Toronto film festival: The multi-hyphenate’s directorial debut has noble intentions in its timely class commentary but his brand of humour makes for an awkward fit

The absence of big-screen comedies, once an almost weekly occurrence, has become such a widely complained-about issue that the rare novelty of one actually being made has turned into a marketing tool. Last month’s remake of The Naked Gun employed a campaign that directly addressed this problem, with an ad that played like a PSA about such a lack and why supporting one was of societal importance (the plea only mildly worked, with the film finishing with decent, but not quite decent enough, box office). At the Toronto premiere of Aziz Ansari’s Good Fortune, festival chief Cameron Bailey made reference to the now unusual sensation of laughing with an audience, and the actor-writer-director himself has been impressing upon people his desire to make a theatrical comedy in the billion-dollar wake of Barbie. He believes in its importance so why doesn’t the industry?

A raft of recent green lights suggests that Hollywood is finally realising the demand is more than misty-eyed nostalgia but there’s still a certain unfair pressure on the few that are coming out to prove the genre’s commercial viability (Adam Sandler’s giant Netflix numbers for Happy Gilmore 2 just served to show where audiences have learned to expect their comedies to be). There are noble intentions to Good Fortune, in ways related to both the resurrection of the big-screen comedy and its of-the-moment through-line about the increasingly untenable class divide in America, but also not a lot of laughs, the idea of its existence more appealing than the experience of watching it.

A medical charity worker and an oncologist delved into the NHS, obesity and assisted dying. But could they agree on hiring doctors from abroad?

Thakshayini, 40, Birmingham

Occupation Oncologist

After £6.7bn was spent across Europe’s top five leagues, we look at the clubs that secured a bargain

This season, all three promoted Premier League sides have started the season with a new goalkeeper between the posts. Given that the last six teams to come up have conceded a total of 515 goals (85.8 each on average) on their way straight back down, it’s not a bad position to focus on. Burnley replaced James Trafford with Martin Dubravka, while Leeds saw Lucas Perri as a safer pair of hands than Illan Meslier. Sunderland’s recruitment of Roefs, a small part of their £150m summer outlay, might be the best decision of all. Standing 6ft 4in tall, the Dutchman has a presence and composure that belies the fact he is only 22. Roefs has quickly become a fan favourite and saved a penalty to help Sunderland beat Brentford, their second win in three Premier League games.

Growing up dirt poor in Arizona’s Church of Immortal Consciousness, I showed an early talent for the game. Soon the cult’s leader began grooming me to become a grandmaster – even if it meant separating me from my mother …

When I first discovered chess, after watching the movie Searching for Bobby Fischer on HBO, I was a nine-year-old kid living in a tiny village in the mountains of Arizona. Because of its title, many people think the film is about Bobby Fischer, the reclusive chess genius who bested the Soviet Union in 1972, defeating Boris Spassky to become the first US-born world chess champion in history. Really, it’s about how the American chess world was desperate to find the next Bobby Fischer after the first one disappeared. The story follows Josh Waitzkin, a kid from Greenwich Village in New York, who sits down at a chess board with a bunch of homeless dudes in the park one day and miraculously discovers that he’s a child prodigy – at least that is the Hollywood version of the story.

Searching for Bobby Fischer was to me what Star Wars was for kids a few years older. I didn’t simply love the movie. I was obsessed with it. Any kid who’s ever felt lost or misunderstood or stuck in the middle of nowhere has dreamed of picking up a lightsaber and discovering the Jedi master within. That was me in the summer of 1995, only with chess.

The celebrated US photographer was catapulted into America’s culture wars with her photobook Immediate Family. Now she’s written a book of ‘how not-to’ advice for artists

Sally Mann is chatty and open about nearly any subject imaginable. The photographer easily gets carried off in conversation, finding it hard to resist sharing stories about anything from her friend’s mother who had a lobotomy, to the time the poet Forrest Gander happened to drop by unannounced (the moment turned into a lifelong friendship).

A large-format camera at Sally Mann’s Lexington studio; tools and objects on a workbench; mask of a face

John Harris is at the Reform UK conference, asking how this once insurgent party came to dominate the political mainstream. And he speaks to people in Birmingham to find out what the rise of Nigel Farage’s party tells us about the state of the country

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Prime minister faces criticism from Emily Thornberry, who highlights risk of ‘handing country to Farage’

Keir Starmer has been warned by senior Labour figures to stop making mistakes, before a battle over the party’s deputy leadership and amid fears the government could row back on workers’ rights.

As candidates began to jostle to replace Angela Rayner, the prime minister faced public criticism from Emily Thornberry, a potential contender, who said further mistakes from Starmer could lead to having to “hand our country to [Nigel] Farage”.

Co-leader of nascent leftwing party says more than 750,000 people have registered their interest

“Labour is dead” after failing to deliver for working people, Zarah Sultana said as she urged supporters of a new leftwing party she is creating to be patient and “watch this space”.

Sultana, the independent MP for Coventry South who quit Labour after losing the whip for backing a move to scrap the two-child benefit cap, is co-leader of a nascent party with Jeremy Corbyn.

Exclusive: Andy Burnham-backed Mainstream group will inevitably influence looming deputy leadership contest

Keir Starmer is facing fresh pressure from Labour insiders, days after a sweeping government reshuffle, as party figures from the left and centre mobilise through a network, backed by Andy Burnham, designed to change Labour’s direction.

The network, called Mainstream, will inevitably influence Labour’s looming deputy leadership contest, with Burnham already throwing his weight behind former cabinet minister Louise Haigh as well as Lucy Powell, the former Commons leader.

Justices rule state is legally obliged to ensure ‘basic level of existence’ and orders authorities to improve nutrition

Israel’s supreme court has ruled that the government has failed to provide Palestinian security prisoners with adequate food for basic subsistence and ordered authorities to improve their nutrition.

Sunday’s decision was a rare case in which the country’s highest court ruled against the government’s conduct during the nearly two-year war.