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Modder Davo has released a brand new fully-loaded quest campaign for Fallout New Vegas, called Special Delivery!. Special Deliver! comes with 3 hours of voice acting from 20 actors, as well as 3 hours of jazzy music on a radio station with a DJ. Moreover, this new fan quest campaign has oodles of documents, holotapes, … Continue reading Special Delivery! is a new fan quest campaign for Fallout New Vegas →

The post Special Delivery! is a new fan quest campaign for Fallout New Vegas appeared first on DSOGaming.

The number of attacks targeting Windows Print Spooler vulnerabilities has been increasing, according to cybersecurity firm Kaspersky.

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C&C Tiberian Dawn Redux is a full remake of the original Command & Conquer within C&C Generals Zero Hour’s SAGE-Engine.

This total conversion project has been working for several years, but the team behind this ambitious mod has now released a new version, C&C Tiberian Dawn Redux Version 1.5. This latest version of the conversion mod packs numerous new features including naval warfare and much more polished gameplay alongside updated visuals and scenery.

In addition, the update brings new sound effects, framerate improvements as well as a SPEC OPS campaign with bonus missions, fixed GDI & NOD campaign missions, new vehicle and structure models, and more. In short, this is a must-have mod for fans of the original Command & Conquer from 1995, and we highly recommended it for those who want to experience this remake within the Zero Hour SAGE 3D Engine.

Down below you’ll find some screenshots and two videos (courtesy of ModDB) from the latest version of this project in action:

Those interested can download C&C Tiberian Dawn Redux Version 1.5 here.

Released in 1995, Command & Conquer: Tiberian Dawn is part of the Command & Conquer Saga. A collection, featuring thirteen games in the series, was released by EA back in 2007.

"With over 25 million copies sold worldwide, the Command & Conquer franchise has defined the Real-time strategy (RTS) genre with fast and fluid gameplay, cutting-edge visuals, epic storylines, and rich campaign missions", EA wrote in 2007. "The series has evolved over a decade, spawned over a dozen titles, and continues to be the genre benchmark by which all RTS games are measured. With its explosive style of warfare, the Command & Conquer franchise has grown over the years to span multiple fictional genres, including the science fiction Tiberium Universe, the revisionist history of the Command & Conquer Red Alert Universe, and a twist on modern warfare with Command & Conquer Generals."

The post C&C Tiberian Dawn Redux is a Full Command & Conquer Remake Within C&C Generals Zero Hour’s SAGE-Engine by Aernout van de Velde appeared first on Wccftech.

The quality of first-party PlayStation 5 AAA games would "deteriorate" if these games would be made available at launch on subscription services, according to Sony Executive Deputy President.

Speaking during Sony's latest financial call, as transcribed by Seeking Alpha, Sony Executive Deputy President Hiroki Totoki commented on first-party titles launching on subscription services, saying that this would cause them to reduce the investment needed for these games, and thus lower their quality.

I will refrain from making comments on the competitor’s strategy and our current thinking is to have a development cost, a proper R&D investment for quality products, and that will improve the platform and also improve the business in the long run.

And AAA type titles for games PlayStation 5. If we distribute that on the subscription services and the, we may need to shrink the investment needed for that, and that will deteriorate the first party title quality and that’s our concern. So we want to make sure that the, we spend a profit development cost to have a solid products with solid titles to be introduced in the right manner.

This statement from Sony Executive Deputy President Hiroki Totoki falls in line with what PlayStation head Jim Ryan said back in March.

[In terms of] putting our own games into this service, or any of our services, upon their release... as you well know, this is not a road that we've gone down in the past. And it's not a road that we're going to go down with this new service. We feel if we were to do that with the games that we make at PlayStation Studios, that virtuous cycle will be broken. The level of investment that we need to make in our studios would not be possible, and we think the knock-on effect on the quality of the games that we make would not be something that gamers want.

At this point, it seems like Sony will not change its strategy regarding PlayStation 5 AAA titles in the foreseeable future. As Jim Ryan said, however, things may change in the future, so there eventually will be a time when Sony will embrace the subscription model that is doing so great for Microsoft.

The post PlayStation 5 AAA Games Quality Would “Deteriorate” if Launched on Subscription Services, Sony Executive Deputy President Says by Francesco De Meo appeared first on Wccftech.

"Superman & Lois" on the CW is always playing fast and loose with the Superman mythos. The opening of the series sees Clark Kent and Lois Lane moving back to Smallville to take over the Kent family farm. In the show, they have two grown sons, Jonathan and Jordan, while the only son the comic counterpart has is Jon Kent.

In the first season, the clear villain seemed to be Captain Luthor, a soldier from an alternate reality where Superman broke bad and took over the planet. Despite sharing a name with Superman's greatest nemesis, "Captain Luthor" was later revealed to be John Henry Irons, known in the comics as the Superman-inspired hero, Steel. Likewise, the real villain was revealed to be Morgan Edge, who later revealed himself as Tal-Rho, Clark's half-brother.

Subversion and surprise is where "Superman & Lois" finds its footing.

This Doom Is Not A Doctor

Near the end of season 2's opening episode, a gloved fist breaks through the ground in the Smallville mines. That fist was later revealed to belong to a figure in a massive radiation suit, similar to Doomsday's original appearance in the Superman comics. "Superman & Lois" showrunner Todd Helbing confirmed that the look was an homage to Doomsday.

"That is our homage to a classic Doomsday cover," Helbing told Entertainment Weekly: 

"There's so much lore [and] mythology in the Superman universe that we feel it's our obligation to tell a unique story ... We take inspirations from the comics as much as possible, and then we try to twist it. We did the same thing here."

He added:

"I think one of the things that we all really dig about the comic book world, but particularly with the villains, is finding ways to use assumptions about a character, and then flipping that, and finding ways to explain things that haven't been explained in the comics, like the use of something, or why a character does a certain thing."

A Rather Bizarre Twist

The villainous twist this time around is that Doomsday wasn't actually Doomsday. While the suit was inspired by Doomsday, underneath the suit was ultimately revealed to be Bizarro, the alternate Superman from a backwards world. And so the villain is essentially another iteration of Superman, making actor Tyler Hoechlin do double duty.

Hoechlin told Entertainment Weekly: 

"... we always want to find ways that Superman is genuinely challenged. It's always a difficulty with a character like that who has so few vulnerabilities." "How do you make him actually vulnerable and kind of create this conflict? Sometimes you are your own worst enemy, so that was a fun idea to play with, and that's kind of how he wanted to pitch it."

For Superman's actor, Bizarro represents a loss of control. "I think one of the scariest things is what happens if Superman loses control. So if this other being is causing him to lose control, then who knows how far that goes," he said. 

"That, I think, would be the immediate question, is how do we stop it? Beyond that, obviously doppelgängers and things are things that in our world he's not unfamiliar with, but this is, I think, the first time that it's causing this kind of a reaction out of him, and I think he needs to find a way to get back in control."

Currently, "Superman & Lois" is still airing its second season, with a huge focus on the Bizarro iteration of the Kent family. As of this writing, the CW has aired episode twelve of a fifteen-episode season. The episode itself was directed by former "Arrow" star David Ramsey, who is actually preparing to headline a new show on the CW called "Justice U." The new series will see Ramsey's John Diggle training a new generation of heroes.

Read this next: Superman Movies Ranked From Worst To Best

The post Superman & Lois Wanted A Fresh Take On Its Hero's Most Infamous Foe appeared first on /Film.

in Hollywood, there exists a somewhat self-fulfilling prophecy that creeps up on a handful of actors over the decades, especially those that step into the shoes of an instantly iconic character that is commercially successful and capable of launching franchises and spin-offs. The prophecy? They better get used to playing said character often. It feels inherently cynical to assume an actor is trapped in a role by studio executives carrying moneybags with dollar signs on them. But there's no shortage of examples of adaptations and original films that dried up after once being evergreen staples. The elephant I almost always particularly encounter in any room is usually Indiana Jones, which may be controversial in some circles.

All this is to say that a little too much enthusiasm and no small amount of tempting profit can ruin a good thing quickly. Which brings me to Christopher Lloyd, aka Dr. Emmett Brown in the "Back to the Future" trilogy. Not only did Lloyd appear in all three of the time traveling adventures, but he's also reprised the inimitable and beloved "Doc" numerous times in the decades since, and always with such sincere glee. Whether it's the 2010 video game, segments of "Robot Chicken," or a hilarious cameo in Seth MacFarlane's "A Million Ways to Die in the West," Christopher Lloyd is always having a blast as Doc Brown. One of the reasons the actor loves putting the lab coat back, no matter the occasion, is owed to his realization of how beloved the character has become over the years. Although it took quite a bit of time for Lloyd to understand just how timeless Doc would prove to be.

Passing Down Doc Brown To Future Generations

Lloyd is no stranger to playing memorable characters. Two standouts include Uncle Fester in "The Addams Family" and his nightmare-inspiring Judge Doom from "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" But in a recent interview with GQ, Lloyd revealed that there has always been something particularly affecting about his portrayal of Doc. The actor also explained that years went by before he started to notice that excitement or appreciation for the character wasn't going away:

"You know, three or four or five years, it sank in that this just doesn't stop [laughs]. I mean, kids who saw it when the film first came out grew up and had kids who they began their lives with. And so many people have come up to me and say how I made their childhood or the film made their childhood, or they became engineers or scientists or surgeons or whatever, from the effect of the film on them. And nothing else I've done has had that kind of impact."

There's something singularly meaningful in the act of sharing a favorite film with a loved one. In this way, "Back to the Future" and Doc Brown have remained in the collective memory of countless people and passed on to every subsequent generation, which has created the effect of undiminished love for the films and their characters. At 83 years old, Lloyd's long career has allowed him to witness some of the fruits of his inspiration. I can't be the only one getting misty-eyed when the actor mentions the people over the years who've said the role inspired them in various ways.

There's a good chance that another appearance by Doc is just around the corner (even if it won't be in a "Back to the Future" remake), which itself feels like a reminder that maybe we don't need endless trilogies or franchises to continuously enjoy a favorite character. Sometimes the odd cameo is enough. Either way, Lloyd is far from retiring: it was recently was announced the actor would be making an appearance in the next season of "The Mandalorian" on Disney+. And I'm willing to bet there's a fifty-fifty chance some part of his role will reference "Back to the Future," even if it's just an Easter egg hidden somewhere in a galaxy far, far away.

Read this next: 20 Movies About Time Travel Ranked Worst To Best

The post It Took a While For Christopher Lloyd to Realize the Impact of Back to the Future appeared first on /Film.

A man with no flying experience was forced to land a plane on Tuesday when the pilot became incapacitated. "I've got a serious situation here," he told an air traffic controller at a Florida airport (audio below). "My pilot has gone incoherent, and I have no idea how to fly the airplane." — Read the rest

A history that spanned two decades comes to an end.

Reacting to the release of a leaked 2001 build of Duke Nukem Forever, Scott Miller made a post we mentioned yesterday discussing the troubled development of the first-person shooter sequel. Saying he...

Every Michael Bay scene is an action scene. In the auteur director's subtlety-free universe, you-know-what is always getting real. No one pauses to reflect. Self-discovery is a kinetic choice. Bay became one of Hollywood's hottest action directors by staging everything from car chases to casual conversations like steroidal ballets. That made some viewers hate him. I'd argue it's a reason to adore him.

Why? In a recent Entertainment Weekly interview, Bay's movies are described by Joshua Rothkopf as "pageants to American knowhow." Bay then acknowledges his love of this country's can-do spirit (and those who risk their lives for it) but adds this chilling aside: "The American Dream has been twisted and is disappearing." That's a wild statement coming from the guy who integrated the Transformers and the Underground Railroad, but it's also the skeleton key to Bay's action scenes.

The Constitution and country are living documents of who and what the United States is, and, in his own delirious, problematic, and game-changing way, Bay is a would-be documentarian. His best action scenes tease this country's hyper-masculine id to the surface, then give it cars, bombs, and rocket launchers to play with. They, to paraphrase Walt Whitman and Sting, sing the body of the U.S.A. electric.

Here are the 15 best Michael Bay action scenes, ranked.

Saving All God's Creatures — Pain & Gain

"Pain & Gain" has a reputation for being Michael Bay's "least Michael Bay" movie. It's unearned. Yes, the story of three juice-headed goons (Mark Whalberg, Anthony Mackie, and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson) who extort then abduct a businessman (Tony Shaloub) is closer in its plot to a Coen Brothers movie than "Bad Boys," but the Coens would never intercut a stirring and expository monologue with footage of a weight plate getting tossed into a bulked-up prison guard's throat. That's exactly what happens when Whalberg and Mackie recruit The Rock for their scheme, and he responds by describing how prison saved his soul. Bay shows us The Rock's fall from grace and redemption in under two minutes, capping it off with a beatdown of prisoners and police alike. "Saving all of God's creatures was my special mission," he beams. Salvation looks like destruction.

This fight is a seemingly minor entry in Michael Bay's canon, but it extols his virtues in microcosm. The Rock has never felt larger or more hard-hitting than he does here. When he slams one convict into a rec yard wall, you can practically feel the bones shattering. What's more, the scene is spare and economical. It's easy to forget that Bay, stripped of fireworks, can still stage something that feels explosive. This "Pain & Gain" scene is proof. In that sense, the crime dramedy has more in common with the Bay we know than "13 Hours" or even certain "Transformers" entries. That makes it worthy of this list. 

Mortar Storm — 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers Of Benghazi

The mortar storm scene shouldn't exist.  There are seemingly zero reasons for Michael Bay to shoot the infamous domestic compound attack from "13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi" the way he does. The explosions look awesome. Though film announces itself as a biographical-action-drama, it takes impossible-to-miss creative liberties, too. One of the most egregious comes in the mortar storm scene, during which a fire-singed photograph floats across the screen precluding a pictured character's death. It's simultaneously heavy-handed and silly. It shouldn't work.

And yet, the mortar storm scene makes our 15 best list and deservedly so. For two horrifying minutes, it documents how quickly ballistic shells can decimate a battlefield. Bay cuts between the rooftops where the mortars land and the offices that suffer their devastating explosions. All is chaos with fire and bodies strewn everywhere. Then Bay slows the action down and cuts the sound for a shot that borders on tasteless. The camera follows a mortar from its launch, through the air, and straight down onto its target. A smash cut to a soldier running in slow motion follows, the mortar just behind him like a monster giving pursuit. Then the promised detonation follows. After all that hyper-realistic and dread-inducing violence, the melancholy floating photo feels earned. Bay is thought of as a stylist, but the mortar storm of "13 Hours" reminds us that he's a storyteller first and foremost.

Staples Center Chase — Ambulance

Michael Bay loves toys. He describes NASA as "the land of big toys" and willingly made four movies based on Hasbro action figures. Bay plays with steel vehicles as children do Hot Wheels, and if those vehicles careen off ramps or into walls, so much the better.

Drones can be toys too. In "Ambulance," Michael Bay uses FPV drones with "presents-on-Christmas-morning" level enthusiasm. He hired Alex Vanover, a 2019 DRL Championship winner, to pilot the latest and greatest drone models in service of the Los Angeles-set heist thriller. The results are frequently head-spinning. Literally. An early shot in "Ambulance" sees the camera zooming up a bank building only to 180 and drop on an erstwhile robber's face.

The creme de la creme of Vanover and Bay's efforts is a brief but gripping chase through LA's Staples Center. As the titular ambulance and a host of cop cars careen across and through narrow lanes, the drone anticipates their action, whisking away from crashes at the last possible second. Inside the vehicles, everything is tense. Danny (Jake Gyllenhaal) cracks as the SIS Division goads him. He hangs Cammie (Eiza González) out the ambulence's rear door. Violence seems nigh. But then another Bay staple rears its head: a burst of sophomoric humor. The SIS mastiff, Nacho, pops his head out of a cop car's back seat. He's been there the whole time. The cops fall back to ensure Nacho's safety, a decision that, like drone work, would feel insane coming from any other director. Not Michael Bay, though. He loves toys and toying with audiences.

High Rise Mayhem — 6 Underground

Michael Bay's "6 Underground" advertised its excesses from the jump. The trailer for Netflix's critically-reviled tentpole picture featured Ryan Reynolds doing parkour on the world-famous Duomo and death by magnetized silverware. It looked like a lot. That was the sell. "6 Underground" does have gleefully gratuitous action, but it's also rife with bloated story points and deeply cringe gay-panic jokes. It's the worst of Bay and best of Bay, all in one extravagant package.

No, "6 Underground" is not worth seeing unless you're a Bay devotee. It's possible, though, to plug into it. The opening car chase yields incredible vehicular carnage, and it's possible to watch what I would affectionally dub the "high-rise mayhem" section without knowing the film's sagging plot. For eight-plus minutes, all of Bay's action movie interests converge on one location. There are explosive firefights. There are stupid but wonderful punchlines (a glass-encased swimming pool gets shattered by the THX sound cue — a top-five Bay joke). And the director piles on a dizzying parkour chase for good measure that finds Four (Ben Hardy) dodging bad guys and lobbed grenades by sprinting across cranes, scaffolding, and vertigo-inducing ledges. The scene keeps cutting to tiring exposition. It almost doesn't matter. The "high rise mayhem" sequence is so much that it brains one's critical faculties to mush. For Michael Bay, sometimes more is more.

Florence Car Chase — 6 Underground

The opening of "6 Underground" convinces you that it will be brilliant. It isn't. That's one of many reasons audiences are generally sour on Michael Bay's Netflix venture, but the Florence car chase is almost as great as anything he's ever done. The set-piece feels like Bay perfecting his brand. He has more money to spend than ever. He has a cadre of movie stars at his disposal who understand Bay's banter and anger. They're all set loose upon the streets of a gorgeous Italian city with the goal of causing cinematic chaos. 

Goodness, do they ever! Careening through Florence in a Day-Glo green sports car, One, Two, Five, and Six (Ryan Reynolds, Mélanie Laurent, Adria Arjona, and Dave Franco) escape assassins on motorcycles while blood-squirting surgery goes down in the backseat. The scene veers from juvenile to chaotic to awesome then back again. More than anything, it's efficient. Bay uses this cavalcade of automotive destruction to introduce his off-the-grid mercenaries and the entire scene shows (not tells) us who they are. It's a quality that departs the movie as a whole too soon. 

Car Chase Surgery — Ambulance

The surgery scene from "Ambulance" isn't most audience's idea of "action." There are no guns or explosions. There isn't even a body count. For a few gut-churning minutes, the film places all its manic energy on keeping Officer Zach (Jackson White) alive. That means the movie's feature-length chase slows down for something even more insane: an EMT FaceTiming her ex and the surgeons he knows for help with impromptu bullet removal in the back of a speeding vehicle.

That's why the surgery scene in "Ambulance" is action through and through. It ups the stakes of an already heightened story and delivers payoffs that land as viscerally as a compound raid or fistfight. When Zach wakes up halfway through the procedure to find Cam (Eiza González) holding his spleen, the scream he utters and his subsequent knockout is straight out of the beat 'em down playbook. When that spleen ruptures, it is giggle and shriek-inducing. If what's happening in the back of the ambulance weren't enough, Michael Bay intercuts the procedure with Danny (Jake Gyllenhaal) and his manic driving, deftly avoiding pursuing cop cars in the hopes of keeping Zach (and a successful robbery) alive.

It's not clear if any other director could pull this sequence off. Few would have the gall and even less, the gumption. "Ambulance" imagines action movies as a funhouse where any scenario is a worthy reason to munch popcorn with abandon.

Hangar Shootout — Bad Boys

There are scenes throughout cinema history in which directors level up in real-time. Steven Spielberg becomes the architect of childhood imagination when Elliott's bike starts flying in "E.T." Jordan Peele becomes horror royalty halfway through "Us," when a plea for police action yields the playing of an NWA song. These moments are more than thrilling; They're life-changing. Audiences see them and understand a filmmaker will shape their lives for years to come.

In the hangar shootout from "Bad Boys," Michael Bay puts it all together. All his hallmarks are present. There are low and severe angles, interjections of extremely sophomoric humor, and bad guys are dispatched with stupidly awesome catchphrases ("You forgot your boarding pass"). The explosions don't just kill people. They all but send them flying to Valhalla. If you showed the hangar shootout scene to someone who had never seen a Michael Bay movie, they would know there's something special about it. Even to the most seasoned action cinephile, it seems familiar and visceral on each go-around.

Bay would make tighter and cleaner variations on this confrontation throughout his career (the excellent end of "The Rock" recycles many beats struck here), but none would carry the charge of discovery that courses through the hangar shootout. After all, there's nothing like the first time you display mastery.

Attack On Pearl Harbor — Pearl Harbor

Anyone who loves Michael Bay should be required to read his interview with Whalebone Magazine. Like many of the director's films, it is an overlong, testosterone-soaked thrill ride. Bay is candid about his grueling artistic process. He admits he also set a Guinness World Record for "blowing stuff up" (his words) while filming the derided "Pearl Harbor" at the actual Pearl Harbor. To be clear, this would not be unlike shooting the most bullets ever while filming "Saving Private Ryan" on the actual beaches of Normandy or making a Boston Marathon bombing movie during a real Boston Marathon. It's a thought so ridiculous and borderline tasteless that no one but Bay would have it. That he did is a radical testament to his gall and gifts.

Parts of the "Pearl Harbor" bombing sequence took "three-and-a-half months to engineer," and "required 12 cameras for what amounted to about 30 seconds of film." That's three and half times as long as it took for Bay to make all of "Ambulance." I won't argue that the choice was worth it. What I will say is that, for one brief moment, Bay simultaneously reminds you why he is a master action conductor and could never have made "Titanic." The movie surrounding this scene is one of Bay's worst. The bombing sequence itself is a hyper-real war fantasy that shocks, awes, and stirs the heart. It takes too long to get there. It took too long to film. Too much is the Michael Bay way.

Highway And Jet-Bike Chase — The Island

Let's get something straight. We could publish a separate Michael Bay car chase article. Bay is the car chase master and the modern author of their aesthetic. "The Fast & the Furious" movies don't get greenlit without his signature touch existing, nor do the incredible vehicular cat and mouse pursuits of "Mission Impossible: Fallout" and "Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation" achieve liftoff if Bay isn't a guiding influence. Even George Miller, action movie god, incorporated Bay's signature smash cuts into the glory of "Mad Max: Fury Road." If car chases are an art, Bay's Piccasso.

"The Island" takes a long time to let the painter paint. The highway and hoverbike chases are when he does. Bay's rip-off of "Logan's Run" builds to Lincoln Six-Echo (Ewen McGregor) and Jordan Two-Delta's (Scarlett Johansson) extended escape from Dr. Merrick's island-based lottery system, beginning with a confrontation on dystopian highways and finishing on jet bikes careening through cityscapes. It's a thrill to watch Bay play with near-future tech. It's even more thrilling that his near-future remains grimy and gut-punchy. The highway sequence builds to Lincoln unleashing construction pipes upon Merrick's mercenaries, the heavy objects smashing into their vehicles like bowling balls into pins. Steve Jablonsky's queasy score accents every moment a vehicle's ripped in half, a stirring reminder that Bay's chase scenes bring out the best in all his collaborators. That's the mark of a true master.

Transformers Throw Down In Chicago — Transformers: Dark Of The Moon

It pains me to include any sequences from Michael Bay's "Transformers" films on this list. They're mediocre at best and reprehensible at worst. I'm also from Chicago. This is worth mentioning because the Transformers' throw down in Chicago is objectively one of the 15 best sequences Bay has ever directed and one that makes my Second City-born heart swell with joy

The reason? Bay's frequently underrated sense of geography. The third act of "Dark of the Moon" primarily takes place in Chicago's downtown area, beginning with the extended collapse of a massive skyscraper and concluding on Wacker Drive, overlooking the city's infamous (and occasionally green) river. Though the skyscraper's destruction is reliably unrealistic, it also honors Chicago's tightly packed architecture, landing half of the fallen building between two other towers. That wouldn't be possible in much of Manhattan, let alone Boston or Los Angeles. The specificity continues when Optimus Prime cuts his way through a set of Decepticons at street level. Bay's camera zooms alongside Prime as he navigates Wacker's narrow and winding way, sliding in and out of his opponents while wrecking them with heavy-metal tech. It's gnarly. It's specific. It has weight and the gleeful chaos of toys in a sandbox. 

Even if the film surrounding this scene is hardly worth your time, the Transformers throwdown in Chicago is a scene to be savored. Alexa, play "Sweet Home Chicago." 

Haitian House Shootout — Bad Boys II

Michael Bay wrecking a mansion feels inevitable like Thanos acquiring infinity stones. There was no world in which the man who blew up Alcatraz in "The Rock" and New York City in "Armageddon" wouldn't turn his focus to destroying lavish civic property. Michael Bay destroying a mansion on celluloid isn't insane. What's insane is that much of the destruction Bay filmed was real.

No, really. The "Haitian house" sequence was filmed in a Delray Beach, Florida mansion once owned by a Coca-Cola heir. Mark Pulte purchased the property and then put out an ad to see if someone wanted to destroy the home for a music video, show, or movie. Destiny answered in the form of Michael Bay. Accordingly, the Haitian house shootout feels genuinely reckless. Bay is working with less of a safety net than ever, and he renders the mansion a sort of Michael Bay movie funhouse. In any given room, Bay leaves a new murder weapon or comedic foil to contend with. Hallways give way to shootouts that give way to close-quarter fistfights. When the scene ends with the mansion's front facade exploding into flames and a yellow humvee bursting through the garage, it's as close to jumping the shark as Bay ever gets. It is almost too perfect.

The emphasis is on "perfect." Love it or hate it, the Haitian house shootout is everything Michael Bay has built his aesthetic, appeal, and skillset on, presented unapologetically and with cash to burn. It is grimy action Nirvana.

Meteor Showers In New York — Armageddon

"Armageddon" is in the Criterion Collection. The meteor shower sequence is why.

I'm aware that's a tall order. Equating the chaotic destruction of New York's Midtown East to the chess match in "The Seventh Seal" or the ghastly discovery of "Rashomon" is 2.48 million Scovilles hot. It's also accurate. Few explosions in cinema are more glorious than the ones that define this sequence. The image of fiery cabs sent careening over 55th Street lives rent-free in an entire generation's mind as does the top of the Chrysler Building plummeting to the ground below. Both are top-tier popcorn cinema cornerstones. It's impossible to overstate how much.

When the Chrysler Building shatters on Madison Avenue, we briefly glimpse bodies falling alongside it. That image has chilling resonance for New York, the United States, and the world. "Armageddon" was released three years before the tragic events of September 11th, and it's hard to imagine some of its plot points getting greenlit now. What's remarkable, though, is that the scene's accidental 9/11 echoes barely resonate mid-viewing. Somehow, the scene is escapist. Maybe it's the sheer ludicrousness of meteors striking Manhattan or the way it's a time capsule-worthy showcase for two of the 1990s' most underrated comedians (Eddie Griffin! Mark Curry!). Maybe it's the impeccable craft that informs every fireball and image of chaos. It's probably all of the above.

If "Armageddon" rewrote the blockbuster playbook forever, one that Roland Emmerich and superhero movies alike would follow, the meteor shower is chapter one. That's Criterion worthy. 

San Francisco Car Chase — The Rock

The San Francisco car chase in "The Rock" is to Michael Bay what "With The Beatles" is to The Beatles. You can argue about whether or not it is his best work. You cannot say that it isn't all hits. Every single second of this five-minute-plus sequence slaps. The haircut and Humvee hijacking is side A. Nicholas Cage driving a Ferrari through a warehouse window? The start of side B. And a trolly careening out of control while its operator screams, "Run folks! Save yourselves!" and "Oh, my baby!" is the glorious closing track. The San Francisco car chase is a triumph of "triumph through the assembly." The sum is truly greater than the parts.

To be clear, the parts are also excellent. Nicholas Cage has never been a more convincing action hero than he is here, landing the sequence's ice-cold one-liner with maximum cool. Sean Connery's performance meets Bay's maximalism halfway. The chase is also a rare instance when Bay's penchant for juvenile grace notes is more effective than not, manifesting as a set of impromptu cell phone calls and one particularly stoned chase observer. "The Rock" is arguably Bay's best movie, and this sequence's hit to miss ratio is the largest part of why. If it isn't clear already, that ratio's 100 to zero.

Freeway Chase — Bad Boys II

A low-key highlight of Michael Bay's best action scenes is ineptitude. In almost every Michael Bay action scene that matters, someone screws up. Nicholas Cage keeps shooting himself in the foot (metaphorically) in the San Francisco car chase. Some of Ewen McGregor's life-saving decisions in "The Island" are happy twists of fate. Tomfoolery is the counterbalance to Bay's near-constant cinematic muscle-flexing. It's hard to take anything too seriously when there are clown-worthy interludes.

To wit: the freeway chase in "Bad Boys II." It is an absolute masterwork of twisted steel and breathtaking cinematography. As Marcus (Martian Lawrence) and Mike (Will Smith) take to a souped-up sports car to pursue bad guys in a car hauler on a Miami freeway, the tension builds ecstatically. The 18-wheeler smashes vehicles left and right. Mike's driving ducks and dodges all of them. Bay's camera frequently cuts to the sports car's POV, giving audiences a breathtaking set of near misses (it's easy to imagine the pile of wrecked cameras Bay accrued getting this awesome footage). In the midst of all this, Martin Lawrence manages to shoot up the car he's riding in. Will Smith screams, and classic banter ensues. 

That's why the highway chase receives such a high ranking on this list. It's Bay's ultimate car chase, marrying his skill for insane action beats with the humor he loves so dearly. Sometimes ineptitude rocks. 

Destroying The Rock — The Rock

The '90s were an oddly strong era for shoving large needs into one's heart. John Travolta does it to Uma Thurman in "Pulp Fiction." Nicholas Cage does it to himself in the final moments of "The Rock." The latter is a sequence that doubles as a metaphor for what watching a Michael Bay movie is like — an encapsulation of the director's go-for-broke style and ephemeral artery charging artistry. It's what the conclusion of "The Rock" is too.

Here are some of the things that happen in the final setpiece of Michael Bay's second movie: The actor who played Candyman is killed via an Elton John pun. The man who would later play Jesus drops a bomb on Alcatraz. William Sadler and Nicholas Cage engage in a knock-down, drag-out fist fight which ends when Cage shoves a neon green poison ball between Sadler's gritted teeth. The fact that this list still feels like pop-culture euphoria 27 years after "The Rock" was released speaks to the creative vein Bay tapped. The end of "The Rock" is genuinely gripping. It features the most iconic Michael Bay shot ever (Nicholas Cage wielding green smoke flares) and is quoted by cinephiles and casual viewers alike. More than anything, it does what any good action film scene should — make an audience's heartbeat fuller and faster.

Read this next: 13 Box Office Bombs That Are Truly Worth A Watch

The post The 15 Best Michael Bay Action Scenes, Ranked appeared first on /Film.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Motherboard: Scientists have discovered evidence that a key rare resource, called helium-3, is potentially ten times more common on Earth than previously known -- though the source of all this extra supply remains mysterious, reports a new study. The finding is important because helium-3 could serve as a foundation of limitless clean power for our civilization, but has been seen as inaccessible since it is largely found in outer space locations, especially the Moon. Helium-3 is an isotope of helium, which means it contains the same number of protons as this common element but a different number of neutrons. This isotope is considered a potentially powerful energy source for future fusion reactors, making it a star of science fiction as well as a sought-out resource in the real world. However, while small amounts of the substance are produced by geological processes and from the fallout of nuclear weapons testing, there is thought to be very little helium-3 available on Earth. Now, scientists led by Benjamin Birner, a postdoctoral scholar in geosciences at the University of California San Diego, have captured evidence for a previously unknown abundance of helium-3 in the atmosphere, which "presents a major puzzle in the helium-3 budget" and "motivates a search for missing helium-3 sources on Earth, especially since helium-3 is considered an important, yet scarce, resource," according to a study published on Monday in Nature Geoscience. Known sources of helium-3 on Earth only account for 10 percent of the surplus, the researchers said. Birner and his colleagues serendipitously uncovered this inferred surplus of helium-3 (3He) while tackling another challenging problem: measuring the overall rise in atmospheric helium as a result of human consumption of fossil fuels. The team pioneered a first-of-its-kind technique for estimating these anthropogenic helium emissions by examining another isotope, helium-4 (4He), which in turn led to the perplexing conclusion that there is some unknown source of helium-3 on our planet. "We only measured the change in atmospheric 4He," Birner said in an email. "However, previous work by other researchers indicates that the helium isotopic ratio of the atmosphere (3He/4He) is roughly stable. Together these observations imply an increase in atmospheric 3He that matches the rise in 4He or we would see a change in the atmospheric isotope ratio." Helium-3 could be the ideal fuel for nuclear fusion, a potential energy source that mimics the same process that powers stars. Though nuclear fusion may not materialize as a practical power source for decades, assuming it is feasible at all, its potential to provide clean and limitless energy to the global human population makes it a tantalizing area of study. To that end, scientists across fields are likely to be interested in locating this unexplained surplus of helium-3 on Earth that has been implied by the new research. "That increase of 3He is quite puzzling because we don't have a good explanation for the source of this 3He so far," Birner noted. "It's quite an important puzzle to solve also because 3He is an important and scarce resource for nuclear fusion reactors. Based on the reported uncertainties in previous studies of the atmospheric 3He/4He trend, the buildup of 3He looks significant, but our study clearly motivates a closer look at the atmospheric 3He/4He trend."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

One of my favorite things about "Star Wars: A New Hope" is that the hero's journey by Luke Skywalker is not all that different from Mark Hamill's. If you fly through Hamill's early filmography, you'll see mostly random television appearances, and then there it is, like a moon appearing right smack in front of you when coming out of light speed. That's no moon, it's a space station — or rather, a blockbuster film that was about the change the cinema landscape forever: George Lucas' "Star Wars: A New Hope."

When the film debuted in 1977, it was the era of the modern-day blockbuster, a period now shifting to something different because of the rise of streaming platforms. "Star Wars" featured groundbreaking special effects, a narrative steeped in both historical lore and futuristic science fiction, and a familiar good vs. evil story that took place a long time ago and far away. At the center of it all was a young, naive farm boy on Tatooine, Luke Skywalker.

Hamill, who was just 24 when he first played the iconic character, was still so unsure of himself when first seeing himself in "Star Wars" he admitted he almost threw up.

He Purposely Made Luke Skywalker Whiny

"Star Wars: A New Hope" was always planned as the first film of a trilogy, and Mark Hamill knew this. Luke Skywalker's transformation from a wide-eyed kid to a mature Jedi Knight began purposefully from his first appearance. In a 1977 interview with The Village Voice, Hamill explained how he used Skywalker's character arc in the film to influence his performance. However, the first time he saw the film, his plan backfired. Hamill explained:

"So, out comes this singsong falsetto, 'But I was going into Tosche Station to pick up some power converters!' Aaargh! It made me ill! I swear, I thought I was gonna throw up the first time I saw it. But I've seen it four times now, and each time I like myself better. I like myself for about 30% of it. I think I fit in. I do.'

A whiny Luke Skywalker was all by design, even if it did make the star cringe. Hamill joked that he had to transition from a "wormy guy" at the beginning of the film to "someone halfway human" later in the movie. In real life, Hamill seemed to channel Skywalker's naiveté because when he took the role, he had no idea it was putting him squarely in the center of the "Star Wars" universe.

He Thought He Was Han Solo's Sidekick

In an interview with StarWars.com, Mark Hamill described the casting as a "cattle call" where he didn't learn much about the movie. He read his lines with Harrison Ford, who was auditioning for the role of Han Solo. It wasn't until after taking the part of Luke Skywalker and receiving the script that Hamill realized he just landed the leading role. Hamill described the moment:

"Because when I tested, I figured Harrison's a leading man. So I thought, 'I'm playing his sidekick, right?' Reading it, I'm going, 'Wait a second. Wasn't I reading for Luke Starkiller (later changed to Skywalker)? This can't be right.' ... I was just astonished."

Hamill's innocence continued on the set of the movie, finding himself starstruck with some of his costars. He described his scenes with veteran actor Sir Alec Guinness, who played Obi-Wan Kenobi, like a student learning from a master. One of the reasons audiences believed in Luke Skywalker was because the actor playing the character was living a similar life. He was plucked from relative obscurity and thrust into a leading role that would captivate seemingly an entire galaxy. (The film world, at least.) And it's partly because of his performance as Skywalker, which included a transformation from annoying teenager to mature Jedi, all by design by Hamill.

Now 70, Hamill has retained the youthful innocence George Lucas saw all those years ago that helped him land the role. In 2020, Hamill revealed that the whining can stop because yes, he finally made it to the Tosche Power Station.

I can finally cross this off my "to-do" list.#BetterLateThanNever pic.twitter.com/3rmfEiA3tv

— Mark Hamill (@MarkHamill) December 28, 2020

Read this next: The 14 Best Star Wars Creatures Ranked

The post Mark Hamill Thought He Was Going to Throw Up While Seeing Star Wars For the First Time appeared first on /Film.

The Fedora team have announced the release of Fedora 36. The new release offers desktop users a chance to run GNOME 42 with most applications ported to GTK 4. Fedora 36 also ships with a new version of the Ansible management software while Cockpit can now manage network....

One of my biggest highlights from PAX East a couple of weeks ago was attending Shirley Curry, aka: Skyrim Grandma's panel about her roleplaying adventures in Bethesda's enormous RPG. Despite suffering a stroke just a couple of months beforehand, the 85-year-old YouTuber was on fine form during her PAX East panel, speaking to a packed out theatre of fans and viewers who have spent the better part of six years following her various playthroughs through Skyrim as a multitude of different characters. She talked briefly about her writing and character creation process for her Let's Play-style videos, before spending a whopping 45 minutes answering questions from the audience. These covered everything from her favourite things in Skyrim to her favourite, real-life candy, and also included a surprising number of horror game recommendations. In her own words, she loves stuff that's "weird and creepy", and has recently been looking for something new to play. "I’d really like to play a dark, scary game," she said, and the audience were only too happy to oblige.

It was a truly wonderful way to spend a Saturday afternoon, and as soon as it was over, both Liam and I knew it was too good not to share. Here's a written transcript of the entire audience Q&A in full, plus a summary of her opening speech, for your reading pleasure.

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Shirley Curry, aka the wonderful Skyrim Grandma, doesn't mess about. When asked by a fan (who we've since identified as YouTuber damarcodude) during her recent PAX East 2022 Q&A panel about what she'd like to say to Elder Scrolls head honcho Todd Howard if he were here in person, she had one answer: "Hurry up and finish The Elder Scrolls 6." All right, she technically would have said hello first, but the point still stands.

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PowerShell inventor Jeffrey Snover has aired some grievances about how his indispensable tool once got him demoted. The Register reports: The Microsoft Technical Fellow discussed the incident in a weekend Twitter thread that started when controversial investor Peter Thiel discussed the virtues of courage. "Courage is a key characteristic of future leaders and previous employees," Snover joked in response to Thiel's musings. He also asserted that "many people focus on getting their boss to pat them on the head rather than address problems." Snover said he was urged by friend Kevin Kean -- who served as director of the Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC) in the mid 2000s -- not to reveal PowerShell, as it may not well be received. This is not the first time Snover has revealed his demotion, but he hasn't previously discussed his profound embarrassment -- or that he kept it secret from everyone other than his wife. "I never mentioned it to anyone for over a decade until I got promoted to Distinguished Engineer," tweeted Snover, who was given the honor in March 2009. Snover then contrasted Microsoft's policy for company-related passion projects to Google's famous 20 percent rule.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

David Cronenberg's films are often uncomfortable to watch — in a delightfully unhinged way, of course. I remember watching his "Naked Lunch" for the first time and developing an intense fear of typewriters, although the viewing experience is also something I genuinely cherish in my heart. Cronenberg is no stranger to alienating mainstream audiences with his films, a case in point being his 1996 Cannes premiere of "Crash," which made some viewers sick to the stomach and prompted a few walkouts.

Cronenberg's upcoming horror sci-fi drama, "Crimes of the Future," will see his return to the twisted, psychological aspects connected to the human body, which acts as the perfect segue into the director's masterful grasp over the body horror genre. In an interview with Deadline, Cronenberg spoke about the graphic nature of "Crimes of the Future," due to which he expects the "last 20 minutes" to be "very hard on people," and expects "a lot of walkouts:"

"There are some very strong scenes. I mean, I'm sure that we will have walkouts within the first five minutes of the movie. I'm sure of that. Some people who have seen the film have said that they think the last 20 minutes will be very hard on people, and that there'll be a lot of walkouts. Some guy said that he almost had a panic attack. And I say, 'Well, that would be OK.' But I'm not convinced that that will be a general reaction. I do expect walkouts in Cannes, and that's a very special thing."

'I Really Don't Think We'll Have A Crash Experience'

Cronenberg has been clear that while his motivations are to create movies to garner a reaction from audiences, as cinema is a conversation, the more widely interpretative and diverse, the better. However, he clarified that his intention is not to "shock people or assault them" with his ideas, as he simply intends to put forth his vision, no matter how audacious it might appear on a superficial level.

With "Crimes of the Future," Cronenberg will be diving into the near future where adapting to synthetic surroundings is a necessity for humans, which inevitably ushers in the next stage of evolution, both psychologically and physically speaking. Saul Tenser (Viggo Mortensen) can be viewed as an artist who uses scientific advancements to examine the human condition, most importantly, his own body, which acts as an experimental canvas for creative expression, sexuality, and the psychological makeup of the human mind.

When asked whether he expects a repeat of the strong audience reaction to the Cannes premiere of "Crash," Cronenberg explains that he is "not nervous" about it, although he does expect the "notorious clack" of seats as one gets up:

"Well, I'm not nervous. I'm looking forward to it because you make a film to have people react to it. Now, I really don't think that we'll have a Crash experience.

People always walk out, and the seats notoriously clack as you get up because the seats fold back and hit the back of the seat. So, you hear clack, clack, clack. Whether they'll be outraged the way they were with Crash, I somehow don't think so. They might be revulsed to the point that they want to leave, but that's not the same as being outraged. However, I have no idea really what's going to happen."

Apart from Mortensen, "Crimes of the Future" also stars Léa Seydoux, Kristen Stewart, and Don McKellar.

"Crimes of the Future" will premiere at the upcoming Cannes Film Festival, which will run from May 17 to May 28, 2022. The film will then release in theaters on June 3, 2022.

Read this next: 13 Box Office Bombs That Are Truly Worth A Watch

The post David Cronenberg Expects 'A Lot of Walkouts' For His Very Graphic Crimes of the Future appeared first on /Film.

The Fedora project has announced the release of Fedora 36. The new release comes with some major enhancements to its desktop environment, including an update to the default GNOME environment.

You know the saying: you can't keep a good guy down, and you can't keep Devon Sawa's "Chucky" characters dead. The actor revealed that he'll be returning for season 2 of the USA/Syfy series in an interview with Entertainment Weekly today, via a note from the killer doll himself.

"Dear Gavin Sawa," the actor read from a note credited to Chucky:

"I hope this email finds you well, I just want you to know that the only reason that you're here is because I allowed it. Have a great season 2. Love, Chucky. P.S. Just kidding, you suck."

That sounds like the murderous plaything we know and love, all right. Sawa's return to the series fits in with the Don Mancini show's campiness and wicked sense of humor, given that "Chucky" already killed him off twice in the first season. The actor appeared first as Lucas Wheeler, the queer protagonist Jake's (Zackary Arthur) abusive, homophobic dad who gets electrocuted by Chucky (with vomit used as a conductive agent, naturally) in the show's very first episode.

A Three-For-One Part

Sawa also stuck around to play Logan Wheeler, Lucas' wealthy twin brother who takes Jake in once he's orphaned. Later in the season, at Chucky's (Brad Dourif) behest, Lucas' teenage son Junior (Teo Briones) beats him to death — with a Chucky doll. Though the series' penchant for flashbacks could let Sawa play either Wheeler twin again, it turns out he's actually playing a third character in the new season. Could the Wheelers be triplets?

This isn't the first time the Chucky-verse has cast an actor in two parts. Across its seven-film run, Mancini's "Chucky" films have not only made the killer's bride and partner in crime, Tiffany (Jennifer Tilly) into a mainstay of the series, but it's made Tilly herself an integral character, too. Fiona Dourif also pulled double duty in the franchise, playing the lead in "Curse of Chucky" before reappearing in the new season–in an inspired, outrageous turn–as a younger version of doll-possessing serial killer Charles Lee Ray himself.

So, basically, if you're not watching "Chucky," you're missing out on a whole lot of thoroughly entertaining, inarguably queer mayhem. There's no word on who Sawa will play in the show's new season (although EW did confirm it's a new character), but at this point, I think we should all fill in some Mad Libs with wild ideas for how his latest iteration will die. Assuming he's another bad dude, I vote that this new character should "accidentally" get tangled in and suffocated by a Pride flag as orchestrated by Chuck and Tiff's kid Glen/Glenda, but that's just me.

"Chucky" season two will air on the USA and Syfy networks this fall, with a release date still to come.

Read this next: 20 Underrated Rom Coms You Need To Watch

The post Chucky Season 2 Will Bring Back Devon Sawa appeared first on /Film.

Stephen King's debut novel followed a 16-year-old high school student named Carrie White who, by the book's beginning, has spent her whole childhood being mistreated by her classmates and treated even worse at home. Things briefly seem to be on the upswing for her when she's asked to the prom by one of the most popular guys in school, even more so when she's crowned homecoming queen. Unfortunately, things come crashing down when one of her classmates dumps a bucket of pig's blood on top of her in front of everyone, provoking Carrie into using her blossoming telekinetic powers to get violent revenge. (And honestly? Good for her. Carrie's earned the right to be a little selfish.)

It's one of the most famous horror stories ever written, and it's since received four movie adaptations, was made into a TV miniseries, and was even turned into a musical (which didn't do well, because of course not). The story works because of how simple it is: Most people have felt like Carrie at one point or another, and most people can relate to Carrie's desire to burn everything down after her tormentors push her too far. This narrative of the bullied kid who snaps and goes crazy is an easy one to latch onto, and the book is often alluded to in explanations for why school shootings happen, despite the fact that most school shooters weren't actually treated like outcasts. When the educational teen drama "Degrassi: The Next Generation" did an episode surrounding a school shooting in 2004, they directly drew from Carrie's prom scene for the pivotal moment where the kid snaps.

Although it's not hard to imagine how Stephen King came up with the idea for "Carrie" -- just going to high school would get most people halfway there -- most of the inspiration for this novel came from the jobs he had before his writing career fully took off. The inspiration for "Carrie's" opening scene, for instance, came from his brief gig as a high school janitor. 

The Famous Shower Scene

The opening scene of "Carrie," which is basically the same in all the movies as it was in the books, has 16-year-old Carrie (played most memorably by Sissy Spacek) getting her first period in the showers after gym class. Because she's both a social outcast and she has a hyper-religious mother who never told her about menstruation, Carrie thinks she's bleeding to death and starts freaking out. The other girls respond by mocking her and throwing tampons at her. Amidst her hurt, fear, and confusion, Carrie unwittingly knocks out one of the lights with the telekinetic powers she didn't know she had.

The scene's so memorable because of how absurdly mean it is, and how every aspect is designed to make you feel as bad for Carrie as possible. Even before things go south for her, there's the extra discomfort of Carrie -- already self-conscious about her body -- having to shower without any private stall or curtain separating her from the other girls, which even in the '60s wasn't that common. "She wished forlornly and constantly that Ewen High had individual -- and thus private -- showers," the book reads from Carrie's perspective, "like the high schools at Westover or Lewiston. They stared. They always stared."

When Stephen King was working as a high school janitor cleaning the locker rooms, he noticed that the school's girls' locker rooms had "chrome U-rings with pink plastic curtains attached," unlike the boys' room. As King explained:

This memory came back to me one day while I was working in the laundry, and I started seeing the opening scene of a story: girls showering in a locker room where there were no U-rings, pink plastic curtains or privacy. And this one girl starts to have her period. Only she doesn't know what it is, and the other girls – grossed out, horrified, amused – start pelting her with sanitary napkins ... The girl begins to scream. All that blood!

Carrie Was Based On Two Girls From King's Childhood

The inspiration for Carrie herself came from two different girls King went to school with. The first was a girl who was bullied mercilessly because "she always wore the same clothes," and the other one was a girl whose mother had a massive crucifix hanging over their living room couch. "If such a gigantic icon had fallen when the two of them were watching TV, the person it fell on would almost certainly have been killed," King wrote. And so, these two real people were combined into a single Carrie White, a girl who was both picked on in school and was stuck with a mother who maybe took her religious beliefs a little too far. The two aspects fit together nicely, as it was Carrie's hyper-religious upbringing that explained why she was stuck wearing the same unflattering outfits each day.

As for the telekinesis? Well, King attributes that to an article he read in LIFE Magazine: "There was some evidence to suggest that young people might have such powers, the article said, especially girls in early adolescence, right around the time of their first — POW! Two unrelated ideas, adolescent cruelty and telekinesis, came together, and I had an idea..."

As for the rest of the novel, it's easy to see how King's job as a teacher reflects in the writing. He'd been teaching at a public high school for two years before "Carrie" was picked up by a publisher, and you can see that in the way the novel constantly jumps into the point of view of the school's staff. One of the book's most memorable characters is Miss Desjardin, who despite initially snapping at Carrie in the opening locker room scene, turns out to be one of the few people who empathizes with Carrie's plight and tries to support her. 

Showing The School Faculty's Perspective

It's by jumping into the adult's points of view that King puts the blame of Carrie's mistreatment not just on a couple of bad students, but on the adults in their lives who fail to adequately step in. Miss Desjardin and Principal Morton both realize they've failed Carrie at the start of the novel and try to make things better, but it turns out to be too little too late. 

One subplot in particular that seems like it was directly inspired from King's career as a high school teacher is the conflict between the father of school bully Christine "Chris" Hargensen (played by Nancy Allen in the 1976 adaptation) and Principal Morton. After Chris is forbidden from attending prom as punishment for her treatment of Carrie, she gets her father to come in and threaten Principal Morton into lifting the punishment. Her father's a lawyer who repeatedly comes into the school to bail his daughter out of trouble, much to Morton's frustration. 

Most teachers are happy to vent about how often they have to deal with "my child would never" parents, and would immediately recognize Mr. Hargensen as one of them. As a result, the scene where Morton finally pushes back is one of the most cathartic in the book. "I doubt very much if you know the daughter represented in these cards half so well as you think you do," Morton tells him. "If you did, you might realize that it was about time for a trip to the woodshed." It's a scene that serves a clear purpose to the plot -- now that Chris can't have her father bail her out of punishment, she's more motivated than ever to get back at Carrie -- but it also feels personal for the author. In his years of teaching, King probably had plenty of bullies like Chris Hargensen in his classrooms, and likely met plenty of those kids' parents. This is one of the few moments in the book where someone effectively stands up for Carrie, and she never finds out about it.

Providing A Bird's Eye View Of The School

The smartest decision made when writing "Carrie" was to split it up into several points of view. We don't just follow Carrie's perspective as she's tormented by everyone around her. We follow Sue (played by Amy Irving in the '74 film), a nice popular girl who tries to make things up to Carrie by having her boyfriend go with her to prom. The book hops into her boyfriend Tommy's head, as well Chris' head, as well as Chris' boyfriend's, and some of the teachers. The book also includes snippets from newspapers and biographies written about the events currently happening in the plot; it makes readers feel like they're reading a true crime novel, like they're getting the inside scoop on a real event that happened. 

This allows the commentary on American high school culture to be even more potent. There will often be snippets from outside sources where we're told how commentators have debated the motives of certain characters involved. When Tommy (played by William Katt in '74) asks Carrie to the prom, the book treats us to a lengthy excerpt from an in-universe book called "The Shadow Exploded" that covers the widespread incredulity that Tommy wouldn't have been in on Chris' prank. "It is hardly typical of high-school-age adolescents to feel that they have to 'atone' for anything -- particularly for an offense against a peer who has been ostracized from existing cliques," an expert in the book is quoted saying. 

The passage talks about high school social dynamics like a nature documentary talks about the animal food chain, which feels particularly callous now that the reader's gotten to know Tommy and understand that, like every other character in this story, he's not merely a product of his environment. As much as high school bullying is spoken of like an inevitability, it's through this narrative technique that King pushes readers to realize that it isn't. King used his experience as both a teacher and a former student to pull off one of the most effective anti-bullying novels of all time. 

Read this next: Horror Roles That Changed Actors Forever

The post The Real-Life Inspiration For Stephen King's Carrie appeared first on /Film.

Motherhood is hard. It's even harder within the framework of a horror film. Women contend with not only new pressures of caring for a child, but perhaps they have yet to process long-buried traumas or addressed mental health issues. As a result, mothers birth their unique brand of terror upon the world. Their children and loved ones must then confront a special fear they never knew existed.

While horror has given us such frightening titans as Michael Myers and Jason Voorhees, those slasher films are all play acting. What is most terrifying are everyday housewives, caregivers, and the elderly who just snap one day and pile up bodies in their bloodthirsty wake. Looking back through cinematic history, we attempted to narrow down to the top 15 most terrifying mothers in horror, ranging from a very pregnant woman with a hunger for blood to a deranged lunatic attempting to keep the status quo. They say mother knows best — well, we're about to prove that notion is dead wrong. Literally.

Nola From The Brood

There's nothing as terrifying as a mother's love. Well, sort of. In David Cronenberg's 1979 film "The Brood," one of his strangest offerings, a mother named Nola (Samantha Eggar) comes under strict psycho-therapy for an undisclosed condition. Her husband Frank (Art Hindle) struggles with raising their daughter Candice (Cindy Hinds) and understanding doctor Hal Raglan's (Oliver Reed) approach to treatment.

After discovering bruises and cuts on his daughter, Frank first confronts Dr. Hal and then goes to his attorney to express concerns over whether Nola has a right to see Candice any longer. "The law believes in motherhood," the lawyer says. Therein lies the thematic crux of the film, demonstrated through a series of killings by deformed creatures disguised as children. 

In a similar fashion to 1976's "Carrie," Nola's rage feeds her, quite literally, and her nurturing these vengeful beings is a way to find agency. The little monsters are certainly frightening on their own, but it isn't until the finale that the audience glimpses deep into Nola's mind -- and it's bone chilling.

Lucy From Strait-Jacket

Joan Crawford delivers a textbook unhinged performance as Lucy Harbin in 1964's "Strait-Jacket," directed by William Castle. The gruesome opening scene sets the stage: Lucy returns home early from a trip to discover her husband in bed with a mistress and takes an axe to their sleeping bodies. Lucy is committed to a mental asylum for 20 years for those murders, and her daughter Carol (Diane Baker), who bore witness to the slayings, attempts a normal life.

When Lucy is finally released, Carol welcomes her home to the family farm with open arms. Lucy's brother Bill and his wife are skeptical that she is able to cope with modern life, but they are willing to give her a chance. Since her childhood, Carol has turned to sculpting as a way to address her trauma and has seemingly managed to make a good life. She is expected to marry a dashing young gentleman named Michael (John Anthony Hayes), but familial tensions derail the nuptials for the time being.

It appears Lucy has completely recovered from her psychotic break, yet a series of murders in and around the farm tell a different story. "Strait-Jacket" is a gripping horror-drama about generational trauma, mental health, and suffocating pressures put upon women. Crawford and Baker both dish up performances to die for (literally).

Mother From Mother's Day

Bearing a similar tone and style to Wes Craven's "The Last House on the Left," "Mother's Day" explores the ravages of assault and how a matriacial figure provokes her offspring to do her most deranged bidding. Directed by Charles Kaufman, the 1980 film mixes in elements of camp and satire to instill a message that perhaps mother doesn't actually know best.

When three young women go camping, their path takes them right into the center of an ungodly storm. They are attacked, assaulted, and tortured, and only their will to survive can save them. Beatrice Pons gives the titular character a sharp madness, often so over-the-top it bowls you over -- and that's the point.

Throughout the film, her sons begin questioning their mother's intentions, as well as the revelation that her forgotten sister, Queenie, still hunts and lurks in the woods surrounding the property. This dynamic offers a compelling contrast to the overarching analysis of aggression upon women and complicity within a violent system.

Ms. Robeson From The People Under The Stairs

Wes Craven tackled issues of poverty, classism, and racism in his 1991 film, "The People Under the Stairs." Wendy Robie and Everett McGill play "Mommy" and "Daddy," respectively, two delusional and unstable property owners, who are not actually married. They are siblings, and the incest overtones add a peculiar layer to the story.

With plans to evict an entire apartment building, Mommy and Daddy contend with Pointdexter (Brandon Quintin Adams), Leroy (Ving Rhames), and associate Spenser (Jeremy Roberts) after they break into their residence. It's soon discovered they have a meek, abused daughter Alice (A.J. Langer) and a horde of discarded children inside the walls and basement.

The viewer is given a front row seat to mayhem and dysfunction. Mommy's most terrifying moments occur around her abusing Alice, most notably the bathtub scene as she tosses Alice into boiling water. Later, after Pointdexter helps free the children, Mommy lunges at Alice with a kitchen knife despite already being injured 一 and it's what nightmares truly are made of. Mommy gives Margaret White from "Carrie" a run for her money.

Margaret White From Carrie

Speaking of Margaret White, Piper Laurie's performance in "Carrie" (1976) perfected the terrifying mom archetype. Stricken with religious fanaticism, she dumps her beliefs about womanhood onto her daughter Carrie (Sissy Spacek) and fails to guide and nurture her as she blossoms into a young woman. The psychological and emotional manipulation Carrie endures is enough to send anyone over the edge, and it's only through her growing telekinetic powers that she is able to find her own strength.

When Carrie comes home from school one afternoon, she confesses to her mother that she had her period. "Why didn't you tell me, mama?!" she pleads. But she is only met with violence and scrutiny. Margaret forces her to recite back various biblical passages before dragging her, kicking and screaming, into a locked closet in which Carrie must repent and beg for forgiveness.

These deeply intimate moments are interspersed throughout the film, woven into the larger theme about adolescence, shame, and bullying. Following the blood-soaked climax, a wild-eyed Carrie slowly treks back home to wash away the night's events. Her mother finally reveals her first sexual encounter and the self-loathing she felt, moments later stabbing Carrie in the back. Fortunately, Carrie is able to return the favor before she succumbs to her fatal injury. "Carrie" is as much about a young girl's bodily understanding and autonomy as it is a mother's clouded, dangerous judgments.

Olivia & Corrine From Flowers In The Attic

Jeffrey Bloom's 1987 psychological thriller "Flowers in the Attic" gives viewers a double dose of terrifying. After her husband tragically dies, Corrine (Victoria Tennant) moves her children Chris (Jeb Stuart Adams), Cathy (Kristy Swanson), Cory (Ben Ganger), and Carrie (Lindsay Parker) into the lavish estate of her estranged parents. Desperate and down on her luck, Corinne hatches a plan to regain her father's love and be reinstated into his will.

Corrine's mother Olivia (Louise Fletcher) is a mean one; an austere woman entrenched in radical Christianity. As such, she forces the children into a life of solitude by locking them away in a bedroom with their only views of the outside world through bars on the window. At the urging of their mother, they steal away into the dusty attic, as both a haven and a prison. Corrine promises that as soon as their grandfather dies, and she inherits the property, she will come get them.

Sadly, that's a lie. Where Olivia is outright evil from the start, Corrine devolves in habit and behavior, quickly abandoning her children completely. Olivia laces cookies with arsenic and even starves them for an entire week, so as to psychologically cripple them further. Eventually, it's all up to Christopher and Cathy to find a way out before it's too late. "Flowers in the Attic" is a moving story about generational trauma, greed, and humanity at its most troubling.

Pamela Voorhees From Friday The 13th

Pamela Voorhees (Betsy Palmer) may be the greatest mastermind of them all. Reeling from the supposed tragic drowning of her son Jason Voorhees, Pamela stalks and murders camp counselors, even those not responsible. Her vengeance courses in her blood, and she's unafraid to play every trick in the book to lure them to their deaths.

In the original "Friday the 13th" (1980), directed by Sean S. Cunningham, Pamela has the upper-hand and uses surprise attacks to her advantage. From appearing out of the shadows to pretending to be a child crying in the rain, she is a cunning and diabolic mother whose love for her son is her most useful weapon. Throughout the film, the viewer is none the wiser on the identity of the serial killer, and in the finale, Palmer delivers one of the most unsettling monologues in horror history. She pours out her heart to the lone survivor Alice (Adrienne King), regaling her sorrow and thirst for revenge. It's one of those performances that is wonderfully subtle in how unhinged it is.

Beverly Sutphin From Serial Mom

On the opposite extreme, there's nothing subtle about Kathleen Turner's wound-up performance as Beverly Sutphin in "Serial Mom." The 1994 film, directed by John Waters, follows a suburban housewife who will stop at nothing to make sure nobody messes with her perfect American life.

If someone crosses her family, Beverly exacts some form of revenge. When her neighbor steals a parking spot at Joann Fabrics, Beverly starts making vulgar prank calls 一 and that's only the beginning. Later, her son's teacher criticizes his fascination with horror films, and, well, she runs him over with her car and leaves him for dead. It all quickly escalates from there, with more bodies piling up. Beverley is eventually caught and becomes a national tabloid sensation -- and she totally owns her new-found fame.

As disturbed as she is, Beverly Sutphin is a camp icon. Turner is able to make the switch from bubbly housewife to maniac on the turn of a dime. She makes the most terrifying killer; you can never expect which personality you'll get. Either way, she'll make you rue the day you crossed her.

Evelyn From Stoker

Terror is not always loud. It's sometimes quiet and insidious. It may not manifest in bombastic violence and bloodshed, but you can always feel trouble brewing in the air. In Park Chan-wook's 2013 psycho-drama "Stoker," Nicole Kidman plays Evelyn Stoker, a cold and distant woman who endures the death of her husband and harbors resentment for her daughter India (Mia Wasikowska).

Soon after her husband's funeral, his long-lost brother Charles (Matthew Goode) pays a visit. Through her grief, Evelyn struggles to cope and finds herself hypnotically drawn to Charles. Her already-frigid detachment from India only grows as the film unfurls. India is at first skeptical of her uncle's arrival but is drawn into his web, as well.

The film threads family trauma, dysfunction, and soul-crushing sadness with murderous appetite. Evelyn is a dark, twisted, and subdued sort of storm, only fed by her swelling resentment and envy. She delights in her misery and the inevitable notion that life will one day "tear you apart," she seethes to India in a brief, yet still epic, third act monologue. With Evelyn casting her toxicity squarely on her daughter's shoulders, it spreads like poisoned roots 一 from which India can not escape. She can only embrace it.

Ruth From Prevenge

Grief and pressures of impending motherhood come to a boil in "Prevenge," directed by Alice Lowe, who also stars as a very pregnant Ruth. With the recent death of her husband in a climbing accident, Ruth gets caught in a whirlwind of emotions and a plot for revenge. She believes her husband's accident was nothing short of manslaughter, so she turns to calculated revenge for those involved. But it's a bit more complicated than that. She is provoked by her unborn child 一 as the viewer, we even hear a strange, high-pitched voice guiding and coercing her.

The vengeful scheme leaves the inevitable trail of bodies, each grisly murder as nauseating as the last. Driven to kill, Ruth acts on motherly instinct to protect her daughter, as well as to find some sort of salve to her grief-addled heart. Nothing can bring her husband back, of course. Whenever she wavers in killing someone, her daughter threatens to end her life. Lowe's performance swings like a pendulum between sad and sadistic, and in both instances, Ruth is downright terrifying. Real human emotion gives the role further weight you don't quite see in many of these selections.

Dorothy From Frightmare

Pete Walker's 1974 proto-slasher "Frightmare" testifies to the complete ineptitude of the healthcare system in regards to mental health treatment. Dorothy (Sheila Keith) and her husband Edmund (Rupert Davies) are locked away in a mental institute for the tragic slaying of six people. Years later, they are finally released on their own recognizance, as health officials believe them both to be cured.

That is simply unfounded, unfortunately. Upon their release, Dorothy turns to advertising tarot readings on their farm as a way to "help people" -- or so she claims. However, it's just a ploy to lure unsuspecting city folk to their demise. Edmund is at first unaware of what she is doing but catches on soon enough. Meanwhile, it is revealed that the elderly couple has two daughters, Debbie (Kim Butcher) and Jackie (Deborah Fairfax). Since their release, Jackie has been helping Edmund by bringing cuts of meat to convince Dorothy she is killing (but without her actually murdering anyone).

They have the best of intentions, but the execution of deceit leaves much to be desired. It triggers Dorothy's bloodlust and sends her careening for destruction. Dorothy is a tragic figure and victim herself. Her mental illness causes her to do the most unspeakable things, and if the healthcare system had done its job, no one would be dead. Really, she's a terrifying anti-hero.

Vera From Dead Alive

In Peter Jackson's 1992 horror/comedy "Dead Alive," Vera Cosgrove (Elizabeth Moody) wants what is best for her son Lionel (Timothy Balme). The drowning of his father when he was a child has left an indelible mark on him, so he will do anything to please Vera in return. One afternoon, Lionel traipses off to the local zoo with the object of his affection, a shopkeeper's daughter named Paquita (Diana Peñalver). Vera follows and gets bitten by a rabid rat-monkey recently shipped from Skull Island.

Over the coming days, Vera's health severely declines, and she eventually transforms into a puss-oozing zombie. The apocalyptic outbreak is unconquerable, as Vera goes on a rampage throughout the small town. In many regards, it's a clear cut metaphor for motherhood and the lengths one will go to prove unconditional, undying love. It also helps that the gore and practical effects are so stomach-churning you may need a bucket while you watch.

Joan Crawford From Mommie Dearest

The 1981 biopic "Mommie Dearest," directed by Frank Perry, is loosely based on a 1978 memoir penned by Christina Crawford, the adoptive daughter to Joan Crawford. In the book, Christina revealed she endured traumatic physical and emotional abuse, and Perry brings these allegations to light with the sharpness of an anvil. That doesn't detract from Faye Dunaway's manic, bombastic performance, however, as many moments, including the infamous "no wire hangers" monologue, are downright frightening.

Feeling listless, Joan longs to have a baby of her own and decides to adopt, enlisting Greg Savitt (Steve Forrest) to help her out. She succeeds in adopting a newborn named Christina, and it appears she has it all. In the ensuing years, as her career stalls out, her parenting and relationship with her daughter collapses.

Throughout the film, Joan's unresolved personal issues, and perhaps some trauma, spills over into how she cares for Christina. As a result, Joan torments her with psychological ploys for attention, gaslighting, and emotional manipulation. When she discovers a wire hanger in her daughter's closet, she throws a tantrum and then forces Christina to deep clean the bathroom. It's one of several scenes in which Joan transforms into a literal monster. There's nothing scarier than real life (or events inspired by real life, that is).

If you or someone you know may be the victim of child abuse, please contact the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child (1-800-422-4453) or contact their live chat services.

Mother From Goodnight Mommy

"Goodnight Mommy," co-directed by screenwriters Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala, flips the terrifying mother archetype on its head. Without diving into spoilers here, the 2014 psychological thriller toys with perceptions of reality in a stark, profound way. After having intense surgery, a young woman (Susanne Wuest) arrives home to her two children Elias (Elias Schwarz) and Lukas (Lukas Schwarz). They welcome her home with warmth and hugs, but as time goes on, they begin to suspect the bandaged-up woman is not their real mother.

The boys are forbidden to open the blinds and are forced to play only outdoors. Mother needs her rest. But things get stranger from there. Elias and Lukas eventually tie up the woman and plead with her to reveal her true identity or prove that she is who she claims. Their tests are all for nought, inevitably crescendoing into quite a fiery end.

"Goodnight Mommy" explores not only the terrifying uncertainty of motherhood but how trauma can forever change a person. It's tense, unsettling, and guaranteed to crawl under the skin, especially Wuest's sturdy performance.

Kendall From Mom And Dad

If there's ever been an argument against families, it is undoubtedly Brian Taylor's 2017 horror/comedy "Mom and Dad." Selma Blair plays Kendall opposite Nicholas Cage as her husband Brent. Together, they are caring parents just trying to understand their rebellious teenagers Carly (Anne Winters) and Josh (Zackary Arthur), who could benefit from stricter discipline.

When a radio signal radiates a mysterious static noise, all parents go into mass hysteria and try to kill their children. While using every manner of weapon, Kendall and Brent bond over their new bloodlust and rekindle their passion. Talk about taking a trust exercise to the next level!

"Mom and Dad" captures the tug-of-war that often rages between children and parental figures. It can be frustrating, exhausting, and thankless 一 and sometimes you just want to smack your kids (or kill them in horrific ways). Taylor offers up a thunderous commentary on modern parenting without skimping on real issues of love and misunderstanding.

Read this next: Horror Roles That Changed Actors Forever

The post Horror Movie Mothers That Are Pure Terror appeared first on /Film.

The Playmaker Munich has released the first trailer for Lukas Rinker's new horror comedy Holy Shit!. The film won the Audience Award at the Hard:Line Film Festival after its world premiere and got an Honorable Mention for the "Best Blood (and Shit) Bath" at Fantaspoa most recently.

In the film, architect Frank (Thomas Niehaus) regains consciousness in a locked portable toilet on a construction site where a detonation is being prepared. As he desperately tries to find ways of escaping this “prison” before potentially being blown to smithereens, he realizes who has put him in this predicament: none other than the corrupt and lecherous Mayor Horst (Gedeon Burkhard), who also has designs on Frank’s pregnant girlfriend Marie (Olga von Luckwald). Frank has to do every [Continued ...]

A leaker posting on the message board 4chan has shared a build of Duke Nukem Forever similar to that shown at E3 in 2001. The leaker started posting on Monday and, as collated by Duke fansite duke4.net, has since posted screenshots, videos, and download links. 3D Realms co-founder and Duke Nukem developer George Broussard commented via Twitter that "the leak looks real."

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Since 2008, movie stars get minted by superhero movies. Chris Evans had appeared in "Not Another Teen Movie," Danny Boyle's "Sunshine," and "Fantastic Four" before he donned a suit and shield in "Captain America: The First Avenger." That made him Chris Evans. The casting of Robert Pattinson as Batman drew fan ire on Twitter, but mostly because many remembered him as a brooding, glittery vampire. Pattinson collaborated with the electric Safdie Brothers and Robert Eggers before putting the cape and cowl on. He's a superstar once more.

This is all worth mentioning because Paul Dano also had his superhero moment in 2022. Dano plays The Riddler in Matt Reeves's blockbuster noir "The Batman," effectively reintroducing himself to mainstream audiences. The irony in this is the sterling resume Dano has built between blockbuster projects. Dano's filmography is a master class in curation. It jumps from genre to genre and includes box-office smashes and underappreciated gems. He has impeccable taste in directors and always places his work on their wavelength. In another universe, Paul Dano is a minted movie star, with or without "The Batman." In this one, we'll celebrate him anyway.

Here are the 14 best Paul Dano movies, ranked.

The Girl Next Door

Some films are minted classics from the jump. Others appreciate quietly (think "The Night of the Hunter," a movie so poorly received that Charles Laughton never made another — it's now in The Criterion Collection). And then some films seem to inexplicably become cultural touchstones, that come out of nowhere to be answers to bar trivia questions and casual conversation pieces. "The Girl Next Door" is one of those films.

There's no point in wondering if you've seen it. If you're between the ages of 27 and 40, it's a film you caught in snippets on TV or saw in theaters, or rented via Netflix once. Luke Greenfield's tale of a type-A high schooler (Emile Hirsch) who falls for his neighbor, a one-time porn star (Elisha Cuthbert), has lingered with millennials. There are several reasons why. The script, co-written by "The Kids Are All Right" scribe Stuart Blumburg, is infinitely more graceful than one would guess. It hones in on the ways pop culture makes it difficult for kids to stay young, an exploration that's only more resonant in 2022. 

It's the cast that puts "The Girl Next Door" over the edge, though. The early-career work of Timothy Olyphant, Olivia Wilde, and Paul Dano is both splendid and surprising. Dano, in particular, underplays the nerdy Kiltz to the point where he springs character developments like snare traps. It's a level of nuance you don't find in the era's other raunchy sex comedies, and it's a lynchpin of why "The Girl Next Door" endures for so many.

Ruby Sparks

Paul Dano and Zoe Kazan are one of the century's most endearing and enduring Hollywood couples. Their relationship remains gossip column fodder, but it's far more interesting as a frank portrait of long-term commitment and collaboration bastion. Kazan and Dano have made three projects together. They appeared together in "Meek's Cutoff." The most recent, 2018's "Wildlife," is Dano's directorial debut (co-written by Kazan) and an absolute stunner. The other, no less affecting, is "Ruby Sparks." "Sparks" couldn't be farther in tone from "Wildlife" yet, at its core, it's asking similar questions in very different font types. 

"Wildlife" concerns the dissolution of a marriage and explores the sacrifices we endure for stability and companionship. Valerie Faris and Jonathan Dayton's sparkling romantic comedy, by contrast, wills both into existence. "Ruby Sparks" concerns a novelist named Calvin whose love life fails to achieve lift-off. Inspired by his therapist, he pens the story of a woman who he christens Ruby Sparks (Kazan). When Calvin wakes the next day, she's leapt off the page and into real life. The catch? She's still beholden to whatever Calvin writes her to do. Calvin's manipulation of Ruby begins playfully enough, but it quickly dovetails into a horror show of manipulation and coercive control. The tone remains comedic; the subtext doesn't.

 Love is not an act of jurisdiction. It's a collaboration. When that deteriorates, there are two options: dissolution or domination. Kazan and Dano have documented this beautifully across two wildly different but dissimilar projects. That takes bravery and affection.

L.I.E.

To call "L.I.E." a tough watch is an understatement. Michael Cuesta's drama (which is short for "Long Island Expressway") isn't difficult to sit through because of its subject matter, although that includes pedophilia and suicide. What's disquieting — and essential — about most of the 2001 film is how deeply it mines the shades of gray that manifest between its characters. 

"L.I.E." is about a juvenile delinquent named Howie (Paul Dano) and a sexual predator named Big John (Brian Cox), but what that relationship is and who these characters are isn't clear. What is crystal clear is a yearning for connection that becomes morally complicated and heartbreaking, even as it veers towards the queasy. 

Until its third act (which feels like a cop-out), "L.I.E." searches for and finds humanity where a void should be instead. "L.I.E." is one of Dano's first films and he makes a deeply audacious debut. Cast alongside and opposite Brian Cox, Dano finds all of Howie's exposed nerves and then buries them under adolescent bravado and learned dissociation. He's made better movies than "L.I.E.," but few actors' debut performances have been more notable or remarkable.

Swiss Army Man

"Swiss Army Man" is a non-stop masterclass in subverting audience expectations. It opens on a man (Paul Dano) attempting suicide. It then finds its way into a flatulent corpse (Daniel Radcliffe) that can be manipulated like a Swiss Army knife and washes ashore in the nick of time. The movie only gets wilder and more subversive from there. 

A tangent: in 2022, everyone on Film Twitter talked about "Everything Everywhere All At Once" -- and with good reason. That movie was made by Daniel Scheinert and Dan Kwan (collectively known as the Daniels) and "Swiss Army Man" is, in its own fart-filled way, the blueprint for the euphoria they create through that later project. Daniels treats every element of their films -- be they gassy corpses or raccoons that cook -- with maximum sincerity. If something shows up in their movies, it will make its voice heard in the third act, however improbable. This is the charm of the "Swiss Army Man" experience, and it's one that Dano leans into. The actor has arguably never been simpler or more appealing than he is here, in possibly his strangest film. That's a totally different kind of audience subversion -- and one we're here for. 

If you or anyone you know is having suicidal thoughts, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline​ at​ 1-800-273-TALK (8255)​.

Love & Mercy

In "Walk Hard," Sam (Tim Meadows) reverently declares that "Dewey Cox has to think about his whole life before he plays." The movie then flashes backward and effectively kills the music biopic. This is only a slight exaggeration. What "Walk Hard" posited in gleefully satirical tones is that an attempt to cram an artist's life, career, and legacy into one two hour movie is an absolute fool's errand. Many have tried to. Few have succeeded. 

In "Love And Mercy," director Bill Pohlad's look at Brian Wilson's life finds a compelling work-around — tell the story as a diptych. The compelling project (co-written by the wonderful director Oren Moverman) explores the highs and lows of The Beach Boys frontman's life by turning its focus to both the late '60s and '80s / early '90s, casting Paul Dano and John Cusack as the mercurial musician in different stages of his life. Most interestingly, though, the film doesn't ask Dano and Cusack's performances to echo one another. Instead, each actor offers their take and the film builds stylistically around them. Cusack's dry and knowingly stoic work gets matched by broad but appealing turns from Paul Giamatti and Elizabeth Banks. The '60s section is more technicolor and nuanced, informed by Dano's soul-exposed performance and the sonic magic of "Pet Sounds" recording sessions. 

It's in these moments and through Atticus Ross's impeccable score that "Love & Mercy" makes its intentions clear. It's pedestrian to show us a great musician's life. It's more vital to show us how they heard the world and what that cost.

Looper

"Looper" is a tremendous film that's suddenly far more resonant; in it, an assassin named Joe (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is faced with killing his older self (Bruce Willis). Several plot twists later, both Joes are seated at a diner reminiscing about their lives, past and present. "How's your French coming?" Older Joe asks. "Good. You gonna tell me I oughta be learning Mandarin?" Joe sneers back. Older Joe half-smiles and half grimaces: "I never regret learning French." At that moment, Older Joe's entire life is behind and before him. He is looking back by being present. Willis sells the complexity of this insane but resonant beat hook, line, and sinker.

You might know where we're headed with this — maybe you're like Old Joe in that way. Willis revealed his aphasia diagnosis in April of 2022, a degenerative condition affecting memory and mental cognition. It's possible, in the strictest sense, that Bruce Willis will never be able to look back on the whole of his life the way Old Joe does in "Looper." Movies have given us the power and beauty of a moment the performer will never get. It's heartbreaking. It's poetic. It's the worst and best kind of art all at once. 

We're talking a lot about Bruce Willis in a piece about Paul Dano. But, just as Dano's best gift to "Looper" is giving space and taking stage whenever's needed, we figured he can hold the backseat down for one entry. See "Looper" for Dano, sure. But please, please watch it for Bruce Willis, too.

Little Miss Sunshine

Few actors do more with silence or screaming than Paul Dano. In "Little Miss Sunshine," the thespian builds from one modality to the other in one stunning cinematic moment.

Dano's Dwayne Hoover has taken a vow of silence until he achieves his goal of becoming a fighter pilot. He maintains that silence for much of the Hoover family's road trip from New Mexico to California, a trip taken in service of Dwayne's younger sister Olive (Abigail Breslin). Tensions are running high after a series of mishaps including a broken horn and the death of Dwayne's grandfather (yes, this film is a comedy). At their tail end, Dwayne discovers he is color blind. This renders him ineligible for flight school and his dreams are essentially dead. Fleeing the family's VW Microbus, Dwayne breaks his silence with a piercing shriek.

We're describing this moment in detail because words don't do it justice. It's rare when you can pinpoint the moment an actor becomes a movie star. It's rarer when that moment holds a power that transcends the movie it's in. Good as "Little Miss Sunshine" is (and it is very, very good), it's best as a film that cements the cinematic legacies of its cast. Abigail Breslin remains a dynamic talent. Toni Collette and Steve Carrell are known dramatic powerhouses. And Dano has a career so varied and excellent it's worthy of a "best films" list. All it takes is one moment to make a performer.

Meek's Cutoff

Kelly Reichardt is a maestro of the American Northwest. The minimalist, Florida-born film director orchestrates every element of her chosen setting like instruments in a concerto. She renders 1820's Oregon intimate and dangerous in 2020's "First Cow." The modern-day Oregon wilderness becomes both ally and foe to two environmentalists in 2013's "Night Moves." In 2011's "Meek's Cutoff," though, Reichardt does more than effectively evoke the infamous Oregon Trail — she challenges our notion of what going west meant and what it felt like. The land here wears those who travel upon it down. When we first meet Stephen Meek (Bruce Greenwood) and the travelers, he is shepherding (Michelle Williams, Zoe Kazan, and Paul Dano, among them), striding proudly across the terrain. By the film's end, the travelers, now lost, stumble and struggle to move. There is no romanticism present. There is only a need to survive. 

Reichardt shoots this degradation in the aspect ratio of classic westerns, challenging and subverting the iconography that we've grown accustomed to as viewers. And though "Meek's Cutoff" is, hands down, Michelle Williams' movie, Dano acquaints himself nicely as a traveler who feels his American dream slipping out of his fingers and into the wilderness beyond. 

The West, and Reichardt's film, are appropriately unforgiving. 

Okja

Bong Joon Ho is a monster-movie master. To be clear, all of the Oscar-winning filmmaker's projects are monster movies. In "Parasite" and "Snowpiercer," class warfare is the monster.  In "Memories of Murder," both a serial killer and the society that birthed him are boogeymen. Joon Ho's creature feature work (which, for our money, is comprised of "The Host" and "Okja") is the director's most potent and heady mix of horror and heartwarming. It offers Joon Ho the chance to stage jaw-dropping set pieces that shift his social commentary to overdrive. That's never clearer than in the bleak third act of "The Host" or, particularly, "Okja." This is a movie where a mutant pig careens through a crowded South Korean mall and, in doing so, cements the movie's position about acceptable thresholds of animal cruelty. There's nothing else quite like it.

It's also a great Paul Dano showcase. Dano is capable of naturalism, but the actor is at his best in projects which have room for stylistic stretching. As the well-meaning yet hysterically righteous activist Jay, Dano is tasked with being a genuine firebrand and gentle parody of one. He succeeds on both counts. It's masterful work that matches his equally masterful director in lockstep.

The Batman

In "The Batman," vengeance is influential. The Dark Knight embodies vengeance; his signal isn't just a sign -- it's a warning. When that Batman symbol light hits the sky, it becomes a sword of Damocles for those who would lord power over the helpless. But Batman doesn't use that sword to mortally wound his adversaries, even at his most rage-filled. 

Paul Dano's Riddler is the opposite. Warnings aren't enough for him. Gotham has been built on corrupt foundations by men who never believed they'd pay for their crimes. Influenced by Batman, he becomes the proverbial sword and cuts a trail of righteous fury through the city, leaving bodies and clues in his wake. To hear him tell it, Batman was his partner. "We've been doing this together," Riddler swoons, "I'm not physical. My strength is [my brain]. I had all the pieces, I had the answers, but I didn't know how to make them listen. You gave me that ... you showed me what was possible. All it takes is fear and a little focused violence."

Given that what follows Riddler's speech is a literal assault on the government and civil liberties, it's impossible to not draw parallels to the January 2022 Capitol insurrection. The direct comparison is welcome. There are many reasons Matt Reeves' stirring blockbuster is one of the most successful superhero films of recent years, but point of view is chief among them. Reeves asks us to consider not only what we stand for, but how our voice affects others -- even the people we're not thinking about. Here's hoping it influences many. 

Where The Wild Things Are

In "Where The Wild Things Are," childhood is monstrous. "Monstrous" -- it's a word with a horror-filled connotation. Monsters are the creatures that go bump in the night, that manifest in nightmares or human form. Yet part of becoming an adult is understanding the monsters that live within us, the ones which form at birth, childhood, or both. If you're lucky, you come to love that monster (or at least offer them a seat at the table of your life). That's what Spike Jonze's movie is about. Yes, "Where The Wild Things Are" is a joyous ode to the fierce and frightening journey that is youth, but it's also a film that acknowledges that Max, its lead, is monstrous. At no point does it judge that.

That's a lot of terrains for a family-friendly film to cover. That's why "Where The Wild Things Are" is an exquisite film. It realizes its complicated thesis through searing cinematography and practical effects that are as imposing as they are dazzling. It has a feral heart and wise mind. More than anything, it loves its monsters very much, real or imagined. And it makes us love them too. 

12 Years A Slave

"12 Years Of A Slave" makes an untold number of radical, heart-shredding storytelling decisions. There are single-take shots of slavery and its inhumane abuses. There's a hanging sequence that is both a horror film in miniature and a suspense masterclass all at once, a mercilessly yet necessarily long stare into the heart of American history. There's also, most radically, space for Black intimacy and joy. Before the audience sees a single act of violence perpetrated against Black bodies, they bear witness to Solomon (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and Anna (Ashley Dyke) treating each other tenderly despite themselves being treated savagely. It's beautiful, surprising, and ultimately shattering. 

These are the grace notes that don't just distinguish "12 Years A Slave" from any narrative of slavery that's come before it; they make it more cathartic and healing, even in its unflinching darkness. A large swathe of that darkness comes from Dano, who plays the loathsome slaver and chief carpenter Tibeats. Tibeats savors his every hateful word, high on his inhumanity. Whether he's repurposing spirituals as hate speech, relishing his work, or, yes, committing murder, Tibeats embodies white power and privilege in one person. Dano makes Tibeats recognizably human but, crucially, makes him unworthy of empathy. The actor has played dark characters before and after Tibeats, yet this is his one true embodiment of pure evil, and it is mesmerizing.

Prisoners

There is no escape in "Prisoners" -- there is only the hope of rescue. Some characters are rescued from kidnappers, while others stay trapped. And almost every character in Denis Villeneuve's masterful thriller feels trapped in a psychological prison of their twisted construction, from the rageful and grieving Keller Dover (Hugh Jackman) to the stoic Detective Loki (a great Jake Gyllenhaal). Villeneuve films each character in extreme close-ups throughout. They're claustrophobically held in his frame, fiending for release that never comes. It sounds exhausting because it is.

If we've spent more time describing the mood of "Prisoners" than its plot, that's by design. For one, we don't want to spoil the plot's deeply nihilistic twists. Most of all, the story — which concerns two girls who go missing in the heart of Pennsylvania — is a catalyst to drum up existential dread. At the heart of this is Paul Dano's Alex Jones. A young man suspected of abducting the aforementioned women, Dano tiptoes the line between terrifying and helpless. His face and relative silence are unreadable (until they aren't). He twists the audience's heart in knots merely by existing. It's hard to understate the command and talent Dano displays here. The performance may not be flashy, but it's a tightly coiled inferno. That's better.

There Will Be Blood

"There Will Be Blood" takes place in 1898. "There Will Be Blood" is about 2022. So long as the oil industry burrows deeper into the fabric of American existence and prosperity, Paul Thomas Anderson's classic will be about who we are, not "were." It gives zero quarter, and its elegant horror never waivers on repeat viewings. It is essential modern cinema.

It is also Paul Dano's best movie, and not only because it's peerless. Dano was originally cast solely as Paul Sunday, the man who tells Daniel Day Lewis's Daniel Plainview of an oil deposit on his family's California property. Kel O'Neill filmed for several weeks as Eli, Paul's parish-leading brother, before departing the project amicably. With four days and seemingly minimal fear, Dano stepped into the pivotal role.

Eli Sunday has, unsurprisingly, become the template for Dano's most marquee work. It's a performance that matches the forever-in-beast-mode of Daniel Day-Lewis at his most deliberately monstrous. Dano's Sunday is an operatic blend of vein-popping theatrics and subtle, white-hot heartbreak. He oozes feeling even when still, like a freshly tapped petroleum reservoir. You could argue Dano had no more mountains left to climb after "There Will Be Blood." We'd argue he made some. Dano's Riddler is a triumph of iconic discontent. "Swiss Army Man" is one of the 2010s most rapidly-appreciating efforts. Dano never had to top "There Will Be Blood" because he kept fixing ways to match it. If we're lucky, he won't stop for some time.

Read this next: Horror Roles That Changed Actors Forever

The post 14 Best Paul Dano Movies Ranked appeared first on /Film.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Sky News: The UK, US and EU have formally accused Russia of being behind a cyber attack targeting a satellite communications network used in Ukraine. Businesses and individuals using routers made by Viasat, an American business that provides broadband-speed satellite internet connections, were knocked offline just before tanks began to roll into the country. "The cyberattack took place one hour before Russia's unprovoked and unjustified invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, thus facilitating the military aggression," the EU said in its statement. "Although the primary target is believed to have been the Ukrainian military, other customers were affected, including personal and commercial internet users," the Foreign Office added. As a result of the attack 5,800 wind turbines in Germany were knocked offline as they depended upon Viasat routers for remote monitoring and control. The company said in total tens of thousands of its terminals were effectively destroyed and needed to be replaced. UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said: "This is clear and shocking evidence of a deliberate and malicious attack by Russia against Ukraine which had significant consequences on ordinary people and businesses in Ukraine and across Europe. We will continue to call out Russia's malign behavior and unprovoked aggression across land, sea and cyberspace, and ensure it faces severe consequences." The attack was described as "yet another example of Russia's continued pattern of irresponsible behavior in cyberspace, which also formed an integral part of its illegal and unjustified invasion of Ukraine," in the EU's statement. "Such behavior is contrary to the expectations set by all UN member states, including the Russian Federation, of responsible state behavior and the intentions of states in cyberspace. Russia must stop this war and bring an end to the senseless human suffering immediately," the EU added.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Digital World Acquisition Corp. (NASDAQ:DWAC), a SPAC that is slated to take the Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG) public, is facing pressure today from Musk's latest Twitter-related comments even as the broader market is green.

To wit, the CEO of Tesla has stated in an interview that he would reverse the "morally bad" and "flat out stupid" decision to evict Trump from Twitter (NYSE:TWTR):

BREAKING: @ElonMusk says he would reverse Trump's suspension from Twitter and called the ban "morally wrong" and "flat out stupid." pic.twitter.com/ahRTaO5caV

— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) May 10, 2022

Bear in mind that Musk intends to take Twitter private in a $43 billion takeover deal. Moreover, the CEO of Tesla is also expected to act as the interim CEO of the social media giant once the deal achieves financial closure.

Of course, Musk has positioned himself as a champion of freedom of speech on online platforms. While explaining his rationale behind the Twitter takeover deal in a letter sent to the social media giant's board, Musk had noted:

"I invested in Twitter as I believe in its potential to be the platform for free speech around the globe, and I believe free speech is a societal imperative for a functioning democracy.

However, since making my investment, I now realize the company will neither thrive nor serve this societal imperative in its current form. Twitter needs to be transformed as a private company."

So, why are DWAC shares in the red today? Well, the SPAC is slated to merge with TMTG – the entity behind Trump's TRUTH Social platform. Trump has positioned TRUTH Social as the platform of choice for conservative-leaning online voices. However, if Twitter under Musk's leadership manages to rope in Trump, the entire raison d'etre' behind the TRUTH Social initiative loses its luster.

While Trump has previously stated that he would not move back to Twitter, the rollout of the TRUTH Social app has not exactly been smooth sailing so far, with the app continuing to face issues around a slow rollout. Moreover, the SPAC merger also faces material risks. For instance, DWAC has already received a "voluntary information and document request" from the SEC, which included a demand for documents related to meetings of DWAC's board of directors as well as policies and procedures relating to its interactions with TMTG, based on reports that DWAC "may have committed securities [law] violations by holding private and undisclosed discussions about the merger [with TMTG] as early as May 2021, while omitting this information [in SEC) filing and other public statements." If the situation worsens, Trump might find it more expedient to jump off this sinking ship and move to Twitter.

Do you think Musk is justified in taking an absolutist view around freedom of speech? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.

Disclaimer:

Wccftech Finance strictly adheres to political neutrality. Any reference to former President Trump or the SPAC Digital World Acquisition Corp. does not mean that we support or oppose his policies. This is purely a financial post featuring objective analysis.

The post Digital World Acquisition Corp. (DWAC) Shares Tumble as Elon Musk Vows To Reverse the “Flat Out Stupid” Decision To Evict Trump From Twitter by Rohail Saleem appeared first on Wccftech.

James Cromwell, the 82-year-old actor who played Succession's cranky, anti-capitalist Uncle Ewan, superglued his hand down to a Starbuck's counter in New York City this morning for at least 30 minutes to protest the company's extra charge for plant-based milk. — Read the rest

Twitter was "foolish in the extreme" in kicking former US President Donald Trump off its service, and permanent bans should be extremely rare, said Elon Musk, who has agreed to acquire the social media company. From a report: "I would reverse the permanent ban," Musk said Tuesday at a Financial Times conference. "Perma bans just fundamentally undermine trust in Twitter as a town square where everyone can voice their opinion." Booting the former president off the site "didn't end Trump's voice," Musk said. "It will amplify it among the right. This is why it is morally wrong and flat-out stupid. My opinion, and Jack Dorsey I want to be clear shares this opinion, is that we should not have permanent bans," Musk said, referring to the Twitter co-founder and former chief executive officer.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg Law: Valve must face antitrust litigation over claims that "most favored nation" policies for its Steam distribution platform have driven up video game prices across the industry, a federal judge in Seattle ruled. Judge John C. Coughenour let part of the case move forward in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, saying it's plausible Valve exploits its market dominance to threaten and retaliate against developers that sell games for less through other retailers or platforms. The company "allegedly enforces this regime through a combination of written and unwritten rules" imposing its own conditions on how even "non-Steam-enabled games are sold and priced," Coughenour wrote. "These allegations are sufficient to plausibly allege unlawful conduct." The May 6 decision hands a win to the consumers and game publishers leading the proposed class action after the judge twice issued preliminary rulings in Valve's favor. Coughenour first ordered Steam subscribers to arbitrate their consumer claims in October, then tentatively dismissed the developer lawsuit the following month. Consumers who don't subscribe to Steam -- and never signed its arbitration agreement -- are still involved in the case. [...] Coughenour trimmed the Valve case May 6, rejecting claims that the Steam store and gaming platform operate in separate markets the company ties together. There are no plausible allegations of any consumer demand for "fully functional gaming platforms distinct from game stores," he said. But the judge let the most-favored-nation claims move forward, walking back his earlier skepticism about the idea that Steam commissions are "supracompetitive." He had previously found that their stability over time shows Valve didn't raise prices as it gained market share. In fact, when the company competed only against brick-and-mortar retailers, it "did not need market power to charge a fee well above its cost structure because those brick-and-mortar competitors had a far higher cost structure," Coughenour wrote. That makes the analysis apples-to-oranges, he said.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.