK, maybe give us a little more,” because they couldn’t quite see what I was doing. But when they watched it back, they said: “It’s there, we see it,” which was a wash of relief. It’s a great question, because sometimes the words are harder, but stepping into the unknown of not speaking was pretty challenging.

The madness is contagious – and nowhere has this been more evident than in the newly minted two-week ceasefire with Iran

The Madness of King Donald. Unless you’ve spent most of the last few years on a silent retreat – and who could blame you? – it can’t have escaped you that the American president is both not that bright and borderline sociopathic. A lethal combination. Posting “Open the Fuckin’ Strait you crazy bastards or you’ll be living in Hell” on his social media account is not the action of a well man. Certainly not when the Middle East is on a knife-edge.

But what you may have missed is that the madness is contagious. It also affects many of those who come in contact with him. Trying to deal with the madness makes them mad too, as they try to behave as if things that are most definitely not normal are all quite usual. All in a day’s work.

Forty years on from the release of their Victorialand album, we rank the Scottish band’s 20 best tracks, from goth beginnings to weightless masterpieces

At first, Cocteau Twins gave every impression of being a goth band: check out Wax and Wane’s Banshees-esque ambience – the guitar is very John McGeoch – flanged bass and drum machine. But the chorus soars out of the metaphorical cloud of dry ice, and Elizabeth Fraser’s voice is already outpacing her influences.

Iran, Minneapolis, Harvard and other Trump opponents have employed a similar strategy

An hour before Trump said he’d cause the death of a “whole civilization” if Iran didn’t open the strait of Hormuz, an Iranian official said the shipping channel would be reopened for two weeks if the United States stopped bombing Iran. The US has now stopped bombing Iran.

So we’re back to the status quo before Trump began his war. Only now, Iran can credibly threaten to close the strait if it doesn’t get what it wants from Trump – thereby causing havoc to the US and world economies. Trump’s only remaining bargaining chip is his threat of committing war crimes.

Keir Starmer and the UK government are scrabbling to keep up with Trump’s fast-changing position on Iran and the Middle East. While a two-week ceasefire is in place, how long will it hold for? Peter Walker and Alexandra Topping look at what happens now. And, with the local election campaign under way, how are the different parties responding to the conflict?

Guardian Live: Can Labour come back from the brink?
With a difficult set of May elections approaching, Labour under threat from both the Green party and Reform, and Keir Starmer’s popularity in freefall, can he survive as leader of the Labour party? The Guardian’s Gaby Hinsliff will chair our panel of Guardian columnists including Polly Toynbee, Rafael Behr and Zoe Williams.

Join us as they discuss Starmer, Labour and the upcoming May byelections. They will also be answering your own questions. Get your tickets here

The 79th edition of the influential festival boasts an auteur-heavy lineup – with one, very big, country conspicuous by its almost total absence

• Gillian Anderson and Cara Delevingne to hit Cannes as auteur heavyweights dominate festival lineup

Has Europe fallen out of love with the US? Has Cannes fallen out of love with Hollywood? Will the festival, like Nato, become a non-American institution? Either way, the annual announcement of the Cannes selection has revealed a list that skews away from Hollywood towards a renewed dominance of world-cinema auteurs and heavy hitters, including Pedro Almodovar, Cristian Mungiu and Asghar Farhadi. There’s certainly nothing to compare with last year’s Tom Cruise Mission: Impossible extravaganza, although there are directorial offerings out of competition for Andy Garcia (also starring) with his crime drama Diamond, and John Travolta directs Propeller One-Way Night Coach, expressing his love of aviation, based on his own novel. There are no British directors announced (as yet), although Polish auteur Paweł Pawlikowski, in competition with his Thomas Mann movie Fatherland, could be cheekily claimed for the UK as he lived here for a long time.

Festival watchers and Cannesologists will be looking for the contemporary relevances and the now familiar talking points. The festival, under director Thierry Frémaux, has stuck to its refusal to admit streamer-only movies and won the argument by seeing its films do well at the Oscars. On the AI debate, perhaps Cannes is less purist. Steven Soderbergh’s documentary John Lennon: The Last Interview is based on John and Yoko’s final three-hour interview for RKO Radio shortly before Lennon’s murder, and for the visuals Soderbergh has reportedly used AI to reconstruct and reimagine the encounter. Some are intrigued, others uneasy.

Israeli prime minister’s remarks come shortly after Trump told US media he had asked Netanyahu to be more ‘low-key’; IF says it is attacking Hezbollah targets

• Israel’s bombing of Lebanon after US-Iran ceasefire prompts condemnation

The UK foreign minister, Yvette Cooper, has said Lebanon must be included in any ceasefire agreement. In other remarks now being reported by Reuters, Cooper added that shipping through the strait of Hormuz must be toll-free.

Amid ceasefire talks, Tehran has proposed fees or tolls on vessels to safely pass through the strait. Donald Trump on Wednesday suggested the US and Iran could collect tolls in a joint venture, while the White House said the priority was reopening the strait without limitations.

And my principles and values made sure that our decisions were that we wouldn’t get involved in the action without a lawful basis, without a viable, thought-through plan.”

Beirut residents and officials say civilians were main casualties in operation that bombed 100-plus targets in 10 minutes

• Middle East crisis – live updates

It took Israel only 10 minutes to carry out one of the worst mass-killings in Lebanon since the end of the country’s civil war in 1990.

Omar Rakha heard the war planes but did not feel the explosions; it was only when he woke up face down on the street, bleeding, that he understood what had happened: the building next to his in the Barbour neighbourhood of central Beirut had been destroyed by two Israeli bombs. He then ran through the flaming wreckage to find his sister, screaming.

Seafarer tells of ‘impossible’ situation, with strait still so unsafe that crew would not cross even if told to sail

• Maritime and port workers: how is the Middle East conflict affecting you?

‘You can try to minimise the impact that this situation has on your mental health but it’s becoming impossible.” After six weeks stranded in the Gulf, one of the 20,000 seafarers trapped by Iran’s chokehold on the strait of Hormuz is reaching their limit.

Yet with the fragile Middle East ceasefire already fraying, the oil tanker worker – who first spoke to the Guardian a month ago – said any hope they may soon be free to leave had already evaporated, if it ever felt real at all.

In article for Guardian, PM also calls for Iran conflict to become watershed moment for future UK security

• The Iran war is a warning: Britain must build resilience – at home and with our allies in Europe

Israel’s continued attacks on Lebanon “shouldn’t be happening”, Keir Starmer has said on his visit to the Middle East, as he called for the Iran conflict to become a watershed moment for the future security of the UK.

In an article for the Guardian, the prime minister said the UK’s response to the crisis must involve a fundamental reset in terms of making the country more resilient, including by boosting defence and having closer links to Europe.