The Destined with You Season 1 Episode 14 release date and time have been revealed. The episode will air on Netflix. It will continue the story of lawyer Jang Shin-yu and civil servant Lee Hong-jo, and how the relationship develops between the two of them, just as Shin-yu discovers that Hong-jo can set him free from an ancient curse.

Here’s when the episode is coming out.

The Destined with You Season 1 Episode 14 release date is October 5, 2023.

The Episode 14 release time is:

Viewers can watch the upcoming episode on Netflix.

To watch episode 14, you can subscribe to Netflix, which offers three plans to choose from. The Standard Plan with Ads costs $6.99 a month, the Standard Plan (Ad-free) costs $15.49 a month, and the Premium Plan (Ad-free) costs $19.99 a month. A subscriber can invite others to share their accounts, but they need to have their own accounts and passwords. Moreover, the number of additional members is decided by the type of plan the subscriber has.

Written by Noh Ji-sul and directed by Nam Ki-hoon, the fantasy romance series follows Lee Hong-jo as she investigates an old temple and discovers a forbidden book sealed and hidden away three centuries ago. That puts her on a collision course with Jang Shin-yu, who was cursed by the very book.

The official synopsis for Destined with You reads:

“A lawyer bound by a centuries-old curse becomes entangled with a civil servant who holds the key to his freedom — igniting an unexpected romance.”

For more Netflix-related content, check out the streamer’s release schedule between September 25-October 5, 2023. You can also check out when Castaway Diva arrives for streaming on Netflix.

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The Killing Vote Season 1 Episode 9 release date and time have been revealed. The next episode will air on Amazon Prime Video. The Korean thriller crime drama series follows a masked man who holds a poll to punish dangerous criminals. People over 18 years of age receive text messages where they are allowed to vote and decide whether a criminal deserves a death sentence that the justice system fails to provide.

Here’s when the episode is coming out.

The Killing Vote Season 1 Episode 9 release date is October 5, 2023.

The Killing Vote Season 1 Episode 9 release time is:

Viewers can watch the upcoming episode on Amazon Prime Video.

To watch episode 9, you can subscribe to the streamer. The most affordable option is Prime Monthly which is priced at $14.99. However, the best-valued plan is Prime Annual which costs $139. 

There’s one more plan which is meant only for students ($7.49 per month). You just need to download the app, register, and make the subscription payment.

The crime series features a masked man called Gaetal who kills criminals, depending on people’s votes. He holds polls asking citizens over 18 years to vote via text message. They should answer whether they think a criminal received a fair sentence or should die, and if the poll results agree with a death sentence, Gaetal kills the murderer. However, he is the most wanted criminal at the Special Investigations Headquarters. 

The cast of the series includes:

The official synopsis for The Killing Vote reads:

“People are busy watching the screen. The person wearing a mysterious mask so called ‘Gaetal’ appears, and the Killing Vote begins.”

For more Amazon Prime Video content, check the streamer’s release schedule from September 25 to October 1, 2023.

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Saved by the Bell was a phenomenon no one was expecting, but one that didn’t catch on in its first incarnation — Good Morning Miss Bliss. Once the program was re-tweaked, the core version of the show only ran for four seasons, and it was clear there was room for more. After the kids graduated and went Hawaiian Style, fans were given two spin-off series. One of these was where the bulk of the cast was intended to spend their College Years, but that only lasted one season. The group was given their proper sendoff with a Wedding in Las Vegas and a couple of guest spots before returning to the roles years later. That secondary offspring was largely written off by many fans. However, while the original cast struggled to keep their spot, The New Class took Bayside to incredible heights.

If we’re looking at the numbers, Saved by the Bell proper ran for 86 episodes over 4 seasons. The New Class continued on much longer, lasting 143 episodes and running seven seasons. Some speculate that the show was only meant to go for two or three seasons, based on the original contracts. The sixth and seventh seasons are only 13 episodes instead of 26 (just like the first season) due to them splitting the last batch to let the program run longer.

The New Class was considered successful, generating a ton of merchandise, including a board game as well as a 10-novel book series. The ratings were rock solid, especially after the initial season. Though some fans felt slighted by these new students at their high school, the show did bring in more viewers who were just learning about SbtB via re-runs, as well as an audience that wasn’t familiar with the original cast at all but connected with the fresh faces.

Much like its predecessor struggled in the time with Miss Bliss, the first 13-episode season of The New Class was accused of being a carbon copy of its namesake. The new pupils acted as watered-down stand-ins of the previous tenants.

Scott Erikson fills the role of the new Zack, a charismatic schemer who’s a bit of a gutter human. Thomas “Tommy D” De Luca is a less likeable and dumber version of Slater, while Lindsay Warner is Kelly with an attempt at more depth. Megan Jones and Vicki Needleman have traits similar to Lisa and Jessie, but fit less into those molds. Most remember Barton “Weasel” Wyzell, who acted as the new Screech. Though some fans who hung around from the previous run appreciated the familiarity, the producers were smart enough to realize that wouldn’t work long-term and shook the cast up.

Over the years, some of the actors were fired or simply let go, others opted not to re-sign, and a few left due to personal reasons. But for any fans who thought having Tori show up in random episodes was confusing, trying to follow this group of kids could require a flow chart. The second season saw an overhaul of the sets, and began a trend of adding new re-tooled characters without making much mention of where the previous cast members went.

I won’t name all of the performers who graced the halls of Bayside, but there are several talented people who became a part of the SbtB family and went on to have extensive careers. Isaac Lidsky (Weasel) certainly has the most interesting story outside of acting. Actors like Bianca Lawson (Megan), Jonathan Angel (Tommy D), Natalia Cigliuti (Lindsay), and Sarah Lancaster (Rachel Meyers) all stand out in various ways and leave solid impressions on the show.

There are a few duds, but the only addition that felt completely off was Christian Oliver as Brian Keller, another Zack-like who happened to be a foreign exchange student and was hard to like. I suppose the showrunners noticed that too, because he was only around for the second season. He soon returned back home to Switzerland with no one remembering him.  

The two mainstays of course are Dennis Haskins as Principal Richard Belding and his new assistant as of season two, Samuel “Screech” Powers, once again played by Dustin Diamond after the end of The College Years. Haskins is incredible as always and has chemistry with the new cast while dialing his kookiness up a notch. Diamond’s return helped the show and some episodes show off his talents while others see him get a bit too weird and goofy.

These two pillars of SbtB become their own side duo, sometimes in grating ways, but they are also likely part of how it ran for so long. A few of the old teachers return for brief appearances as well as a ton of notable guest stars that have since become quite famous. We also see some recognizable names of several behind-the-scenes talents that stayed on or returned as well.

Members of the original cast including Mark-Paul Gosselaar (Zack), Lark Voorhies (Lisa), and Mario Lopez (Slater) ended up making a guest appearance or two and occasionally showing up in flashback clips. A few of their real-life and character names were also used with new characters to pay homage to the stars who paved the way. The old cast apparently did promos with the group of kids from season one, but these reportedly only aired during a re-showing of Hawaiian Style and seem to be difficult to find now.

Characters weren’t the only thing revisited in this spin-off. Before season two’s revamp the original sets were used along with a few additional outdoor shots and more pre-recorded footage. The kids are constantly doing ‘adventure’ episodes, making it seem like they were never in school. They notably visited Cal U, the site of the other spin-off, and it appears those sets were later redecorated for additional vacation segments as well. The group received several versions of their own Malibu Sands-style summer job breaks with escapades at the Palisade Hills Country Club, Gold Canyon Ranch, Sleepy Mountain Ski Lodge, France, a cruise ship, space camp, and more, but my favorite tales like these are located in the mall.

There is also some criticism lobbed at the show for revisiting so many plots similar to the original show. Even within just The New Class episodes, previously established elements were ignored, which is normal for sitcoms to have a stern status quo to return to after each storyline. But like their predecessor, this series wasn’t always aired in production order, making things even more confusing. Combine that with the rotating class and this show truly did try and give viewers the feel of being a teacher at Bayside — watching everything old become new again, just with different kids trying the same tricks.

The New Class may be a bit more risqué than the original show. Both had male stars go shirtless and their female performers appear in bathing suits and other tight outfits, but this iteration seemed to do that quite often, showing a lot more midriff, and allowing for some extra sexually suggestive jokes. Nothing ever goes too far and this new take on the school was arguably aimed at a wider age range, but the themes discussed over the larger number of episodes do seem to be a bit heavier. Yes, there were also still a couple of culturally inappropriate jokes and characters dressing up in stereotypical outfits of people from other countries. It almost feels like it wouldn’t be SbtB without those problematic elements.  

This sounds like a mountain of negatives against the show, but for those who loved the original, so much of this series works. It’s easy to root for several of the new kids, even if they don’t stick around, and though not every scene is as snappy as it could be the chemistry builds quickly and the events feel familiar in a positive way. There are a lot of episodes, but I kept finding myself wanting to watch more to see what else happened. Just because it has a lot of things to point out doesn’t mean I’m entertained any less. It’s less of a guilty pleasure and more exploration and history. 

I’m not alone in this, as the show was reportedly doing well leading into its last two seasons. Even at the end, NBC was looking at two other potential spin-offs and there was even a play in the works. None of that came to pass, but the franchise certainly lived on, even spawning the continuation series in 2020. The New Class had left showrunners and executives confident. So why is it so largely ignored now? Most fans seem to have either forgotten the follow-up series or shun it, while the network rarely mentions it and doesn’t even have it available to stream anywhere. 

It’s a shame. The New Class made the grade the studio wanted. They put in the effort and brought a lot of school spirit, surpassing their elders in some ways. Still — they just couldn’t compete after high school.

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Amazon Prime Video‘s new TV and movie releases for September 25-October 1 include Gen V, a superhero series that is set in the same universe as Amazon Prime Video’s The Boys, and The Fake Sheikh, a three-part documentary series that chronicles the life of notorious journalist Mazher Mahmood.

Starting on September 26, viewers can stream the highly-anticipated three-part documentary series, The Fake Sheikh. This documentary series will be set in 2016 and will focus on the criminal case of Mazher Mahmood, a maverick British journalist who made headlines by his use of the alias “The Fake Sheikh” and other false aliases to trap and ensnare royals, sports stars, politicians, celebrities, and members of the public eye in order to achieve fame, only for him to get charged and imprisoned for 15 months. This documentary will star Ayla Fox, Paul Samrai, and Neil Wallis.

Then on September 29, viewers can start streaming Gen V, a superhero series that serves as a spin-off of The Boys. The story of Gen V is set in the Godolkin University School of Crimefighting run by Vought International, where young adult superpowered students or “Supes” are tested in Battle Royale challenges in order to determine who will be worthy of joining The Seven, Vought International’s elite superhero team. However, the students learn of dark secrets at Godolkin which makes them ponder over which kind of hero they want to be. Gen V will star Jaz Sinclair, Chance Perdomo, Lizzie Broadway, Shelley Conn, Maddie Philips, London Thor, Derek Luh, Asa Germann, and Patrick Schwarzenegger in the lead roles.

Below are all the new TV shows and movies being added to Amazon Prime Video from September 25-October 1.

October 1’s release schedule is yet to be confirmed.

Check out more streaming release schedules aside from Amazon Prime Video below.

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Peacock‘s new TV and movie releases for September 25-October 1 include a new episode of The Continental: From the World of John Wick, Malcolm D. Lee’s 2017 comedy film Girls Trip, and Martin Campbell’s action-thriller film The Protégé.

Starting on September 25, viewers can stream The Protégé, an action-thriller film starring Maggie Q as Anna, who as a child was rescued and trained by an assassin named Moody, eventually growing into a highly-accomplished assassin herself. However, Anna goes on a quest for vengeance when her mentor Moody is brutally murdered. The supporting cast of this film includes Hollywood veterans Michael Keaton, Samuel L. Jackson, and Robert Patrick.

Then on September 29, viewers can catch a new episode of The Continental: From the World of John Wick, a prequel to the John Wick films that focuses on a young Winston Scott and details how he became the proprietor of The Continental Hotel, a safe house for assassins of the John Wick franchise. Finally, on September 30, viewers can catch Girls Trip, a comedy film that focuses on four friends who reconnect at the Essence Music Festival after a long time apart.

Other releases set to take place between September 25 and October 1 include new episodes of Below Deck Mediterranean Season 8, Dateline Season 32, America’s Got Talent Season 18, and Snapped Season 32.

Below are all the new TV shows and movies being added to Peacock from September 25-October 1.

October 1’s schedule is not available as it is currently unconfirmed.

Check out more streaming release schedules aside from Peacock below.

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HBO Max‘s new TV and movie releases for September 25-October 1 include the third season of Starstruck, American Masters: Marilyn Monroe: Still Life, and an HBO Original documentary series Savior Complex.

Starting on September 25, viewers can start streaming American Masters: Marilyn Monroe: Still Life on HBO Max via the PBS channel. This biographical documentary series will explore the life of iconic sex symbol and actress, Marilyn Monroe via photographs and also go into detail about her roles in films like Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Some Like It Hot, and The Seven Year Itch. This documentary will also explore her romantic life and her various love affairs.

Then on September 26, viewers can stream the HBO Original Savior Complex, which will explore the case of Serving His Children (SHC), a non-profit organization (NGO) founded by Renee Bachs, which faced allegations of recklessness and incompetency when Bachs was found to be treating children without a medical qualification, which resulted in the children’s deaths under the SHC’s watch.

Finally, on September 28, viewers can start streaming the third season of Starstruck, a BBC Comedy series that revolves around Jessie, a New Zealander in her 20s living in London and working jobs at the cinema and as a nanny, who faces the shock of her life when she learns that she slept with a famous movie star Tom Kapoor on New Year’s Eve.

Other releases set to take place on HBO Max between September 25 and October 1 include Chopped: Volume 2 (via Food Network), Crimes Gone Viral: Season 3 (via ID), and Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace? Season 4 (CNN).

Below are all the new TV shows and movies being added to HBO Max from September 25-October 1.

October 1’s schedule is currently unconfirmed as of this writing.

Check out more streaming release schedules aside from HBO Max below.

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Paramount Plus‘ new TV and movie releases for September 25-October 1 include the fifth season of ALVINNN!!! and The Chipmunks, Survivor Season 45, and The Amazing Race Season 35.

Starting on September 27, viewers can stream the fifth season of ALVINNN!!! and The Chipmunks. This animated musical comedy series features not only the chipmunks, Alvin, Simon, and Theodore, but also the Chippettes Britanny, Jeannette, and Eleanor. This series focuses on David Seville’s attempts to manage both the Chipmunks and the Chippettes while raising them. Though it’s based on a classic cartoon, it’s set in the modern day with plenty of modern-day problems mingled in with the comedy, including problems with technology and the dating lives of single parents.

Also on September 27, viewers can stream the 45th season of Survivor, a veteran reality TV series hosted by Jeff Probst. The 45th season of this reality TV series will see Probst bring 18 castaways to the Fiji Islands, where he will make each of them compete with one another through risky and intense competitions and make one of them emerge as the sole survivor, who will win a prize of 1 million dollars.

Again on September 27, viewers can stream the 35th season of The Amazing Race, a reality competition series that sees multiple teams embark on a trek around the world to exotic destinations where they must compete in a series of challenges, both mental and physical taxing to learn of new locations they must go to. Teams who are far behind and lagging during the challenges will be eliminated as the competitions progress and the teams who make it to the final destination before other teams will win the race and receive a prize of $1 million.

Below are all the new TV shows and movies being added to Paramount Plus from September 25-October 1.

October 1’s release schedule is unavailable at the time of writing as it is unconfirmed.

Check out more streaming release schedules aside from Paramount Plus below.

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The Jujutsu Kaisen Chapter 237 release date and time have been revealed. After Gojo vs. Sukuna ended with Gojo emerging victorious, Chapter 236 began a new arc. However, it also saw Gojo admit that Sukuna didn’t give it all he had, something which all the readers suspected while reading Chapter 235. It will be interesting to see what Akutami has in store for us in the next installment.

Here’s when the next chapter of Jujutsu Kaisen comes out.

Jujutsu Kaisen Chapter 237 release date is expected to be on Sunday, October 1, 2023.

Jujutsu Kaisen Chapter 237 release time in the US based on past release patterns is:

Meanwhile, it should arrive in Japan on Monday, October 2 at 12 am JST.

Fans can read Jujutsu Kaisen chapter 237 digitally on Viz Media’s official website, Shueisha’s MangaPlus website, Shonen Jump+ app, and MangaPlus App.

The entire Manga is available to read on apps like Shonen Jump. To subscribe, you could pay $2.99 a month and even get a 7-day free trial before the charges become applicable. The app will enable you to read several other Manga titles including One Punch Man, One Piece, Naruto, My Hero Academia along with JJK.

After Chapter 236 shows the death of the extremely important character, Gojo, at the hands of Mahoraga, it will be interesting to see how Akutami moves forward with the narrative.

This demise comes as a major gut punch to the readers who just saw Gojo win rather convincingly against Sukuna. Whether Gojo could be brought back in later chapters remains to be seen. But his incoming death could be the reason why he got to win so easily against Sukuna.

 For more Jujutsu Kaisen updates, check out when the anime’s third season could arrive.

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Celine Song’s directorial debut was already my favorite movie of 2023 so far, but the Past Lives Blu-ray made me appreciate it even more. Featuring an informative commentary track, a great making-of featurette, and a handful of deleted scenes, the home video release is worth every penny. The film itself is even more impactful upon rewatch, with it being a thought-provoking and wonderful exploration of love, fate, and the “what ifs” that fill our lives.

“Nora and Hae Sung, two deeply connected childhood friends, are wrested apart after Nora’s family emigrates from South Korea,” reads the synopsis. “Two decades later, they are reunited in New York for one fateful week as they confront notions of destiny, love, and the choices that make a life, in this heartrending modern romance.”

Past Lives is anchored by an incredible performance by Greta Lee, who has a natural chemistry with co-star Teo Yoo and delivers one of the best scenes of the year during the film’s penultimate scene. Lee’s performance is particularly effective during the little moments that show that Nora is happy and comfortable in her current life, but who could possibly not flirt with the allure of what could have been? Beautiful New York City scenery coupled with raw emotion is a winning combination that really shines through.

The movie’s title is a reference to “in-yun,” a South Korean word referencing the shared fate that impacts our relationships with others. It’s an idea that we meet the same people in each life, interacting with them in different manners. A lover might just be a stranger that you barely notice in another lifetime. “If two people get married, they say it’s because there have been 8,000 layers of in-yun, over 8,000 lifetimes,” Nora explains during the film. It’s an endlessly fascinating subject. One that encaptures a bond that is hampered by both Nora and Hae Sung being at different places in their lives despite their shared connection.

There are plenty of special features that are worth checking out here. “Bound by Fate,” a 17-minute featurette that shows some great behind-the-scenes footage alongside Song and the stars discussing the film, is nicely edited and an intriguing watch. It also reveals the real-life inspiration for the movie, which Song explains and is really sweet. The five deleted scenes range from OK to interesting (a subway sequence is the most intriguing of them), although the film really didn’t lose anything by not including them.

However, the big value add is the commentary track that features Song, Lee, and Yoo discussing the film, sharing great stories from production (Yoo has a group chat with the actors that play his Korean drinking friends), and exploring its themes. Particular highlights are the stories of filming scenes in South Korea from Song and Yoo, who explain some of the differences between how American and South Korean films are filmed, and the behind-the-scene details on how the Skype calls with internet issues were shot. These are exactly the types of details that inform viewers, helping them gain context and further appreciation for all aspects of the film. I can’t recommend it enough.

While the film is truly special and is worth owning on its own merit, it’s the bonus features that make the Past Lives Blu-ray as easy a recommendation as possible. Song has delivered one of 2023’s best movies and one that you will want to keep revisiting over time.

Disclosure: The publisher provided a copy for our Past Lives Blu-ray review.

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While not entirely his baby, The Nightmare Before Christmas is forever associated with Tim Burton, and it’s one of the movies most think of when mentioning the veteran director.

For years, there was talk of Burton returning to stop motion. It had been an early passion, after all. A tumultuous time in the years since that movie’s release saw Burton’s star burning a little less bright thanks to flops both fair (Planet of the Apes) and unfair (Mars Attacks!). However, Burton could still create beautiful and odd films such as Big Fish and Sleepy Hollow, so it was time to make that long-awaited sojourn to stop-motion.

Corpse Bride, co-directed by Mike Johnson, is a typically Burton piece, even more naturally so than The Nightmare Before Christmas. Set in a 19th-century European village, it follows the story of Victor, a young man whisked away to the underworld and wed to a mysterious corpse bride, while his real bride, Victoria waits bereft in the land of the living.

The characters and settings capture that signature style seen in Burton’s earlier drawings and animations. Victor especially looks like a ”Johnny Depp in a Tim Burton film. Unsurprisingly, he sounds like it, too, as Depp once again teamed up with Burton. It was the second of their collaborations in that year alone after Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. It marked his first time voice acting for a theatrical film. Depp and Burton were doing both films together, so Depp was Willy Wonka by day and Victor by night.

The cast is an impressive one, filled with familiar voices. Beyond Depp, Burton’s then-wife Helena Bonham-Carter, Christopher Lee, Richard E. Grant, Albert Finney, Emily Watson, and Tracey Ullman were among the roster. Lee had also worked with Burton on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and having his grave tones in the movie added to the gothic atmosphere of the 19th-century village.

Technology had come a long way since Nightmare, and the models were much more intricate. Their facial expressions were controlled by clockwork mechanisms that were almost as painstaking as the old replaceable heads. One crew member described having nightmares about his own face being controlled by clockwork after interacting with the mechanisms so much.

Much has been made of Burton’s input into The Nightmare Before Christmas and the omission of Henry Selick in promotional materials in recent years. Burton was more receptive to sharing duties and credit on Corpse Bride. He explained the process was quite different from Nightmare.

In a 2005 interview, Burton said, “The difference on that was that one I had designed completely. It was a very completed package in my mind. I felt like it was there. I felt more comfortable with it. With this, it was a bit more organic. It was based on an old folk tale. We kept kind of changing it, but, you know, I had a great co-director with Mike Johnson. I feel like we complemented each other quite well. It was just a different movie, a different process.”

The result was a beautifully, meticulously crafted film that told a better story with a broader range of strong characters than Nightmare. If it fell down anywhere, it was against Nightmare’s strongest suit, the songs. Corpse Bride’s musical numbers were visually interesting, but nothing is as memorable as This Is Halloween or What’s This?

Still, Corpse Bride is different enough to escape the long shadow of Burton’s festive favorite. Its rich gothic European atmosphere and quintessential Burton quirks make it one of the purest distillations of the director’s vision at the time. Which is surprising when it was far more collaborative than previous work.

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After playing Baldur's Gate 3 for a while, one thing will become abundantly clear, the map is very extensive and holds many significant areas, such as The Lower City. This area is one of several more significant regions of the map that contains plenty of new quests with various special rewards worth obtaining.

Among the customized ship builds in Starfield from across pop culture, the USS Enterprise is one of the most iconic. This ship from Star Trek will supplement any players focused on social and science skills, particularly those attempting a full Captain Kirk-themed playthrough. While this ship is very cool, it will take patience and a lot of Credits to fully build this iconic ship.

Wordle, the five-letter word guessing game that has taken the world by storm, challenges players each day to figure out the winning word. Since its release in 2021, Wordle has become immensely popular on social media and has even inspired variations of the game including Quordle, Octordle, and, for math lovers, Nerdle.

Horizon Chase 2 almost feels like a love letter to classic 1990s arcade racing games, and if that's the premise, then it is excellently executed. It offers exactly what one would expect from an arcade racing game in today's world with smooth crossplay multiplayer options, a solo campaign mode, and the ability to collect fun cars and race on unique and beautiful tracks. The catchy synth music, brightly colored graphics, and easy-to-learn gameplay mechanics make it exactly what an arcade racing game should be.

The explosive popularity of anime in recent years has led to the most popular anime characters, like Dragon Ball's Goku, becoming household names even outside of Japan. Interesting and lovable characters help to make a series both memorable and profitable, so it's in studios' best interests to create the most appealing characters possible. Not every anime character reaches that bar, of course, but the best of the best aren't just heroes you can relate to, they're fully-fleshed out characters with fears, hopes, and dreams, just like anyone else.

The Phoenix is one of the most powerful cosmic beings in Marvel Comics, able to destroy stars and generate destructive power on a scale that's hard to imagine. The X-Men barely survived their initial and classic encounter with the entity in "The Dark Phoenix Saga," leading to the question of who else in Marvel Comics would be able to defeat the Phoenix.

90 Day Fiancé: Before the 90 Days star Statler Riley is embarking on a new adventure together with Dempsey Wilkinson, which makes viewers question her finances. Statler, 32, from Irving, Texas, takes a keen interest in bugs. She says she has a little “neurospiciness” called ADHD. Statler was adopted when she was born. The popular reality TV show star started comparing herself to her two brilliant half-brothers while growing up and felt like she was a disappointment to her adoptive parents. She never felt like she measured up, and coming out as gay felt like another disappointment. She had her fair share of relationships before meeting Dempsey, 28, from the UK.

After 16 weeks, 90 Day Fiancé: Before the 90 Days season 6 has finally reached its Tell All stage, and Part 1 had a list of shocking moments. The 90 Day Fiancé spin-off, which is one of the franchise’s most-watched reality TV shows, premiered on June 4, 2023. There were seven new couples preparing to meet their international partners for the first time, along with Jasmine Pineda and Gino Palazzolo, who got engaged in season 5.

Warning: SPOILERS ahead for The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon episode 3!

Warning: spoilers ahead for Daryl Dixon.

After Hours reunion!! It’s been nearly 40 years since Griffin Dunne was seen puzzling over the plaster-of-Paris bagel-shaped paperweights manufactured by Rosanna Arquette’s roommate in Martin Scorsese’s riotous 1985 all-nighter.

They book a return meeting in Noah Pritzker’s altogether more gentle and maturely reflective Ex-Husbands, essaying a recently-divorced couple who are teetering on retirement age and grappling with the precipitous home-straight of life on Earth. Not that we see much of Arquette, as she slinks into the backdrop of a film (clue’s in the title) that focuses almost exclusively on male anxiety and the wistful, self-annihilating desires of XY chromosome types.

It’s worth saying from the off that, casting choices aside, that’s the only thing that Mr Plitzker has purloined from Mr Scorsese, as this is a film that takes things very slow and steady, with a soundtrack of AM radio toe tappers and a script that trades heated conflict for goofily-reasoned discourse and homespun domestic philsophies. The best way to describe it is that it resembles a Noah Baumbach film, had Baumbach been writing while dosed on heavy sedatives which served to negate his blackly-cynical worldview.

Dunne plays Peter, a doddery New York dentist with a still-gorgeous head of hair who is shocked by the fact that his elderly father has decided to divorce with a crazed view to taking one last shot of finding true love. Six years later, he too is decorating his own bachelor pad, finding himself out on his ear at the behest of his wife (Arquette). His eldest, Nick (James Norton) is a depressive wastrel who’s in the process of torpedoing his own engagement to betrothed, Thea. While younger, recently-outed Mickey (Miles Heizer) tries to stay sane as his family members all melt down around him and he’s having trouble hooking up in a meaningful way.

Ex-Husbands is a risk-averse comedy of generational malaise that still manages to charm via its easy interactions and doleful performances. Peter gifts his father a framed poster of Ernst Lubitsch’s über-farce, To Be or Not to Be, and there are hints of that film early on when it turns out that Peter accidentally booked the same resort in Tulum that Nick and his squad were headed to for a bachelor party, that things are headed in a similarly screwball direction. Contrived set-up aside, there are no more curious coincidences or wild plot machinations, as Peter and the boys have a pleasant, uneventful time together, reflecting on their failures and attempting, often unsuccessfully, to boost collective morale.

Dunne in particular makes for a compelling lead, his character never really presenting as the annoying, self-involved derp that his family claim he is. And the film is all the better for its measured approach to characterisation rather than dumping lots of comic challenges on the players’ laps. Peter’s obsessive dark side only emerges right at the end, when his dedication to the institution of marriage – even for divorcees – is presented in a chillingly eccentric coda.

The post Ex-Husbands – first-look review appeared first on Little White Lies.

The blood is red, the screens are green, the language is blue and there’s a strange, juvenile fascination with yellow liquids in Scott Waugh’s film that also happens to recall the substance whose colour derives from mixing all of those mentioned above (clue: not chocolate).

In this business, when you go and see a movie that ends up being bad, you kinda just shrug it off and think, “Some you win…” knowing there will be another one dropping down the chute imminently. Yet there’s a whole lot of material in this film that you can’t quite believe made it all the way past basic quality checking. Almost everything about it betrays an insatiably violent contempt for the intelligence of a paying audience. It is, in many ways, a horror movie.

Expend4bles, for those gullible and needy enough to possess the desire to see a third sequel to an already-reliably abysmal action franchise, genuinely feels like an exercise not in how a film can entertain an audience, but what it can get away with in terms of cutting creative corners (and, one imagines, costs).

So what have we actually got here? We got 240p stock footage establishing shots that look like they were ripped from YouTube circa 2003. We got digital effects work that makes the promo video for Dire Straits’ Money for Nothing look like Avatar. We got stabbing. We got haunting, soulless, one-take performances that feel like the actors may have just received some terrible news directly before the cameras rolled (cf Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson). We got one-liners that play like they were holding text in the script, awaiting a polish that never came. We got more stabbing. We got action choreography filmed in extreme close-up to give the impression that the actors are doing something spectacular. We got a character named Jumbo Shrimp. We got even more stabbing.

Knowing how difficult it is to get any film into production, let alone past the script stage, there is no logical reason for something like Expend4bles to exist beyond the fact that it’s going to land its makers a handsome pay day. This is not a film about heroism and camaraderie, it’s about margins and bottom lines. The calculation here is that reshoots, post-production primping, or even doing one more take to get the energy up, have been vetoed from the off. You watch this film not so much in anger, but with the shrugging, pitiful sense that each of its stars will be able to buy a new saloon car, or have their pool retiled.

The original concept for The Expendables series involved banding together the action icons of yore and posting them off on a Dirty Dozen-style, impossible-odds sortie where, of course, they manage to win out the day. They’re almost still cleaving to the formula, with Sly Stallone, who now at 77 has understandably accepted a role in which he has to do the minimum amount of standing, leading a crew which combines the old guard (Dolph Lundgren, Randy Couture, Jason Statham) with a side of young(er) newbies (Megan Fox, Tony Jaa, Iko Uwais, Jacob Scipio).

There are some stolen nukes and… well, you can pretty much fill in the blanks from there. The only thing that comes close to impressing here is Statham’s athleticism, and he’s the only one here who’s able to credibly fake his commitment to this long-lost cause. Jaa and Uwais, world-class martial artists who actually have something to give to the camera, are so poorly filmed and choreographed that all we actually see is a blur of flailing limbs.

A general tendency for critical hyperbole can often make a quite bad film, or an innocently misfiring one, seem more offensive than it actually is. In cinematic terms, Expend4bles is the encrusted leavings which sit at the bottom of the cultural drip tray, a work that doesn‘t even manage to own its own camp value. It should henceforth act as a relative yardstick for how bad things can really be.

ANTICIPATION.
About as welcome as having to take the bins out in the rain. 1

ENJOYMENT.
The bar was already so low, and yet this film manages to sneak under it. 1

IN RETROSPECT.
Any who sees this is a sucker. 1

Directed by
Scott Waugh

Starring
Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Megan Fox

The post Expend4bles review – the living end appeared first on Little White Lies.

Katherine Hepburn didn’t do TV. “It was gospel,” veteran talk show host Dick Cavett would later recall, “her privacy was practically enforced by the military”. But in 1973, Cavett did the impossible and managed to coax Miss Hepburn, then a spry 66-year-old, out of her shell and in front of a television camera. Her on-air debut turned out to be a sprawling two-hour conversation, broadcast across two evenings, that remains a landmark in American broadcasting.

Perhaps it was Cavett’s urbane public persona that helped to draw Hepburn out of hiding. The Dick Cavett Show had already been on the air for five years, and in that time it had cultivated a refined and metropolitan reputation that was unique among contemporaneous talk shows. He had been a comedian, and he was amusing when he needed to be, but his show put a premium on long-form conversations over anecdotes and one-liners.

Cavett himself wasn’t especially hip but by the early seventies his show had accrued no small amount of countercultural cache – it’s hard to imagine Johnny Carson looking quite so at home with David Crosby or John and Yoko. But he also made a conscious effort to bridge the generational gap, often pairing fashionable younger guests with older ‘living legends’. One famous instance of this was a 1970 edition of the programme that sat rocker Janis Joplin across from silent movie queen Gloria Swanson.

If Cavett’s intent had been to scandalise Swanson with Joplin, he failed. “I have seen everything,” announced Swanson. “I was in Germany when boys were dressing like girls,” adding that “a lot of what goes on today” is merely a “bad imitation” of the roaring twenties. If anything, it was Swanson who scandalised Joplin. At one point, the subject of Swanson’s dabbling with sculpture is broached, as well as her desire to sculpt Cavett. “I want to do his head,” she purrs. “Do you know what I mean by that?” “Yes I do,” replies Joplin, before bursting into a fit of earthy laughter. Cavett doesn’t know where to look – bashfulness was one of his specialties.

There’s something particularly satisfying about seeing female movie stars of an Old Hollywood vintage stretch their legs on The Dick Cavett Show, free from the strictures, fixers, and muzzles they will have known while under contract. Cavett’s affect was well-suited to this type of guest too – he strikes a good balance between gentle flirtation and earnest, grandson-like reverence. Bette Davis was a recurring guest, and her affection for Cavett is palpable, although this didn’t extend to all of the customary talk show pleasantries – “I’m sick of all the kissing on talk shows,” she opined while rebuffing Cavett on a 1971 edition. “I’m against it.”

One thing Davis seems keen to stress to both Cavett and the audience is quite how ‘no nonsense’ she is. She recalls how unglamourous she felt upon her arrival in Hollywood. “Imagine you’ve just seen Jean Harlow,” she scoffs, “and then I come through the gate.” However, she’s never exactly self-deprecating, characterising herself as closer to a legitimate theatre actress than a mere movie star. “I just dressed in an ordinary little Yankee way, and they [Hollywood] didn’t understand people like that.”

However, she did have some kind words for some of her Hollywood contemporaries, particularly her Now, Voyager co-star Claude Rains. “Was he a happy man?”, asks Cavett. “I don’t think as group actors are what I call ‘happy people’,” Davis replies, as an air of melancholy descends upon the studio. “I could not say [Claude] was a happy person,” she continues, “but he was witty, amusing, and beautiful. Really beautiful.” Rains had died four years earlier, and here Davis reflects on the passing of her peers thusly: “It’s going to be a different world. We’re not going to have the same kind of person anymore.” Cavett solemnly concurs. “I’m not going to sit around and moan about the past,” she adds, quickly composing herself.

Despite her general candidness and the show’s loose atmosphere, Davis’s reticence to “moan” extends to her treatment at Warner Brothers, at least initially. While Cavett commends her bravery for duking it out with the studio in court, Davis is hesitant to characterise Jack Warner as anything other than a firm but fair paternal figure.

“We had a smashing relationship,” she asserts. Unconvinced, Cavett gently presses Davis on this point. He points out that if three or so of her films had flopped in a row, she would have been persona non grata on the backlot. Ultimately, Davis must concede that “from their side, [there was] no affection.” Her whole demeanour changes as she starts to deflate in her seat. “Eighteen years at Warners, I built many soundstages there. Never got a letter of goodbye.” It’s heartbreaking, but one can’t help but feel there must have been some catharsis in saying it out loud.

When Katherine Hepburn arrived on The Dick Cavett Show set, she hadn’t come for a taping – she hadn’t even agreed to make an appearance. As per Cavett’s intro to the first broadcast, “She agreed to come into my studio for a test only to check things out to see how it looked and felt.” It was there and then that she agreed to an interview – without a studio audience.

The Hepburn interview really is a remarkable piece of television. On one hand, she meets our expectations – she is every bit the untouchable goddess of The Philadelphia Story, the skittish oddball of Bringing Up Baby, and the regal older lady of The African Queen and Summertime. On the other, there’s something startlingly unvarnished about her here. “Fear is what you and I suffer from trying to be fascinating,” she tells Cavett. “It’s embarrassing.” Hepburn’s charisma is irrepressible, but so are her jangling nerves. “I think the whole human race is petrified,” she remarks, chuckling to herself. “I’m a good coverer-upper.”

The conversation is long and winding, prone to the occasional dead-end, but it’s at its most fascinating when Hepburn unpacks and reflects upon her stardom. In her own estimation, she had “the right kind of looks, the right kind of voice,” as well as standing for “something just a little bit new”. She is, of course, referring obliquely to the feminist streak that ran through her star persona, and Cavett is eager to know her thoughts on the ‘women’s lib’ movement of the seventies, but she seems uncomfortable speaking on the matter. “We did that a very, very long time ago” is all that she will say at first. Later, she attempts to clarify her position: “I can’t see the difference between any of us. Can you?”

Much of the interview deals with gender. This makes sense, a key part of Hepburn’s appeal was her casual flaunting of gender norms. “There are men,” she says, “who are all the same, and then there are women like me who have lived like men.” Some of her positions on the matter are more inscrutable. At one point she insists, without explanation, that a proliferation of feminine men and masculine women is being caused by “overpopulation”. Dick points out that the usual explanation for effeminate boys is overbearing mothers. “Everything is blamed on women anyway,” Hepburn replies, “but they’re trying to put that right.”

The Dick Cavett Show may have been an outlier in its own time, but it’s impossible to imagine such a patient programme surviving in the current TV talk show landscape, so much of which is geared towards bite-sized virality. Podcasts are probably its nearest equivalent, but it’s a shame to think these kinds of conversations now occupy that relatively marginal cultural space – Katherine Hepburn was appointment viewing on network television, two nights in a row.

Cavett had a knack for sweetly and surreptitiously breaking down his guests’ defences, and the female stars of Old Hollywood were some of the toughest nuts he ever tried to crack. As their marathon interview drew to a close, he told Hepburn “I have never enjoyed anything more than this in my life.” “You know something funny?” she replied, “I’ve enjoyed it too.”

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When Saving Private Ryan first screened 25 years ago, critics and war veterans alike cited it as the most realistic portrayal of war ever seen on film. This was not the World War II of The Guns of Navarone or The Great Escape; Saving Private Ryan – particularly its D-Day landing sequence – aimed to emulate the terror, fear and unimaginable violence of war through a realism-led approach to its cinematography.

Despite the complexity of Steven Spielberg’s approach to the war scenes, pre-production on Saving Private Ryan was significantly truncated by the director experiencing a particularly prolific streak, shooting Jurassic Park sequel The Lost World and historical drama Amistad back to back. Spielberg and cinematographer Janusz Kaminski (who he had just worked with on Schindler’s List) were heavily influenced by the contemporary war photography of George Stevens and Robert Capa, as well as the propaganda films of Leni Riefenstahl, and the accounts given by actual veterans, including Spielberg’s own father Arnold who was drafted into the military in 1942.

In the past, Spielberg – who was born the year after his father returned from the war – has been open about how the Second World War loomed large in his consciousness. His father would tell war stories and veterans would frequent his house as a child, while the family had an awful relationship with the Holocaust, having lost an estimated 20 relatives in the genocide.

Because of Spielberg’s close connection to the war, he knew the ways in which he didn’t want to make a war movie. The Second World War was more than a shadow on Spielberg’s career. He’d already made five films set in the period – albeit radically different ones that ranged from adventure epics to Holocaust biopics – but Saving Private Ryan felt like the director’s definitive statement on the subject as he sought to get as close to recreating war as possible.

There was a precedent of sorts for Spielberg’s boots on the ground, ‘Let’s do war as close as we can to the real thing’ approach. 1962’s The Longest Day was famously filmed on actual WW2 battlefields and Leslie Norman’s 1958 Dunkirk deployed some 2000 extras, but Spielberg yearned to take the audience inside war like never before. There were small details he learned from veterans – GI’s vomiting as they approached the beach from seasickness and fear; dead fish floating on top of the water; the blue ocean stained red with blood – that would completely immerse viewers and set the standard going forward for war films.

France’s Omaha Beach was recreated in Ireland over about four weeks to the cost of $12 million, with a cast and crew of around 1500 people, to create the D-Day Landing sequence. Spielberg and his vast team had roughly a kilometre of the shore to themselves and essentially rebuilt wartime Normandy complete with battlements, concrete bunkers and defence nests.

Spielberg shows much of the landing from a soldier’s point of view (a technique that would later heavily influence video games including Spielberg’s own brainchild the Medal of Honor series as well as the hugely successful Call of Duty franchise). For the first time, we see war through the terrified eyes of the men who were there. The subjective technique sees the camera frequently disappear underwater as the march to the beach is made. The camera literally goes up and down beneath the ocean, a technique achieved by mounting a camera on a crane on the back of a flatbed truck which was then driven into the sea. Spielberg also makes use of several handheld cameras in this sequence, all of them manoeuvring in a coordinated fashion around the lifelike set, immersing the viewer in the fog of war.

Spielberg’s recreation of the assault made use of actual Higgins boats used in the landings and to achieve the all-consuming effect of war, they rigged a section of the beach the size of a large field with blood squibs and mortar explosives, shooting usually just one or two long takes. Fake blood would often unintentionally splatter against the camera but they kept on shooting, believing it enhanced the realism, especially with the effects crew burning barrels of diesel to create flumes of black smoke in the air. The movements of the many hundreds of actors had to be choreographed to the most minute detail because of the mortars placed across the beach (amazingly the only on-set injury was an extra whose foot was run over). 

The shot where Tom Hanks makes the dash to the cliff edge was filmed in exactly that manner. Spielberg called action and hundreds of extras sprung to life, explosives were detonated, and the most famous actor in the world sprinted across a beach followed by a cameraman carrying a 34-pound camera on his shoulder. It was one of the first scenes shot and was completed in one take, setting the tone for the rest of the shoot.

This proved to be pretty gruelling if you happened to be a camera operator. Most of the film, especially the action sequences, was filmed using handheld cameras and these cameras were not light. Spielberg also wanted the camera at awkward heights such as near the ground, which meant the operators were often running around a beach, dragging a camera close to the floor while trying to avoid actual explosions, and also protecting the equipment from the sand. It was a herculean challenge of filmmaking.

On a purely technical level, Saving Private Ryan upended the war movie. It became a benchmark for depictions of war in the same way Jurassic Park was for special effects or Raging Bull was for boxing. Combined with wide praise from veterans for the film’s accuracy, you had a picture that would loom large over the next 25 years of war movies.

Ridley Scott embraced Spielberg’s immersive techniques with Black Hawk Down, implanting Saving Private Ryan’s visceral opening 20 minutes across two and a half hours in Somalia. Christopher Nolan has also been vocal about the debt his own WWII epic Dunkirk owes the film, asking Spielberg for advice on how to approach shooting, especially with regards to having an unseen enemy (both movies feature very few Nazis). 

Saving Private Ryan’s influence can also be seen in Sam Mendes’ Oscar-winning 1917. As the now viral behind-the-scenes footage of filming shows, Mendes embraced Spielberg’s practical approach to filmmaking with the final sequence requiring actor George Mackay to run 300 metres with 500 extras in the background and explosions being set off everywhere. 

Cinematic technology has evolved and heavy CGI usage has become the standard for large-scale war films, but to this day nothing beats a man and a movie camera running around on an Irish beach.

The post How Saving Private Ryan changed the war movie appeared first on Little White Lies.

Violence is upsetting only until it becomes funny; Looney Tunes teaches us this, that going far enough over the top removes the element of realism that gives acts of physical harm their power. Slitting someone’s throat can be gruesome, but bashing someone over the head with a mallet so their teeth all stick out like piano keys — now there’s comedy.

But the corollary secret to Bugs and Daffy’s success was the childlike innocence to their mischief, a comic-strip simplicity in gags seldom more mature or involved than your given knock-knock joke. And if Looney Tunes works because it thinks the way a kid does, then the comparably slap-happy Boy Kills World fails because it has the mentality of a fourteen-year-old boy coming off a three-day, Mountain Dew-fueled Xbox bender.

From the opening exposition introducing dictatrix Hilda ven der Koy (Famke Janssen) as a “bitch” in need of elimination to the utterances of such amateur-hour profanities as “fuckpuppet” and “shitweasel,” a brutalizing lack of wit makes a slog out of a beat-‘em-up that aspires to a non-stop barrage of bone-breaking gutbusters. (There’s also a touch of Whedonspeak dropped into this dialect of uncoolness.) For all its creativity about the different ways limbs can made to bend, the script faceplants in its dull quasi-adolescent sensibility that pairs the juvenile affinity for sugary cereals and Mortal Kombat with a more gratingly sophomoric stuntedness in humor. One imagines Deadpool looking down at his own hands in impotent horror, Oppenheimer-style, reckoning with what he hath wrought.

Our unnamed deaf-mute protagonist (Bill Skarsgård, his arms like rocket launchers) can communicate only in internal monologue voiceover that, despite the many tribulations he’s survived since the reigning junta killed his family, has the same oblivious cheerfulness as the puppy Will Ferrell voiced in last month’s Strays. And this Boy is a good dog indeed; from his older Asian mentor complicating a South African setting with a staunch refusal to consider its depiction of fascism relative to race, he’s learned to sit, stay, and make dead.

He’s got to fight through the royal stronghold on the night of the ruling family’s latest “culling,” working his way from one level to the next in a video game structure the script acknowledges with unclever mention of a “final boss.” The least tiresome passages come during these long arias of savagery, with Tilt-a-Whirl cinematography rushing to catch every laceration and headshot. State-of-the-art fight choreography, as well as a resourceful spirit that sees every prop as a potential weapon, have both been squandered in an otherwise repellent, paper-thin plotline building to a nonsensical twist.

First-time director Moritz Mohr made an unmistakable calling card feature, proving beyond reproach his skill as an orchestrator and stylist of action, though he’s most well-suited to the uppermost echelons of today’s Hollywood in his total disregard for story beyond its capacity to cue up empty bombast. That’s how a film with barely any plot balloons to an unaccountable run time of nearly two hours, as it piles on one display of hollow technical virtuosity after the next with no concern for wearing out its welcome.

The post Boy Kills World – first-look review appeared first on Little White Lies.

It’s interesting that Roger never reviewed the “Mortal Kombat” films, ignoring the Paul W.S. Anderson 1995 film and the dismal 1997 sequel. While the movies based on the 1992 arcade game and its many descendants have been pretty dismal (the 2021 remake is so forgettable that I forgot I reviewed it myself), the games have actually maintained their popularity and even a level of critical esteem that the creators of this mega-franchise probably couldn’t have predicted would be maintained three decades after the first fatality. The newly-released “Mortal Kombat 1” is a phenomenal fighting game, dense with customization options for a beloved cast of characters, complete with various modes to explore, and promising with updates that include future fighters and rotating seasons of content. It’s about to get very crowded on the game landscape with AAA titles like “Spider-Man 2,” “Assassin’s Creed: Mirage,” “Alan Wake II,” and the latest “Call of Duty” game (oh, there’s also a Mario title coming), but I suspect I’ll still be honing my special moves in “Mortal Kombat 1” when the calendar turns over.

Instead of continuing directly after the acclaimed 2019 “Mortal Kombat 11,” the creators of this title revert numerically to “Mortal Kombat 1,” which technically makes this a reboot, although it contains many of the same mechanics as the last title and the excellent “Injustice 2,” also from developer NetherRealm Studios and publisher Warner Bros. Games. The biggest in-fight addition is the inclusion of something called Kameo Fighters, allies for your main competitor who can be brought in during special moves and Fatal Blows, which incorporate the X-ray effect graphics seen in “Mortal Kombat X.” As for modes, the developers include something great called Invasions, which looks like a board game as your fighter enters different modes like combat, towers, and even shops that give the mode a bit of an RPG element. Instead of just mashing buttons, your fighter can use stat-boosting items like Relics or combat-centric items called Talismans. And, to this player, Invasions are the best way to farm customization aspects like new outfits/palettes, gear, and even finishing moves. They will be updated every six weeks or so in a season format, reflecting the live-service game trend that has become so prevalent with regularly updating hits like “Call of Duty,” “Destiny,” “Fortnite,” and so many more. It’s an incredibly addictive mode that brings something familiar but new to a franchise in its fourth decade.

Believe it or not, there’s a story in most modern “Mortal Kombat” games, which basically amounts to extended animated cut scenes intertwined with fights. The narrative here reflects the reboot nature of the game, with Liu Kang recreating the universe to basically try and save it again, allying with Kung Lao, Raiden, Johnny Cage, and Kenshi Takahashi (the sword-wielding badass who has been my favorite fighter so far this game) to compete in a Mortal Kombat tournament for the fate of Earthrealm. From there, it goes to places that wouldn’t conceivably make sense to anyone not deeply versed in the world of “Mortal Kombat,” but know that it’s like watching an animated “Mortal Kombat” movie that you get to jump into every now and then to break up the mediocre dialogue and confusing plotting. It does, however, contain a more fascinating cast list than the 2021 theatrical release arguably had, with Kelly Hu as Li Mei, Megan Fox as Nitara, Phil LaMarr as Geras, and even a skin that can turn Johnny Cage into the one and only Jean-Claude Van Damme. It’s also worth noting that some major DC characters are joining the game in the future as DLC fighters, including Omni-Man from “Invincible,” Peacemaker from the show of the same name, and Homelander from “The Boys,” which could add J.K. Simmons, John Cena, and Antony Starr to this vocal line-up (presuming the get the original actors to do the voice work).

As for the kombat, it’s fluid and wickedly addictive this time, a typical collection of easy-to-administer fighting moves and more complex combos. The result is a game that’s easy to jump into and play if someone only has a few minutes or wants to lose hours. The core of “Mortal Kombat” will always be the actual fighting, and it’s never clunky or glitchy here with consistent physics most of the time—there are some environmental aspects, usually in towers, that can be frustrating to figure out. As for graphics, it looks phenomenal, especially with the detailed backgrounds and adrenalizing finishing moves. Adding Kameo Fighters adds more variety as each brings their own tag-team move. (I’m a fan of Sareena, for the record.) They, too, can be customized with new gear.

“Mortal Kombat” has evolved from that 1992 arcade game to three features, multiple animated spin-offs, and now a dozen official titles in the main franchise. What struck me most about “Mortal Kombat 1” was that this isn’t just traditional nostalgia bait, a reboot of a game that people once loved in the hope that they’ll love it again. The developers of this title have strived to keep “Mortal Kombat” relevant by incorporating season updates, new characters, top-notch fighting animation, fluid controls, and deep customization. Fans of the series would buy anything with that dragon logo on it and playable versions of Scorpion and Sub-Zero, but “Mortal Kombat 1” gives them and the generations below those original fans more than just the bare-bones needed to make a profit. So many franchises have come and gone in the decades since “Mortal Kombat.” This one still has so much fight in it.

The publisher provided a review copy of this title. It’s now available for PS5, Xbox, PC, and Switch (although be warned that the version there is reportedly a glitchy mess). 

With the three major fall festivals—Venice, Telluride, and Toronto—all in the books, the 2024 Oscar season is now unofficially underway. All of the highly touted films that premiere at the fall fests tend to add more films and names into the conversation than they remove, and this year’s fests didn’t see any “The Son”–level critical flops that were so catastrophic they immediately ended a film’s awards chances. 

So, what did we learn about the Oscars from three weeks of getting immersed in mountains, canals, and poutine? Maybe not that much, actually. But at the very least, we learned what questions we should be asking. With that in mind, let’s look at the big races through the lens of the most interesting question looming over each category. 

Best Picture: How Many Fall Fest Premieres Punched Their Tickets?

As we entered Labor Day Weekend, four of the ten Best Picture slots appeared to have been spoken for: the twin box office juggernauts of “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer,” Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon” (which won rave reviews at Cannes but won’t open theatrically until October 20), and the summer’s justifiably gushed-over indie drama, “Past Lives.” With most of the year’s other Oscar hopefuls playing the fall fests, how many now feel like probable nominees? 

The closest to a lock is “Poor Things,” Yorgos Lanthimos’ follow-up to 2018’s “The Favourite,” which features Emma Stone in a story that infuses the Frankenstein archetype with comedy and graphic sex. While the film might have initially sounded too weird and transgressive for the Oscars, that perception dramatically shifted after winning the top prize in Venice and receiving almost universally excellent reviews. 

That still leaves five slots, so what else feels like a reasonably safe bet? Alexander Payne’s “The Holdovers” also received strong reviews and was seen as a major return to form for Payne after 2017’s disappointing “Downsizing.” And Cord Jefferson’s debut, “American Fiction,” won the coveted People’s Choice Award in Toronto, which is considered a major Oscar predictor; 14 of the last 15 winners have gone on to Best Picture nominations, including the last 11 in a row. But from there, it gets much more complicated.

Bradley Cooper’s “Maestro,” Sofia Coppola’s “Priscilla,” and Michael Mann’s “Ferrari” all premiered to strong reviews in Venice, while “Rustin” and “NYAD” delighted audiences in Toronto. But with “Oppenheimer” seemingly a lock, how many biopics can realistically get nominated? Three widely adored international films from Cannes continued to make their case at the fall fests: “The Zone of Interest,” “Perfect Days,” and Palme d’Or winner “Anatomy of a Fall.” Any of the three could ride a “Drive My Car”–like wave into Best Picture contention if they galvanize the Academy’s growing international contingent, but they could also all split the vote. And a few other well-received films from the fall fests could become contenders if they really land with audiences: David Fincher’s “The Killer,” Andrew Haigh’s “All of Us Strangers,” Emerald Fennell’s “Saltburn,” Todd Haynes’ “May December” (which premiered at Cannes and will also play the New York Film Festival), and the Sundance hit “Fair Play” (which was also a Gala premiere in Toronto). 

That’s already 13 films fighting for what looks like the final three to four nominations, and two major would-be contenders haven’t even premiered yet: Ridley Scott’s long-anticipated “Napoleon,” starring Joaquin Phoenix, and the new musical adaptation of “The Color Purple,” which opens on Christmas Day. In other words, prepare yourselves for a lot of blistering oppo takes over the next four months. 

Best Director: Is it Finally Christopher Nolan’s Year?

Nolan has been nominated for five Oscars, but somehow, only one of those was for Best Director (for 2017’s “Dunkirk”). The stunning success of “Oppenheimer” may strike voters as the perfect opportunity to honor one of the most adored and successful filmmakers of the 21st century. In case you missed the news, “Oppenheimer” recently became the highest-grossing non-action/sci-fi drama ever, and for a three-hour, partially black-and-white history lesson mostly featuring long-dead scientists talking to one another, that’s an achievement the Academy may find too irresistible to ignore. 

Who could reasonably compete against Nolan? Three names immediately come to mind. Greta Gerwig is Nolan’s Barbenheimer partner in crime, and if jaw-dropping financial success could propel Nolan to the win, Gerwig has to be considered a serious contender for the same reason. Martin Scorsese has still only won a single Oscar (against 14 nominations), and “Killers of the Flower Moon” could become one of the most acclaimed films in his career. And if “Poor Things” musters in audiences anything close to the gushing enthusiasm it elicited from critics, Yorgos Lanthimos could also become a serious contender. 

There’s a great chance those will be four of the five nominees. If that happens, then who has the best odds of taking the last slot? Bradley Cooper (“Maestro”), Sofia Coppola (“Priscilla”), David Fincher (“The Killer”), Andrew Haigh (“All of Us Strangers”), Todd Haynes (“May December”), Cord Jefferson (“American Fiction”), Michael Mann (“Ferrari”), Alexander Payne (“The Holdovers”), Ridley Scott (“Napoleon”), and Celine Song (“Past Lives”) will all have a chance to stake their claim. But the Academy’s Directors Branch leans heavily international, esoteric, and arthouse, so more than likely, the final slot will go to an international auteur like Jonathan Glazer (“The Zone of Interest”), Justine Triet (“Anatomy of a Fall”), or the great Wim Wenders (“Perfect Days”), who has been nominated three times for Best Documentary Feature, but never for his narrative films. 

Best Actor: Are We Already Down to Six Serious Contenders?

As summer ended, two actors felt safely in contention: Cillian Murphy as the titular “Oppenheimer” and Leonardo DiCaprio for “Killers of the Flower Moon.” In what is usually an impossibly deep category, the big question heading into the fall fests was how many additional names would insert themselves into the fight for those other three slots. But shockingly, the answer might only be four. 

That list starts with Paul Giamatti, who anchors “The Holdovers” with a wonderfully vulnerable portrayal of an ornery academic. Alexander Payne’s films have a long history of earning nominations for their leading men (including Jack Nicholson, George Clooney, and Bruce Dern), and Giamatti is widely seen as criminally under-rewarded. That descriptor also applies to two other major contenders, Jeffrey Wright (“American Fiction”) and Colman Domingo (“Rustin”), both beloved actors who have never gotten their due and finally have the meaty roles to change that. And then there’s Bradley Cooper (“Maestro”), who can’t be counted out no matter how many times his prosthetic nose trends on Twitter. 

Could anyone else break into that top six and seriously challenge for a nomination? Peter Sarsgaard won Best Actor in Venice for “Memory,” and Glen Powell won raves for his hilarious and charismatic performance in “Hit Man,” but neither film is likely to get released this year. Alden Ehrenreich (“Fair Play”), David Strathairn (“A Little Prayer”), and Gael García Bernal (“Cassandro”) all received Best Actor buzz out of Sundance, but their films have significantly cooled off since then. And Michael Fassbender (“The Killer”), Adam Driver (“Ferrari”), Andrew Scott (“All of Us Strangers”), Jamie Foxx (“The Burial”), and Mads Mikkelsen (“The Promised Land”) all received acclaim at the fall fests, but the enthusiasm likely wasn’t effusive enough to launch them into serious contention. 

That means the best bet to challenge the current top six is probably a performance we haven’t seen yet. Three major candidates come to mind: Joaquin Phoenix as the titular “Napoleon,” Kingsley Ben-Adir in “Bob Marley: One Love” (which is scheduled to open next January but may opt for a late-December Oscar-qualifying run), and Sir Anthony Hopkins playing none other than Sigmund Freud in a movie called “Freud’s Last Session” (which is still in production, but will reportedly open this year). 

Best Actress: Who Will Break Annette Bening’s Heart This Time? 

Let’s get one thing out of the way: Annette Bening could actually, for real, finally win Best Actress this year for her tough, physical, and demanding performance as swimmer Diana Nyad in “Nyad.” She worked her ass off in the film, both on camera and in prep, and she’ll certainly be a sentimental favorite among a significant swath of Academy voters. But this is a stacked field, and given the Academy’s recent resistance to narrative and “they’re due” wins (recall the shocking losses that befell Glenn Close, Chadwick Boseman, and Sylvester Stallone in recent years), it does Bening no favors to call her the favorite. 

Who is the favorite? The answer may lie in a reunion from “The Favourite.” In her latest collaboration with Yorgos Lanthimos, Emma Stone dazzled critics at both Venice and Telluride. When a role is both the most acclaimed and most daring of a major star’s career, Oscar voters often find that combo irresistible. But right up there with Stone is Margot Robbie, who not only led “Barbie” to the year’s highest box office gross, but she also shepherded the film into existence as its producer. It’s easy to imagine her incredible accomplishment culminating in a Best Actress win. 

But the major contenders don’t end there. Lily Gladstone is the top-billed actor in “Killers of the Flower Moon,” and she provides the film’s emotional backbone. Cailee Spaeny won Best Actress in Venice for her titular portrayal of Priscilla Presley in Sofia Coppola’s “Priscilla,” and given the child-bride nature of the story, it’s sure to be a much-debated film that could make a dent in the cultural zeitgeist. 

Those could be our five nominees, but several other actresses have a great chance to break in. That list starts with Sandra Hüller, who owns the screen in the Palme d’Or–winning “Anatomy of a Fall.” Hüller has had an incredible year (she also co-stars in “The Zone of Interest”) and fluently speaks three languages between the two films. It’s easy to picture voters wanting to honor her. That also applies to Greta Lee for her bilingual and deeply emotional performance in “Past Lives,” and it will surely help her that the film’s cast was just granted a SAG exemption to campaign for the film. 

Those seven names should all have an excellent chance at making the final five, but we’re not done yet. By all accounts, Carrie Mulligan is actually the central performance in Bradley Cooper’s “Maestro,” and she received top billing. Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor anchors Ava DuVernay’s ambitious “Origin,” which was a bit divisive in Venice and Toronto, but those who love it do so wholeheartedly. Natalie Portman, playing an actress researching a difficult role in “May December,” could play like catnip to Academy voters. As the star of the upcoming musical version of “The Color Purple,” Fantasia Barrino could easily find herself in the race if the film is a critical and/or commercial hit. 

And there are even some legit dark horse candidates. It currently doesn’t look like Jessica Chastain (“Memory”) and Kate Winslet (“Lee”) will see their films released this year, but they could become fast contenders if that changes. Phoebe Dynevor is incredible in the psycho-sexual, gender-dynamics drama “Fair Play,” and if it really hits with audiences when it premieres on Netflix in a few weeks, she could ride that momentum to a nomination. And Leonie Benesch is magnetic in the German Oscar entry “The Teachers’ Lounge,” which could be a strong contender for Best International Film. 

Best Supporting Actor: Is it Still Ryan Gosling vs. Robert Downey Jr.?

When Barbenheimer had its grand summer moment, competing takes were flying left and right that either Ryan Gosling would surely win Best Supporting Actor for hilariously embodying Ken, or that Robert Downey Jr. would surely win Best Supporting Actor for his scenery-chewing in “Oppenheimer.” 

Either could absolutely still happen, but are those still the two best bets? Yes and no. While no one else has entered the race with the heat and momentum of Gosling and Downey Jr., the field has certainly gotten a lot deeper. But what’s interesting about this year’s Best Supporting Actor race is that it’s flush with pairs of actors from the same film, all of whom may hurt one another’s chances. 

Robert Downey Jr. may already be competing against some of his “Oppenheimer” cast mates, starting with Matt Damon (whose performance is less showy in the moment but arguably more memorable). And three of the other most acclaimed films of the year could each launch multiple contenders into the field: Mark Ruffalo, Willem Dafoe, and Ramy Youssef in “Poor Things”; Robert De Niro and Jesse Plemons in “Killers of the Flower Moon”; and Paul Mescal and Jamie Bell in “All of Us Strangers.” Other possibilities include John Magaro (“Past Lives”), newcomer Dominic Sessa (“The Holdovers”), Jacob Elordi (“Priscilla”), Sterling K. Brown (“American Fiction”), Tommy Lee Jones (“The Burial”), and Colman Domingo or Corey Hawkins from the upcoming “The Color Purple.” But at this moment, it still feels like a Gosling v. Downey Jr. showdown.

Best Supporting Actress: Where Are the Frontrunners?

Every year, one major category seems to emerge from the fall fests without a true frontrunner, and this year, it’s Best Supporting Actress. There are plenty of worthy candidates, but none have really emerged from the pack. Who could take the lead? 

As with so many of these races, the conversation begins with Barbenheimer. America Ferrara is, in many ways, the emotional center of “Barbie,” and she even gives the film’s most memorable speech. And though “Oppenheimer” is mostly three hours of men talking to each other, Emily Blunt and Florence Pugh make a real impression on the film. 

The fall fests launched several names into the mix, including Jodie Foster, who anchors “NYAD” by being the most likable and sympathetic character; Da’Vine Joy Randolph, who provides a wonderful counterweight to a film (“The Holdovers”) that could have otherwise devolved into frustrating unawareness of its own white privilege; Penélope Cruz, who by all accounts steals the show in “Ferrari”; and Rosamund Pike, who does the same in “Saltburn.”

But the winner of this category could easily go to a movie that premiered earlier in the year. Sandra Hüller is terrifying as a Nazi wife in “The Zone of Interest,” who cares more about showing off her garden than she does about what’s happening on the other side of the walls at Auschwitz. Viola Davis nearly runs away with "Air" as Michael Jordan’s mother. And Julianne Moore is given a difficult character to wrestle with in “May December.” 

And then two huge ensembles could each launch several candidates into the race if they really hit with audiences. Issa Rae, Erika Alexander, and Tracee Ellis-Ross all take turns stealing scenes in “American Fiction,” and “The Color Purple” has any number of meaty roles—two of which are played by Taraji P. Henson and Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor—that could end up being the film’s breakout.

It begins with your standard shot, a camera tracking through a modest but deteriorated home. In the abode’s hallways are dead, crumpled bodies. Screams can be heard emanating from an ajar door leading to the basement. We travel down creaky stairs to a body burned so badly that steam is still rising from the charcoaled skin. Its hand is outstretched to a glass jar filled with black smoke. This jar is merely a vessel, a metaphor for the difficulties faced by the Indian inhabitants of this white suburb. 

“It Lives Inside,” the feature directorial debut from Bishal Dutta, trades in cultural mythology and rote atmospheric frights to tell the story of Samidha (a captivating Megan Suri). A smart, very popular student Samidha—she goes by Sam—is the kind of typical teenager with an overbearing mom (Neeru Bajwa) and a crush on the popular boy (Gage Marsh) at school common for these films. Her former best friend, Tamira (Mohana Krishnan), is well, going through it. Sleep-deprived and talking to herself, she totes the same glass jar we saw earlier. 

It’s enough to worry her teacher Joyce (Betty Gabriel), who approaches Sam and asks her to talk with Tamira. Sam, unfortunately, doesn’t want to be associated with the “crazy” Brown person and rebuffs Joyce’s pleas to stick together. She also ignores Tamira’s story about a specter haunting her. Sam doesn’t believe her friend until she accidentally breaks the jar. Tamira mysteriously goes missing; the creepily designed ghoul, composed of tiny teeth, comes to Sam’s dreams and begins attacking others around her. What follows is a movie that wants to be a teen movie and an allegory for the immigrant experience but never wholly coheres. 

Many will compare the mechanics of the film’s monster, a Pishach, to “The Babadook.” Both beings demonstrate a desire to isolate their victims and work on their psyche. But the mythical being from Hindu and Buddhist mythology predates Jennifer Kent’s film, speaking to the universality of how loneliness can warp the brain. The film translates that sense of othering, leading to assimilation, that can happen to Black and Brown people amid a white ecosystem. Sam, for instance, doesn’t want to go by her Indian name; she hangs out with micro-aggressive white kids over Tamira; she rarely speaks Hindi anymore and doesn’t bring anyone over to her home. Those decisions put her at odds with her traditionalist mother, causing your prototypical friction between parents and first-generation Americans to arise. 

One wishes Dutta pulled the weight of assimilation further, closer to what Remi Weekes did with “His House,” another horror flick similarly affixed to the immigrant experience. There are some hints that Dutta wants to take that route: We learn how the monster may have origins back in India and that it has passed between multiple Indian families, individuals who also feel isolated. But Dutta is too concerned with fashioning a less-than-successful suburban teen narrative. 

The primary reason Sam wants to fit in, as with any teen, but especially someone afraid of the cultural repercussions that come from being different, is for social cache. When one of her teenage friends is murdered in her presence, however, we never see the ramifications for Sam at school. She just continues to go to class. For an area suspicious of Brown people, these pearl-clutching white folks certainly aren’t searching for any answers. There’s no police presence, no outreach from the kid’s parents, no confrontation between Sam and literally anybody in this tiny community. It simply makes no sense. If you want to be a teen movie, you must keep viewers in that milieu rather than relying on the basic building blocks cobbled from other, better films.  

The visual language restricts the viewer too: While Dutta and cinematographer Matthew Lynn rely on close-ups (granting an immersive touch), they also love copying Spike Lee’s double dolly shot. Rather than waiting for a key moment to unleash it, however, they use the move three times, each less successful in translating the interior angst felt by Sam than the last. Bad match cuts meant to instill horror fall flat, too, as does the basic sound design. The final freakout, a showdown in a basement between Sam and the monster, stretches on for far too long, losing rhythm and pace as Dutta maneuvers for an avenue to a sequel. 

Telling an Indian-American horror story, particularly one set in suburbia, should have allowed for plenty of rich opportunities. With major deficiencies like plot, themes, and tension holding Dutta’s film back, “It Lives Inside” is merely average on the outside.

Now playing in theaters. 

A family vacation is off to a bumpy start in Luis De Filippis’ feature debut, “Something You Said Last Night.” Ren (Carmen Madonia) is stealing puffs from her illicit vape to cope with the stress of life when her disapproving mom, Mona (Ramona Milano), isn’t watching. Her sister Siena (Paige Evans) looks like annoyance personified, disgusted that she’s been dragged out to a vacation in cottage country that even their dad Guido (Joey Parro) can’t muster enough enthusiasm for to stop scrolling on his cell phone. His daughters are similarly glued to their screens as if they were waiting out the vacation so they can pile back into the car. While Siena finds a little summer love as a distraction, her sister Ren barely tolerates her mom’s incessant scolding. As tensions in the Canadian-Italian family come to a boil, just when will the arguments begin? 

De Filippis’ family drama is a taut domestic number, with each character’s mounting frustration taking turns escalating into a series of volatile fights. The unspoken resentment of many years, parents’ disappointments, and the tried and true conflict of sibling rivalry pour out into the rented kitchen and living room like steam escaping from a kettle. But De Filippis’ “Something You Said Last Night” isn’t just one big family war game either. It’s just as much about the smaller, quieter pains of feeling like your parents won’t listen, or your kids are disrespecting you. Her camera captures both sides' silent eye rolls and exasperated sighs. No one is an outright villain, and everyone feels like they’re in the right about picking each fight. Perhaps what's most is disturbing is how familiar this drama feels: sisters fighting over petty things and trading catty insults to get back at one another, mom’s needling questions and her outsized responses when she gets an answer she doesn’t like, dad looking silently on, a touch hurt and maybe even confused as to why everyone else is screaming loud enough to be heard outside. Yet, these few moments of peace, of inside jokes and hugs, prove there’s more to this family than verbal spats. 

Although there are conflicts aplenty, from arguing over a hat that takes a surprising amount of time to resolve to barely tolerating a pottery painting session with mom to not texting after leaving all night, De Filippis almost entirely skips mentioning that her main character is a trans woman. Ren is just who she is, and although the family fights can get pretty mean, no one picks on her for being a trans woman. She is accepted by her family, and even if she butts heads with her mother almost constantly, Mona is the first to defend her daughter against any ignorant comments. De Filippis, also a trans woman, focuses instead on exploring the relationship dynamics in the family and their many highs and lows in a few short days. 

Madonia, who plays Ren, finds the perfect sense of mid-twenties millennial ennui—that uncertainty about the direction of one’s life, the creeping sense that there’s more to the world than you may possibly afford, the clashing desires to be independent but still need the occasional parental support. Tall and willowy, Ren is one of the calmer personalities in the group, but she’s just as expressive when it comes to her body language, betraying a little childish resentment whenever fighting with her mom or sister. She’s had a taste of independence away from home and doesn’t want to give it up or feel like a burden to her parents. Ren acts guarded from the rest as if she is keeping an emotional distance even if she knows she has to move back. 

Playing up that sense of bygone family vacations, De Filippis and cinematographer Norm Li filmed “Something You Said Last Night” on 35mm, giving the movie a nostalgic quality that makes even a crowded shoreline and sandwiches in the sun look good. De Filippis surfaces these memories and feelings in a way that is specific to this family but is very relatable for any one of us who have fought with siblings in our adulthood, unsure how to break bad news to our parents, and how coming out as a writer will always disappoint moms. This family isn’t picture perfect, but the way De Filippis tells their story is pretty flawless.

Now playing in theaters. 

Mark Cousins is equally known for film writing and filmmaking. The two overlap to such an extent that by if you tried to draw a Venn diagram showing the relationship between them, it would just be a circle. A critic, scholar, programmer and documentarian, Cousins is best known for "The Story of Film: An Odyssey” and its variants, including "A Story of Children and Film" and "The Story of Film: The New Generation” as well as for more, shall we say, idiosyncratic works. "The Eyes of Orson Welles" is framed as a letter to the director, who died in 1985, while "What is this Film Called Love?" is a walking tour of Mexico City with Russian filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein (1898-1948) as imaginary travel companion, and "Bigger than the Shining," a film about copyright and the question of whether two people can every really see the "same" film, was only shown once and then intentionally destroyed. Cousins works so intuitively and personally, often generating whole projects off a sudden insight or inspiration ("A Story of Children and Film" was sparked by looking at home video footage of his niece and nephew) that the results are necessarily going to be hit and miss.  

"The Storms of Jeremy Thomas," about the career of one of the most important film producers of the last 50 years, is one of Cousins' best and most entrancing films. It's a "road movie" that follows Thomas, the producer of "The Last Emperor," "Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence," "Sexy Beast," "Crash," "The Naked Lunch," and other notable features, as they drive from the UK to the Cannes Film Festival, with both Thomas and his biographer ruminating on what the work means and where it came from. As is usually the case with Cousins, it's impossible to coldly analyze why this movie feels so on-point while others might seem half-baked, and there will surely be reviews contrary to the one you're reading.  

This one has a different feel from a lot of the others, partly because even though the films Cousins name-checks are well-known or semi-known (at least to the sort of person inclined to seek this documentary out), in terms of his human subject he's got a blank canvas to paint on. Thomas is a friend of Cousins and has a long and impressive resume, but his name is largely unknown to the moviegoing public. (When he accepted the Best Picture Oscar for producing Bernardo Bertolucci's "The Last Emperor," most viewers didn't know his name until the broadcast booth flashed it onscreen.) The freshness of the subject lets Cousins paint an audiovisual portrait of Thomas (and himself; there's always a lot of Cousins in every Cousins film) using the intellectual/aesthetic divining rod techniques he's been developing for decades while neutralizing nitpicks about why he spent so much time on this part of the subject's life and not enough on that, and whether the overall approach suits the subject. 

"The Storms of Jeremy Thomas" arrives in time for the 50th anniversary of the Recorded Picture Organization, which Thomas founded in 1974. A scion of a film industry family (he'd be called a "nepo baby" if he came up today), he's described by Rebecca O'Brien, a producer for Ken Loach and Lynne Ramsay, as "a producer's producer. His history with amazing European filmmakers and beyond is just incomparable." He made multiple films with Bertolucci (including "The Sheltering Sky" and "The Dreamers") as well as Nicolas Roeg ("Bad Timing: A Sensual Obsession," "Eureka," "Insignificance") and David Cronenberg (one of the liveliest sections has Thomas recalling the premiere of the latter’s “Crash,” which prompted the Daily Mail headline "a movie beyond the bounds of depravity"). 

Thomas, now 74, is a compelling camera subject even when silent, and more so when speaking. He drives like "a teenager," per Cousins' narration; survived cancer, and evolved due to his brush with death; worships the bohemian or liberated sensibilities of European artists, and has the rumbling baritone voice of an old French character actor.

It seems as if most of Thomas' interviews with Cousins were recorded separately from the shoot itself and then treated as voice-over narration to accompany the footage Cousins shot of the Cannes trip and the clips he selected to accompany the career analysis. The separation of narration and image seems awkward initially but ultimately proves a masterstroke. It makes the movie play like a deathbed "exit interview" by somebody who's still very much alive, evoking the sort of quasi-European art cinema movie that would've sparked young Jeremy Thomas' imagination before he decided to get into the producing business and make his own equivalents. 

Cousins' narration compares Thomas to Virginia Wolff in a list of artists who possess "quiet radicalism," along with painters Francis Bacon and J.M.W. Turner and filmmaker Michael Powell. It's a reach within the film's grasp. The intertwining of Thomas' and Cousins' voice-overs subtly connects the film to that formative period in English language fiction in the late 19th and early 20th century when Wolff and other writers were innovating in hopes of approximating the complexity of personality and consciousness. And it helps the audience navigate the disparate sections of the movie, which go wherever the crests and troughs of Thomas and Cousins' interactions take them.

Buffs interested in discovering what Thomas thought of boldfaced names he's worked with won't find much in the way of salacious gossip or shocking revelations. But the tidbits are fun and enlightening. Debra Winger (of "The Sheltering Sky") and Tilda Swinton (with whom Thomas has collaborated on numerous projects related to filmmaking and film exhibitions) sit for interviews with Cousins about Thomas and praise his energy, openness, and resourcefulness. It's a mutual admiration society: Thomas describes them as kindred spirits whose instincts help unify and clarify a movie's themes and intent. Thomas also talks about "Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence" costar David Bowie (mainly concerning celebrity); Marlon Brando, who gave one of his last film performances in the little-seen Thomas-produced Johnny Depp film "The Brave" (Thomas calls him "one of the best"), and Tony Curtis, who explained his tendency to caress cameras placed near him for closeups by explaining: "Mr. Thomas, it loves me, baby."

Cousins' narration gets a bit MFA fiction workshop at certain points, but that's a feature of his work, not a bug (in another life, he might've been a novelist, possibly in a Beat writer mode). The film is organized around storms and divided into numbered chapters with titles like "Sex" and "Death." It gets a bit fanboyish when delving into the sexual and political content of Thomas' projects. Cousins accounts for this by noting that his own tastes were partly formed by watching Thomas' movies.

Regardless, there’s a place in current documentary cinema for a lament about how the relentless corporatization of mainstream films helped feed a squirmy Puritanism that eschews psychological complexity as well as adult sexuality and insists that bad behavior be labeled as such. "The Storms of Jeremy Thomas" encourages viewers to broaden their horizons and seek out unknown and possibly uncomfortable work. It portrays the '70s, '80s, and '90s as a lost continent of handsomely funded movies aimed at sophisticated and curious adults rather than The Kid Inside All of Us. The voyeuristic impulse that has always fueled cinema to some degree is acknowledged in several film clips, such as the brother in "The Dreamers" watching his sister and the visiting American getting intimate, and the title character in the Thomas-produced "Dom Hemingway" proclaiming that a painting of his johnson "should hang in the Louvre." 

Cinema, Swinton says in an interview with Cousins, "asks for something visceral. And that's the best cinema: the cinema that asks for that." Cousins praises Thomas for helping important filmmakers push right up to the edge of whatever lines were being drawn at the time, then go over because that's what art is empowered to do. Cousins joins the movement himself by pairing a rumination about Thomas' libertine sympathies ("is the producer, the prince, a petrol head, a bohemian?") with a video selfie taken while he's wading naked in the pool of the house Thomas rented at Cannes (full-frontal, but partly obscured by water). 

"I like the counterculture," Thomas says at one point, summing everything up. "I'm not seeking the popular culture. I enjoy a Spielberg movie like everybody else. But they're not what I'm looking for. The most famous paintings are available to all, out in the first hall in the museum. The counterculture is something you sort of...you have to look for it. You have to find it."

Now playing in theaters. 

The five-month stand-off between the Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers has come to an end, following successful bargaining after a big-name meeting between the WGA's chief negotiating team, the head of the AMPTP and major studio heads. As previously covered by Deadline, a meeting took place on Wednesday between the WGA and the AMPTP. In a joint statement, both parties confirmed that they had engaged in bargaining that day and planned to reconvene for further discussions on Thursday.

A Haunting in Venice is the latest Hercule Poirot murder mystery film from director Kenneth Branagh, and sees a new retired Poirot in exile in Venice, yet reluctantly attends a Halloween séance at the request of a long-time friend. However, when one of the esteemed guests at the party is murdered, Poirot forces himself out of retirement in order to solve the mystery at the center of their mysterious murder.

Whilst superhero cartoons have been dominating the TV landscape for decades and become very well known, there are some that fell through the cracks and never got the recognition they deserved. With superhero cartoons being around far longer than the live-action iterations we know today, there are hundreds of superhero cartoons out there.

Westworld had one of the strangest journeys of any modern prestige television series. Originally seen as HBO’s next great drama show in the wake of Game of Thrones’ imminent conclusion, Westworld’s first season sent wavelengths throughout the science fiction fan community.

After a long, very successful career in professional wrestling with the WWE as champion and a fan favorite, John Cena has found success in other fields, as well, including as a best-selling author. Most recently, he's become more well-known for his acting career, and while he has yet to officially retire from the wrestling industry, it seems as though his future will be on the screen.

That ‘70s Show was one of the biggest shows that Fox had to offer back in the ‘90s. A hit from its very first season in 1998, it would launch a number of its young cast to stardom, and become one of the most beloved and talked about shows of its era. It had so much going for it: an absolutely perfect cast who bounced off each other as only real friends can do, sharp, witty writing, and a delicious nostalgia which by modern standards is an industry in itself. While its six young leads formed the backbone of the show, it also stood out for its brilliant cast of supporting characters: Tommy Chong’s Leo is a firm fan favorite, while the endless marital woes of the Pinciottis and Fez’s hilarious ongoing feud with Fenton provide very amusing background noise to the kids’ antics. But easily one of the most enjoyable, and most integral, side characters is Laurie Forman, the manipulative, older sister of main protagonist Eric.

Get those notebooks ready, because the writer and detective Jessica Fletcher may be finally returning to the public eye with a Murder, She Wrote feature film reboot. The murder mystery genre has exploded in popularity in recent years, mainly thanks to an impressive resurgence of the genre in feature filmmaking. Much of that can be attributed to the unprecedented success of Rian Johnson's Knives Out series. The initial 2019 film was a critically adored smash hit at the box office, with audiences falling in love with an all new detective character. It's no wonder why Netflix purchased the rights to the franchise for a whopping $450 million, becoming the home of the film's sequel, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, as well as an upcoming third installment.

2004's Saw is a great horror movie that started as a short film that contained the horror to mostly one location and one actor. This minimal approach from James Wan and Leigh Whannell spawned a behemoth horror franchise that currently stands at nine films, with the tenth, Saw X, releasing in 2023. Each Saw movie tries to raise the stakes for the characters and audiences – sometimes emotionally, other times violently.

The Addams Family has had many versions which bring the eccentric, creepy, shadowy characters to life which were created by the original comic books and the New Yorker in 1938. The Addams Family has been portrayed in various versions, showcasing their eccentric and creepy characters, dark humor, supernatural abilities, and spooky family dynamic.

No actor can play monsters as memorable and unique as Doug Jones. With a career spanning decades, this talented physical actor has endured countless hours in the make-up chair to bring some of pop culture's most recognizable and strangest-looking monsters to life on the big and small screens.

Over the course of 100 minutes, Lost in Translation explores the relationship between two lost souls. Romantic and well-observed, with rich performances from Scarlett Johansson and Bill Murray, the movie captures the longing shared by two people who don’t belong anywhere. And yet, despite the film’s many achievements, the conversation around Lost in Translation has been dominated by one question: “What did he say?”

At the end of the film, aging actor Bob Harris (Murray) hugs young grad student and newlywed Charlotte and whispers something in her ear. Writer-director Sofia Coppola puts just enough of the whisper into the mix to suggest that maybe it should be heard by a viewer who pays enough attention, but not enough to register, even with subtitles. 

For 20 years, some corners of film fandom have obsessed over the question, as if hearing that brief bit of dialogue would unlock the meaning of the movie—as if then they could understand what Charlotte was thinking when she watched a Japanese wedding or what carpet color Bob finally chose for his home back in the States. 

When Lost in Translation premiered in September 2003, it found its three principal creatives at a key point in their collective careers. Coppola was following up her well-received 1999 debut feature The Virgin Suicides, which starred Kirsten Dunst as one of six sisters who capture the attention of neighbor boys in 1960s suburban Michigan. Despite the film being the toast of Cannes, to plenty of mainstream moviegoers, Coppola was still best known for her lackluster performance in The Godfather, Part III, which was directed by her father Francis Ford Coppola.

Bill Murray, meanwhile, had gestured more difficult work, such as his Hunter S. Thompson movie Where the Buffalo Roam, or the crime comedy Quick Change, yet most still knew him as the Saturday Night Live funnyman who starred in Ghostbusters and What About Bob? Wes Anderson finally gave him a heavier role that resonated with viewers in 1998’s Rushmore, but no one was prepared for the depths of sadness he the actor was about to bring to Coppola’s Bob Harris. 

And only 17 at the time of filming Lost in Translation, Scarlett Johansson hardly had any reputation at all. She had a few notable roles in indie films, such as Ghost World and Manny & Lo, the latter of which caught Coppola’s eye, but was she was almost entirely unknown to audiences. 

Yet these disparate figures proved to be the perfect alchemy to make Lost in Translation into a success. The trio creates a story about malaise and disconnection, observing the alienation as Bob and Charlotte wander throughout Tokyo. Bob has arrived in the Japanese capital as an American movie star who is far past his prime; he’s now reduced to shooting whisky commercials overseas while avoiding his wife and children. Charlotte, conversely, comes with her young husband John (Giovanni Ribisi), a photographer hired to shoot a Japanese rock band. Neither feels like they belong until they encounter each other and grow increasingly close during the few days they share. 

The movie was a bonafide hit, earning $118.7 million on a $4 million budget. The film earned four Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture and Best Actor for Murray, and won Coppola the Best Original Screenplay Oscar. And yet, people still obsess over that final whispered line. 

Speaking about the movie’s 15th anniversary with IndieWire, Coppola revealed the significance of the final whisper… sort of. “That thing Bill whispers to Scarlett was never intended to be anything,” she admitted. “I was going to figure out later what to say and add it in and then we never did.” 

But in retrospect, she sees the unfinished moment that closed the film as a happy accident and not a mistake. “It was between them,” she says of the statement. “Just acknowledging that week meant something to both of them and it affects them going back to their lives.”

However, this hasn’t prevented people from searching for a deeper or definitive. In 2007, Youtube user Vid Vidor claimed to have digitally scrubbed the audio, thereby allegedly isolating Murray’s dialogue. According to their video, Bob tells Charlotte, “I have to be leaving, but I won’t let that come between us, okay?” Shortly after that video went live, it received a boost by the website EW, which in turn caused Vid Vidor’s reading has become the standard answer. Yet if you listen to their scrubbed audio, it still sounds fairly inconclusive, and others have indeed challenged it.

For example, in a video posted in 2009, YouTube user DaeOh suggested that Bill actually says the following: “When John is waiting on the next business trip, go up to that man and tell him the truth, okay?” And even a decade later, reddit threads continue to argue and joke about it. One 2018 user, seems to think Bob says, “Promise me, that the next thing you do, is go up to that man and tell him the truth.”

Does Coppola endorse any of these interpretations? “People always ask me what’s said,” she told IndieWire. “I always like Bill’s answer: that it’s between lovers – so I’ll leave it at that.”

While it’s easy to understand why audiences would want to hear what characters say to one another, dialogue is not always the point. In fact, miscommunication is a common theme in Lost in Translation, which Coppola builds by omitting key parts of her narrative.

Take a significant scene in which Bob spends the night with an American Jazz singer (Catherine Lambert) in his hotel bar. We simply see the singer sit down next to Bob after her set. As soon as she says the word “hi,” Coppola immediately cuts to Bob waking up in bed the next morning, aware of the empty space next to him. We don’t see what their romance was like, nor do we see how the two separate. We just see Bob’s loneliness, even in this encounter, and the wedge it drives between him and Charlotte. 

Coppola most obviously uses misunderstandings for comic effect, usually involving Murray and his Japanese co-stars. In one of the movie’s most ridiculous scenes, a sex worker (Nao Asuka) tries to seductively play with Bob, only to have him fumble her flirtations. The scene ends with the worker flailing on the floor, pretending to be ravaged by Bob while Murray flops listlessly atop of her. 

In another sequence, an intense commercial director (Yutaka Tadokoro) gives long instructions in Japanese to Bob, only for translator Ms. Kawasaki (Akiko Takeshita) to give short, terse explanations in English. “Is that all he said?” asks an exasperated Bob, rendered impotent by his inability to share a language with his co-workers. 

Although less comedic, Charlotte has her own share of misunderstandings, often with her husband John. After ranting about a creative disagreement with the band he’s shooting, John looks befuddled when Charlotte asks his opinion on a scarf she’s knitting. Later Charlotte joins John for dinner with his friend, the air-headed Hollywood actress Kelly (a scene-stealing Anna Farris). Coppola keeps her camera largely on Charlotte during these scenes, capturing the hints of despair and disappointment betrayed by Johansson’s face. 

Coppola applies the same techniques to the warmer parts of her film, silently watching the characters when they find belonging. Even away from Bob, Charlotte experiences peace when she visits a garden in rural Tokyo or sees teens playing video games in an arcade. The late-night karaoke sequence signals the consummation of Bob and Charlotte’s relationship and while it does feature plenty of talking/singing, the defining moment occurs when Charlotte rests her head on Bob’s shoulder, no words shared between them. 

As these scenes demonstrate, words do not make meaning in Lost in Translation. Anyone who demands to hear what Bob tells Charlotte at the end will find only words as useless as the faxes John and Bob’s wife send throughout the film. 

One may ask if the whispered words don’t matter then what is the point of that final scene? We get the answer when we quiet ourselves and engage with what the film does give us: the close-up on Bob and Charlotte’s faces, the buzz of crowd noise enfolding them, the soft grays in cinematographer Lance Acord’s color palette. Those elements come together to provoke a feeling in the viewer, and that’s where the meaning lies. That’s the connection that both the viewer and the film want. 

To look for meaning in something that’s not there is to recreate the errors that Bob and Charlotte make at the start of the movie, leaving viewers lonely and disconnected, missing the depth of feeling Lost in Translation offers if we would only let it be. 

The post Lost in Translation and 20 Years of Debating an Ending Whisper appeared first on Den of Geek.

This article contains spoilers for THE WALKING DEAD: DARYL DIXON episode 3.

Through its many years of zombie dominance, The Walking Dead has understood something important about its undead “stars.” Whether you choose to call them walkers, rotters, roamers, les affamés, or something else – zombies aren’t just monsters, they’re part of the environment.

The survivors on The Walking Dead frequently use zombies as a resource as much as they would use the logs from a downed tree or animal products from a deer. A zombie’s skin and guts can provide useful camouflage. As The Walking Dead: Dead City revealed, the methane drifting off of a zombie’s rotting body can be a fuel source. Even the “newer model” zombies like The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon‘s acidic variants have their purpose as well. Daryl figures out as much in episode 3 “Paris sera toujours Paris” when he uses one of the hot walkers to melt away some vines obscuring a door.

These uses are all fine and good but they’re missing a certain whimsical element. Thus far, nobody has really used zombies for their own amusement. Thankfully, at the very beginning of “Paris sera toujours Paris,” The Walking Dead franchise introduces its most creative and fun application of its undead resource yet. Ladies and gentlemen, please take your seats and enjoy a zombie orchestra’s wretched rendition of Maurice Ravel’s “Bolero.”

The cold open of Daryl Dixon‘s third episode takes some time out for its busy schedule to drop in on a desolate theater where a mad men has conducted the post-apocalyptic concert of his demented dreams. Things start innocuously enough. Daryl (Norman Reedus), Isabelle (Clémence Poésy), Laurent (Louis Puech Scigliuzzi), and Sylvie (Laïka Blanc-Francard) all arrive in a desolate city so that Isabelle can make use of a local musician’s radio to check in with her allies. Unfortunately, there is no working radio as the musician has very thoroughly lost his mind and used the radio’s wires to amplify the sounds of his record player to thunder throughout the theater.

“Now we hear music. You like a show?” the French man says as he guides Daryl and Isabelle to witness the grim tableau he’s concocted.

As the aforementioned 1928 composition “Bolero” blares over the loud-speakers, Daryl and Isabelle are treated to a truly ghoulish scene. The man’s orchestra features: a zombie tied to some drums, no fewer than two undead cellists and three violinists, a disembodied head on a string gently bumping against a harp, and two torsos chortling into some rusted horns. None of “musicians” are actually playing their instruments, mind you, but they do seem to be trying their best. The drummer zombie at the very least does produce some percussion.

“It was a stupid detour,” Daryl mutters as he and Isabelle exit the theater and decide to head directly to Paris.

That is where we’ll have to respectfully disagree with Mr. Dixon. The introduction of a zombie orchestra wasn’t a stupid detour at all. It was a burst of silly creativity that made for some of the most purely fun imagery ever captured in The Walking Dead franchise. Sometimes it’s ok to just have fun for fun’s sake! The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon production designer Clovis Weil happens to agree. Den of Geek caught up with the crafter of the show’s post-apocalyptic French world to discuss what goes in to crafting a zombie orchestra.

“This was really fun to imagine,” Weil says. “At first it was written as some zombies tied up to a chair and playing instruments, which was already a great idea. And then we tried to push it a bit further to have a real weird geek zombie show onstage.”

Even for such a relatively brief moment onscreen, the creation of a zombie orchestra required the full attention of Weil’s department in addition to Walking Dead producer and gore specialist Greg Nicotero’s zombie team.

“I started thinking about this and making a few drawings. Greg loved them so he did some other drawings,” Weil says. “We needed to make this work together. The universe, the accessories, and the set up was the art department. But obviously the zombie part and the puppet part was what he’s incredibly good at. It was a collaboration together.”

A collaboration together to produce something big, you say? That doesn’t sound entirely unlike a zombie orchestra. Well it actually sounds better than a zombie orchestra as the undead don’t make for the most capable musicians.

New episodes of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon premiere Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on AMC.

The post Daryl Dixon Just Found the Most Creative Use for Walking Dead Zombies Yet appeared first on Den of Geek.

If a movie franchise can last long enough, sooner or later, it will start eating its own tail. It’s a common grumble when talking about the big boys on the block, Star Wars and Star Trek. Neither feels like it’s willing to move on into the future, pulling fans back to earlier years and rebooting iconic characters in order to refresh—read: re-market—the stories fans love. But they’re not the only adopters of the technique; some franchises get downright sneaky about where in the timeline they’re going to take us next.

For example, little about the upcoming Saw X makes it clear to average moviegoers where the movie fits into the timeline. Franchise fans are probably aware that it’s a sequel-prequel timeline pretzel, fitting itself in between the original film and Saw II, and adding new details about Jigsaw’s obsession with the doctors that failed him. Horror franchises love using prequels to explore their antagonists, so it’s actually wild that it took this long for a prequel (or at least side-quel) in the Saw series to arrive. Horror is far from the only genre to use it, though, as you’ll see.

Three years after the smash success of Raiders of the Lost Ark, Steven Spielberg brought Indy (Harrison Ford) back with a rip-roaring pulp adventure through a fantastical version of India. Along with future Mrs. Spielberg, Kate Capshaw, and introducing today’s beloved new Hollywood king, Ke Huy Quan, Temple of Doom didn’t waste a lot of time or promotion on why there weren’t any Nazis for Indy to fight. For Indy’s purposes, time doesn’t matter as much as history.

A title card at the start of Temple of Doom, however, tells us that the opening scene is in 1935, which makes it clear that this is well before Hitler’s jackbooted minions were stealing God’s goodies from around the world. It’s also a fleeting notification set against a neon lightscape, and it takes hardcore movie or literature fans to keep in mind that this is a pre-war joyride, inspired by Rudyard Kipling’s Gunga Din. Indy’s enthusiasm here is less cynical than it would be in the rest of his films, and that goes a long way to helping us remember that this is him in an earlier time.

The Jason Bourne films can seem impenetrable to non-fans, but there’s a theme of loss and reconnection that ties Robert Ludlum’s terrific amnesiac spy saga together. By the time of The Bourne Ultimatum, Bourne (Matt Damon) has remembered enough about the Treadstone sleeper agent project to want to take it apart. Preceded by The Bourne Supremacy, which saw Jason pulled into a John Wick-style journey of revenge that took him to Moscow, it seemed pretty clear that Ultimatum was the next natural step in his onslaught.

Except, there’s a sly twist hidden in the movie that upends the timeline as we thought we understood it. A phone call between Bourne and CIA deputy Pamela Landy (Joan Allen) reveals Bourne’s real name and birth date—but it’s a scene we’ve already witnessed at the very end of the previous film! With this contact, Bourne’s location in Moscow, and Ultimatum’s breakneck pace in mind, the truth is unmistakable. Almost all of The Bourne Ultimatum takes place in between the last two scenes of The Bourne Supremacy’s ending. It’s one of the most subtle twists in modern action film history.

When a Disney movie brings in the goods, it’s a guarantee that the Mouse is going to put those characters on a treadmill until they die. Tarzan may be the most confusing victim of this, not because of how many spin-offs there were—creator Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote 24 books and his estate is still chugging—but because Tarzan 2 came out after another sequel to the Disney movie, Tarzan & Jane, was released. Straight to video, the latter film was made of unused TV series episodes to tell a new story. And Tarzan 2? The box art is confusing, showing a young jungle child. Is this Tarzan’s son?

Actually, no. It’s Tarzan himself,  as a young foster child with the heart of a gorilla. He’s fragile compared to his family and in need of a voyage of self-discovery, so it’s time to put a kid in peril. It’s not a lot of peril, and the alleged villain Zugor (George Carlin) turns out to be a funny old dude. The film ends with Tarzan belting out his signature yell for the first time, bookending the original film. Still an unnecessarily confusing title.

Like Tarzan 2, Bambi 2 didn’t give away a lot of information with its title. It’s also a hell of a belated follow-up, coming out almost 60 years after the original film. Styled as a sequel release, it’d be easy to assume it’s about the new Prince of the Forest finding his way through adulthood. But a glance at the cover shows a still-spotted buck deer. The animals around him seem to be Bambi’s own friends, so it’s probably not his kid either.

Sort of like The Bourne Ultimatum, Bambi 2 is a prequel-slash-interquel. There’s a time skip during the original Bambi, where the Great Prince guides Bambi away from tragedy. Bambi 2 fills in that lost time, offering up a father-son story that also sets up Bambi’s rivalry with another buck for the affections of the doe, Faline. The best part of this otherwise okay prequel? Sir Patrick Stewart is the voice of Bambi’s noble dad.

Ingrid Bergman would get a kick out of the anthological horror franchise Final Destination. Death isn’t an antagonist so much as a dude really dedicated to making sure every soul gets where it’s supposed to go when it’s time to go. That’s not much different than Bergman’s Death in The Seventh Seal. Every film features a new pack of doomed young adults trying to poker face their way off Death’s day planner. In every film, they mostly, or entirely, fail, even when armed with the knowledge of their predecessors.

That makes Death the only constant in the franchise, which is a nice metaphor for real life, isn’t it? That said, Final Destination 5 pulls off a neat trick. Another movie full of fresh meat for Death’s grinder, it’s the final scene that gives franchise fans a laugh. Two so-far survivors board a plane to Paris and spot a fight breaking out. It’s the same fight that kicks off the events of the very first film, telling the final couple that Death is here with them on the way to Paris, and he’s collecting his lost luggage.

2011’s The Thing features plot points so blatantly patterned after John Carpenter’s masterpiece that plenty of reviewers and moviegoers assumed that it was a remake. Returning to the Arctic, The Thing now features a Norwegian camp. Most of its crew are speaking English just fine as they find “the Thing,” watch the Thing turn rib cages into mouths, assume each other have become the Thing, test blood to find the Thing, and whittle themselves down to the last people standing…. against the the Thing.

And then the one guy, that only one guy who speaks Norwegian, sets off after a dog across the ice. Oops. In retrospect—not a second viewing, because this film isn’t worth that—the clues are there. The blood test is clumsily handled this time, with the Thing doing a bad job at burning the lab to cover its tracks. A fire ax lodges into a wall in a way familiar to fans of the original. And in one of the movie’s better moments, this time the Thing really is mimicking the base commander, not framing the C.O. as it does in the John Carpenter film. So if this is what happened before Kurt Russell got involved, it’s safe to say some Things are better the second time around.

Hot dropped onto Netflix after Super Bowl Sunday’s big game, the third Cloverfield movie wasn’t worth staying up late for. It has a great cast, including Marvel faves Daniel Brühl and Gugu Mbatha-Raw, and they do their best with a convoluted plot about dimensional paradoxes and the alternate universes they can spawn. Initially taking place in 2028, Paradox feels like just another random piece of the Cloverfield anthology, with a message about trying to use barely understood science to save our Earth.

One character, Michael (Roger Davies), ends up on a version of Earth undergoing a hell of a kaiju attack, weathering it in a bunker. It’s a predicament that, likely purposefully, brings 10 Cloverfield Lane to mind. The final shot of this janky flick welds the Cloverfield canon together even more firmly: escaping station personnel get to witness the original monster, nicknamed Clover, rise up for a mighty roar. It’s easy to make the assumption that the Paradox, and Clover, have set into motion whatever hell John Goodman was trying to survive in that creepy bunker of his.

The ‘90s had a thing about taking classic lit and revamping it into hip, modern situations with teenagers. Jane Austen got it the most, but hey, Clueless is the best adaptation of Emma ever. It’s weird that  the luscious Dangerous Liaisons, a French epistolary drama best known for an ‘80s film version where Glenn Close and John Malkovich ate the set whole while Keanu Reeves looked on confused, received an update. Cruel Intentions can’t match this lusty tale of social revenge, but it’s a clever attempt. The DVD-only Cruel Intentions 2, on the other hand, is so bland-looking that it could’ve been about anything. Annette’s new life without Valmont? Merteuil’s life in exile?

Nah, it’s how the creators salvaged a canned prequel TV series called Manchester Prep. It loops back around to how Valmont and Merteuil first met. They’re annoying step-siblings, apparently, in a move that turns the luxe sins of these upper crust souls—you know, the entire point of the novel—into a CW-style comedy about one-upping each other. At least Riverdale is batshit entertaining.

The Paranormal Activity franchise features more time hopping than a season of Doctor Who, exploring the generations of a cursed family in whatever order it feels like. The original film is a scarily effective found footage drama about a family demon that’s about as likable as the one from Hereditary. A Halloween hit, sequels instantly started baking. Paranormal Activity 2 dropped during the spooky season one year later, and, by the title, it’s surely going to progress the future of Tobi (Asmodeus), right?

That doesn’t happen until Paranormal Activity 4, actually. The second film jumps back to two months before Katie (Katie Featherston) and Micah (Micah Sloat) have the worst housewarming of all time. Katie’s sister, Kristi (Sprague Grayden), is coping with supernatural activities of her own, and some grim memories of childhood. The origins of the family demon get a little explanation, and then, in a jarring shock ending, the film concludes with a connection to the first film.

With a fully replaced cast due to John Goodman’s wise refusal to return and Rick Moranis’ retirement, it was anyone’s guess what the point of the thinly advertised Flintstones follow-up was going to be. A glance at the poster suggests it’s a decade-early riff on The Hangover, but, like, somehow even more cringe. It depicts what we can only assume by the costuming is a joint Flintstone-Rubble family trip to prehistoric Vegas.

Viva Rock Vegas is so much worse than that! It’s actually a half-hearted attempt at American Graffiti, taking us to the salad days of young Barney and Fred, and how they met their lifetime ladies. God help us all, this prequel also has the temerity to bring in the futuristic alien The Great Gazoo (Alan Cumming, as delightfully watchable as ever) to make our young cavemen look even more unhinged. And thus exits this misbegotten live-action franchise.

The original From Dusk Till Dawn manages such a great mid-film swerve that it’d be impossible for any sequel to match up. So they don’t try hard. Instead the series swerved itself to becoming a pulpy straight to video experience. The second film is another jaunt at the Titty Twister, vaguely set after the first, so why would the third be any different?

Hold onto your ass, exhausted high school kids, because The Hangman’s Daughter is the funniest prequel premise ever. The name Ambrose Bierce and his classic short story “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” is drilled into American lit students, so you know the name. Bierce is also one of history’s most famous disappearances, lost in Mexico after telling friends he was going to document the Mexican Revolution. The Hangman’s Daughter jumps back to 1913, his last known year and offers a bloodsucking answer to the mystery. Bierce winds up at the infamous vamp bar, currently called La Tetilla Del Diablo, and hijinks ensue! Put the bar’s name in Google Translate for a giggle, and know that Bierce himself would’ve probably gotten a kick out of it. 

1979’s The Amityville Horror is itself, technically, a subtle prequel (or sidequel) to James Wan’s horror franchise, The Conjuring, as the Warrens were among the investigators of the real life Amityville case. A classic haunted house tale, Amityville Horror alleges that an incident of real-life mass murder—the Ronald DeFeo Jr. case—left a psychic imprint on the house it occurred in, and that it tormented the next occupants. The family eventually moves away, but that doesn’t end the curse. Its 1982 follow-up, The Possession, returns to the damned house with a new set of occupants. Which sounds like standard sequel fare from the title.

Ah, but of course, this is actually a heavily fictionalized reworking of what led DeFeo to kill his family in the first place. Restyled as the Montellis, with Sonny Montelli (Jack Magner) as the lawsuit-safe future killer, this prequel suggests the house was haunted all along. The possible reason? An Indigenous burial ground underneath the home. To be fair to the Amityville legend, which has suffered dozens of exhausting retreads since, it was one of the earliest films to drag that canard out. On the other hand, come on.

To be fair to the Insidious franchise, itself an affectionate homage to Poltergeist, it’s way better than that film’s remake and bevy of sequels. Another James Wan creation, Insidious tortures its parental stars with the horror of inexplicable events and a child in danger. It takes a bitterly cynical twist in the third act, too, adding a cliffhanger that leaves Chapter 2 to follow-up on the troubles the Lambert family still faces. A third film seemed a given, as it seems that the first film’s evil demon has now moved on to an unrelated young girl named Allison and her sister.

Chapter 3, logically, should have carried on that plot thread. To date, Allison’s story has gone nowhere, however. Instead the third installment goes back to what franchise regular and experienced demonologist Elise (Lin Shaye) was up to several months before the Lambert family went to hell. It braids together the past of Josh Lambert (Patrick Wilson) and Elise’s influence on the Red Faced Demon pretty well, but still… what happened to that poor kid?

The post Sneaky Movie Sequels That Are Actually Prequels appeared first on Den of Geek.

For many, Cyberpunk 2077‘s 2.0 update is the excuse they’ve been looking for to either finally play the now largely fixed and improved game or simply enjoy the best version of that experience possible. However, anyone beginning a fresh Cyberpunk 2077 2.0 playthrough will need to start their journey by picking one of three Lifepaths for their characters. For new players, this choice is as mysterious and daunting as ever. However, even returning players are wondering if 2.0 did anything to change these Lifepaths in any way.

Well, for what it’s worth, I can tell you that 2.0 doesn’t seem to have directly changed any of the Lifepath options in any notable way. However, it has indirectly affected those options in some slightly smaller ways (mostly for good). Furthermore, the differences between the Lifepaths are as ambiguous as ever, which makes now a pretty great time to go over how each choice actually impacts the rest of the game.

Before we get into that, though, please note that while there is no way to completely avoid spoilers in this article, I am going to refrain from listing every little thing that is different about each Lifepath in great detail. Instead, the goal is to try to point you in the right direction based on your preferences.

For the most part, your choice of Lifepath in Cyberpunk 2077 won’t drastically impact the direction of the game or determine what content you are able to experience. 95% of the game will still play out largely the same regardless of which Lifepath you pick.

So what’s the point? Well, aside from enhancing your own role-playing satisfaction, each Lifepath offers a few notable exclusive features:

– A unique prologue

– A unique mission

– Unique dialog and mission options

For the moment, then, let’s push aside your possible personal preferences and focus on how the different Lifepath choices more practically alter the Cyberpunk 2077 experience.

Description

“They say if you wanna understand the streets, you gotta live ’em. Gangs, fixers, dolls, small-time pushers – you were raised by them all. Down here the law of the jungle dictates the weak serve the strong – the only law in Night City you have yet to break.”

Unique Prologue

You start the game as a resident of Night City’s underworld. In order to clear an old debt, you decide to take a job from a local criminal named Kirk Sawyer. Sawyer asks you to steal one of the rarest and most valuable cars in the city. During that job, you meet another mercenary named Jackie Welles who happens to want the same car.

Before either of you can claim it, you are surrounded by the police. Thankfully, one of the cops happens to be familiar with the two of you and decides to let you both go. You can Jackie soon bond over your shared misfortunes and decide to start hanging out and working together. This begins the main part of the game.

Unique Mission – “Small Man, Big Mouth“

Kirk Sawyer will eventually reach out to you and ask that you help him with another job in order to repair your relationship. Try to be surprised, but the job goes wrong in several different ways. V must soon navigate the fallout of a series of bad decisions.

Unique Dialog Options and Interactions

Streetkids are blessed with the most unique dialog options of all the available Lifepaths. That’s largely because they have far more opportunities to run into characters in Night City that they have some familiarity with or knowledge of. That includes various gang members and other underworld/law enforcement members. This version of V knows a little about a lot of things happening in Night City and can often weigh in on various topics in ways that reflect that experience. These options often help you as the player learn more about Night City.

You’ll also be able to avoid certain outcomes or create new opportunities thanks to your knowledge of the shadier sides of Night City. There are actually multiple instances where you’ll be able to interact with a cop or criminal in some way that either causes a new dialog tree to sprout or allows you to access a slightly different solution to a problem. For instance, there’s a gang trying to rob a diner that you can stop just by talking to them whereas other players will need to resort to other options.

Without spoiling everything, it’s best to think of this Lifepath option as the choice that opens up more unique interactions with cops and lower-end criminals. Again, that’s a big part of the reason why you’ll encounter so many unique Streetkid interactions throughout the game.

Description

“Few leave the corporate world with their lives – fewer still with their souls intact. You’ve been there – you’ve bent the rules, exploited secrets, and weaponized information. There’s no such thing as a fair game, only winners and losers.”

Unique Prologue

V begins Cyberpunk 2077 as a high-ranking Arasaka Corporation employee with all of the advantages that career choice offers. However, their life is turned upside down when his boss, Arthur Jenkins, asks him to help sabotage another executive in order to assist Jenkins in his rise to power.

However, things soon go wrong, as they so often do. V’s role in this plot is discovered during the mission, and they are ousted from their cushy corpo job. Thankfully, their pal Jackie is there to save them. The main part of the story begins around this point.

Unique Mission – “War Pigs”

One of V’s former Arasaka co-workers contacts them and asks if they can help him with a little problem at work. It seems that V’s “betrayal” of the company also put them in some hot water, and they’d like to get out. However, you’ll soon discover that the offer comes with some considerable strings attached.

Unique Interactions

As a former Corpo, V does not have access to the underworld knowledge that Streetkids are blessed with. That means that they encounter fewer opportunities to comment on things like local gangs or memories they have of various little locations throughout Night City.

However, V’s extensive corporate background does offer them unrivaled knowledge about that particular aspect of Night City. Some of Cyberpunk 2077‘s biggest narrative moments see you interact with various corporations and Corpo members, and the Corpo Lifepath often shines in those moments. Not only will you have intimate knowledge of corporate dealings and terminology that will often catch others off-guard, but you’ll occasionally have the chance to enforce some of your old corporate authority in ways that prove to be surprisingly beneficial. Arguably the most notable example of said benefits is a Corpo dialog option that allows you to skip a fairly substantial part of an otherwise difficult mission.

Depending on how you look at it, this Lifepath choice offers a combination of “fall from grace” and “redemption” angles. You used to be a bit of a scumbag, and…ok, sometimes you still are. However, Corpos not only get to tap into an aspect of the game’s lore that other Lifepaths know absolutely nothing about but often get to perform interactions that result in much more beneficial rewards and outcomes (which fits their greedy and authoritative lifestyles).

Description

“Roaming the Badlands, looting scrapyards, raiding fuel depots – life on the road wasn’t easy. But growing up in a nomad clan has its perks. Honesty, integrity, and a love of freedom – qualities that few in Night City possess, and no amount of money can buy.”

Unique Prologue

V begins life in the Badlands where they soon find themselves in trouble with the local law enforcement. Undeterred, V decided to take on a job with Jackie that requires the pair to attempt a dangerous border crossing.

As is the theme with all of our prologues, things do indeed go very, very wrong. This time around, though, things go wrong in a way that sees Jackie and V running for their lives from some armed and dangerous pursuers. With few options left on the table, V decided to try to hide out in Night City until they can find a way back into the Badlands.

Unique Mission – “These Boots Are Made For Walkin’“

Once in the Badlands, you’ll receive a GPS update from your old car. Try to recover it, and you’ll discover that a mysterious woman has claimed it as their own. You’ll then need to decide what to do with them. Though this is the least substantial of the optional missions, it could potentially end up with you receiving a free (or cheap) new ride.

Unique Interactions

As a Nomad, you know almost nothing about Night City’s underworld, corporations, or general way of life. Compared to the other two Lifepath options, you’ll rarely encounter unique Nomad dialog options while in Night City. The you do encounter largely exist to clarify misconceptions about the Badlands or ask additional questions about Night City life.

However, the dynamic changes greatly once you finally make your way to the Badlands. At that point in the game, Nomads will enjoy a more unique and generally more substantial experience than the other Lifepath options get to experience. That’s not to say that there aren’t noteworthy interactions available to Nomads before this point, but rather that Nomads get to experience what is otherwise one of the most jarring parts of the game in a completely different way.

Even more so than Corpos, Nomads are the ultimate outsiders for most of the game. That not only makes them a fascinating “player surrogate” option for new players but it ensures that they are able to eventually access some fairly substantial dialog in specific situations. This is also a fantastic Lifepath choice for those who intend to eventually romance Panam.

This will probably be a little controversial, but I’ve found that Corpo is the best overall Lifepath choice in Cyberpunk 2077.

Corpos may not have access to as many unique interactions as Streetkids (even if the quantity difference really isn’t that great), but I’d argue that they have access to the most substantial unique dialog options in the game.

Not only can Corpos trigger more dialog options that lead to an alternate path forward or additional rewards, but some of the most important missions in the game are filled with fascinating Corpo interaction opportunities. That’s especially true during Act 3 when Corpos really get the chance to flex their background in some fun ways. Granted, their unique prologue is not really notable outside of enjoying some corporate luxuries, but you’ll see the benefits of their unique knowledge as early as the first major campaign mission. I also wish their unique mission was more exciting, but that’s true of most of the unique missions.

That said, I can’t really argue against the popular idea that Streetkid seems like the most “natural” way to play Cyberpunk 2077.

After all, every prologue ends with you turning to some variation of the Streetkid life. Furthermore, Streetkids seem to have access to the most unique interaction opportunities in the greatest variety of scenarios (even if some missions are catered more towards other Lifepath options). That said, their prologue is a bit on the weaker side and is weirdly the only one where the player doesn’t seem to have an established relationship with Jackie. At least their unique mission is the most entertaining of the Lifepath sidequests.

Then there’s Nomad which…look, it’s long been the black sheep of the Lifepath options.

The fact of the matter is that Nomads have access to significantly fewer unique interaction opportunities than Streetkids and Corpos, which makes them the most obvious “role-playing” choice. However, I will say that Cyberpunk 2077’s 2.0 update actually unintentionally improves the Nomad Lifepath. How? Well, Nomads have the only action-heavy unique prologue, and the action in 2.0 is generally more exciting due to the improvements made to the game’s AI. Furthermore, the Nomad Lifepath does connect the Badlands portion of the game to the rest of the experience a bit more cleanly, and their unique mission does potentially come with a considerable reward.

Interestingly enough, I’ve also found that there is a very loose morality system attached to each Lifepath.

For instance, Corpo dialog options are often more aggressive in ways that may best suit players who are looking for slightly more “evil” interactions (even if that concept doesn’t really exist in this game). On the other end of things, Nomads are afforded more opportunities to offer a helping hand or at least a few words of reason from the mouths of an outsider looking to make sense of everything. Finally, Streetkids fall somewhere in the middle. They’re occasionally aggressive and certainly not above getting their hands dirty, but the circumstances of their background mean that they can also be sympathetic toward a vareity of situations and causes.

The post Best Cyberpunk 2077 2.0 Lifepath: Every Major Lifepath Difference Explained appeared first on Den of Geek.

This article contains The Wheel of Time spoilers.

However fans may feel about The Wheel of Time’s accuracy as an adaptation, there’s one character moment that the series simply had to get right from the Robert Jordan books, and that was Egwene’s time as damane, one of the Seanchan’s enslaved channelers controlled by handlers known as sul’dam. The breaking of Egwene’s will by Renna in the latest episode was not only a brilliant interpretation of a very important arc from the novels; it also was teased as a favorite scene of showrunner Rafe Judkins more than a year before it aired.

Judkins took to Twitter during some downtime at San Diego Comic-Con 2022 to answer fan questions about the second season, which was then still fourteen months away from airing on Prime Video. One follower asked the showrunner to share his favorite upcoming two-person scene by just naming the characters in question. Judkins’ response, “Egwene Renna,” now resonates with legions of viewers of the most recent The Wheel of Time episode.

Egwene Renna

He didn’t choose a close friendship, a romantic interest, or dramatic family dynamic. He chose the brutal and abusive relationship between Egwene and Renna, which unfolded in painful-to-watch but brilliant-to-behold fashion between Madeleine Madden and newcomer to The Wheel of Time, Xelia Mendes-Jones. It was not an easy task to elucidate the Seanchan method of slavery while also establishing the character of Renna and reinforcing the mental fortitude of Egwene.

Particularly important to depicting the breaking of Egwene was establishing the rules of the collar and a’dam, the leash that connects a sul’dam to her damane. First, we are told that any harm to the handler is felt twofold by the one leashed. Second, the damane may not attempt to remove the collar, which prevents her from channeling except at the direction of her sul’dam. And finally, nothing that is perceived as a weapon may be handled by a damane.

But those are just the bare, horrifying facts of Seanchan slavery and its physical trappings. The brilliance of The Wheel of Time’s on-screen depiction lies in Mendes-Jones’ portrayal of Renna as a self-perceived compassionate owner acclimating their pet to its new home and in Madden’s powerful performance as Egwene refusing to submit and finally succumbing to defeat. These opposing worldviews clash spectacularly when Renna shows Egwene how powerful they are together by forcing the damane to use the One Power to destroy a tree that gave her hope of freedom.

And that’s not even taking into account the sacrifice of Ryma of the Yellow Ajah, who gave herself to the Seanchan after Nynaeve’s channeling was detected. The healer expected her warder Basan to kill her before she could be collared, but instead she was made to submit just as her sisters before her were, including the Sitter of the Blue Ajah who praises Egwene’s endurance through the wall between them in the final moments of the episode.

The whole sequence had all of the emotional impact that book readers hoped for but did not  necessarily anticipate, and non-reader viewers of The Wheel of Time discovered a whole new level of enjoyment in a series that gets better with each new installment. In an episode filled with plenty of compelling subplots, the heart-wrenching tale of Egwene undeniably upstaged them all. No wonder Judkins considered these scenes his favorite part of season 2!

The post The Wheel of Time Season 2’s Best Moment Yet Was Foreshadowed Over a Year Ago appeared first on Den of Geek.

Ahsoka episode 6 saw brand new characters debut alongside the return of familiar faces in the Star Wars Disney Plus series. A new set of posters has been revealed giving fans their best look yet at the shocking reveals. Readers beware! The following article contains spoilers for Ahsoka episode 6 and Star Wars Rebels. Continue at your own risk! Ahsoka episode 6 featured the return of Ezra Bridger...

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Invincible has been a smash hit for Amazon Studios, taking the internet by storm with both memes and praise. The comic’s creator, Robert Kirkman, reveals how many seasons he aims to get with the show. Amazon Studios’ Invincible adaptation has been successful beyond their dreams, with fans frothing at the mouth for the show’s second season. However, some fans of the comic worry about how much of...

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Batgirl directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah have once more spoken out against the cancellation of their film. Despite this, they remain grateful to have been a small part of the DC Universe. The cancellation of Batgirl by Warner Bros. Discovery chief David Zaslav was perhaps the biggest piece of heartbreak to come out of the DC Universe in 2022 (and that includes Black Adam). Adil El Arbi and...

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The first photos from the The Toxic Avenger reboot have been released. One of them offers fans their first look at Elijah Wood, who’s nearly unrecognizable as Fritz Garbinger. The Toxic Avenger was a true cult classic from the 80s, a time when the biggest superheroes could just be piles of nuclear waste. The franchise is being rebooted for a new era later this year, with Elijah Wood playing the...

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It seems as though Star Wars fans have been robbed of the perfect project! Guillermo del Toro recently revealed scrapped plans to direct a Star Wars film written by David Goyer. The idea of a Star Wars film written by David Goyer, the mind behind Blade and Man of Steel, is certainly salivating. Hellboy and Pacific Rim director Guillermo del Toro helming it is simply icing on the cake.

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Remember the Late Night Wars?

Letterman vs. Leno was the grudge match for the ages. They even made a movie about the dueling talk-show titans.

Today, late-night comedians pal around on stages and podcasts, putting competition aside for what they see as the greater good.

Survival, for starters.

Late-night revenue and ratings are spiraling downward, and the format may go the way of the 8-track tape. More importantly, a strong late-night lineup lets liberals smite the Right five days a week.

They’re on the same team, and they realize the power of their progressive messaging. It’s also why any left-leaning piece of art, from “The Comey Rule” to the latest Michael Moore film, earns copious coverage in the mainstream media.

The number of fawning stories about Hulu’s “The 1619 Project” is a glaring, grade-A example.

How are conservatives responding? Infighting. Isolationism. Ignorance. It’s a disaster, especially for the rare, right-leaning artist hoping to promote his or her work.

The Left maintains a strong, unified cultural front. The Right has nothing of the sort.

Consider the case of John Nolte, senior writer at Breitbart News. His new novel, “Borrowed Time,” is a smart, sophisticated tale with his conservative DNA baked into it. It never preaches, but the novel reflects his traditional worldview.

The story follows Joshua Mason, an immortal man whose curse is knowing everyone he ever loves will grow old and die while he keeps on living. “Borrowed Time” examines love, sacrifice and the encroaching techno-Nanny State, hinted at in the book’s singular phrase, the “All at Once.”

EXCLUSIVE SNEAK PEEK: Three Chapters from John Nolte’s Novel, ‘Borrowed Time’ https://t.co/JpCoeQEVfA via @BreitbartNews

— Rasmussen Reports (@Rasmussen_Poll) September 17, 2023

It’s the perfect example of excellent, right-leaning art, the kind in such short supply. Yet Nolte told The Hollywood in Toto Podcast in an upcoming episode that his book publisher reached out to roughly 100 right-leaning media sources to see if they could interview the author and, by extension, promote the book.

Two replied. Two. Out of 100.

Robert Davi knows the feeling.

The legendary “Goonies” and “License to Kill” star directed “My Son Hunter” last year, a serio-comic X-ray of the embattled First Son. No one in Hollywood would touch the subject, so Davi teamed with Phelim McAleer and Breitbart News to bring the tale to small screens everywhere.

The film has only grown in stature given all we’ve learned over the past year about the Biden crime hustle. “My Son Hunter” stars Lawrence Fox as the troubled Hunter Biden,  a film skewering both the man’s personal demons and his corrupt Capitol Hill presence.

Except Davi told the Pop Culture Warriors podcast he didn’t get much help in the promotional department, particularly from Right-leaning news outlets and conservative politicians.

“Here’s this film a conservative does, and we get it out there somewhat nicely. Yet each week, as something else is unfolding that’s in our story, you’d think they’d say, ‘let’s show a clip from the film, let’s dramatize it and go support ‘My Son Hunter’ the way they did ‘Sound of Freedom.'” Davi said of the Angel Studios’ hit. “There’s a jealousy in terms of not promoting anybody else’s material.”

Ironically, “My Son Hunter” earned plenty of (negative) press from mainstream outlets but modest coverage in right-leaning venues.

The problem extends throughout the GOP and its constituents, and it needs to stop, the actor/director warns.

“Culture has a more lasting effect than a blurb on something. Also, celebrate your artists who are courageous enough to do something. Lift us up,” Davi said. “If it was Alec Baldwin you bet your ass the Left would be piping that out every single day.”

Pop Culture Warriors co-host Brett R. Smith, a veteran illustrator, added his perspective to Davi’s comments.

“A lot of conservative influencers and talking heads …they’re just not very good at highlighting, promoting and celebrating the artists on our side,” said Smith, the prolific artist behind “Clinton Cash” and other right-leaning projects. “I think they’re getting better as more and more of us create [art] and get it out there. There needs to be more emphasis on the artists because we are the people who are going to be able to reach out to all of those ‘Normies’ in the middle of the country who are nonpolitical, apolitical, and who haven’t been influenced. We are the gateway to those people. And if we can influence them and change their hearts and minds, then they’re voting.”

Blaze Media recently “went Hollywood” with its first indie feature, “Re-Opening.” The comedy followed a hapless theatrical company putting on a performance at the height of the pandemic. The film proved smart, funny and brimming with satirical body blows against pandemic overreach.

No lectures. Plenty of sly observations about government overreach.

Deadline.com, a far-Left entertainment outlet, reported on the film’s acquisition. And that’s more or less it, coverage-wise.

Blaze Media’s “Normal World,” a right-leaning podcast/sketch comedy showcase also generated little conservative press. StudioJake Media was a welcome exception.

We’ve seen a few right-leaning projects defy this narrative.

The media landscape, both Left and Right, gave copious coverage to “Rich Men North of Richmond,” the breakout Oliver Anthony track that savaged the political status quo. Anthony, for what it’s worth, rejected the “conservative” label after GOP politicians weighed in on his song.

By comparison, right-leaning rapper Tom MacDonald draws little conservative media attention for his chart-topping tracks shredding corrupt media outlets and Identity Politics.

Author and podcaster Andrew Klavan shared why conservatives must create art in today’s culture. The best artists can turn their experiences into powerful narratives that connect with more than just their ideological friends.

Stories, for example, about Big Tech censorship and careers crushed for not espousing the “right” point of view.

The author of the upcoming “The House of Love and Death” recalled how he lost his Hollywood screenwriting career for not preaching from the progressive choir.

“It is a story, it is a thing that happened to me, and it didn’t feel great … I knew I was doing the right thing, and so I did it,” said Klavan, who previously shared in the same podcast episode how blacklisted screenwriters in the 1950s poured their persecution stories into magnificent art like “High Noon” and “On the Waterfront.”

“If we don’t learn to tell our stories. If we don’t support the people who tell stories [emphasis added], if we don’t make sure the inner experience of what the Left has done to us becomes everyone’s experience, then we’ll never be able to change minds. It doesn’t matter what laws we pass,” Klavan said.

Documentary filmmaker Michael Pack wrote a compelling op-ed for Real Clear Politics about the need for conservatives to make movies and not fight the Culture Wars from the sidelines.

Pack spoke to The Hollywood in Toto Podcast about his new Palladium Pictures and how it’s teaching the next generation of right-leaning storytellers. He summed up why conservatives need to pick up some cameras, and fast, in that fiery op-ed.

Conservatives complain that they are losing the culture wars. And they are right. That won’t change until conservatives actually produce culture, which would be good for everyone. American culture would be enriched by art made by artists with diverse viewpoints and experiences.

That art needs a cheering section, too, something conservative media too often ignores. Without it, the conservative culture offensive may end before it begins.

The post Conservatives Can’t Fight Culture Wars Without Doing THIS First appeared first on Hollywood in Toto.

Writer/director Brian Duffield paints himself into a corner in “No One Will Save You.”

And, like too many genre storytellers, he never writes his way out.

Don’t blame star Kaitlyn Dever.

The “Last Man Standing” alum delivers a powerful turn, with nary a line of dialogue, that anchors the ambitious thriller. It’s still not enough to paper over nagging questions that balloon in a stupefying third act.

And the less said about the resolution, the better.

Dever stars as Brynn, a young woman living in near isolation. She makes the most of it, crafting a mini town in her expansive home and cooking wonderful meals for one.

There’s an undercurrent of sadness lurking around the edges.

She hears someone entering her home one night, assuming it’s your garden-variety intruder. Instead, it’s a skinny grey alien who looks like every extraterrestrial sketch we’ve seen over the past 50-odd years.

“No One Will Save You” embraces that UFO trope, but that doesn’t reduce the ick factor. The creature moves and talks in ways that burrow under the audience’s skin, along with Brynn’s.

What starts as a slick spin on the home invasion thriller blossoms into something more sinister. This alien isn’t alone, and Brynn’s neighbors have already met them.

Freaky new poster for No One Will Save You, coming to Hulu this Friday. Artist: @cmloweART pic.twitter.com/xUcQdKCo2J

— Bloody Disgusting (@BDisgusting) September 19, 2023

Duffield fleshes out Brynn’s back story slowly, ensuring it’s a critical part of the narrative. It’s admirable in a genre film, an attention to detail seen throughout the story. Dever does the rest, imbuing every scene with a grittiness that few genre actors can match.

It’s hard to imagine what “No One Will Save You” would be like without her.

Still, the story has to go somewhere, and the deeper into the invasion we go it becomes clear Duffield of “Spontaneous” fame has his work cut out for him.

A smaller-scale thriller might have untied the story knots. Instead, the film takes some head-scratching turns that ratchet down the tension. We’re finally told the secrets behind Brynn’s solitude, but they arrive too late and make little difference in the big picture.

Alien invasions dwarf personal tragedies. Sorry, not sorry.

Duffield delivers some strong individual scares, suggesting a major talent is at work after years of screenwriting efforts (“Love and Monsters,” “Underwater”). The film’s potent sound design more than makes up for the dearth of dialogue, and Dever registers a fear that’s both relatable and genre friendly.

We’d be scared, too, in her shoes.

FAST FACT: A young Kaitlyn Dever spent all of one month in Los Angeles before snagging the first role for which she ever auditioned. She’s also been home-schooled since the fourth grade.  

Brynn is no Mary Sue, but a resourceful soul scrambling to live another day. She escapes one pickle after another, but eventually we see the screenplay’s strings in the process.

“No One Will Save You” wraps with a tonal compromise that won’t leave anyone satisfied. That leaves us mulling too many plot contrivances for a story that could have been a stunner with a serious rewrite.

HiT or Miss: “No One Will Save You” offers a brilliant turn by Kaitlyn Dever but can’t live up to its potential.

The post ‘No One Will Save You’ Crumbles at Worst Possible Time appeared first on Hollywood in Toto.

Mainstream comics leave countless jokes on the table.

Just consider the Biden administration, for starters. The material practically writes itself, from the president’s near-daily short circuits to VP Kamala Harris’ word salad speeches.

Ideology keeps getting in the way.

The same holds for the woke mindset. Comedians ignore how the Left labels every third word as racist, problematic or downright offensive.

Think “peanut gallery,” “hooligan,” “American,” “immigrant,” “grandfather” and “submit.” So many hate crimes in just one paragraph, no?

Bill Burr finds plenty to laugh about in the woke mindset.

His 2019 Netflix comedy special “Paper Tigers” skewered woke platitudes with wit and wisdom.

Here’s a withering take on the devolution of the MeToo movement:

“The stories were big at the beginning … then, they started tapering off. Until six months in, they just sounded like bad dates. ‘He was 10 minutes later, the chicken was cold… I think I was raped.’”

Now, Burr is going back to the woke well for his upcoming Netflix comedy, “Old Dads.”

The Oct 20 release, starring, directed and co-written by Burr, follows three men who embraced fatherhood later in life. They run headfirst into a Gen Z culture they neither understand or appreciate.

The film co-stars two underrated stars, Bobby Cannavale and Bokeem Woodbine as Burr’s fellow “Dads.”

The trailer leans hard into the generational divide between the titular fathers and their peers. When a younger dad tells Burr’s character, Jack, to treat his child’s injury with Neosporin, not dirt, the older Dad snaps.

“Why don’t you go on Twitter and share this story where you’re the hero,” Burr says. He’s wrong … and he still has a point about virtue signaling.

RELATED: BILL MAHER COMPARES WOKE MOB TO KKK

Burr made a seamless transition from stand-up comic to actor. He excelled in “The King of Staten Island” and gave “The Mandalorian” a bump with his presence.

We’ll see if his shift to writer/director is just as smooth.

Just don’t expect “Old Dads” to skewer the woke characters alone, or for Jack to cling to all of his old ways. Burr is too smart a storyteller to turn his film into a sermon preaching to the anti-woke choir.

The fact that he’s mocking the cultural movement in the first place is consequential and overdue. 

The post Is Bill Burr’s ‘Old Dads’ the Comedy Conservatives Crave? appeared first on Hollywood in Toto.

Hollywood has been mostly silent on the wave of censorship washing over the culture.

Consider the following examples in the arts alone.

It’s just a partial list, but it’s damning all the same. And that doesn’t include Big Tech censors restricting both comedy and free speech across YouTube, TikTok, Facebook and more.

There has never been a time where the ones who were censoring free speech were the good guys.” @RobertKennedyJr
This podcast was posted April 6 on YouTube and censored on August 23.
Thank you to @elonmusk and X for being a safeguard of free speech.
Empire is making its move.… pic.twitter.com/LLrtnjrlWY

— Aubrey Marcus (@AubreyMarcus) September 19, 2023

Celebrities routinely weigh in on subjects they have little to no expertise on, from border enforcement to gun control. Their livelihoods depend on free expression, yet most are stone silent on the subject.

The exceptions include:

And, to a lesser extent, both Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg

Now, a gaggle of stars is skewering so-called “book bans” happening across the nation.

Upwards of 175 actors, musicians, authors, comedians, reality stars, models, media personalities, academics, activists and more have signed the open letter spearheaded by Reading Rainbow host LeVar Burton and published Tuesday via public advocacy organization and political action committee MoveOn Political Action.

That’s your first clue the mission is politically motivated. MoveOn.org is a progressive body that promotes Democratic causes.

HATE WOKE? YOU’LL LOVE THE HOLLYWOOD IN TOTO PODCAST

Why make censorship a political matter?

Here’s why.

One, many of the “book bans” in question involved sexually graphic tomes that have no business being in a school setting. Conservatives are trying to protect children from inappropriate material, while Democrats want this filth in schools nationwide.

SHOCK: VIEWER DISCRETION ADVISED!

Senator John Kennedy reads GRAPHIC and SEXUALLY EXPLICIT EXCERPTS from books that Democrats complain about being banned and confronts left-wing activists about allowing them in schools and libraries. pic.twitter.com/50RdU9C37k

— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) September 12, 2023

Two, the conservative movement has embraced free speech as a core principle in the modern era. The Left, the former champions of free expression, now favors hate speech restrictions and looks the other way as the U.S. government censors American citizens.

A lot.

The next time you watch college students shout down a conservative speaker consider which party they call home.

There’s only one answer. And they’re proud of it.

https://twitter.com/PrezLives2022/status/1704509444120338670

And when social media giants like Facebook and Twitter banned President Donald Trump three years ago, many celebrities cheered the move.

Here is a partial list of the actors involved in the new “book banning” statement.

Mark Ruffalo, Billy Porter, Chelsea Handler, Constance Wu, John Leguizamo, Christie Brinkley, Angie Thomas, Raquel Willis, Idina Menzel, Roxane Gay, Adina Porter, Judy Blume, Busy Philipps, Garbage, Jodi Picoult, Natasha Rothwell, Andy Cohen, Sarah Paulson, Emma Roberts, Abigail Disney, Jazz Jennings, Margaret Atwood, Michael Ian Black, Sharon Stone, Judd Apatow, Nikki Giovanni, Alyssa Milano, Bill Nye, Zooey Deschanel, Patton Oswalt, Aisha Tyler, Natasha Lyonne, Maia Kobabe, Zoe Lister-Jones, Alok and Ava Max.

How many of those stars have spoken out against sensitivity readers? Big Tech censorship? The Biden administration’s censorship regime? Attacks on comedians for telling the “wrong” jokes?

None, to this reporter’s knowledge. If that is incorrect please share the details in the comments section.

Heck, Disney tried to censor “Jihad Rehab,” a film she previously championed after the woke mob targeted it for extinction.

It’s one thing for Hollywood stars to remain silent on modern censorship. It’s gross, but we can’t force celebrities to speak out on every issue of the day, even one that directly impacts their art form.

For some of these same stars to rally behind a politically charged effort that ignores the larger, toxic threat to free speech is something far more insidious.

The post Celebs Rally Against ‘Book Bans,’ Ignore Real Censorship appeared first on Hollywood in Toto.

Andrew Klavan warned us. 

The author and Daily Wire podcaster told the conservative movement not to ignore pop culture. It matters, and it impacts more than just box office receipts or Nielsen ratings.

And conservatives duly ignored him. Now, they’re seeing the light.

The Daily Wire is going Hollywood. Blaze Media introduced “Normal World” along with its first feature film, “Re-Opening.”

Palladium Pictures is prepping both original documentaries and an incubator program to teach aspiring filmmakers to tell stories that Hollywood ignores.

Now, one of the biggest names in conservative politics vows he’s all-in on creating art that speaks to traditional values.

Glenn Beck started the ball rolling via his Blaze Media efforts. And he’s only getting started.

Beck told “The Andrew Klavan Podcast” that he’s moving full steam ahead into Hollywood-style productions.

“We’re just starting to get to the place where we have the assets, the money, the distribution access … to be able to make good, quality movies,” Beck said. “One of the breakthroughs was ‘The Chosen.’ That thing was so well done. It doesn’t feel like a conservative movie typically feels.”

“I’m working on some things with a few movie studios and schools and local theaters to help grow the next generation [of storytellers],” Beck continued, using an analogy to compare what conservatives are currently left with on the cultural front. “I firmly believe we have to stop going to the barrel and instead go to the tree to pick the apples.”

Beck’s vision isn’t for a movie or two, or even for films preaching to the proverbial choir. He’s talking art and, eventually, his legacy.

“This could be, in the end, if we’re able to unlock it, this could be the best thing or the most important thing I may have contributed in my life,” Beck said.

How? 

Think apprenticeships, for starters.

“I believe that the best way to learn is to not go to school but to go to really bright people,” Beck said. “You can learn by doing it … I think that is where we need to go.”

None of this was possible just a short time ago. Hollywood controlled all the levers of power. Technology didn’t allow the average artist to create a film credible enough to be made at home.

Much of this has changed, and dramatically so. The landscape also favors a traditional cultural renaissance given the dearth of product aimed at heartland consumers. Significant work has to be done first.

“I have the old Paramount studios in Dallas, but we use them for TV stuff … what if you wanna make movies or comedies? We have to have the ability to do this. All the way from the gaffer to the executive producer and actress, we have to have all of this covered,” Beck said.

“Hollywood is not gonna change,” Klavan said. “We have to build our own place.”

Beck shared how he often invites artists to his ranch to gather, create and inspire one another. One such artist, who had worked for Disney for years, drilled down on the core elements of story.

Not propaganda or talking points. Story.

“These are things the Right never pays attention to, and that’s why we lose,” Beck warned.

The post Glenn Beck Betting Big on Conservative Movies (And More) appeared first on Hollywood in Toto.

Kevin Sorbo got blacklisted from Hollywood for being an openly conservative Christian.

Let that sink in.

He didn’t allegedly groom minors a la Ezra Miller. Nor did he accidentally shoot a colleague on set like Alec Baldwin did in 2021. No one has come forward to say Sorbo mistreated them due to their sexual identity or background.

Just don’t call Sorbo a victim. Need a better label? Try “steadily working actor, producer and one-man culture warrior.”

He says he’s made more than 50 films outside the Hollywood ecosystem, including the smash hit “God’s Not Dead” and 2017’s “Let There Be Light,” which earned an impressive $7.7 million stateside.

His production shingle Sorbo Studios has a new movie coming soon, a fact-based tale brimming with humor and heart.

Or, as Sorbo describes it to The Hollywood in Toto Podcast, a film like Hollywood used to make.

“Miracle in East Texas,” only in theaters Oct. 29 and 30 via Fathom Events, packs faith, love, hope and redemption” into a PG-rated tale of two scoundrels caught in the act. Veteran screenwriter Dan Gordon (“The Hurricane,” “Big George Foreman” penned the screenplay previously meant for Robert Redford.

Sorbo and co-star John Ratzenberger play con men who travel the Midwest in 1930s America “wooing widows out of their money on fake oil wells,” Sorbo explains. “They would sell 500 percent of their shares, declare a dry hole and move on to another town … and then they accidentally strike oil.”

Tickets are available now at SorboStudios.com.

Sorbo went rogue after Hollywood canceled him, creating his own studio to make movies without the industry’s permission. He says his films offer stories for audiences being ignored by the mainstream.

“More and more people are waking up and realizing there’s 80 million homes out there that really want the kind of movies that I’m doing, that Jim Caviezel is doing, that the Erwin brothers are doing,” he said, the latter referencing the team behind films such as “I Can Only Imagine” and “American Underdog.”

Sorbs isn’t the only artist to be marginalized by Hollywood for his beliefs. He sees people like them all the time on film sets.

“I get these people coming up to me, camera guys, lighting guys, actors, on every movie I’ve been doing for the past five or six years,” he says. “They say, ‘thanks for being a voice for us.’ Well, be a voice for yourself. Why do I have to be your voice? What are you afraid of? ‘Well, I don’t wanna get blacklisted like you.’ You know what, Hollywood’s not calling me anymore to do any television series or big-budget movies,” the former “Hercules” star says. “But that’s ok. That’s ok. They’re the ones that scream for love and peace, but they’re the oppositive of that. They’re filled with nothing but hate and anger for people like you and me.”

RELATED: SORBO SAYS WALT DISNEY IS SPINNING IN HIS GRAVE

Indie filmmakers routinely struggle to snag funding for their films. Sorbo is no different.

“I do these wonderful family movies, and it’s pulling teeth to raise $3 million bucks. That’s catering budgets on $300 million ‘Avengers’ movies,” Sorbo says. “I’ve never lost anybody money who invested in my movies. Let’s go out and fight this culture war.”

The problem isn’t getting better, even with the success of movies like “God’s Not Dead” or, more recently, “Sound of Freedom.”

Both titles spoke directly to under-served audiences. Each became box office sensations.

“We have a culture war on our hands, and Hollywood is winning,” he says. “I meet very wealthy people … that $3 million to them is like $300 to me. I’ve met people worth $10 billion. They’re making $2 million a day off of the interest alone. [I tell them,]You’ll get your money back and we’ll have a movie out there forever that aligns with your values.”

Sorbo says his projects typically go into production after a chance meeting with benefactors who appreciate his brand of storytelling. The actor calls these breakthroughs providential.

“Out of the blue, someone came up and said, ‘hey, I love what you do. Can you make a movie with this much money?'” he says. “And I say, ‘yes I can.'”

To hear the full interview, including Sorbo’s views on Disney and the dueling Hollywood strikes, please visit The Hollywood in Toto podcast.

The post Kevin Sorbo: ‘Tolerant’ Hollywood Filled with ‘Anger and Hate’ appeared first on Hollywood in Toto.

Woody Allen has a better chance of being welcomed back by Hollywood, Inc., than Russell Brand.

A media expose alleging the British comedian sexually assaulted four women, including a then-16-year-old, effectively ended his show business career. He lost his management and a book deal in the days following the investigation’s release. His current comedy tour also got canceled.

The entertainment industry assumes a “guilty until proven innocent” pose with many stars, assuming they don’t declare themselves nonbinary or spend years mocking President Donald Trump.

Brand, who denies any wrongdoing, already alienated much of the industry by defying its mandatory narratives.

Brand’s powerful YouTube and Rumble channels shredded those beliefs, earning him a rabid, and often bipartisan fan base. He may not snag leading man roles anymore, but in a way, Brand’s second coming gave him more cultural power than before.

He savaged the elites, defied media headlines and embraced his growing status as a cultural soothsayer. In turn, fans swore their fealty to him and his rambunctious Id.

Until now.

RELATED: IS RUSSELL BRAND THE NEW JOE ROGAN?

News outlets are digging through their files to find other stories suggesting Brand was a sexual predator. Deadline.com served up one such detail, looking at the comedian’s short run on Comedy Central’s “Roast Battle.”

Brand was booked as a judge on Comedy Central’s Roast Battle in 2018, but only lasted a single season on the series after he himself was roasted on-camera over allegations he had sexually assaulted women. He strongly denies criminal wrongdoing.

People magazine suggests more alleged victims are coming forward.

On Monday, the U.K. newspaper The Times reported that “several women” had contacted the publication since it published allegations of rape, sexual assault and abuse by multiple women on Saturday in a joint investigation run with The Sunday Times and the Channel 4 current affairs show Dispatches.

There’s a wrinkle to this ugly story, one that wouldn’t be in play as recently as five years ago.

Brand’s fans aren’t buying it.

It’s not just a disconnect between his cheeky persona and the vile allegations. Many people no longer trust the mainstream media thanks to years of corrupt coverage, extreme partisanship and bias by omission.

This is how the establishment media is covering Russell Brand. It only allows for a single, driven narrative without even so much as a voice of dissension. He’s declared guilty, without a trial.

Tell me there isn’t a media conspiracy to take him down. pic.twitter.com/mYxxCvUomt

— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) September 17, 2023

The list of examples is too numerous to mention, but Brand’s fans fear the comedian’s willingness to speak truth to power made him a target that had to be taken down.

Except that may not be possible.

HATE WOKE? YOU’LL LOVE THE HOLLYWOOD IN TOTO PODCAST

If the police enter the picture and charge him with a crime or crimes, he could be in significant trouble. Otherwise, he’ll keep producing his comedic monologues, decrying corporate powers attacking free speech and providing a voice for the voiceless.

He still may face forces eager to silence him. YouTube, no friend to free speech and eager to maintain corporate narratives, may take down his popular channel. If so, he’ll shift over to Rumble full time.

The more powerful platforms silence him, the bigger he may become.

Brand has emerged as a Trumpian figure, someone whose bond with his base is so powerful it can deflect almost any allegation.

Innocent? Guilty? It may not matter moving forward. His sizable flock believes him over the press, and that may save his creative future.

UPDATE: YouTube has demonetized Brand’s channel, stripping him of a sizable revenue stream. BBC also pulled his content.

The post Russell Brand’s Career Is Officially Over (…but) appeared first on Hollywood in Toto.

Henny Youngman didn’t want us to actually “take” his wife.

The legendary comic used the phrase to make us smile. He was married to Sadie Cohen for 58 years until her death in 1981.

Similarly, the late Norm Macdonald’s 2016 tome, “Based on a True Story: Not a Memoir,” famously fused real life with the comedian’s ripe imagination.

Long story short? Comics lie for a living, and we expect nothing less.

That hasn’t stopped a new wave of comedy where stand-ups use real headlines to support their comic narratives. “The Daily Show” famously did that for years, spawning an industry of “fake news” programs where hosts spin laughs from the latest headlines.

What Hasan Minhaj of Netflix’s “Patriot Act” fame got caught doing is different.

So Hasan Minhaj:

a. smeared an old friend as a racist
b. gave enough identifiable details that she got online hate
c. when told about, shrugged it off and kept doing the routine, and told her to scrub her social media pic.twitter.com/vPRRQvcEu2

— Alex Griswold (@HashtagGriswold) September 15, 2023

New Yorker Magazine dug into some of the stories the far-Left comedian has been spinning for some time. Turns out many of the tales are tall, not truthful.

The headline calls them his “emotional truths,” and it’s hard not to recall Dan Rather’s “fake, but accurate” defense when his hit piece against President George W. Bush imploded weeks before a presidential election.

The magazine went through many of Minhaj’s heartfelt stories, told on stand-up stages, TV and interviews. They mostly dealt with discriminatory behavior leveled at either him or fellow minorities.

And they weren’t true.

One example?

Most disturbing, he tells the story of a letter sent to his home which was filled with white powder. The contents accidentally spilled onto his young daughter. The child was rushed to the hospital.

It never happened, and he told the story both on stage and in interviews.

Why would the comedian tell so many fake stories? Consider how many race hoaxes we’ve seen in recent years.

The goal is the same. To make America appear more racist than it actually is and support efforts to right fictional wrongs. It’s also a living, and apparently a very good one for Minhaj.

It’s also steeped in his progressive politics.

Another tall tale exposed by the investigation humiliated Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law. That, too, never happened.

For now, Minhaj is standing by his “truths.”

“Every story in my style is built around a seed of truth,” he said. “My comedy Arnold Palmer is seventy per cent emotional truth—this happened—and then thirty per cent hyperbole, exaggeration, fiction.”

That may change as more media pressure is applied to him and fellow comics weigh in on the story.

Perhaps the most surprising part of the story is that it came out at all. Today’s journalists routinely protect liberal celebrities, when possible. They’d rather ignore their mistruths than cover them, especially if they align with progressive narratives relating to Identity Politics or Climate Change.

The latter is why the press doesn’t dress down eco-activist Leonardo DiCaprio for his raging hypocrisy.

Not only did New Yorker thoroughly vet Minhaj’s jokes, other media outlets quickly picked up on the story. That suggests the comedian has made a few enemies over the years and reporters pounced on the investigation to settle some scores.

Just a theory, of course. It’s still odd how swiftly the article went viral.

Previously, several members of the “Patriot Act” crew alleged a hostile work environment thrived on the short-lived talk show.

The comic says his “Patriot Act” showcase ensured that facts came first, always. Except that appears to be misleading, too. Again, New Yorker magazine:

According to former “Patriot Act” employees, members of the research department felt that Minhaj could be dismissive of the fact-checking process. “[Minhaj] just assembled people around him to make him appear different and much smarter and more thoughtful,” a female researcher said. “But those people—the smart people and hardworking people—were treated poorly for bringing the perspective that he is celebrated for.”

None of this should be surprising.

The mainstream media today isn’t just biased. It’s corrupt. Reporters routinely fete late-night satirists like Stephen Colbert, ignoring if and when their jokes spread misinformation.

Remember three-plus years of Russian collusion gags?

Minhaj may have been caught blurring the lines between comedy and the truth too much for comfort. It’s likely his peers will be able to say whatever they want without future fact checks.

why do people lie about discrimination and racial violence in this country? this guy makes a lot of money off it. What do you guys think?https://t.co/KHwp17Ept2

— Joe Gabriel Simonson (@SaysSimonson) September 15, 2023

The post Hasan Minhaj’s ‘Victim’ Act appeared first on Hollywood in Toto.

Conservative filmmaker Michael Pack was fighting the culture wars long before we started using the phrase.

Pack, the director of “Created Equal: Clarence Thomas in His Own Words,” has a long and illustrious resume dating back to the 1980s. 

He’s done it all, from working with Hollywood heavyweights like Eli Wallach, Joan Allen and Tim Blake Nelson to serving his country as the Chief Executive Officer of the U.S. Agency for Global Media.

Few people are better equipped to explore and explain why conservatives lag on the pop culture front. His exhaustive op-ed at Real Clear Politics is a must-read for anyone hoping to bring right-leaning stories to the masses.

Except the piece brims with harsh realities that explain the cultural landscape.

How did the left achieve cultural dominance? Not by accident or luck, but by hard work, a clear focus, and talent.

Pack shares how the Left nurtures budding talent, provides artists with all the resources necessary to expand their craft and showers them with promotional resources to spread the news about their projects.

One quick example?

If Michael Moore has a new film coming to theaters he can count on endless media coverage to alert the public.

Progressive art begins at the collegiate level, where tomorrow’s social justice directors are born.

Virtually every college and university in America has a film school, and there are about 4,000 colleges. Almost every film school professor is a self-described progressive. I have never met one who is conservative. Every year, these film schools graduate hundreds of thousands of progressive aspiring filmmakers (along with camera operators, editors, film composers, etc.). Only a small percentage have the talent, ambition, and drive to succeed, and they become the basis for the next generation of progressive creative talent. 

Conservatives have little, if any, assets to match that support network.

It gets worse.

Too many right-leaning projects get abandoned by their target audience.

Director Clint Eastwood’s 2019 film “Richard Jewell” skewered both media bias and FBI malfeasance, wrapped in a sturdy tale of a man punished by an unjust system.

The movie opened to a pathetic $4.7 million and ended its run earning just $22 million. Conservatives either weren’t aware of the film’s right-leaning messages or opted not to support art that spoke to their values.

That same year, Adam Carolla and Dennis Prager teamed up for “No Safe Spaces,” an engaging documentary about the fall of free speech at universities nationwide. The film earned $1.2 million at U.S. theaters, a respectable sum for a modestly budgeted documentary.

The film’s prescient take on the coming woke wave, combined with superlative storytelling, should have yielded ten times that amount. If not more.

Other right-leaning projects that failed to ignite include “My Son Hunter,” “The Essential Church” and “When the Mob Came.”

Recent years have offered some hope in this arena.

Right-leaning success stories like Jason Aldean’s “Try That in a Small Town,” Oliver Anthony’s “Rich Men North of Richmond” and Angel Studios’ “Sound of Freedom” suggest a growing appetite for unorthodox art.

The Daily Wire, Blaze TV and Pack’s own Palladium Pictures vow to bring fresh perspectives to the culture.

And, sadly, Hollywood’s woke obsession continues to degrade movies and TV shows to the point where consumers are clamoring for something different.

Pack offers a ray of hope in an often, and understandably, gloomy op-ed.

Today, there are many more ways for a non-woke film to reach an audience. You can stream it from your own YouTube site. You can make a deal with one of the several new conservative streaming sites. It’s also possible that you can persuade one of the major streaming services to pick it up. After all, we have been successful for decades in getting our films nationally broadcast in primetime on PBS, hardly a right-wing outlet.

It’s still the ultimate David vs. Goliath story, and conservatives’ slingshot looks more like a pea shooter.

The post ‘Created Equal’ Director: Why Conservatives Lose the Culture Wars appeared first on Hollywood in Toto.

Chrissie Mayr is both brutally funny and self-aware.

The New York-based comic knows her rebellious routines cast her outside Hollywood, Inc. She’s anti-vax mandates and pro-free speech, and she playfully dubbed her recent comedy album, “LIVE from January 6th.”

That means her career will never be as big as a Chappelle, Gaffigan or Colbert. And she’s made her peace with that.

What she’s struggling to wrap her mind around is the sudden need to protect herself on the job.

In May, a group of women heckled Mayr mid-gig for telling a trans joke. Except the women did more than bark their complaints. They kept the incendiary comments going and, later, trashed her merchandise display after the show. 

Guests leave show after comedian Chrissie Mayr jokes about trans ideology https://t.co/RKZYFp8Hkq #FoxNews

— BigBayas (@LiberalLies7) May 14, 2023

What happened last Friday was much worse.

Mayr was performing outdoors at the Pineapple Hill Saloon & Grill in Sherman Oaks, Calif. when a black man approached the property’s wooden fence. The intruder began interrupting the show five minutes into the set, according to Mayr. 

The comic, who was able to record much of the fracas, tried to turn the awkward moment into just another crowd work segment.

“I’m making jokes from the stage … maybe he’s a fellow insurrectionist?” she cracked, playing on her MAGA-friendly brand. “There was nothing I could say from the stage to calm him down.”

Meanwhile, the man wanted to enter the club and recite his poetry, as if it were an open mic night. A few patrons tried to calm the intruder down with little success. 

Another patron approached the now shirtless man in hopes of settling him down. The intruder threw a quick, vicious punch at the patron’s head and he collapsed.

“He loses consciousness in the air. He didn’t break his fall. He folded up like a beach chair and fell onto the concrete. It was horrible to watch,” she said, adding no one from the club stepped up to protect her or escort the man from the property.

“What’s to stop the guy from coming at me?” she asked, looking back at the incident.

RELATED: COMEDIANS UNDER ATTACK: THE NEW NORMAL

The man fled when police approached the club, and Mayr said he was later arrested.

“It’s L.A. He’ll be back for the Saturday night show,” Mayr quipped.

Looking back, Mayr said the incident gave her pause about future club appearances.

“I’ve had hecklers, but I’ve never had someone charge the stage … this kind of behavior is either more common or permissible. Maybe it’s a sign to me to hire my own private security,” she said. “You worry a little bit more as a woman. I’m not big or strong enough to fight anyone off.”

The fracas isn’t an isolated incident.

Comedian Dave Chappelle was attacked on stage last year by a man who had a knife on him. Will Smith famously slapped Oscar presenter Chris Rock after hearing a joke about his wife he didn’t appreciate.

Leslie Jones Says Will Smith Oscars Slap 'Really Affected' Chris Rock: It Was 'Humiliating' (Exclusive) https://t.co/HjCPpEPxmL

— People (@people) September 14, 2023

Chappelle’s fans were physically attacked by trans activists last year at Minneapolis’s Varsity Theater after another club bowed to the woke mob and canceled the comedian’s show.

Comedians Josh Denny and Anthony Cumia keep their stand-up appearances a secret until closer to show time to keep Antifa from shutting the gigs down.

The New York Post reported last year that comedy clubs are increasingly worried about angry fans rushing the stage.

Curtis Shaw Flagg, 37, president of The Laugh Factory in Chicago, told The Post he’s seen an alarming uptick in incidents over the past year, as people feel increasingly emboldened to lash out if a comic displeases them.

“Not long ago, we had a patron stand up in the middle of a performance and say, ‘I will be outside waiting for you, I’m going to kill you,’” Flagg said. “After the show, we did a sweep of the outside and there was no sign of the guy, and the comic left unharmed. But nobody felt safer.”

Mayr’s May incident directly tied into her irreverent nature. The more recent fracas had more to do with mental illness or substance abuse than political differences, but it still left her wondering about future performances.

“Most comedy clubs do have security and bouncers, especially the chain clubs,” she said. “I’m not a mainstream comic due to my politics. Maybe I do make myself a little more vulnerable.”

Happy Birthday to the iconic @MsBlaireWhite!!! pic.twitter.com/d6ogludnYC

— Chrissie Mayr (@ChrissieMayr) September 14, 2023

The post Man Crashes Chrissie Mayr Performance, Punches Audience Member appeared first on Hollywood in Toto.

Sex Education is a show that once held promise and garnered a dedicated fan base. Now the recently released fourth and final season is leaving me with mixed emotions. While it had the potential to conclude the series on a high note, the final season, unfortunately, fell short of expectations. ... [Read More]

The post Sex Education Season Four Review: Limping to a Weak Finish appeared first on The Movie Blog.

.sadopjpasdmksladnklsandlksadsaipdjhpsiajdpksampdjsajdpoajsdjjjjReptile, directed by Grant Singer in his feature-film directorial debut. The movie offers an intriguing premise with an extremely talented cast, including Benicio del Toro, Justin Timberlake, Alicia Silverstone, Eric Bogosian, and Ato Essandoh. With a screenplay co-written by Singer, Benjamin Brewer, and Benicio del Toro, and a story co-crafted ... [Read More]

The post Reptile Review: A Twisted Tale of Deception and Discovery appeared first on The Movie Blog.

Ahsoka on Disney+ is not only a continuation of Star Wars: Rebels, but in many ways, a continuation of the legacy of the original and prequel trilogies. Creator Dave Filoni has given the character of Ahsoka a lot to do. And now, in a new era of Star Wars, he ... [Read More]

The post If Thrawn Is Heir To The Empire, Then Ahsoka Is The True Heir To The Skywalker Saga appeared first on The Movie Blog.

There are many warnings for those who enjoy online gambling regarding how to gamble responsibly. Many people have heard horror stories about those who gamble online and have lost all of their wages before payday even ends.  While these cases are not the norm, and there is help available for ... [Read More]

The post How to Enjoy Online Gambling Responsibly appeared first on The Movie Blog.

The Continental offers an extended purview into the world of John Wick (2014). Scheduled to premiere on September 22, 2023, on Peacock in the United States and on Prime Video internationally. The underbelly of the world of assassins and those that reign at the table of its conquest and those ... [Read More]

The post The Continental Season 1 Episode 1 Reaction appeared first on The Movie Blog.

Summer 2023 was a battle between two hotly anticipated films: Barbie and Oppenheimer. Barbie came out on top with UK box office figures standing at £86 million. This makes it the biggest film of 2023 so far.  As people flocked to the cinemas, Barbie culture took over with people wearing ... [Read More]

The post References in Barbie you may have missed appeared first on The Movie Blog.

Gaming is a great pastime that many take up when it comes to their day-to-day lives. Whether they’ve enjoyed it since a child or they’ve perhaps picked it up in their adulthood, the landscape of gaming online has changed greatly in recent years.

There are so many different games available, making it hard nowadays to pick between what games you spend your hours on. The world of sports gaming for example is vast whether that’s NBA or Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater.

Whatever your preference is when it comes to sports gaming online, here are a few ways you can make the most out of your sports gaming experience this year.

Within sports games and a lot of games in general, you’re able to persoanlize your settings to adapt to your style of gameplay. Whether you want to make NBA 2K24 more realistic or it’s moreso about the picture quality that needs adjusting, it’s worth understanding how it all works.

That’s why it’s worth doing a bit of research online to get some guidance on how your personal settings work from one game to another. After all, every game is different, regardless of whether it’s the same title but a new one, or it’s made by the same game developer.

It’s always worth sitting down with the game’s manual or an online expert’s guide to get to grips with how the game works. That’s easier said than done when you just want to get straight into playing the game!

A great way to boost your sporting gaming, especially with sports in general is to invest in a great sound system. There are a lot of great sporting sounds used within these types of games that can often make you feel as if you’re at the sporting event yourself!

From headphones for a really immersive experience to getting a soundbar or speaker system. There are lots of sound accessories that you could add to your gaming experience to make it that much more exciting.

Of course, not everyone might be able to afford the full sound system which costs thousands but even just a sound bar or a good headphone set might be enough.

Another investment worth buying when it comes to your sports gaming or any gameplay, in general, is a gaming chair. Gaming chairs are specifically designed for those who want to play for long hours. 

When you’re sitting down for hours on end, the last thing you want is to be sat in a chair that’s impacting your posture negatively. Gaming chairs are a great way to enjoy your gaming without it needing to impact your health!

There are lots of gaming chairs out there on the market, whether you’re looking to spend a small fortune or not. You can check out all of the best gaming chairs for this year online.

If you’re looking to maximize your gaming potential this year, you could always consider becoming a pro. For generations nowadays, eSports exist which is essentially Olympic-level sports for gaming online.

Not that you need to reach that level of professionalism but you could always give your sports gaming hobby a go in the professional world. There are actually many people nowadays who make a lot of money from gaming for a living. From streaming their gameplay on Twitch, to existing as a gamer on social media.

There’s a lot of potential out there for anyone who wants to make a living from playing their favorite sports game!

Finally, when it comes to getting the most out of your sports game experience, stay fueled up on snacks and drinks. This is essential because gaming can become thirsty and hungry work. A lot of gamers will have mini fridges in their room where they can stock up on all of the fizzy energy drinks and snacks.

There’s nothing better than having hours of spare time to play your favorite games, with a drink in hand and a packet of your go-to snacks in your lap.

Getting the most out of your sports gaming experience i essential so with that being said, be sure to enjoy it all by implementing these tips into your own gameplay. Who knows where the sporting world of gaming will take future generations in years to come?

The post How To Get More Out Of Your Sports Gaming Experience first appeared on Skewed 'n Reviewed.

Digital gaming has gone from strength to strength over the past decade to the point where the old-school method of purchasing and loading a physical video game disk is practically obsolete. In this hyper-connected world, gamers want instant access to the latest and greatest gaming experiences, and where better to find them than in the digital realm?

Whether it’s cloud gaming, mobile gaming, playing immersive casino games, or diving into the Metaverse, digital gaming trends have radically reshaped everything about this Big Tech industry. And, while gaming sectors are no stranger to innovation, there are some developments that are staying on top of more than others. 

In this article, we’ll take a look at what’s hot in digital gaming here in autumn/winter 2023 — particularly those key trends with staying power. 

Although they were released almost three years ago now, it seems like we’ve only just gotten to grips with the power of the 21st century’s next-gen consoles: Sony’s PlayStation 5 and Microsoft’s Xbox Series. Nothing stays new for long in gaming, however, and word is already out about the next line of next-gen consoles that Microsoft is cooking up. 

Codenamed Brooklin, the 2024 refresh of the Series X sees Microsoft completely dispense with a disk drive. Instead, the console features a sleek, cylindrical desk with a USB-C front port, as well as a brand new “immersive controller”. According to The Verge, which first broke the news of the tech giant’s radical new direction for its flagship console, the new Series X also possesses 2TB of storage, making it ideal for digital gaming. 

That’s not all, however. Within the next five years, we might just see the company release a “hybrid” console that is fully equipped with the Xbox Cloud Gaming platform. According to yet more leaked documents discovered by The Verge, the company has a vision to develop “a next-generation hybrid game platform” that would leverage the “combined power” of bleeding edge hardware with the cloud to “deliver entire new classes of game experiences”. 

iGaming is a formidable gaming sector in its own right, currently valued at over $90 billion. The expansion into US markets that occurred during the end of the last decade has seen it become more mainstream than ever, and now, it’s the turn of decentralized technologies to take it to the next level. 

Incumbent iGaming operators like PokerStars Casino have already done a lot to democratize online casino and real-money gaming. Alongside providing an array of real-money blackjack variants on its platform, it also educates users on the specific tactics needed for success at the virtual tables. This has helped to make the game as a whole much more approachable for a wider demographic of players.

While gamers will continue to enjoy wagering experiences of this ilk, a new path is opening up that sees the fusion of crypto casino gaming with live streaming. Decentralized currencies and blockchain technology are making their mark on several gaming markets, and iGaming is no exception.  

What kind of article about the hottest trends in digital gaming would this be without covering the metaverse? Much more than just a buzzword or a marketing ploy by a certain social media giant, the metaverse is becoming increasingly important as a gaming reality with each passing month. Players have already begun to explore the vast possibilities offered by interconnected digital realms, with blockchain games like WHAT and WHAT laying the foundations for what’s to come as the decade continues to play out. 

Extended Reality (XR) is the staple of the metaverse, and it imbues gaming experiences with even greater levels of immersion. By combining virtual reality, augmented reality, and haptic technologies, XR transports players directly into a video game’s virtual universe with hyper-real graphics and improved sensory feedback. 

Another important aspect of the metaverse for gaming is its ability to initiate and support player-driven economies. The traditional pay-to-play business model utilized by gaming brands across the world may never fully be replaced, but the play-to-earn basis of the GameFi sector nevertheless enables players to truly own their in-game assets. Combined with the virtual reality aspects of the Metaverse, we could see gamers being given opportunities to create and generate digital assets with real-world value, too. 

The post What’s Hot in Digital Gaming? first appeared on Skewed 'n Reviewed.

Here are my Maze Walkthrough videos from Knott’s Scary Farm 2023.

The three new mazes were amazing.

The post Knott’s Scary Farm 2023: Full Mazes Walkthrough Videos first appeared on Skewed 'n Reviewed.

Lools good.

During this year’s Tokyo Game Show, Bethesda Softworks made announcements for popular titles The Elder Scrolls Online and Fallout 76. Check out the details surrounding each game’s announcement below.

The Elder Scrolls Online | ESO Arrives on Consoles in Japan, Fully Localized this Fall 

ZeniMax Online Studios is excited to share that The Elder Scrolls Online will launch in Japan on Xbox and PlayStation consoles, along with full localization in Japanese on November 15, 2023. During the segment, ESO Creative Director Rich Lambert also highlighted the new content recently released in the Necrom Chapter, which console players will be able to play locally this November.

For all the details surrounding ESO and the Necrom Chapter head to the ESO official website here.

Fallout 76 | Atlantic City Launch Date + PTS Reveal 

Jonathan Rush, Fallout 76’s Lead Art Director, revealed Fallout 76: Atlantic City will be a two-part content update, Boardwalk Paradise and America’s Playground, with Boardwalk Paradise, launching December 5 on all platforms. Atlantic City: Boardwalk Paradise will feature new locations never-before-seen in the world of Fallout, including a casino for players to test their luck, factions, creatures, an Expedition featuring two missions and rewards. Players who can’t wait to test their luck and are looking to help test the upcoming content will be able to jump into the Boardwalk Paradise PTS on October 3 via Steam.

For more information on all things Atlantic City be sure to check out the official Fallout 76 website here.

The post The Elder Scrolls Online and Fallout 76 Announce New Updates first appeared on Skewed 'n Reviewed.

Looking forward to seeing our team coverage.

Howl-O-Scream, SeaWorld San Diego’s separately ticketed nighttime Halloween event for mature audiences, with the most haunted houses, scares and screams in San Diego in one place, will return on September 29. The screamtastic event is full of never-before-seen haunted houses, scare zones, vile vignettes and live performances. Halloween fans can expect new sounds, lighting, special effects, more scare performers, and more surprises at every turn. Howl-O-Scream runs on select nights from September 29 to October 31.

“We’re so excited that we can announce additional offerings to scare and terrify guests at this year’s Howl-O-Scream” said Jim Lake, Park President of SeaWorld San Diego. “Howl-O-Scream is a unique offering to those looking for a scary night out, as it offers a huge variety of things to do within one major event. For those who are returning, expect an amplified experience with all-new scares lurking behind every corner. For first-time visitors, you’re in for a terrifying treat exploring all the horrors and haunts the event has to offer.”

New Haunts and Fearsome Houses and Scare Zones

The screams will never end when guests are running from each of the five new and improved haunted houses. The all-new immersive 3D Circus of the Damned is where fears will come to life in a chaotic cursed circus. Newly announced is fan-favorite, Simon’s Slaughterhouse, there’s no escaping Simon and his knife-wielding crew of butchers through his meat house. The deadly doctor is in and so are his medical experiments gone wrong in Nightmare Experiment, the evil Swamp Witch and her vengeful spirits at Death Water Bayou, plus mad scientists, and terrifying extraterrestrials who refuse to be contained at Area 64: Alien Outbreak.

The scare zones will be a surprise scare-up on attendees as they unknowingly approach these themed locations scattered throughout the event. Inflicting more terror is Clown Gauntlet, a scare zone where guests will face their childhood nightmares as they run from merciless clowns with chainsaws in hand. Haunting the park pathways are creepy dolls and sinister stuffed animals at Deadly Toys, mystifying, undead evils rise at The Graveyard, powerful, alluring sirens at Sea of Souls, and disgruntled, deranged carnies at Carnival of Chaos.

Brand-New Bewitching Live Entertainment to Madden and Mesmerize

Guests will encounter all-new entertainment throughout the event, with a vile surprise hidden around each corner. The five all-new Vile Vignettes will spread dark magic, misfortune, and Halloween terror to unsuspecting guests.

Guests can add two stage shows to their night that will madden and mesmerize those between scares.

Secure Your Spot to Scream During Slash Sale

In honor of Simon’s gruesome return, guests can secure their spot to escape his slaughterhouse during the Slash Sale! September 18 through 24, guests can save with tickets as low as $39.99. Prices go up as the event draws closer, so guests are encouraged to buy tickets in advance to secure their night of screams and terror.

Howl-O-Scream 2023 is a separately ticketed night event for mature audiences only. Tickets to Howl-O-Scream include haunted houses, scare zones, live entertainment, access to themed bars, rides and coasters at night, and more. Bags measuring larger than 8″x5″, including purses and backpacks, are not permitted through the Howl-O-Scream entrance. Exceptions to this policy may be made for medically necessary items after proper inspection.

For more information on Howl-O-Scream and to purchase tickets and add-ons, visit https://seaworld.com/san-diego/.

For guests looking for family-friendly Halloween fun, SeaWorld San Diego’s annual Spooktacular will take place on select dates from September 15 through October 29. Children of all ages will love trick-or-treating for ghoulish goodies during this daytime event as they explore SeaWorld San Diego in their Halloween costumes, walk through the decorated candy trail, and meet a cast of colorful and not-so-spooky characters.

The post SeaWorld San Diego Reveals New Howl-O-Scream Details first appeared on Skewed 'n Reviewed.

Grimmfest, Manchester's International Festival of Fantastic Film, will be returning to regular venue, Manchester’s Odeon Great Northern, from 6–8 October to showcase the best in genre cinema.

With the feature film lineup already announced, we are delighted to share this year’s poster artwork by Ilan Sheady, emphasising this year’s celebration on female-centric horror.

But now, that celebration is set to start a day earlier, on the evening of Thursday 5 October, with a special preview screening of Joe Lynch’s SUITABLE FLESH alongside two startling short film premieres and the infamous Evolution of Horror pub quiz.

Boasting a fearlessly full-on lead performance from Heather Graham (TWIN PEAKS, BOOGIE NIGHTS), SUITABLE FLESH is a vibrant, visceral and challenging contribution to the cinematic representation of Cthulhu cosmology, and a heartfelt homage to the late, great Stuart Gordon, to whom it is dedicated.

Plus, an exclusive world premiere: Najarra Townsend (THE STYLIST) stars as an isolated young woman caught between a potentially predatory neighbour and her own paranoia in Stu Silverman's slippery and suffocatingly claustrophobic psychological thriller BUG.

Also, in Brendan Cleaves’ SAM AND DOUG (UK premiere), a tense suburban post-lockdown spin on THE WALKING DEAD, Craig Charles, Carla Langley and Elliot James Langridge star in a tale of a desperate mother forming an unlikely friendship to save her family.

We can also now reveal the lineup of short film premieres in this year's trio of programmes.

Friday 6 October: NOTHING IS REAL

A couple's home life grows ever more divided in Peter Collins Campbell's deadpan and disturbing VARIATIONS ON A THEME.

A young man finds himself, and everyone close to him, undergoing a terrifying metamorphosis, in Matt Bentley-Viney's disquieting CATERPILLAR (Greater Manchester premiere).

A young woman uses her ability to hear the voices of the recently departed to help those left behind in Nacho Solana's unexpectedly moving THERE ARE NO GHOSTS (regional premiere).

A young man and his grief-stricken boyfriend come to regret their choice of holiday resort in Gus Reed's subtly nightmarish RINGING ROCKS (Manchester premiere).

Two young women on the brink of romance discover that time is not on their side in Antoine Dricot's quietly devastating MEMORIES OF THE MOON (UK premiere).

A couple's toxic relationship awakens something evil in Jo Smyth's fever-dream folk horror, FIND YOU HERE (Greater Manchester premiere).

Saturday 7 October: WHERE THE HEART… ISN’T

A man returns to the community he grew up in to discover friends and family in thrall to a sinister cult in Jesse Aultman’s macabre morality tale THE SPIRIT BECOME FLESH (international premiere).

Doting parents teach their young daughter the meaning of Halloween in Sabrina Ariss's chilling TRADITION (UK premiere).

Alan Dunne offers a truly terrifying glimpse of a toxic home environment in the darkly comic FAMILY NIGHT (regional premiere).

An overworked young man receives a truly unwelcome phone call in James Hughes' nail-biting NO CALLER ID (world premiere).

A neglected wife develops an unhealthy fixation with an insect in Stef Meyer and Pascal Bourelier's creepy and claustrophobic MANTRA (North West premiere).

A young man's reunion with his biological father proves traumatic in Andrew Rutter's surreal comic nightmare THE HERITAGE (regional premiere).

An infertile woman remains determined to have a baby in Michael Squid's heart-rending and utterly horrifying JANELLE'S BABY (international premiere).

Sam Fox offers the ultimate “meet the parents” shocker in the truly outrageous FUK'N NUTS (UK premiere).

Sunday 8 October: HERE BE MONSTERS

A desperate scientist finds himself caught between marauding zombies and a food-stealing rat in Semyon Voinov's mordantly funny TRAPPED (regional premiere).

A father-and-son weekend adventure becomes a terrifying fight for survival in Michael Trainotti's gripping old-school creature feature SCRATCH (international premiere).

A would-be social media star discovers that success requires sacrifice in Riccardo Grippo's sour splatter-satire STARR (world premiere).

A rejected young woman discovers an unlikely source of moral support in Shane Bannon's troubling A PERFECT PLACE TO CRY (European premiere).

An aspiring romantic novelist becomes increasingly obsessed with a mysterious, possibly supernatural figure who haunts the library where she works in Javier Yañez Sanz's utterly horrifying BOOKWORM (UK premiere).

An inebriated duo attempts to rob an antique store, only to discover that the older woman running the shop isn't quite as defenseless as she seems, in Tyler Savage's droll tale of EC Comics-style poetic justice, ODDITIES, starring genre legend Adrienne Barbeau (Manchester premiere).

We can also share details of the first of this year’s confirmed guests and Festival Jury members. Joining us on this year’s blood-red carpet thus far:

Raymond Wood, director of the candy-coloured and confrontational FACELESS AFTER DARK. Starring and co-written by Jenna Kanell in the wake of appearing in the first TERRIFIER, the film combines splatter, satire, vicarious vengeance, and a twist of sly metacinematic mischief to offer a pointed critique of some of the more questionable aspects of the horror genre and the ways in which fame in an era of toxic social media can prove a truly Faustian bargain.

Writer-director Miguel Azurmendi, producer Antonio Rosa Lobo, and producer-actor Pablo Lapastora will represent the jaw-dropping KERATYNA, a tense, surreal spin on REAR WINDOW for the age of the internet incel conspiracy theorist.

Enigmatic writer-director Quarxx will take the audience on a tour of hell in his existential portmanteau PANDEMONIUM.

From the creative team of ABRUPTIO, composer and musician Patrick Savage (THE HUMAN CENTIPEDE, A CURE FOR WELLNESS, BENEDETTA, COCAINE BEAR) will be in attendance.

Representing SAM AND DOUG, we will welcome actor Elliot James Langridge (HABIT, NORTHERN SOUL).

Finally, Mike Muncer, founder and host, and Becky Darke, returning guest and events coordinator, of podcast THE EVOLUTION HORROR will be presenting various events in and around the festival. We will also be joined by actor-writer Adam Z. Robinson of theatre company THE BOOK OF DARKNESS AND LIGHT, who will be performing HAUNTED on Thursday night at The Lion’s Den.

Mike and Becky will be hosting a special THE EVOLUTION OF HORROR pub quiz for festival attendees, with horror-themed prizes and merchandise for winners and runners up. This will take place at Lion’s Den on the evening of Thursday 5 October, after the screening of SUITABLE FLESH, BUG and SAM AND DOUG.

We are also delighted to release details of this year's Festival Jury. Faced with the daunting task of debating and deliberating over this year's lineup, and determining those most deserving a visit from the Reaper, will be:

Mary Beth McAndrews, film producer and editor-in-chief at Dread Central

Ben Parker, screenwriter and director (BURIAL, THE CHAMBER [Grimmfest 2016])

Caroline Couret-Delègue, managing director of sales and distribution company Film Seekers

Dr Xavier Aldana Reyes, reader and co-director at the Manchester Centre for Gothic Studies at Manchester Metropolitan University and co-president of the International Gothic Association

Amber T, writer and journalist (Fangoria, Arrow Video, Ghouls Magazine, Grimoire of Horror)

Full and day passes and individual tickets are available at https://www.grimmfest.com/festival/

★★★

Directed by: #BillSorrice

Starring: #BillSorrice and #MonishaShiva

Short Film Review by: Alexandra James

Dyed in the Wool is a short series that follows couple Ev and Freddie. Ev has lost her job recently and the pair find themselves in some very awkward social situations as they visit friends and family and inform them of the news. Sadly, Freddie is not the type to hold back on some of his opinions and fails to live up to Ev’s expectations when it comes to social cues and general etiquette. However, many of Freddie’s gibes are not far off from what we are all thinking when it come to dealing with insufferable guests that just don’t know when to shut up! The series did not follow on from one another, each episode was its own individual comedic piece, so it made it interesting to discover something new within each episode, and new characters to connect with.

Freddie is an average guy that enjoys football and drinking beer with his mates, his girlfriend Ev is polite, friendly and tries to make sure everyone around her is comfortable, the total opposite to Fred! Their relationship seemed unusual, I struggled to see the chemistry between the two, their personalities were clearly opposites. There needed to be something that bonded to the two, such as through humour or subtle glances towards one another when placed in such uncomfortable situations. The comedic side to these short episodes were great and included lots of humorous and uncomfortable moments for our main characters. It is a series that projects the normal day-to-day interactions we have in life whether this be dinner parties or catching up with old friends and shows the audience what it would be like if we did highlight the absurd behaviour of people. There was almost a Larry David vibe to the main character Fred. His unfiltered nature, alongside some rather alternative characters made for some funny moments and made it easy to relate to some of the awkward moments.

Unfortunately, the drawback to this short series is the editing and camera work. This did let the scenes down a fair bit, it had an amateurish feel throughout and seemed close to a home video style. The camera angles were extremely shaky in places which made the piece look poor in quality. However, with this said, if this became tightened up and improved upon this series has a lot of potential with its strong comedy element. The main characters need to be established further and the audience need to see that connection between the two. Dyed in the Wool is a great comedy short series with hilarious characters, entertaining storylines, and strong potential.

★

Directed by: #JunayedAlavi

Starring: #SayanBiswas, #ArijitSaha and #MayurThakur

Short Film Review by: Alexandra James

Dendrophobia is a short film that exposes one man’s deep-rooted fear of trees. This is one phobia which I did have to Google as I had to know if this was a true fear, and low and behold discovered it is in fact real. I suppose there is a fear out there for everyone to suffer with! Director Junayed Alavi begins this narrative with a teacher and child sitting across from one another. The teacher begins to tell the child a tale about fear and attempts to impart some wisdom onto the young boy, that fear is just an illusion, hoping that he will understand the real monster of his story is.

The opening scene to this short looked intriguing and promising. The audience see a man walking through a wooded area, the music added over the scene created this intense and eerie atmosphere and appears to be the beginning of a psychological horror, a twisted story between man and nature. The audience then become confused at first at the protagonist’s reaction to the trees and plants that surround him, his face clearly showing panic and torment from being trapped within the woods. As the music begins to heighten and intensify, we begin to wonder what is lurking behind the dark trees to evoke such fear from our main character. The scene quickly changes to him at home, and again as he looks out the window and sees the trees, he begins to breathe heavily and become more and more panicked by the outside and nature, even fearful of a small plant growing outside in the alleyway next to his home. It was at this point the film became comical rather than scary, it was extremely difficult to take the short seriously and understand the narratives direction.

Understandably, the film is called Dendrophobia, however, although this is a fear that exists and one which has not been used within the horror genre, it may be for a very apparent reason that to the average person trees are not scary! So, it was difficult to watch this film without smiling and becoming amused by some of the scenes taking place, the complete opposite reaction to how the director wanted us to feel which was frightened!

It would have been creepy to generate the plants into a creature or become creative with the lighting and allow the audience to truly envision nature as a scary force. Unfortunately, it was one man attempting to fight off a plant and the plant slowly beginning to take over his body. This did not make me look at trees in a different way! The music although was fitting for a horror genre, does not then make the scenes themselves scarier in anyway, there needed to a stronger narrative to really project this film into the horror genre as well as allow the audience to empathise with the character and feel this level of fear that he was experiencing.

Hi Gia, many thanks for speaking with us. Whereabouts in the world do we find you right now?

I’m in the USA at the moment working on my new current project, a romantic comedy it’s coming soon! I’m directing again!!!

You wrote, directed, and starred in the action thriller The Serpent. For new audiences, how would you describe the film?

I invite you to get to know The Serpent. She is definitely someone you want to introduce to your friends and followers. This film is entertaining, well-written and full of exciting turns.

The plot synopsis is: Top special agent Lucinda Kavsky works for a secret part of the CIA. She's given a special assignment but then set up by her own agency.

The stunts are amazing, the music will keep your heart beating as it lends to Serpent's adventures. Targeted demos for The Serpent include: women and guys of all ages, those who identify as action film watchers, those who like suspense and thrillers, those who support Independent and film festival movies, international movie watchers, those who enjoy female heroines, and international spy/espionage movie lovers. The Serpent is sure to please these viewers of all ages.

The Serpent has magnetic appeal with a storyline that can be understood and felt no matter where you are located. It can easily be a cult classic. It's a title you want in your movie catalogue. Meet The Serpent and enjoy!

Why did you want to tell this story?

I love stories about heroes, about those who fight against wrong and I want the good guys to win and all my stories that I have already created and will create are about this.

I want to give hope to all those viewers who will watch my movies that in movies as in life there is justice and you have to believe in yourself and believe that the good guys will win and doing good is much more important, and you can meet good people and you can do good things and be happy!

What were the challenges of getting The Serpent made?

What has the reaction to The Serpent been like?

The reaction to the movie is different but mostly everyone liked it very much, the audience liked very much the hero Lucinda Kavsky - of course, the girl blonde hero saves the world, you can't think of anything better.

This was your directorial debut. How did you find it?

The Serpent is my directorial debut. I hope my audience will appreciate my debut work, an exciting action sequence sure to please audiences worldwide. With its diverse casting, international setting, and intriguing story, The Serpent is the newest cultural phenomenon. I love the action genre because I am mostly attracted to the stunt work, stunt fighting and stunt driving and I did all the stunts myself in the film.

Why do you make movies?

Since childhood, I love to tell stories that take the breath away, surprise and delight the viewer and movies gives me the opportunity to show everything in a colourful light.

The Serpent is currently available to watch on Freevee.

After winning the Audience Award at Sheffield Doc Fest Your Fat Friend is showing as part of the Edinburgh International Film Festival. Ahead of the film’s screening I got to chat to director Jeanie Finlay.

SYNOPSIS: Aubrey Gordon, writes anonymously as "Your Fat Friend" about what it means to be a very fat woman in the world. Her searingly honest writing describes in intimate, humorous and unflinching detail what it’s like to be that fat person on the plane, and how the fantasies, peddled by a diet and wellness industry worth $26 billion a year, are on a par with the lies that Big Tobacco told the public in the 1950s.

Filmed over 6 years, we follow Aubrey’s rise from anonymous blogger to best selling author and co-host of one of the biggest podcasts in the world and public figure. Charting how it feels to live in a very fat body, and the pain and triumph of trying to change your family... and a world where you just don’t fit.

AM. I’ve read that the film took about 6 years to come together, at what point in that journey did you figure out that the core of the film was going to be the dichotomy of Aubrey’s successful public work and her struggle to make the progress she wants in her private circle?

JF. I guess in documentaries you always sort of write the film in the edit, and I work very collaboratively with my editor Alice Powell. But just rewinding a bit, the very first time I met Aubrey - I originally asked her to just write a voiceover for an essay film about fatness I was making - and then as soon as I met her I abandoned the whole previous year’s work, and just went “Oh you’re the film!”. And part of that was this deeply engaging and emotional writing that really came from her. She just seemed to have a different voice when she was anonymous. I got her to read out the first piece that she wrote, and she used this different voice, and then she talked sort of vaguely about her parents. When I went back a few months later I met her mum and her dad, on separate [occasions]. And her dad couldn’t even use the word “fat”. He really struggled to say “fat”, and he didn’t read any of her work, and I thought this is really fascinating. On the one hand you have got someone who is really personable, easy to talk to, funny – they all have this great sense of humour, but her parents are both at very different places, and for me that space in between that is where the film lies. I had a sense then that that was the film, because that was somewhere to go. What does it mean to have a massive ambition of changing the world and having that deep audience connection that means that you actually do, versus can you have the messy conversations with the people that live in your house? Cause often the cry is coming from inside the house. And these are the most challenging conversations to have. Being fat is the number one reason children are bullied. Often it is the parents putting their kids on diets because they are scared of their children getting bullied. And they are sending them off on a journey that might lead to lifelong yoyo dieting or a mental health toll.

So quite early on… I had no idea that Aubrey’s writing was going to take off in the way that is did. Her podcast just hit 55 million downloads, she has a global audience. So it seemed even clearer to me. I mean she is getting recognised in public, by voice or even visibly now. What does that mean for her family? Cause there is an assumption there that things are sorted, but she is still doing the work. I think she says in the film: “I get all these emails from all these people asking how do I do it? And I don’t know cause I am still in it”. That felt really resonant to me, that notion.

AM. So I have been watching a lot of your previous work. And throughout your journey, you’ve grown into your documentaries more and more, we hear more from you, is that something that has been a conscious decision – that you have wanted to put more of yourself in?

JF. The first two films I made you don’t hear my voice at all, at that point as a baby filmmaker and as an artist for many years – when you’re an artist the idea of the artist’s voice is that it is inherent in the work, and so I really sort of believed that when I first started making films. When I made Sound it Out, it felt like quite a turning point for me. I crowdfunded the film, it was about my home, it was about growing up in the North East as an outsider and finding a bunch of outsiders, and finding community through music. In one sense it is a pragmatic thing and they are asking questions. It sort of felt important because these interactions are happening because I am there, at that moment, with a camera. And so now I really lean into that. This is about our chemistry, our relationship. It is about the relationship I have built up with Aubrey over 6 years, and with her family, and the non-binary consent that we have brought to the filmmaking. Those things are different than if you just show up and just hoist a camera it is a very different relationship. It feels like an honesty in voicing that, and being visible. There is a point in Your Fat Friend when Pam, Aubrey’s mum, is standing in the kitchen, and she’s thinking, she’s been going through it, and she says, “There is something about having a camera going”. So it is just me filming, and you see my zoom, and you see my focus. And I could cut round that, but I have kept it in on purpose so you can show that ‘this is happening right now!’. I want it to feel intimate, that the audience is there with me, ‘look at what happened cause I was there!’. So I keep those little camera movements in on purpose to show you where my eye was looking, does that make sense?

AM. That makes perfect sense!

JF. It’s now much more mindful. So, I’ve just done a press interview and they said, “We’re going to cut out the interviewer’s voice, so give full answers”. And I used to do that, say “Can you try and put the question in the answer?”. Real human beings don’t speak like that, and so if I keep my voice in it, then it allows people to be much more relaxed.

AM. So in the film [Your Fat Friend] you are invited into quite a private space, inside this family unit, and you ask something that changes their relationship a little bit, it sparks this conversation that they have – how did it feel for you as a filmmaker to be inside this family space, to change something?

JF. It felt immense. Aubrey’s mum, Pam, is an incredibly thoughtful and generous person who thinks carefully. If you ask her how she is, she doesn’t go, “I’m fine, I’m fine”. She really gives things a lot of thought and the generosity of her to be aware of what is going on and for that to have an impact, felt really amazing. Normally that stuff happens when the film is done. It’s done, it is out in the world and people have time for things to settle. Sometimes making a film is like throwing a stone into a lake and the sometimes ripples are bigger than others. I don’t believe in fly-on-the-wall filmmaking, I’m too tall! You know, I’m present. Of course it has an impact on people. It would be disingenuous to ignore it, it’s unethical.

AM. Unethical to ignore it?

JF. Unethical to ignore the role that documentary filmmaking can play in people’s lives. I also think, in terms of that, the collaborative process I had with Aubrey, she’s not a dummy, she’s using the film. I think that the film was an opportunity to have a conversation that is much more difficult to say out loud with her family. The film is a vehicle for a tricky conversation, albeit on a much bigger platform. I have noticed that’s what happens. I was here at the festival in 2013 with The Great Hip Hop Hoax, and when I was making that film the boys didn’t talk to each other at all, they talked to me. And then they re-united after the film.

AM. Oh really?

JF. Yeah they played at the party here. They re-united, they both came to America for the film premiere at SXSW, and we had Silibil’ N’ Brains rapping at the film party. Yeah, the film became an opportunity for reconciliation.

AM. That’s really cool.

Across all of your films, you manage to get people who feel quite vulnerable to open up and share quite a lot with you. It is one of the nicest things about watching a lot of your films. How do you manage to get people to feel comfortable with you and to share something quite private and intimate with you?

JF. I don’t know. I guess I spent a lot of time with people, and Your Fat Friend is my ninth feature film, and I have shown with my previous feature films that I want people to recognise themselves, and not feel foolish for having taken part. And I’m very protective of people’s stories, I think that earns me a lot of trust. Saying that, some people just jump into being in a film. I have no idea what I have done before, and they just take it on completely face value, and they trust me, and I don’t know why. But I try. It is a big responsibility, and I guard it very sensitively. It is my job to make sure that everyone who has taken part in the film, but also those that have trusted me with their money, are happy with the film. And that I can live with it. I want to make films I can live with. That I love like my children. But in terms of getting people to open up… I think that when I was an artist for many years I was desperate to tell stories, and I found it really frustrating, that it was a hard thing to do. When I started making films, I just thought ‘Oh my God, I’ve found the thing I’m meant to do!’. I think I’m meant to be a documentary maker. I think I’m good at getting people to talk to me. It sounds arrogant to own what you’re good at, but I know that this is what I am good at.

AM. But it is true!

JF. But it took me a long time to learn that. I think that is because of the people I choose to focus on. I don’t like show-offs. I don’t mind loud people, but I’m always asking, why are they so loud? So I ask a lot of small gentle questions, and I allow people to come to me. We go on a little walk, psychologically. We go on a little meander. Sometimes there are things that I want them to talk about, but often if you are listening you get a million other things that you are not even looking for. It is like going foraging in the woods, you don’t know what you are going to find. But you have got to listen. I used to write all my questions down, but I don’t write them down anymore because I am listening to what people say. It doesn’t mean that I haven’t done a fuckload of preparation. I do all my prep.

AM. A lot of your films are available right now on the platform True Story [in the UK], and in America on the Criterion Channel, how does it feel to have the breadth of your work be so accessible for everyone to see?

JF. It’s beautiful. It’s really interesting actually. I sort of feel like I have been holed away in Nottingham just making my films. It’s a cheap place to live, it doesn’t have a film community, it is just a few people based in an amazing cinema, The Broadway Cinema. I just get on and make the work. I usually have one in development, one on the road, one that I am actively making – so at the moment I am making a film, I’m a year in. So having retrospectives is a real opportunity for people to connect the dots and see the things that I wasn’t necessarily thinking about. I want to have a discovery on every project, and I thought there would be a point where I don’t want to make films anymore, and I really still do. Next week, I am going to New Mexico. I got a Chicken and Egg award at the beginning of the year, and part of that is unrestricted funds that you can spend on anything. I want to keep learning, so I am going to the University of New Mexico to hang out at the lab. The DP that shot Your Fat Friend and Orion, Stewart Copeland, is a professor of visual animation there. So I am going to learn the ways that new technology is shaping the way that we create imagery. To learn new skills.

AM. What do you mean by the way new technology is shaping imagery?

JF. They are doing a lot of 3D printing and projection mapping. You don’t know what you don’t know. I want to have new skills in my arsenal. And just go and stand in the desert and get weird. It’s just good to be uncomfortable. I could just sit at home and remake the same film over and over again but I don’t want to do that. On Your Fat Friend I was really thinking about how to make images and how to marry this casual intimacy of observation that is just me and the person, and all the camera moves. Then to also have these heightened visual moments, you know, naked ladies in the woods, and delving a camera underneath the water. Really live and sit with the work. Making Your Fat Friend - I don’t know if you have ever been to Oregon, but it rains all of the time. There are these mountains that are carved from this Pacific North West rain. Aubrey writes about anti-fatness being the river that we swim in every day, and I kept thinking about the way that water wears away at the body. And that the people in Oregon look like, I don’t know, like they have been in the river a bit. That it has had an effect on them. So I kept thinking about that with Aubrey, so we put her in a bunch of pools that made her look like a mountain range, and hired the swimming pool that she trained in as a kid. I want to push myself on every project.

AM. I attended the talk that you did with Paul Sng at Glasgow Film Festival, and you spoke about the myth that everything has to be London centric in the UK, and that you are not there but making all these great films. I know you mentioned Nottingham before but I wondered if you wanted to say any more about that?

JF. We’re at a very precarious time with independent documentary at the moment. Funding has never been more difficult to raise. The rise of the streamers, the pandemic, the long tail of Brexit. It is all having a toll on people, and it is decimating funding. It is making it more difficult. DCMS are researching at the moment, and people like Doc Society are listening, and the thing that is heartening is that independent documentary does get money. People like Doc Society are absolutely integral in the UK. Because I want the stories that see and hear to be made by people that reflect the diversity of the UK, not just the people that I met when I got into film - private educated, mainly men, deeply privileged people that had never set foot out of London, who would ask the most inept questions about Nottingham. They would assume it was the North when it is in fact the Midlands. There is a lot of push for diversity in this country but I would like the diversity to also expand to regional representation and class. I think class is a difficult conversation for people in this country to have. You have seen my films, I like having messy conversations about things that make us feel uncomfortable, like trans issues. It is important to have those messy conversations cause change is slow. But making films in Nottingham is great. What I am trying to do at the moment is nurture more regional talent. There is a big talent drain to London so I am trying to spot people before they leave. It is only like 1% of feature doc production in the whole of the UK happens in the Midlands, and that includes Birmingham! And to be honest I think a lot of it is me. That is not right.

This morning I spoke to filmmaker Johnny Barrington ahead of the World Premiere of his stunning debut feature Silent Roar, dubbed “A teenage tale of surfing, sex and hellfire set in Scotland’s Outer Hebrides.”

SYNOPSIS: On the island of Lewis, Scotland, Dondo, a young surfer, refuses to accept the death of his fisherman dad, despite being missing at sea for over a year. Unlike quiet and dreamy Dondo, his clever classmate Sas, is never afraid of rubbing people up the wrong way. Dondo and Sas’ unlikely bond will help them find their path in their rural community, through waves, beliefs, and hellfire.

AM. Congratulations! Your debut film Silent Roar is having its world premiere tonight as the opening film of the 2023 Edinburgh Film Festival, you have six sold-out screenings across today and tomorrow, how do you feel?

JB. A bit numb.

AM. Numb?

JB. It’s very exciting to be told that but it has still not sunk in. It feels quite surreal. Just need to pace myself.

AM. Are you excited to hear what an audience thinks about it?

JB. Yeah, that’s pretty much the main thing that I am thinking about. I would love to be a fly on the wall in the big screenings and watch people’s reactions.

AM. If we were to watch your short films back – Trout, Terra Firma, Tumult – it might be easy to assume from the outside perspective that you had a linear path to here, but it is never normally the case, so could you describe how you got to here?

JB. Well, my last year at art school my camera got stolen, and with the insurance money I bought a video camera instead. I very quickly latched onto this idea of how exciting it would be to make feature films with narrative, genuine narrative, spoken word, music, movement, and photography all rolled into one thing. From that point on everything I did was aiming at that, even if it might not appear to be. There was quite a lot of years working as a photographer or as a joiner and staring at plasterboard walls for quite a while but it was all part-and-parcel of getting to this point here and now.

AM. So you are a Scottish filmmaker working in Scotland making a film about Scottish people in Scotland, what has that process been like? Have you had to think a lot about what shape your film has to have, or whether or not your film has to avoid certain stereotypes?

JB. I quite like leaning into clichés. And fucking about with tropes. There’s a lot of different Scotlands out there. I just want to play around with ideas and not think too hard about whether I am representing something correctly or incorrectly. I would rather place the emphasis on emotion and idiocy.

AM. Colour is hugely important in the film – the blues, pinks, yellows, and browns – a lot of that is part of shooting it on 16mm. Can you talk about the importance of the decision to shoot on film?

JB. When you shoot on digital it is not just the image, it is the time. You can squeeze actors like sponges on digital and not realise that you are doing it. Kind of rinsing them, emotionally. When you shoot on film you have got less takes, you have got less time, and people seem to condense their energy better when you shoot on film. That’s something that is hard to explain when you haven’t been on a film set, but when you have got a digital camera that can sort of just roll and roll and roll, it is like the cart gets in front of the horse. But who wouldn’t want to shoot on film? What’s not to love?

AM. Well, people like different textures I guess

JB. During lockdown, I got really into looking at footage on YouTube that was originated on film, obviously it had been digitised. I have an emotional connection to a slightly shaky image, it’s all sentimental stuff, but I quite like sentiment. At the start of my work, I worked for a long time on film. For me, it is not like I grew up shooting digitally and then thought, ‘oh I wonder what film is like?’, it is much more like ‘I would like to put on my old school clothes and start again’. It is also the fact that it is a high school movie, based on my high school years in the mid-90s, and that was a time before digital photography took off. When I was at high school mobile phones didn’t exist.

AM. Where there any decisions you had to make with shooting scenes outdoors with the Scottish weather?

JB. Yeah, there was a massive amount of weather variation. We shot the film in two sections – winter and late summer, although the film is meant to be mid-summer. That just adds to the schizoid light that you get on Lewis anyway, it just made the visuals more nutty. I’m okay with that, I don’t mind if the cloud blocks the sun on one shot then is glaringly bright in the next.

AM. How was the shooting schedule?

JB. The shooting schedule is always tight, it is always a rush. But we had some great times. A lot of the shoot was outdoors, a lot of it was at sea, and not only that a lot of it was in the sea. I just have to doff my cap at the cast and crew for putting up with it.

AM. What does shooting in the sea look like?

JB. The underwater cinematographer, John Frank, he really went off and just got on with it himself, we were shooting other scenes at the same time. I had to stick with the actors and trust John, and what he got was amazing. And above the water, Ruben Woodin Dechamps [cinematographer], we were experimenting with different mechanisms for shooting dialogue scenes when the actors are sitting on surfboards. It is unbelievably tricky, sound-wise and picture-wise - to keep them steady, amongst all the interrupting noises, and water slapping on the sides of hulls. It was a stiff challenge for all sorts of reasons.

AM. The soundtrack is wonderful, by Hannah Peel, can you talk about your creative process and working with her?

JB. It was amazing working with Hannah Peel. I knew from quite early on that I really wanted to work with a composer who could straddle classical score, scoring for orchestras and choir, and make electronic, synthesised sound as well. She had quite a job on her hands corralling all these different musical elements, there’s two different choirs, an orchestra, individual musicians on trombones – an absolute avalanche of different emotions which is what I was after. I loved working with Hannah. I would have to fly over to Northern Ireland to work with her there in her studio, and then she came to Glasgow and we got a choir from Edinburgh, and a lot of musicians from the RSNO, and we recorded them over three or four days, and that was bliss. I would love to do that again. It enriches… it is more than just enrich, it IS the film! If you were blind you may be able to enjoy the film, with a bit of guidance.

AM. Is that something you have thought about before?

JB. I haven’t really thought about it. I guess you’d have to receive a bit of explanation of the geography and layout, but the texture of peoples’ voices, and the music, and the weather sounds - I’d find that pretty satisfying to listen to.

AM. So what were your influences then filmically? Whether it be visually or tonally?

JB. A heck of a lot of different things. Zabriskie Point. Éric Rohmer, a lot of his stuff. A lot of surfing footage shot on 35mm from back in the 70s and 80s. Sun-drenched imagery that has originated on film was a big influence. Also, a lot of literature, a lot of books, plays.

AM. Any in particular?

JB. There’s a writer called John Moriarty, he’s a kind of mystic philosopher, I discovered him during lockdown. There’s quite a few videos of him telling stories, on YouTube, and one of them is Story of Big Mike, I recommend that. He’s got a way with words that I’ve not come across before, he is very good at talking about human beings’ spiritual connection to the world. And I find what he says very funny as well, funny in a soft, touching, vulnerable way. I felt a vulnerability with him that I love. Also Martin McDonagh plays, some of his early plays, The Cripple of Inishmaan. A lot of short stories, there is another writer called Kevin Barry, again Irish, a lot of his short stories really rattled me – in a good way.

AM. So you mentioned the spirituality element, and in the film you take this surf culture and sort of transcend it into a form of spirituality and play it off against the local Christianity. How did you come to decide that these were going to be the two forces that play off each other in the film?

JB. It kind of just happened without truly deciding it, but it makes sense looking back on it. Quite a strong influence over the story was the death of my father. My dad worked at sea for quite a long part of my childhood, and then he became a minister. So those are two elements really, the sea and the pulpit. The cockpit and the pulpit! And the contrasts between those two areas. Psalm singing on Lewis absolutely raises the hairs on the back of my neck and tears at my soul when I listen to that recital. I’ve been listening to it for years and years, actually, I have got another feature that is even more heavily inspired by Psalm singing. For me, it represents a powerful extreme of faith and belief, and spirituality, and depth of commitment, which I can only stand back and gaze at in awe. And then the surfing, again it is another area of immense commitment and passion, and love, for an activity that transcends the everyday. When I surf, I really feel cleansed. I feel like I have been to the confession box and spilled my beans, and had a good time. There is less shame and guilt obviously. Well, there is a bit of shame and guilt mixed up in surfing, cause you can indulge yourself in it so much that you can just want to check out and just go and surf more and more and more.

AM. Going forward you have said that you want to keep making feature films, do you have any details on any future projects, and are any of them likely to be set in Scotland?

JB. I have got a couple of projects. I am very, very grateful to Screen Scotland for helping me out with one of them at the moment, I should have a script ready soon. One of them is set in Scotland, very much set back up on the islands in the Hebrides. The other project is set more between France and Scotland and is contemporary. They are both very different ideas, and I am enjoying working on them both at the moment. One of them will demand my full attention at some point but they complement each other pretty well. I’m desperate to be shooting films. I’m very emotionally churned up to realise that I have actually finally made a feature film. On the last day of the shoot the most pressing thought in my mind was that I would really like to do this again, to make another film, and stay in the saddle.

★★★★★

Directed by: #JimmyOlsson

Starring: #MattiasNordkvist and #GryEriksson

Short Film Review by: Alexandra James

Last Weekend with Jenny and John is a short Swedish film that follows a father and daughter on a trip to Motala for a basketball game that daughter Jenny is playing in. The film focuses on their relationship and the changes that have developed as Jenny becomes a teenager and no longer needs her father anymore. Instead, she wishes to be around friends and chooses to spend less and less time with him. Whereas John is struggling to come to terms with this reality and wants to bridge the gap between the two, so arranges a weekend for just them so they can spend some quality time together. In terms of narrative alone, it is simple and clear, we have a loving father and a typical teenage daughter with an average family relationship. However, because of this normality, it’s a relationship with which the audience can fully connect with. The raw emotion between the two, is real and moving, and spells out the truths of becoming a parent and the feelings you experience when you are no longer needed by your child.

Jenny and John created a bond through playing basketball together, it’s clear that this is a sport which her father played a lot with Jenny from a young age, and she has grown to love the game and has now become a part of a team. However, as the match approaches, Jenny mentions that she is thinking of quitting basketball, a statement which clearly affects John emotionally. His daughter is growing up and the quality time they have together is few and far between, Jenny leaving basketball, only distances her further away from her father.

It was easy to see the relationship between the two break down before our eyes. Jenny was oblivious to her father trying to reconnect with her and instead buries her head in her phone and the world of social media and wishes to be around her teammates. At the same time, John refuses to recognise that his daughter is becoming a young woman and needs that independence to gain confidence and learn to stand on her own two feet. Both characters represent very real father and daughter relationships in life. It’s a hard change a parent and child must experience and its often not recognised enough. However, there will always be times that children need the support from their parents, and even parents that need their children. Although there is that moment where the two move away emotionally and physically from one another, that bond will always remain, and it was great that the Last Weekend with Jenny and John reflected that bond so well and highlights the importance of family.

Director Jimmy Olsson creates a beautiful story which shows the highs and lows of being a father and that need to always be the hero in their child’s life and to feel wanted. The cinematography and locations within this short were fantastic, I really enjoyed this piece and highly recommend.