A woman in Sonoma County, California was concerned that there may be snakes living under her home, so she called the Sonoma County Reptile Rescue and sanctuary. Turns out that that her home was also a rattlesnake den. From the Sacramento Bee:
— Read the rest"Three hours and 45 minutes later … I came out with 59 babies and 22 adults," [said the reptile rescue's Alan Wolf.]
(Welcome to The Daily Stream, an ongoing series in which the /Film team shares what they've been watching, why it's worth checking out, and where you can stream it.)
The Movie: "Bit"
Where You Can Stream It: Amazon Prime and Tubi
The Pitch: Brad Michael Elmore is one of the most exciting independent filmmakers working today. After feeling fed up with the gatekeeping of a studio system, he released his debut feature, "The Wolfman's Hammer" for free online. His second film, "Boogeyman Pop" was picked up by Blumhouse and played at a few festivals, but as of today, remains in some weird release limbo that no one seems to know much about. In his third feature endeavor, Elmore took his signature punk-as-f*ck "DIY or die" aesthetic and added a little sugar, spice, and everything not-so-nice to make what The Advocate called, "a bloody good time" and "a milestone in queer female visibility in the horror genre."
Eighteen-year-old Laurel ("Supergirl's" Nicole Maines) is looking to start a new life in Los Angeles with her brother, Mark (James Paxton), whom she's been somewhat distanced from since her transition. On her first night on the town, Laurel ends up at a club run by Duke (Diana Hopper), a sleek and terrifying misandrist who is also the leader of a group of intersectional feminist vampires. Laurel meets Izzy (Zolle Griggs) at the club and the two look as if they're about to embark on a meet-cute adventure, only for Izzy to reveal that she is part of Duke's vampire crew, and Laurel now has a choice to become vampire food, or join their crew and help them to continue draining the lives of abusive men.
Since the film's release in 2019, I personally have not been able to shut up about how important this movie is in the grand scheme of queer horror cinema. Elmore struggled for "Bit" to be shown at horror festivals, but the film was met with rave reviews at LGBTQ+ film festivals, namely Outfest, where star Nicole Maines took home the top acting prize. During the early months of the pandemic, "Bit" was unceremoniously dumped on streaming services to zero fanfare, with the film's success standing firmly on the shoulders of vocal fans who have done as much as they can to spread the gospel of "Bit."
"Bit" has been met with a multitude of criticism, mostly by people who haven't even seen the movie, fearing the film is too "woke" for featuring a trans lead and a crew of vampires who intentionally target skeezy dudes. The code of conduct the vampires follow is not unlike the other "rules" typically set in place for creatures of the night, but it's a code that has evolved to reflect the modern era. The most important rule of "Bite Club" (yes, they do make the joke) is that the vampires gals never turn men, because as Duke says, "They have [power] already and look at what they've done with it." Men are not presented as the enemy in "Bit," but rather awful people who have been corrupted by their own power and privilege. Considering the power dynamics of America, that does mean that yes, most of those becoming vamp snacks happen to be men.
Elmore went into creating "Bit" with the intention of providing the same love so many people have for movies like "The Lost Boys," but with female audiences in mind. In an interview with Vulture, he said, "I think we all kind of know that most R-rated movies are sort of coded for 13-year-old boys. I'm not saying 13-year-old-girls don't like them, too! But I wanted to make a movie that was coded for young girls that's just as R-rated as anything else."
Y'all, "Bit" is absolutely that movie. On top of the incredibly progressive and empowering messaging, "Bit" is stylish as hell and absolutely brutal. The lighting is gorgeous, the fashion is expertly crafted, there's blood dripping from every angle, and the film is responsible for quite possibly the best use of Boney M's "Rasputin" in a horror movie, or any movie, for that matter.
Vampire films have a long history within the horror genre, and "Bit" is an absolute triumph. It deserves to stand alongside the films that we love, because it serves as a love letter to films like "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," "The Craft," and "Blade," while also subverting some of the harmful tropes toward marginalized people that horror is unfortunately also known for. "Bit" is also a film that has been lost in the shuffle of an over-saturated film market, and continually kicked down by a culture that loves to review-bomb films with pro-woman themes simply for existing. Elmore took a huge swing in making "Bit" and totally knocked it out of the park, but he hit that homerun in front of a small, albeit dedicated, fandom. It's time for horror fans everywhere to give themselves the gift of watching "Bit" this Halloween season, and in doing so, give Elmore and the rest of the team the flowers they so deserve for making one of the coolest vampire movies in years.
"Bit" is currently streaming on Amazon Prime or for free with ads on Tubi.
Read this next: The Daily Stream: Possum Is An Extremely Creepy Horror Movie From The Creator Of Garth Marenghi's Darkplace
The post The Daily Stream: Bit is the Raddest Vampire Movie You Haven't Seen appeared first on /Film.
In recent weeks, you may have seen a recipe for a salmon rice bowl making the rounds on TikTok. In this recipe, TikTok user Emily Mariko puts leftover salmon on a plate and covers it with day-old rice. She then places an ice cube in the rice, covers it all up with a parchment paper, and puts it in the microwave for a…
Bethesda and Arkane have released a new major update for the PC version of Deathloop. According to the teams, this first major game update adds support for NVIDIA DLSS. Moreover, it improves Ray Tracing performance, and adds support for Sony DualSense controller audio. This patch also features the framerate improvements that Arkane introduced via a … Continue reading Deathloop gets an 11GB Update, adds DLSS, improves Ray Tracing performance →
The post Deathloop gets an 11GB Update, adds DLSS, improves Ray Tracing performance appeared first on DSOGaming.
Noting that South Korean pop culture has become at least as loved outside the Republic as within it should brook no argument in 2021. It all started with the international rise of K-pop, a broad umbrella term for just about any popular music coming from Korea—I’ve spoken to friends with young kids in at least five…
Parting ways is never easy, but saying goodbye is a signature part of the "Doctor Who" experience. While we're still months away from an official farewell to Jodie Whittaker's 13th Doctor, her on-set tenure as the much beloved Time Lord has recently come to an end. Sharing a bittersweet photo on Twitter, the show announced that both Whittaker and her co-star Mandip Gill (who plays companion Yasmin Khan) have shot their final scenes. This marks the end of a historic run for the series, as the first woman to fill the role prepares to say her goodbyes.
No worries — we still have plenty of time to be in denial, with the 13th season not premiering until October 31 and three specials expected to follow throughout 2022. Just because Whittaker has spent her last days in the TARDIS, doesn't mean we have to accept them! Especially since we won't actually have to see them until next year. Denial is the best way forward! We won't be the only ones ignoring the inevitable goodbye — Whittaker recently appeared on an episode of "The Line-Up with Shaun Keaveny," to say that she hasn't quite accepted the end of her run:
"So, that's... the very emotionally kind of contradicting thing is you announce you're leaving, but you haven't left. So I am still knee-deep in shooting. So, to me, this hasn't finished... I certainly haven't finished doing any press on it, so I can pretend that I am not leaving for the rest of the year. I'm still white-knuckling."
The Doctor has never really been a fan of endings so, if you think about it, our shared denial is a good thing. Right?
Whittaker isn't the only one making history: if Mandip Gill's Yasmin is in the 13th Doctor's final episode (like this wrap image seems to indicate), then she's on the verge of becoming the longest running Doctor Who companion. That's right, Clara Oswald's (Jenna Coleman) long reign might be coming to an end: should Yaz make it to the end of the season, and certainly if she sticks around for the regeneration, she'll have been around for 3 full seasons.
While we don't yet know who will step in to fill Whittaker's place, "Doctor Who" is without a doubt in good hands with Russell T. Davies stepping back up to the plate. The writer-director played a pivotal role in the show's 2005 revival and now returns to steer the 60th year anniversary and "series beyond."
But let's not get too ahead of ourselves — there's a whole season of "Who" ahead to tide over the sadness of Whittaker's farewell. Season 13 will mark the last season for both her and showrunner Chris Chibnall, and they're going out with quite a bang: in an ambitious swing for the series, this season will be a serialized, single storyline season. The season-long mystery comes jam-packed with formidable enemies: Weeping Angels, Sontarans and the mysterious Ravagers, oh my! The promised action of this season, subtitled "The Flux," means The Doctor has a couple more hurdles to jump through before facing regeneration.
"Doctor Who" season 13 premieres Sunday, October 31, 2021 on BBC One, BBC America, and HBO Max.
Read this next: 12 Awesome Sci-Fi Movies That Never Got Sequels
The post Doctor Who Star Jodie Whittaker Wraps Final Episodes, Ending Historic Run appeared first on /Film.
A Texas couple on their way to Las Vegas was told at the airport that one of their bags was six pounds too heavy. When they opened it up, out popped their pet chihuahua, who had snuggled into a cowboy boot that was packed inside the suitcase. — Read the rest
Become an elite commando equipped with an advanced Mecha-Suit capable of dimensional rift travel in a base-building, survival game with action-RPG elements. The Riftbreaker is now available on GOG.COM along with a 10% discount that will fade away on 21st October 2021, 8 AM UTC.
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There are many reasons to look forward to "The Last Duel," ranging from the fact that it's a Ridley Scott movie and nothing more needs to be said (although I'm going to say more anyway, sorry!), to the current dearth of historical epics that used to be considered proven moneymakers and have made this film into a rarity, to the must-see appearances of both Matt Damon and Ben Affleck in medieval hair and makeup ... not to mention their significant contributions on the other side of the camera, as well.
"The Last Duel" tells the painfully relevant story of accusations of rape in a medieval setting (you can read our review from the Venice Film Festival here), comprised of "Rashomon"-like tableaus of shifting perspectives and various points of view. This makes it all the more fitting that /Film was able to talk to three of Ridley Scott's longtime collaborators ahead of "The Last Duel" and ask them to share their most memorable stories and experiences of working with a director like Scott.
Harry Gregson-Williams has enjoyed an illustrious career as a composer, holding the special distinction of having worked with both Scott brothers on multiple occasions. Gregson-Williams served as composer on several movies for the late Tony Scott, including "Enemy of the State," "Man on Fire," the remake of "The Taking of Pelham 123," and "Unstoppable." He's no stranger to the elder Scott sibling either, as he has previously worked with him on both "Kingdom of Heaven" and "The Martian." Their familiarity with one another, particularly with another historical epic in "Kingdom of Heaven," likely played a large role in Scott bringing him back for "The Last Duel." Gregson-Williams had this to say about his experience with Ridley Scott on "The Last Duel," which further solidifies Scott's reputation as one of the hardest working and most efficient filmmakers alive.
"I think because the production was shut down for a while due to COVID, Ridley came home here to Los Angeles and with only half a film under his belt. Instead of sitting around and moping about, he called me and said, 'Okay, this is where we get really prepared.' So I said, 'But, Ridley, what do you want me to do? You haven't got a film.' He said, 'Yes, I do.' And he had edited what he had already into a film. Obviously there were some sort of titles that said 'Carrouges up to Scotland and fights the Scottish,' or something. He hadn't shot that yet, but he had made a film. And he wanted to start on the music. And that's where we started. So that really sums him up. He's a hard worker, and he loves what he does, and he doesn't really stop until he gets it."
Janty Yates is another Ridley Scott regular, taking on the daunting responsibilities of costume designer for "Gladiator," "Kingdom of Heaven," "Robin Hood," "Prometheus," "The Counselor," "Exodus: Gods and Kings," "The Martian," "Alien: Covenant," "All the Money in the World," the upcoming "House of Gucci," and even the two episodes of "Raised by Wolves" that Scott directed for the small screen. The two are, to state the absolute obvious, completely familiar with one another's process by now. To nobody's surprise, Yates had nothing but the most glowing reports of her general experiences while working with a director who knows exactly what he wants at all times.
"He always briefs me so intensively, the first meeting that we have. I can just sail along quite happily, knowing exactly where I'm going, rather than blathering around, like I have with other directors who can't make up their minds. I mean, already on the [next] film we're doing, he's completely storyboarded the entire film. He sees it in his mind. He's a painter. He's a absolutely inspirational genius, frankly, as far as I'm concerned. I can down ask him anything, and he never ever goes, 'I don't know.' He always knows black and white absolutely down the line. He's fantastic to work with."
Last but not least, Darius Wolski is another prolific artist who has had dealings with both Scott brothers over the course of his lengthy career. After serving as cinematographer on Tony Scott's excellent submarine drama/thriller "Crimson Tide" in 1995, Wolski eventually ended up as director of photography on Ridley Scott's 2012 "Alien" prequel "Prometheus." After that, Wolski seemed to strike up a steady partnership with Scott and went on to fill the same role for "The Counselor," "Exodus: Gods and Kings," "The Martian," "Alien: Covenant," "All the Money in the World," two episodes of the "Raised by Wolves" WarnerMedia television series, and the upcoming "House of Gucci." Although Wolski could easily take credit for lensing several famous visuals that audiences have come to associate with Ridley Scott alone, the cinematographer deflects instead and heaps praise upon Scott for his no-nonsense priorities when it comes to running a film production.
"The man is exceptional, a hard worker, the most hardworking director I've ever worked with. Very prepared, very creative, always challenges himself. He's done multiple movies, different kinds, from contemporary to period to space movies, responsible for certain amazing look that is being ripped off and replicated in last whatever 30 years. There's no special story. He's a special man. And just working with him is a pleasure."
Taken together, let's just say that Ridley Scott should probably call on Harry Gregson-Williams, Janty Yates, and Darius Wolski to vouch for his character. These recollections function as the exact opposite of the multiple perspectives featured in "The Last Duel," telling a singularly consistent story of a filmmaker who is, quite simply, exceptionally good at all facets of his job.
Scott's "The Last Duel" comes to theaters tomorrow on October 15, 2021.
Read this next: The 14 Greatest Action Movies Of The 21st Century
The post The Last Duel Crew Share Their Ridley Scott Stories: 'He Doesn't Stop Until He Gets It' [Exclusive] appeared first on /Film.
Scientists have spotted a Jupiter-like exoplanet orbiting a dead star that was once like our Sun, The New York Times has reported. According to a paper in the journal Nature, the white dwarf star and planet around 6,500 light years away provides a preview of what will happen to our own solar system in approximately 5 billion years.
When a yellow dwarf star like our sun exhausts its helium supply, it expands into a red giant and incinerates its inner planets (bye-bye, Earth, Mars, Venus and Mercury). It then contracts from its own gravity into a white dwarf, a dim Earth-sized star with about half its original mass. Though the fate of inner planets is sealed, scientists aren't exactly sure what happens to planets farther away, like Jupiter and Uranus.
Using the Keck II telescope at the W. M. Keck observatory in Hawai'i, a team of researchers spotted a planet around 1.4 times the size of Jupiter orbiting a dim white dwarf star (about 60 percent the size of the Sun) in a Jupiter-like orbit. They discovered it using a technique called gravitational microlensing (thanks, Einstein), possible when a target and a nearer star align with Earth. The nearer star bends the light from the subject, allowing scientists to observe it with a telescope.
The team tried to find the planet's associated star, but eventually concluded that it must be a white dwarf too faint to directly observe. Scientists previously discovered a different Jupiter-like planet around a white dwarf, but its orbit was much closer — so it wasn't a great analog to our own solar system.
The finding indicates that planets with wide orbits are probably more common than inner planets. It also shows that some of our solar system's worlds may survive the Sun's death. "Earth’s future may not be so rosy because it is much closer to the Sun,” co-author David Bennett said in a statement. "If humankind wanted to move to a moon of Jupiter or Saturn before the Sun fried the Earth during its red supergiant phase, we’d still remain in orbit around the Sun, although we would not be able to rely on heat from the Sun as a white dwarf for very long."
After Morgan deals with the mess in Cargo Bay, she moves on to Life Support. Here she bumps into ex-girlfriend Mikhaila Ilyushin.
Mikhaila is currently slumped on the floor, paralyzed in her extremities. She has a rare neurological condition called Paraplexis. She’s fine as long as she gets regular medication, but with the station in disarray she’s missed her dose and is thus helpless.
People with this condition are excluded from orbital duty, but Mikhaila faked some paperwork to get around that. She began dating Morgan at one point, and eventually Morgan found out.
Morgan broke off the relationship because she was about to enter the testing program where she would be memory-wiped over and over, and you can’t really maintain a relationship while that sort of nonsense is going on. At the same time, she never gave Mikhaila a reason for the break-up, so Mikhaila sort of assumed she was being dumped because of her condition. So the entire situation was mostly awkwardness all around.
We need Mikhaila’s help right now because Alex has locked down the entire station. She has a plan to shut down the entire reactor and start it up again to clear the lockdown. I don’t know if we should be using Windows 95 troubleshooting techniques on a nuclear reactor, but Mikhaila is the expert and she seems to think it’ll work.
Even if the player is aligned with their character on the gender / orientation matrix, there’s still the chance that the player just won’t take a shine to their romantic partner. Again, it’s fine if I don’t agree with a movie character regarding who they decide to smooch, but it’s another matter entirely if I’m going to be the one doing the smooching. This holds true even outside of the RPG genre. Designers need to be careful with what sorts of things they make the player do, because there’s a huge difference between watching a character kiss someone and being a character kissing someone. This distinction cuts to the heart of the difference between games and movies.
I ran into this problem in Metro: Last Light. In that story, the protagonist Artyom hooks up with a woman named Anna. I strongly disliked her as a person and wanted nothing to do with her, so I really hated sitting through the first person scenes of their romance. Artyom, I don’t care if you want to make out with this obnoxious jerk, but please do it when I’m not riding shotgun, okay? Just let me out here and come pick me up when the two of you are done.
It’s complicated tracking what people are willing to do, what they’d like to do, and what it’s possible for them to do. A game designer probably can’t reflect every choice people want to make – particularly when operating on a AAA scale with AAA assets – but in general it’s nice when a game offers players lots of choices so most people can find something they’re comfortable with.
Here in Prey, Morgan is always Mikhaila’s ex. Which means that if you’re male Morgan you’re straight, and if you’re female then you’re a lesbian.[1] Normally this would violate the above idea by shoving you into shoes that potentially make you uncomfortable, as it were.
But Prey has an interesting way of dealing with past-Morgan. Within the game, past-Morgan is very much her own person, and she’s explicitly different from the player’s Morgan. Past-Morgian is supposed to feel alien to you. It’s fine if the player objects with “Hey! I’m not a lesbian!” You’re probably not a murderer either, but past-Morgan totally was, and coming to terms with that is part of the struggle that present-Morgan has to deal with. In fact, I think a version of the game where you’re uncomfortable with the orientation or preferences of past-Morgan makes for a more interesting story because it turns up the volume on the central questions about who Morgan is and how the neuromods have changed her.
The game leaves you free to define present-Morgan however you like. Maybe past-Morgan was into her, but you’re free to decide that Mikhaila isn’t your type.
You’re free to leave Mikhaila to her fate and let her disability kill her, or you can backtrack a bit, go on a spacewalk, and recover her medicine. The game offers this choice without comment, which I really appreciate. Then again, the developer feels the need to put their thumb on the scale. From inside the station you can see some juicy neuromods floating just outside her office, thus giving you an explicit reward for taking the high road. Like, even if you don’t care about Mikhaila and you’re happy to let her die, you’re probably not going to want to leave that loot floating out there. And if you’re going to get the loot, then you might as well take an extra six seconds and grab her medication floating in the next room.
I think this is actually a pretty sloppy move on the part of the game designer, but I’ll come back to this topic when we get to the end of the game.
And speaking of doing the right thing, let’s jump ahead a bit. If you save Mikhaila, then she will eventually make her way back to Morgan’s office. Then later, once things have stabilized a bit, she’ll give you a sidequest. The entire reason she hid her disease was because she wanted to be stationed here on Talos-1. Her father was sent here as a political prisoner and she wants to know what happened to him. She seems to suspect that he’s long dead, but she still wants the messy details, which should be available in the archives in Deep Storage. (This sidequest is available once you’ve cleared the lockdown and can return to Deep Storage without worrying you’ll get locked in again.)
If you choose to do the job, then January will phone you up quietly to let you know that, “Hey, by the way. You might not want to pull on this particular thread. If you do choose to go to Deep Storage then it would really be in your best interest to delete these records.”
The record in question is an audio recording of Morgan running a Cerberus-style test where she feeds people to the Typhon to test the effects of feeding them to the Typhon. You can hear Papa Ilyushin, knowing full well that he’s about to die, demanding that his captors look him in the eye and acknowledge the evil they are doing. After the test reaches its incredibly predictable conclusion, past-Morgan makes some perfectly clinical comments and wanders off. This is no big deal to her, and you get the sense that she’s done a lot of these.
Like I said, past-Morgan was not a nice person, and coming to terms with that is an important part of the game.
Assuming present-Morgan – the Morgan piloted by the player who is most likely not a closet Nazi researcher – is not okay with Morgan’s past deeds, this puts the player is a bit of a pickle. You can be a total bastard and delete this incredibly damning evidence, thus concealing your crime and denying Mikhaila the closure she deserves. Or you can be a total dumbass and send her the recording, thus earning her hatred forever. She even promises not to play the recording until you get back to your office, so the two of you can listen to it together.
I’m not sure what she’s thinking here. She knows this is a recording of her father’s death. Even if Morgan was blameless, the gruesome death of your father in a twisted science experiment isn’t a hallmark greeting. This isn’t a sharable moment.
If you give her the recording, then she turns on you. She promises to see you brought to justice once everyone gets back to Earth. I think it’s rather sporting of her to wait until everyone is safe, and doubly so that she’s willing to take the high road. Realistically, I think Morgan ought to spend the rest of the trip looking over her shoulder. There’s so many ways to die out here. You never know when an equipment malfunction might incapacitate you, like your space suit failing to stop the bullets when your ex-girlfriend shoots you in the back a few steps shy of your escape pod.
The game only gives you the option to send the data (thus telling her everything) or delete the data (leaving her with nothing) even though it ought to be possible to weasel out of this. Morgan’s voice doesn’t show up until the very end, so it ought to be possible to exonerate your past self with some judicious editing. You might argue that it would strain credulity that Morgan could do real-time audio editing like this, but that ship has already sailed. We did exactly that back when we needed Danielle Sho’s vocal samples to bypass that nonsense she pulled with the door to Deep Storage. If we can synthesize her voice from vocal samples, then trimming the last six seconds off an audio recording ought to be super easy.
Even if we can’t tamper with the recording, we’re once again faced with a situation where our silent protagonist would benefit from the ability to talk. You ought to be able to delete the record and then make up some bullshit to tell Mikhaila.
Oh, according to the records, he was assigned to the Adorable Children and Puppies Division, where he spent his days teaching games and folksy wisdom to the next generation of cosmonauts. Then one day he hit his head while cleaning out the Zero-G Ball Pit. You know how he was. We had janitors for that sort of work, but he cared so much about the kids that he insisted on doing everything himself. The blow to the head was really sudden. Instant death. I don’t know what the deal is. Maybe the springs on the door were too strong.
Everyone was so gutted. We had a great big funeral for him. The kids cried their eyes out. I’m sure if the rest of the crew was alive they’d tell you that papa Ilyushin was like a dad to us all.
Or whatever. The point is that if you’re willing to delete the data to escape justice, then there’s no reason for you to leave Mikhaila with nothing. If you’re a big enough weasel to lie to the woman, then you’re probably also smart enough to cook up a satisfying lie. If you can devise a story to give her some closure, then maybe she’ll stop digging and your secret will remain safe in the future. Then again, since you’re planning on turning the place into a big firework when you leave, I guess your secrets are pretty safe either way. Still, why not soothe her with an impossible-to-disprove story that offers closure and doesn’t implicate you?
Anyway, jumping back to where we left off…
You can get her medicine, or you can leave her to die. But either way, she walks you through the steps of restarting the reactor. I have to say that the nuclear reactors of 2035 are amazingly turnkey.
The station goes dark and loses gravity while the reactor is down. It’s actually kind of unnerving. The weightlessness and darkness aren’t new to Morgan, but it’s kind of alarming to realize that all of the survivors are going through this, and most of them have no idea why. For all they know, the power is off for good.
Getting it all going again is a huge relief.[2] Once the power is on, the station returns to normal operation. The lockdown is cleared and all the doors work again.
Of course, there’s nothing stopping Alex from initiating another lockdown. Luckily, he calls you up and offers congratulations and promises to stay out of your way. I guess that’s better than the two of you playing tug-of-war with the station, where he keeps locking everything and you keep resetting the reactor. I imagine that would wear thin quickly for the rest of the crew, sitting there while the lights blink on and off and the Yu siblings bicker.
I think this moment is something of a relief for Alex. Sure, you circumvented his lockdown, but you did so by doing something dangerous, creating a bunch of additional structural damage, and putting the rest of the crew at risk. That sort of move reminds him of Old Morgan, his amoral pre-mindwipe sibling who wasn’t afraid to break a few eggs and murder a few trifling political prisoners in the name of gathering banal metrics on Typhon predation habits.
Just like old times, Morgan!
Dive into a tactical narrative-driven RPG where you hack into servers, beat sophisticated security systems, and discover encrypted secrets. Midnight Protocol is now available on GOG.COM along with a 10% discount that will last until 20th October 2021, 3 PM UTC.
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A digital "disaster" in Germany, growing attacks in the United Arab Emirates and even Israel announcing a blitz underway: nations disclosed their struggle Wednesday against cyber-extortionists at a Washington-led anti-ransomware summit.
Halo: The Master Chief Collection Season 8 has landed, and with it comes the launch of modding tools for Halo 2 and Halo 3. Developer 343 Industries has unveiled the new tools that have just come to Steam for the two classic FPS games, some of which might be familiar to those who have modded Halo games before, while one "entirely new", advanced-level program is designed to "make modding Halo even easier".
This news comes from a Steam blog post, in which the studio offers a pretty in-depth outline of the brand-new modding tools now available for the MCC's Halo 2 and 3, as well as an update that's just rolled out for the Halo: Combat Evolved tools. You can either download these as their own standalone DLC packs on Steam or install them via the games in your Steam library. Within the toolkit, you'll find several programs that are accessible to all players: Guerilla, Sapien, Tool, and Standalone, though there are a few additional bits and pieces, too.
The first of these, Guerilla, is for editing the values of game content - that is, the files collectively known as "tags", which are for AI, bipeds, textures (AKA bitmaps), and so on. This bit of the toolkit lets you "update and alter" these aspects.
RELATED LINKS: Halo: The Master Chief Collection Steam, Halo: The Master Chief Collection mods, Best FPS games
With the Crysis Remastered Trilogy due for release tomorrow on PC and consoles, Crytek's Steffen Halbig (Crysis Remastered Project Manager) and Rick Taylor (Community Manager) showcased some new Crysis 2 Remastered PC gameplay in a live stream that aired yesterday on Twitch.
In addition to that, the two Crytek employees also shared a detailed list of enhancements that PC and console users can expect to find in Crysis 2 Remastered. It consists mainly of technical features.
- HDR (In a Day Zero Patch)
- TAA (Temporal Anti-Aliasing)
- Improved Post Processing POM (Parallax Occlusion Mapping improvements)
- Improved Vegetation Shading
- SSS (Screen Space Shadows)
- SSDO (Screen Space Directional Occlusion)
- SSGI (Screen Space Global Illumination)
- SVOGI (Voxel-based Global Illumination)
- SSR (Screen Space Reflections - Improved from Crysis 1 Remastered)
- Improved Shadow Technology
- Shadows On Glass
- Shadows On Particles
- Shadows on Water (PC Only)
- 60 FPS Weapon Animation (Next Gen And PC Only)
- 60 FPS Water Ripples Animation (Next Gen And PC Only)
- 60 FPS and up to 4K Support for Next Gen Consoles
- Around 150 Unique CPU & GPU Performance Improvements
- Software RayTracing (PC Only)
- Hardware RayTracing (PC Only)
- NVIDIA DLSS (PC Only)
- Improved Lighting
- Improved Cubemap Reflections & Image Based Lighting
- Improved Selected Materials and Textures (500 out of 2000)
- Improved Selected Assets (38 of the most instanced props)
- Improved Selected Vehicles (31 vehicles)
- Improved Selected Weapons (18 Weapons, 3 Explosives, 9 Weapon Attachments)
- Improved Selected Characters (12 Characters with 20 variations and 13 attachments)
Crysis 2 Remastered launches tomorrow, alongside the remasters of the first and the third installment, on PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S|X, and Nintendo Switch.
If you're looking to play on PC, the official system requirements can be found below.
Minimum
Windows 10 64-Bit
Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-3450 / AMD Ryzen 3 CPU
8 GB RAM
20 GB Storage
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 TI /AMD Radeon 470 GPU
Recommended
Windows 10 64-Bit latest update
Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-7600k or higher / AMD Ryzen 5 or higher CPU
12 GB RAM
20 GB Storage
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 TI / AMD Radeon Vega 56 GPU
The post Crysis 2 Remastered PC and Console Enhancements Detailed by Crytek by Alessio Palumbo appeared first on Wccftech.
Not everyone has the same approach when it comes to picking a Halloween movie. Some opt for classic horror movies. Some choose a killer franchise (and we mean "killer" in more ways than one). Others prefer PG-rated Halloween movies, the film equivalent of staying home and greeting cute trick-or-treaters instead of hitting up a costume party or a haunted house. But we can all agree that opening up a streaming service without knowing what to watch beforehand can be intimidating, even when you're trying to be festive. So, to help narrow it down, here are your best options for Halloween movies to watch on Netflix.
Netflix has made an impressive dent in the horror genre, offering both plenty of scary movies and spooky TV series, but there's not actually a lot of strictly Halloween-themed content on the streaming service. So, the following 10 films are a mix of movies that take place on or during Halloween, horror films that'll give you nightmares until Thanksgiving, and ghoulish pictures that capture the Halloween aesthetic. Given Netflix's selection, we can't promise that all of these are great pieces of cinema, but each one of them is a good way to get in the mood for the holiday regardless. This October, check them out.
Is "Hubie Halloween" good? Is it bad? Does it matter? This Adam Sandler movie is goofy as heck, but exhibits a genuine love for Halloween and the surrounding season. In it, Sandler plays Hubie Dubois, an autumnal enthusiast who gets involved in a seriously scary mystery that takes over his small town of Salem, Massachusetts, one of the spookiest towns in the United States.
Although he is often the butt of pranks and the victim of bullying from his neighbors, Hubie gets the last laugh when a Halloween threat turns out to be real, and only Hubie is able to save the day. In addition to Sandler, "Hubie Halloween" features some of your favorite comedians, including Julie Bowen, Maya Rudolph, Kevin James, Kenan Thompson, Tim Meadows, Rob Schneider, and Steve Buscemi. This film is the first of Netflix's original Halloween movies, a new trend we can look forward to continuing in upcoming years.
Netflix's second Halloween movie stars Tom Felton, Indya Moore, Tamara Smart and Oona Lawrence. It's based on a trilogy of books by Joe Ballarini, who also penned the screenplay.
When a babysitter's young charge goes missing on Halloween, she discovers an underground society of teenage monster hunters who take her in and help her fight to rescue the adorable little boy she's supposed to be looking after (all of the adults, obviously, are at a fancy costume party). It's basically "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" meets "The Baby-Sitters Club," with a dash of "Spy Kids" thrown in.
The monsters in "A Babysitter's Guide to Monster Hunting" are more cute than scary, making this a good Halloween movie to watch with kids or anyone prone to nightmares. Oh, and Felton, who played Draco Malfoy in the Harry Potter films, gives the kind of campy performance you love to see from actors who grew up defined by a specific, highly recognizable role.
The third and most recent Halloween movie from Netflix is a dark fantasy starring two young performers and Krysten Ritter. It will remind you of the dark fantasies you enjoyed as a kid, especially fare like the surprisingly charged "Labyrinth" and "The Pagemaster." It's sure to help usher future goth children right into the loving arms of Hot Topic.
"Nightbooks" is about a young boy who writes his own scary stories, only to end up trapped in an evil witch's apartment. The witch demands that the boy read her a new scary story every night. However, the boy soon befriends another child who has been trapped by the witch, and the two of them start working together to figure out how to escape.
The film is based on a book by J. A. White, who also wrote the "Thickety" series of young adult novels, as well the "Shadow School" series. So, if you find yourself enchanted by this world, there's plenty more where it came from!
Speaking of the '80s classic, you can also stream the original "Labyrinth" this Halloween on Netflix. No, it's not technically a Halloween movie, but it's creepy and full of memorable costumes, so it might as well become part of your Halloween tradition.
If for some reason you missed out on the Jim Henson movie in your younger years, it's about a teenage girl whose baby brother gets kidnapped by an oddly sexy goblin king played by David Bowie, and who has to navigate a fantasy world full of odd creatures (brought to life by Henson's signature puppetry) in order to get him back.
"Labyrinth" is scarier when you're watching as a kid than as an adult, but it's definitely on the mature side of Henson's projects. You should also add the songs from "Labyrinth" to your Halloween party playlist -- Bowie's "Magic Dance" will be an instant nostalgic hit.
Let's take a turn towards more adult fare and talk about some of the Halloween-themed horror movies on Netflix. "Hell Fest," for example, takes place at a traveling theme park that happens to specialize in scares.
Are you the type of person who tries to avoid Six Flags' Fright Fest or the Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios? If the idea of being chased by a carny in a Jason mask while you're trying to find the line for churros doesn't sound like a fun time, you'd definitely hate the carnival in "Hell Fest."
The film follows a pretty typical horror movie premise: A group of four hot young people with drama to work through arrive at the aforementioned horror-themed park and soon realize that the murders they keep witnessing aren't immersive performance art pieces, but the real deal. Will they band together to survive the night, or immediately split up and wander into harm's way? You can probably guess the answer.
This Halloween-set horror movie takes place in an abandoned old house that's haunted by a witch. Yes, you read that correctly: The antagonist in "The House of the Witch" is both a witch and a ghost. It's two for the price of one.
It seems like a house like that would be a bad place for a bunch of teenagers to pull some pranks and throw a party on the spookiest night of the year, right? Fortunately for the audience, teenagers are famously full of terrible ideas, and continue to make bad choices as they become trapped in the house and hunted by the titular witch (ghost, whatever).
Based on the mixed reviews for "House of the Witch," you may or may not be on the witch's side when you watch. But that's part of the fun! Sometimes, all you want out of a scary movie are some deaths that you can root for -- the gorier the better.
This supernatural horror film stars former television teens Lucy Hale ("Pretty Little Liars") and Tyler Posey ("Teen Wolf"). It's a Blumhouse production, so you know that it's not messing around with the jump scares.
Like "House of the Witch," "Truth or Dare" is about a group of young people who go to an abandoned building and, for some reason, don't suspect that many of them are about to get murdered. Per the title, the friends start playing Truth or Dare, and soon realize that if they are not 100% truthful or if they do not complete their dares, they will die. Skipping a turn also gets you killed.
This movie is basically a scarier version of "Jumanji," and serves as a perfect metaphor for adolescence. When you're young, playing Truth or Dare and getting peer pressured into revealing your crush or doing something that you don't like has real stakes. It feels like a matter of life or death anyway — might as well make the threat literal.
Hear me out: Yes, this is a romantic comedy. Its vibes are not necessarily spooky or scary at all. However, the premise of "Holidate" is that two fake lovers are each other's' date to every holiday party for an entire year, including Halloween. So, if we can argue about whether "The Nightmare Before Christmas" is a Christmas movie or a Halloween movie (it's a Christmas movie) and end up watching it twice a year, then we can turn on "Holidate" whenever it pleases us as well.
Besides, Emma Roberts has plenty of horror on her resume, thanks to "Scream 4," "The Hunt," "Scream Queens," and five seasons of "American Horror Story" so you know that she's going to bring her all to a Halloween party scene. "Holidate" did not get great reviews from critics or audiences, but Netflix is really trying to bring back the romantic comedy, and we have to respect the service for that.
Also on the romantic side, "Crimson Peak" was originally marketed as a horror film from director Guillermo del Toro, but it's actually a Gothic love story. If you like cozy ghost stories like "The Haunting of Bly Manor," this might be the perfect film for you to watch next.
In "Crimson Peak," Mia Wasikowska and Tom Hiddleston play star-crossed lovers Edith Cushing and Thomas Sharpe, who stay in a house that may or may not have some dark secrets. Jessica Chastain has way too much fun playing the suspiciously jealous Lucille Sharpe, Thomas' sister. Charlie Hunnam also makes a memorable appearance.
"Crimson Peak" is an aggressively autumnal movie, with high collars, howling wind, and lots of candlelight. Although it is not set during Halloween, it's a worthy watch for the spooky season. "Crimson Peak" is also a somewhat surprisingly feminist movie, particularly for this genre — it has complex and autonomous heroines and employs the female gaze in a pivotal sex scene.
While "Hush" is a more traditional horror movie, it's perfect to watch after you've finished binging "Midnight Mass." Not only is the 2016 film written and directed by Mike Flanagan, who has become the streaming service's premiere auteur in the Gothic and horror genres with "Midnight Mass," "The Haunting of Hill House," and "The Haunting of Bly Manor," but the lead character is an author who has recently written a book titled "Midnight Mass." They're connected!
The film also stars and was co-written by Flanagan's wife and frequent collaborator, Kate Siegel, and features her "Midnight Mass" and "The Haunting of Hill House" co-star Samantha Sloyan. In "Hush," after a successful book launch, an author goes on an isolated writer's retreat in the woods, where she's stalked by a masked killer. Hate it when that happens. In a twist, the protagonist is also deaf-mute, so "Hush" is an almost completely silent film. It's the perfect way to close out your Halloween night.
Read this next: 14 Korean Horror Movies You Need To See
The post 10 Halloween Movies On Netflix Worth Streaming This October appeared first on /Film.
"Knives Out" does a lot of things right. The film, directed by Rian Johnson and starring some of Hollywood's best (a trend that's continuing in its upcoming sequel), may feel unique in its blend of comedy, murder, and sly social commentary. But the comedy mystery is actually one of Hollywood's oldest genres, one that's rarely shy about slipping in a biting statement here and there. A comedy mystery can be sleek or slapstick, dumb or wise, or all of those things at once.
Mystery comedies first peaked during the Golden Age of Hollywood. "The Thin Man" and its witty married couple, Nick and Nora Charles, sparked an early thriller franchise and set the stage for funny films about gritty material. Like "Knives Out," "The Thin Man" also deftly uses a visual twist that makes the audience reevaluate the scene of the crime. In the '60s, "The Pink Panther" became a blockbuster, codifying the archetype of the daffy detective through its hapless Inspector Clouseau.
"Knives Out" and its eccentric but clever detective Benoit Blanc draws from many old classics like these, in addition to some more modern movies. In this list, we'll go over some of these films, plus a few others that highlight the themes running through Johnson's darkly hilarious movie.
Once a piece of media hits big elsewhere, Hollywood never sleeps on turning it into a blockbuster movie. "Arsenic and Old Lace" was the Broadway juggernaut of 1941, and the film adaptation was released to nearly equal acclaim in 1944. Its success is in its humor: quick, dry, and as dark as a trucker's morning coffee. The Brewster family is a sprawling testament to American tenacity, descendants of the first European settlers. The downside is that they're all willing to kill you with a smile.
Mortimer is the family's mostly-sane ramrod, a young theatre critic who has to deal with the sort of things all that young professionals must grapple with: love, marriage, financial security, that one weird aunt, her equally weird sister, and the corpse hidden in their window seat. Cary Grant's baffled charm and Boris Karloff's happy turn as a metafictional version of himself make this film almost ageless despite the '40s setting. Mortimer Brewster, with his strained family ties, would only be too happy to give Marta a comforting hug after the events of "Knives Out."
Harry Crumb is not a good detective. He's not smart. He's not observant. He couldn't put a 100-piece jigsaw puzzle together, even with step-by-step instructions. His 1989 movie, "Who's Harry Crumb," isn't exactly a masterpiece, dunked on by critics and failing at the box office. But Harry is played by John Candy, replete with that warm, huggable charm Candy brought to the bulk of his roles, and that makes this movie worth at least a little of our time.
Harry is brought onto a high profile kidnapping precisely because he's a sweet-natured lunk. He's not meant to solve the riddle of who abducted the young heiress of the Downing family. But through good luck and the help of the Downing's other daughter, he pulls off a "Producers"-level chain of accidental competence. It's not a deep mystery, and the laughs aren't as rich as they are in some of John Candy's better films, but "Who's Harry Crumb" is still a pleasant jolt of '80s fun.
The 1996 Coen brothers film "Fargo" slyly establishes a crucial truth that all crime buffs need to understand in its first seconds: Everyone lies. At least, everyone is definitely lying in "Fargo," including the title cards. There's no true story here, despite what the credits say. However, there are glimpses of honest human behavior in the North Dakota emptiness, where the blackest comedy is set against snowy white plains.
Jerry Lundegaard's big lie about his wife (Jerry hired two men to kidnap her himself, hoping to collect a ransom from her family) spirals out of his control fast, and he can't understand that he never had control in the first place. His father-in-law, Wade, lies to him habitually, never giving Jerry any agency. The tragedy that follows is Lundegaard's fault, but it's not hard to see how Wade helped Jerry's actions get out of hand. The only somewhat honest character in this film is one half of the duo that Jerry hires, the stoic but terrifying Gaear, played by Peter Stormare. That's because he's an emotionless husk, incapable of caring enough about anything to lie about it.
The only film on this list that's not a mystery, "Parasite" is still a thematic companion to "Knives Out" in important ways. Bong Joon-ho's Academy Award-winning thriller keeps its focus on a social divide so wide that, on the macro scale, it's on the verge of destroying South Korean society. South Korea isn't the only country that's both split this way and is keenly aware of that fact, which helped make the film a global sensation. The strain between the lower-class Kims and the upper-class Park family isn't the only breaking point; there's a secretive third party that puts the final, tragic act of the film into motion.
The Park family is privileged, used to a life of comfort and entitlement that make them fit right in among the more rarified members of the Thrombey-Drysdale clan. The Kims would find one of their own in Marta, daughter of an impoverished illegal immigrant. But the resolutions of these two films take vastly different turns. While "Parasite" doesn't shy away from its story's depressingly realistic fallout, "Knives Out" offers a gentler fantasy after unleashing an avalanche of ingrained racism, revealing a new kind American dream that Marta can enjoy.
Agatha Christie didn't write laugh-a-minute murder mysteries, but her work clearly influenced "Knives Out," and a visit with her best-known creation is a useful way to learn the dos and do nots of the genre. Hercule Poirot is Christie's famous Belgian investigator, an exacting and dignified individual who, like Blanc, relies more on studying humanity's flaws than the physical evidence alone.
1982's "Evil Under the Sun" is a good introductory point for mystery fans who want to get to know Poirot without committing to the massive but excellent "Poirot" TV series. Here, Poirot is played by Peter Ustinov, and must watch wits with an island palace hostess played by Dame Maggie Smith. The mystery of a fake diamond ring and a murdered woman make for taut viewing, with the beautiful island surroundings marred by the greed of its guests and the fresh blood on the sand. Poirot is an intellectual, and when it comes to a brawl, it's not his time to shine. That makes this detective more humble and more human than his predecessor, Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes.
Takashi Miike is a director with a shocking breadth of ability. Best known for audacious, hyper-violent films like "Ichi the Killer," he'll casually upend expectations with imaginative children's fantasies like "The Great Yokai War." His "Ace Attorney" adaptation is closer to that family-friendly end of the spectrum, understanding its wacky source material so well that it elevates the results into one of the best video game movies of all time.
"Ace Attorney" is a moderately successful but fiercely loved series of visual novel video games that pits a daffy but kind defense attorney against a changing slate of cynical and corrupt prosecutors. It's goofy stuff, but underneath it all is a lot of satirical commentary about the Japanese legal system. That subversive tone makes Miike the right director for this adaptation, despite the otherwise straightforward comedy.
This 2012 film adapts most of the first game in the series, keeping the game's style and tone close to its heart. It's a delightful import that shows how both the intricacy and irreverence that fuels "Knives Out" can be found worldwide.
Shane Black's directorial debut, "Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang," also serves as a prelude to the rebirth of Robert Downey Jr.'s career. With Val Kilmer as Downey's sharply sarcastic foil, the result is one of the best crime caper films of the last 50 years. It's an updated spin on a now-obscure crime novel written by Brett Halliday called "Bodies Are Where You Find Them" that jams a few Raymond Chandler gags in between the rapid-fire dialogue that's core to Black's bleakly irrelevant style. It's an over-full mess that works.
The plot of "Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang" is a whirlwind, but it is consistent if you can pay attention to its twists and turns. It's also richly absurdist, using a broken fourth wall to ensure the audience knows how high the stakes are — ie, nonexistent, because "Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang" knows it's a movie. Black revels in that freedom with a self-deprecating wit that, instead of taking the viewer out of the story, makes you feel like a table-side participant -- or accomplice -- at a shockingly good dinner theatre.
The '80s saw Chevy Chase reach a level of success that he's never enjoyed since, mostly for good reason. Though Clark Griswold's antics are an annual fixture of any Christmas movie marathon, dedicated mystery buffs may better remember Chevy's investigative reporter Irwin M. Fletcher, better known as "Fletch."
Only vaguely based on a successful series of crime novels, "Fletch" sets Chase loose to do two things he excelled in: knock out a bunch of raunchy ad libs in quick succession, and go wild with costumes and props. Many of Chase's jokes, it should be noted, probably aren't going to land well today. However, their timing and setup are still worth studying. Somewhere in the mix is a pretty good story about a reporter who teases out the truth about a murder-for-hire scheme, but let's face it, that's not what this movie is about. The golden era of Chevy Chase didn't last, but "Fletch" shows off the heights of his ability.
Benoit Blanc can trace his DNA straight back to a handful of archetypal characters, and Inspector Jacques Clouseau in 1963's "The Pink Panther" is one of Blanc's clearest ancestors. Daniel Craig is marvelous as Blanc, as the role gives him a cheeky freedom that he can't get while making a Bond film. But Peter Sellers is simply unhinged. He's an as-yet unmatched frenzy of comedic timing, both shameless and speedy. Before Robin Williams, Peter Sellers knew no limits.
The star of "The Pink Panther" is supposed to be the charming jewel thief Lytton, who is obsessed with stealing the famous Pink Panther diamond. Played by David Niven, Lytton would have been the standout in any sensible heist film. But Clouseau quickly steals the movie away from the thief by virtue of his endearing, unceasing incompetency. The matter of the unique pink diamond is certainly resolved by the time the film closes, but it's not due to anything deliberate on Clouseau's part. "The Pink Panther" is a classic comedy mystery for a reason, and Clouseau remains one of Sellers' best roles.
On the slapstick cult movie end of things, it's hard to have a bad murder mystery night with a bag of chips, a set of reasonable expectations, and a copy of 1985's "Clue." It's the "Knives Out" boardgame, with an eccentric cast of characters brought to a stately mansion due to some hidden connection they all share. Once the Boddy hits the floor, Tim Curry, in trim butler fit, oversees a romp of backstabbing mayhem.
Like the game it was based on, "Clue" has multiple endings, and none of them make much sense. It's one of the few films to succeed at adapting a boardgame into an enjoyable film, leaning into the campy weirdness of its premise without a moment's doubt. The main cast are mostly terrible people, leaving the audience free to enjoy whatever mishaps befall them. The only downside is that there's also no one to root for, which leaves all the endings feeling a bit flat. Nonetheless, it's a fun, dumb movie that plays some of the biggest tropes in the mystery genre to the hilt.
Grouchy private detective Eddie Valiant could've had a distant relative in Benoit Blanc, but since 85% of his character motivation is weighted by the death of his brother, he wouldn't want to hear about it. Bob Hoskins' hostile but secretly cuddly lead is the heart of "Who Framed Roger Rabbit," a counterweight to the literally cartoonish shenanigans going on around him. He's the straight man to Roger Rabbit, an exhausting dervish of a cel-shaded rabbit with an innocent heart beating inside of him.
There's a remarkably tight plot in this film, with clues that pay off and interactions that make sense in hindsight. Match that with one of the wildest cinematic accomplishments in film history - this is still Robert Zemeckis' best movie - and it's a flick crime fans can't miss even when it's pure looney tunes. For parents about to introduce their kids into the genre and looking at this as a jumping-on point, however, remember both the trauma induced by that poor shoe, and Jessica Rabbit's assets, and prepare in advance.
Safer for little ones than "Roger Rabbit" and just as smart and charming, Disney's "The Great Mouse Detective" is a great, low-stress introduction to mystery movies. The plot is basic but well-paced Sherlock versus Moriarty fare, with some additional glitz and a few imaginative designs to spice it up. A mouse named Basil lives at a famous Baker Street address, borrowing his human neighbor's style and his sharp-nosed basset hound to solve cases in the narrow alleys of London. Ratigan, voiced by an utterly perfect Vincent Price, is his nemesis, and puts into motion a bombastic plot to conquer all of England's mousedom.
With a doofy Watson analogue on board to help solve the case, and a less-scary Reichenbach Falls-inspired finale, "The Great Mouse Detective" is a cozy movie that hits all the right notes. "The Great Mouse Detective" isn't one of Disney's most well-known films, coming in the middle of a mild '80s slump on the studio's part and landing with a thud at the box office. Today it's buried in the menus of Disney+. Whatever your age, give it a chance.
Director Shane Black knows what he's good at, which makes "The Predator" an inexplicable speed bump. Before that mess, but right after his blockbuster "Iron Man 3," Black returned to the genre he'd reinvigorated with 2016's "The Nice Guys." With "The Nice Guys," Black draws more water from the same well as "Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang," adopting another Brett Halliday novel, "Blue Murder."
Once again, the results aren't much like Halliday's gritty potboilers. Instead, "The Nice Guys" is a somewhat more competent "Big Lebowski," draped with '70s macrame and a less self-important sense of humor than "Once Upon a Time... In Hollywood." Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe is the unlikeliest team-up since Russell Crowe and RZA, and it's surprisingly effective. "The Nice Guys" is the sort of film that leads one to hope that "Knives Out 2" will give Blanc a foil to work with, as well as a reminder that the buddy-cop motif will not only never die, but can take a convoluted caper to the next level.
2001's "Gosford Park," directed by the legendary Robert Altman, is "Knives Out" with an English accent. The major differences include the incompetence of the local constable, and the fact that there's about twice as many characters to keep track of. Each one is distinct, which helps, and each one stays within the velvet rope of their social status. Upstairs does not mix with downstairs. The help know their place. But from that place, the help can see all the dirty little things going on inside the luxe country house, and a wise person knows to listen to what the servants whisper to each other.
The murder of Sir William McCordle doesn't happen right away, and by the time it does, he's not going to be mourned by most viewers. By the end of the film, it's clear the old goat had it coming, but the interpersonal relationships his death uncovers are the real mystery hiding in the heart of the manor. Our surrogate is Dame Maggie Smith's personal maid, a guileless Scottish girl who gradually figures out what Stephen Fry's disinterested cop can't. There's a tangled web all around the sprawling lawns of Gosford Park, and the stickiest parts of it are built from love.
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The post 14 Movies Like Knives Out That You'll Want to Watch ASAP appeared first on /Film.
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The thriller is one of the hardest genres to define, because thrillers cross over so much with other genres. From the erotic thriller, the psychological thriller, the cold war thriller, the detective thriller, and all the way through to the action thriller — and let's not forget to take a detour into the seedy underbelly of the neo-noir -- this really is the genre that has something for everyone.
While the '80s and '90s were a heyday for erotic thrillers, the 21st century brought a fresh injection of neo-noirs and action thrillers to satisfy audiences seeking that frisson of danger, criminality, tension, and excitement that define the genre.
For the purposes of this list, I've tried to stay as true to a "pure" definition of the thriller as I can, which means that you will definitely not be finding any horror movies here. With that being said, here are the 14 best thrillers of the 21st century so far.
Something of a cult has grown up around director Christopher Nolan, thanks largely to his Dark Knight trilogy and heady sci-fi epics like "Inception," but there is a case to be made that he has yet to better his sophomore feature, which debuted over two decades ago. An LA neo-noir that is ingeniously plotted, "Memento" is a film about memory and amnesia that plays out in reverse, featuring a protagonist named Leonard (Guy Pearce) who cannot form new memories.
Fresh from "The Matrix," Carrie-Ann Moss and Joe Pantoliano co-star in this murder mystery, as Leonard follows clues that he leaves for himself on notes, Polaroids, and, for the most important information, tattoos on his body in an effort to identify the people who killed his wife and left him with short-term memory loss.
Although the screenplay, based on Nolan's brother Jonathan's short story, is an intricate puzzle, we wouldn't care about solving the mystery if it wasn't for the acting, especially by Pearce, who starred in one of the all-time great noirs, "L.A. Confidential," just a few years before. "Memento" was a fantastic thriller to kick off the new century.
David Lynch is known for his mind-bending approach to noir, seen in the likes of "Blue Velvet," "Lost Highway," and obviously "Twin Peaks." The blurring of identities, doppelgangers, and the hazy line between actors and the roles they play are sources of fascination for Lynch, never more so than in his 2001 feature "Mulholland Drive."In the film, Naomi Watts plays the fresh-faced Betty, newly-arrived in LA from Canada with eyes full of stardust and hope. She arrives at her aunt's house and finds a mysterious woman there named Rita (Laura Harring), who has amnesia. Betty and Rita's investigation into the woman's real identity leads them to the apartment of someone called Diane — and her body.The final third of the film follows Diane, also played by Watts, and her struggles with her girlfriend Camilla, played by Harring. Watts' multiple performances in this film, not least when Betty attends an audition, are extraordinary. Support comes from Justin Theroux as a convincingly douchey director and classic Hollywood star Ann Miller, who plays Betty's landlady, Coco. "Mulholland Drive" is the weirdest film on this list, but would you expect anything less from Lynch?
While the 21st century has offered up a scarcity of erotic thrillers, a few rare gems have snuck through. The great director Jane Campion (who is, of course, from New Zealand) gifted us with a fantastically twisty New York-set thriller in the form of "In the Cut."The headlines at the time of film's release revolved around rom-com sweetheart Meg Ryan going nude and filming explicit sex scenes (while over 40), but there's so much more to this layered, complex work. Mark Ruffalo gives an enigmatic performance as Detective Molloy, who becomes entangled with Meg Ryan's Frannie when he investigates a series of gruesome murders. In a genius touch of casting, Jennifer Jason Leigh plays Frannie's free-spirited sister Pauline.Eventually, Frannie begins to suspect that Molloy might be the one committing the crimes, while also being strongly attracted to him. Kevin Bacon also has a brilliant cameo as Frannie's stalker. Unfortunately, Jane Campion films are few and far between, but thankfully we are getting a new one in 2021 after a 12 year wait!
Oscar-winning director Bong Joon-ho has tackled many different genres, but one he handles particularly well is the crime thriller. "Memories of Murder" is based on South Korea's first confirmed serial killings, which took place in the late '80s.
The film follows two detectives who clash on how best to investigate the case. Park Doo-man (Bong's regular collaborator Song Kang-ho) is a local cop who is ill-equipped to take on such a complicated case, which requires forensic skills and equipment that they don't have. Seo Tae-yoon is a younger detective from the big city who is more professional and who does not believe in investigation methods such as "eye contact" and beating suspects.
Bong's signature humor is always present, no matter how dark the subject matter, and is exemplified here by dropkicks that always seem to come from nowhere and end with an embarrassing pratfall. Bong's framing and blocking is masterful throughout, with Seo frequently in the background or the corner of the frame, away from the main ensemble. The real-life case that inspired the film was finally solved in 2019, reminding us that those killed are not the only victims in a case such as this, but also those placed under suspicion and wrongly accused.
Michael Mann is one of the best neo-noir directors of all time, with established classics including "Thief," "Manhunter," and "Heat" on his filmography, as well as the 21st century's "Miami Vice" and "Blackhat." Perhaps the zenith of his signature style was achieved in "Collateral," a taut thriller that unfolds over the course of one night in Los Angeles.
In it, Tom Cruise plays very much against type as a gray-haired and gray-suited villain named Vincent who takes Jamie Foxx's everyman cab driver Max hostage as he executes his "hit list." "Collateral" is one of the best LA movies ever, with the neon-drenched streets giving a dream-like veneer to the nightmare unfolding before Max's eyes, especially during the stunning coyote scene.
Cruise and Foxx's performances, and their dynamic with one another as their relationship shifts over the short time they share together, is what makes this so enthralling. Jada Pinkett Smith also delivers one of her typically scene-stealing supporting turns; her chemistry with Foxx is outstanding. Michael Mann is a master craftsman when it comes to constructing complicated characters in difficult situations that we cannot look away from.
David Cronenberg made two incredible thrillers with Viggo Mortensen back-to-back -- "A History of Violence," which is based on a graphic novel, and "Eastern Promises," set in the Russian criminal underworld in London. The good news is that they have re-teamed once more, and that we have a new Cronenberg-Mortensen collaboration to look forward to.
In "A History of Violence," Mortensen plays Tom Stall, a seemingly perfect family man and the owner of a diner in small-town America. When the diner is held up, Stall displays a hidden and surprisingly violent side, expertly dispatching the robbers with aplomb. The resulting media attention brings an unwelcome visitor in Carl Fogarty (Ed Harris), who insists that he knows that Tom's real name is Joey and that he's from Philadelphia.
Tom tries to protect his family from the truth, but things unravel until he must confront both his past and his brother (William Hurt). Maria Bello is fantastic as Tom's wife Edie -- in addition to everything else, "A History of Violence" has some very memorable sex scenes. Cronenberg and Mortensen have made three amazing films together, and their fourth is hotly anticipated.
The Cold War thriller is one of the best and most exciting thriller subgenres, and can encompass everything from prestige dramas like "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" to the action movie "Atomic Blonde." As such, it's hard to choose just one, but I've gone for one of the first German films to address the period of time in the '80s when the Stasi (East Germany's state security service) was surveilling its own people for signs of disloyalty, or indications that they might be trying to flee to the West.
Ulrich Muhe, who was under surveillance himself as a theater actor in the '80s, plays Wiesler, a loyal Stasi agent who is ordered to spy on playwright Dreyman (Sebastian Koch, who starred in Paul Verhoeven's great war film "Black Book" in the same year). The more that Wiesler discovers about Dreyman and his girlfriend Christa-Maria (Martina Gedek), the more he is drawn to the couple, and he eventually starts to withhold information about them that he should be reporting.
There are some excruciatingly tense scenes as Wiesler feels the Stasi bearing down on Dreyman. He is desperate to intervene, but cannot reveal that he is trying to help the writer. Muhe, Koch, and Gedek give phenomenal performances in this edge-of-your-seat thriller.
It feels remiss to make a list of best 21st century thrillers without including any entries from the hugely influential Bourne trilogy, on it, but arguably the best knock-on effect of the Bourne franchise was how it reinvigorated Bond. Daniel Craig's first outing as Bond remains his best.
If you haven't re-watched "Casino Royale" recently, it is easy to forget just how densely packed it is -- Bond travels to Madagascar, the Bahamas, and Miami before Eva Green's Vesper Lynd even shows up. Once the action moves to the Montenegro casino, things really kick up a gear, with Bond facing down Mads Mikkelsen's Le Chiffre across the poker table.
This film features a new style of Bond, one who has attachments, (particularly to Judi Dench's M, which was explored more fully in the brilliant "Skyfall"), one who participates in brutal violence, and one who is capable of falling in love. Craig's Bonds have suffered from never having a Bond girl as good as Green again, and Vesper has cast a long shadow over Craig's subsequent outings. 15 years later, "Casino Royale" absolutely holds up one of the best action thrillers of the 21st century.
Thrillers involving investigative journalists can go down the route of "All the President's Men" or "Spotlight" and really focus on the procedural aspect of the newsroom. Thrillers involving serial killers can take a darker, more sinister path and veer into horror territory, as in the likes of David Fincher's "Seven." One of the reasons that Fincher's "Zodiac" is regularly hailed as one of the best films of the 21st century is that it combines these two approaches very, very well.
Jake Gyllenhaal, Robert Downey Jr., and Mark Ruffalo star in the true story of cartoonist Robert Graysmith's fascination with the so-called Zodiac Killer, who terrorized Northern California in the late '60s. The most infamous scene can be summed up with "Not many people have basements in California," which is bone-chilling. John Carroll Lynch's performance as chief suspect Arthur Leigh Allen is also inedible, comparable to Cameron Britton's as Ed Kemper in Fincher's "Mindhunter" series.
Anthony Edwards and Chloe Sevigny are both brilliant in supporting roles. Ruffalo's performance as Detective Dave Toschi (who, in real life, influenced Steve McQueen in "Bullitt") with his custom holster, his bow tie, and his penchant for animal crackers leaves a huge impression, as does Gyllenhaal, who was in his mid-20s but plays Graysmith over the course of two decades.
Ryan Gosling plays an unnamed character who is a stunt driver by day and a getaway driver by night in this slick thriller by Nicolas Winding Refn. Although the brutal violence, high-speed car chases, and the driver's iconic scorpion jacket all give this movie a veneer of cool, it's the relationship between the anonymous driver and Carey Mulligan's Irene that gives "Drive" a beating heart that we actually care about.
In addition, in one of his earlier roles, Oscar Isaac plays Irene's husband, who is released from prison and immediately causes problems for the driver. Christina Hendricks, Bryan Cranston, Ron Perlman, and Albert Brooks make up the quality supporting cast. Gosling's minimal dialogue (he says less than 900 words over the film's entire runtime) keeps the driver an elusive figure — he communicates almost entirely through his eyes, face, and body. While he can seem like an empty shell in professional circumstances, Irene brings the driver to life, and Gosling makes it clear that there is depth lurking below the surface.
Gosling would go onto star in "Only God Forgives" for Refn, a film in which he only has 17 lines. "Drive" is one of the coolest action thrillers of the century.
Like "Collateral," this British thriller takes place in a car over the course of one night, although the M6 (the road between Birmingham and London) is slightly less glamorous than downtown LA. "Locke" takes place in real time and stars Tom Hardy as Locke, the only person seen on screen throughout the film.
During the film's 90-minute runtime, Locke makes about 35 phone calls to work colleagues and family members, and talks to his deceased father. While the stakes might not be life or death and mostly revolve around a large concrete pour, writer-director Steven Knight manages to wring tension and high drama from Locke's stressful work situation, as well as the revelation that Locke is having a baby with a woman with whom he had a one-night stand.
Knight gathered some of the UK's finest actors, including Olivia Colman, Andrew Scott, Ruth Wilson, and Tom Holland, to play the people on the calls, which were recorded in real time. Of course, the entire thing hinges on Hardy's performance. He is magnetic as a man whose life is spiraling out of control even as he's stuck on a road that he must travel to face the consequences of his actions. "Locke" proves that you really can make a thriller out of any subject matter, up to and including concrete.
This list could have been half full of Jake Gyllenhaal movies. He's starred in many exceptional thrillers over the last 15 years, including Denis Villeneuve's "Enemy" and Tom Ford's controversial "Nocturnal Animals." But I had to narrow it down to just a couple of movies, so in addition to "Zodiac," I've selected the role that many people believe Gyllenhaal should have won an Oscar for: Dan Gilroy's "Nightcrawler."
In the film, Gyllenhaal plays Lou Bloom, a man so desperate to make it in the world of television crime reporting that he'll go to any lengths to get a story before his competitors, and who soon ropes his assistant, Rick (Riz Ahmed), into his increasingly murky methods. Rene Russo plays Bloom's main contact at the news station, buying footage from Bloom and pushing him to provide more graphic content.
Yes, this is yet another LA-set thriller -- the city's streets are the perfect location for pushing the boundaries of morality and ethics. Gyllenhaal lost a lot of weight to play Bloom, giving him a wild and hungry demeanor throughout. "Nightcrawler" is one of the best LA movies of the century so far.
Lynne Ramsay made two independent dramas set in her native Glasgow ("Ratcatcher" and "Movern Callar") before making the US-set family drama-horror movie "We Need to Talk About Kevin" starring Tilda Swinton. Her follow up, "You Were Never Really Here," is set in New York and stars Joaquin Phoenix as Joe, a hit man who specializes in rescuing trafficked girls. Joe is traumatized from the abuse that he and his mother suffered from his father, as well as his time in the military.
A stand-out scene is one in which Joe storms a dwelling that is being used to hold the girls, and we see him entering different rooms and dispatching people with his hammer, via the building's CCTV cameras. Its soundscape, including the sound design, the '50s and '60s pop music, and Jonny Greenwood's score is probably the best aspect of the whole film. "You Were Never Really Here" has some brutal violence and a controversial ending, but Phoenix is a raw wound at its center, giving a performance that you cannot tear your eyes away from.
This list started with an LA-based neo-noir that has a complicated story structure and that plays around with time. It ends with one, too. In this brilliant detective thriller from director Karyn Kusama, Nicole Kidman plays Erin Bell, an alcoholic, disillusioned cop investigating a crime from her past. Instead of being set mostly at night like most LA noirs, the cinematography by Julie Kirkwood exaggerates the city's bleached-out, dry, and dusty days. The scratchy, uncomfortable score by Theodore Shapiro is another highlight.
Erin is a difficult, flawed, and selfish woman and mother, which is refreshing to see in a central female role. The narrative is split between the present day and flashbacks to a long time before, during which Sebastian Stan plays Erin's lover. As with "Memento," Erin pursues her past until the two strands of the narrative converge.
"Destroyer" was criminally underseen, as was Carol Morley's New Orleans-set noir "Out of Blue" from the same year, in which Patricia Clarkson plays a very similar role to Kidman's. "Destroyer" is a near-perfect example of a modern LA noir story, and one that deserved a much bigger audience.
Read this next: 12 Awesome Action Movies That Never Got Sequels
The post The 14 Greatest Thrillers of the 21st Century appeared first on /Film.
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Comets are a frequent and gorgeous occurrence in outer space, and a study recently outlined plans for how scientists could watch them be created in real-time. As it's been proven time and time again, the mysteries of space are continually fascinating. Planets in our Solar System have many stories to tell, faraway galaxies hold countless other secrets, and there's a constant drive in the science community to uncover as many of these as possible.
Thanks to constantly advancing technology, each day brings us closer to answering previously unsolvable questions. In 2021 alone, there have been numerous milestones in the space exploration world. Perseverance collected the first Martian rock sample that'll be returned to Earth, InSight created the first interior map of Mars, and Ingenuity became the first helicopter to fly on an alien planet. In that context, it's almost unfathomable to think what we'll be able to achieve in 5, 10, or 50 years down the road.
Thanks to a new study from the University of Chicago, researchers have now outlined plans for astronomers to follow the creation of a comet from start to finish. More specifically, the study describes how we could document comet creation that takes place in Jupiter's orbit. As described by the author of the paper, Darryl Seligman, "This would be an amazing opportunity to see a pristine comet 'turn on' for the first time."
Comets and asteroids come from many places in our Solar System. There's a well-known asteroid belt near Mars, along with the Kuiper belt just beyond Neptune's orbit. One destination that's less understood is an area between Jupiter and Neptune. Between the two planets is a group of 'centaurs' — large chunks of ice that are from the Solar System's earliest days. Every now and then, these centaurs are pulled into Jupiter's orbit, shot off towards Earth, and transform into stunning comets hurtling through space.
While this whole process remains relatively unknown, Seligman believes there's an easy way to document it. In short, humans could send a spacecraft to Jupiter and have it stay there in its orbit. Then, once a centaur enters orbit and eventually leaves, the spacecraft could also leave Jupiter and fly alongside the centaur to watch its entire journey. That may sound like a farfetched idea, but as the study explains, all of the required technology already exists. NASA's Juno orbiter is orbiting Jupiter at this very moment, and a Japanese spacecraft returned samples from an asteroid late last year. The timing also lines up. It only takes about five years to get a spacecraft from Earth to Jupiter's orbit. Scientists have already confirmed another centaur will enter Jupiter's orbit in 2063. On top of that, there's reason to believe another 10 centaurs could also enter orbit within the next 40 years.
Along with the mission being technically possible, Seligman also uses the study to double down on why it's so important to act on. As he puts it, "It would yield a treasure trove of information about how comets move and why, how the solar system formed, and even how Earth-like planets form." It's unclear if/when a mission like this would actually happen, but here's to hoping someone at NASA (or another organization) is listening to what Seligman is saying.
Source: Phys.org
The Suicide Squad director James Gunn says he once pitched a movie of Gilligan’s Island with a cannibal twist. The original show about a group of castaways becoming stranded on a desert island during what was supposed to be just a three-hour-tour aired on CBS from 1964 to 1967.
Years after that original three-year CBS run, the show received a revival in the form of three TV movies: The Castaways on Gilligan’s Island, The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan’s Island and Rescue From Gilligan’s Island. Today Gilligan’s Island is probably most known by younger people for its barroom-argument-inspiring “Ginger or Mary Anne?” question and its classic theme song, and of course older folks still cherish it. But despite the enduring popularity of the CBS sitcom, Gilligan, The Skipper and company have to this day never been brought back in theatrical movie form.
It was just revealed by James Gunn however that efforts have been made to revive Gilligan’s Island as a movie. In fact, according to Gunn legendary screenwriter Charlie Kaufman at one time pitched a Gilligan’s Island movie that in true Kaufman oddball fashion added the gruesome twist of the castaways turning on and cannibalizing each other (unsurprisingly the idea went nowhere). Gunn went on to say that he revived the pitch some years later and actually received studio interest, but the whole thing was shot down by the family of Gilligan’s Island creator Sherwood Schwartz. Gunn tweeted his story as part of the recent “Pitch a movie with two pictures, no captions” meme that has taken over Twitter. See his tweets in the space below:
Click Here To View The Original Post
It’s interesting to note that Schwartz himself originally shot down Kaufman’s cannibal Gilligan’s Island pitch and that even after Schwartz’s death his family continues refusing to allow this take on the original show to see the light of day. But it seems Gunn is still keen to make this movie happen, as he says “If the Schwartz estate changes their mind, I’m here.”
Indeed if "Gilligan’s Island but they all turn cannibal" ever did become a movie, it would be hard to envision a better team to make that happen than Kaufman and Gunn. The former is of course a notedly eccentric writer responsible for quirky scripts like Adaptation, Being John Malkovich and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. And Gunn obviously is known for his own rather bizarre sensibilities through movies like Guardians of the Galaxy and this summer’s The Suicide Squad.
But though Cannibal Gilligan’s Island might seem like an amazing idea to fans of both Gunn and Kaufman, not to mention fans of bizarre movies in general, it’s also easy to understand why Schwartz and later his family would shoot down the idea. Gilligan’s Island obviously remains a Boomer favorite with a wholesome reputation and some twisted version of the show where everyone becomes cannibals could only undermine that image and would certainly add no value to the property. So as long as Gilligan’s Island remains something that has value as corny nostalgia, it’s certain the Schwartz family will continue protecting the show’s legacy from the crazed imaginations of people like Gunn and Kaufman. But perhaps things will change in the future and a Gilligan’s Island where they all lose their minds and eat each other will become a reality.
Source: James Gunn/Twitter
(Welcome to The Daily Stream, an ongoing series in which the /Film team shares what they've been watching, why it's worth checking out, and where you can stream it.)
The Movie: "Possum"
Where You Can Stream It: ShudderThe Pitch: Philip, the world's worst children's puppeteer, played by the always-memorable Sean Harris, carries around the world's scariest puppet: a monstrosity that has giant spider legs and a human-like head that looks a lot like Philip's head. Philip has no friends and the only family member in his life is his cruel uncle (Alun Armstrong). Philip's mental state seems to be incredibly fragile, and he eventually decides to get rid of his creepy-ass puppet, which he's named Possum. However, every time Philip tries to ditch Possum, Possum returns home. Philip even tries setting the puppet on fire – only to find it back in his house later, unscathed. In the midst of all of this, a local child has gone missing – a child Philip previously encountered. Just what in the heck is going on here? Something creepy, that's what!
I've seen a lot of horror movies. I grew up on the genre, and I love it with all my heart and soul. Slashers, monsters, slow-burns, body-horror and gross-out stuff, foreign language horror – you name it, I consume it all. The genre is the one that's always appealed to me; the one I felt at home embracing. That said, years and years of horror consumption have made me a little desensitized to horror movies. More often than not, I'm not really scared by scary movies – and I don't blame the movies for that. I blame myself.
So when a horror movie comes along and actually gives me the creeps, I figure it has to be something special. And that's the case with "Possum," an incredibly unsettling pic that grows more and more disturbing as it goes along. And perhaps the wildest thing about the film is that it comes from Matthew Holness, creator of the hilarious "Garth Marenghi's Darkplace." Holness obviously loves the horror genre – it's that love that makes "Darkplace" so successful – and he channels what he knows into this creepy saga of the loneliest man in the world, puppeteer Philip.
Sean Harris plays Philip, and he's quickly become one of those actors I'm always interested in watching. I first became aware of him when he played the bad guy in "Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation." Since then, I've caught him appearing in more and more things, and he's always memorable. Part of his power as a performer comes from his voice – he has a very distinct, somewhat raspy way of speaking, and it immediately makes you focus on his words and how he's delivering them.
Here, he makes Philip pathetic to the point where it makes us discomfort. We pity him but we're also somewhat disgusted by how wormy Philip often seems. But we also have sympathy, because it's clear Philip has a dark past, and his mean, abusive uncle indicates he didn't have a great family life, either. And then you have Philip's really spooky puppet, Possum. I want to be clear: this isn't a movie about a puppet that comes to life and runs around murdering people. But the puppet is so uniquely weird that any time it appears on screen it'll have you on edge.
"Possum" is a slow-burn situation; a film with ever-mounting dread, and a prevailing atmosphere of loneliness. The locations are gray, and drab, and make everything look borderline post-apocalyptic. If you're in search of a horror movie that's different than what you might be used to this Halloween season, this is your film.
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The post The Daily Stream: Possum is An Extremely Creepy Horror Movie From The Creator of Garth Marenghi's Darkplace appeared first on /Film.
CRT televisions are widely regarded as the best way to play old video games, and with good reason. Retro games look and play better on CRTs, since that’s the type of display they were designed for. But what if you don’t own a CRT, don’t have the space for one, or can’t find one?
Transgender employees at Netflix are planning a company-wide walkout on October 20 to protest statements about the Dave Chappelle comedy special "The Closer" made by co-CEO Ted Sarandos. Chappelle's new special doubles down on his previous transphobic work, and sparked a significant amount of justified outrage.
Netflix came under additional heat when they suspended three employees for "crashing" a meeting about how to handle the situation. One of the three, trans software engineer Terra Field, had tweeted a long thread criticizing the special, though Netflix denied that had anything to do with her suspension. She has since been reinstated, but the trans employee resource group at Netflix is going ahead with the walkout.
A leader of the employee trans rights group wrote in an internal email:
"Trans Lives Matter. Trans Rights Matter. And as an organization, Netflix has continually failed to show deep care in our mission to Entertain the World by repeatedly releasing content that harms the Trans community and continually failing to create content that represents and uplifts Trans content. We can and must do better!"
It's important for comedians to be able to say what they want, but that doesn't necessarily mean they should be given a platform. Netflix has come under fire because this isn't the first time Chappelle has been openly transphobic, though this time is certainly more egregious. The special also features some serious anti-Semitism, which is less shocking and more frustratingly eye-rolling than anything.
To the "It's just a joke!" crowd: it's not just a joke when humor that's hateful to a marginalized group is given a huge stage. 2021 is on track to become the deadliest year on record for transgender people, who are four times more likely to be a victim of violence than a cisgender person. Anti-Semitic violence and harassment are also on the rise, and activist Sasha Goodman explained in a lengthy Twitter thread just why Chappelle's comments are dangerous.
Both Chappelle's transphobic and anti-Semitic jokes rely on "othering" — pointing out differences between cultures or people as humor. In both instances he tries to make it seem like he's "punching up," going after powerful people who happen to belong to marginalized groups. Caitlyn Jenner is a perfect punching bag for lazy comedians because she's easy to other, and she's rich and powerful, so no one can really say it's going to hurt her, right?
Regardless of Jenner's feelings on the matter, those jokes hurt everyone who shares in the othering — those who aren't rich and famous and powerful, but are transgender and feeling increasingly afraid and loathed. When they hear Chappelle support Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminism (TERF) ideology, it's another reminder that they're living in a world full of people who want them dead. This isn't a matter of being "offended," it's a matter of being told your mere existence is offensive to everyone else.
I'm going to pull back the curtain a little bit. I'm a non-binary person who used to absolutely adore the work of Chappelle. My husband and I still have every season of "Chappelle's Show" on home video, and the Prince pancakes bit gets me every time. Watching his descent into bitter old man over the past 15 years has been something of a tragedy. While it's hard to blame him for some of that bitterness, given his long-running dispute with Comedy Central — the network that helped herald in his rise to fame — turning his rage against other marginalized people seems counter-productive. Why not use some of that fire to go after the wealthy, elitist 1% that keep everyone down, instead of attacking the most vulnerable targets around? Oh, right, because they sign your paychecks.
I don't want Chappelle "canceled." I don't even really care if the special is pulled from Netflix or not, though a disclaimer at the beginning couldn't hurt. Both Sarandos and Chappelle need to take some time to reflect and learn about the impact of their words. Both owe a lot of people apologies that will likely never happen.
My hope is that this whole ordeal helps other comedians reflect on their own work and be better. If you can't elicit laughs without using a marginalized group as a scapegoat, you aren't actually funny, you're just kind of lazy.
The Netflix walkout will take place on October 20, 2021. Some protestors are also boycotting the streaming service for the day. Others are cancelling their Netflix subscriptions altogether and taking their money to streamers who don't double down on bigoted beliefs.
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The post Transgender Netflix Employees Plan Walkout Over Dave Chappelle Special — Why This Matters appeared first on /Film.
Larry David is on a roll. The curmudgeonly creator of HBO's "Curb Your Enthusiasm" only produced two seasons of the acclaimed comedy series during the entire decade of the 2010s (in 2011 and 2017), but with a completed season last year and an upcoming new season in 2021, he seems to have settled into a creative groove.
Today, HBO released a full trailer for the eleventh season of the show, which gives us a glimpse at some of the season's big guest stars as well as Larry's latest annoyances.
It only takes a few seconds in this trailer for the fictionalized version of Larry David to get peeved at a social convention – in this case, the practice of looking someone in the eye as you clink glasses during a toast. For those of you who have never seen the show, questioning why we have collectively agreed to participate in certain traditions in modern society is basically the central ethos of this series, and David's character spends a significant portion of the series trying to reshape those traditions in his own image (and failing miserably on nearly every occasion).
One thing I found particularly interesting about the trailer is that there's no sign of the pandemic, which has been a big talking point surrounding "Curb" season 11 so far. Last year, writer Jeff Schaffer explained that the new season will take place in a world where COVID-19 exists.
"We figured out a way that we are definitely living in a reality where the pandemic has happened, and we're addressing the pandemic, and we're doing stories about it, but not exactly the way you'd expect."
The trailer sees the return of several familiar faces: there's Jeff Garlin, Susie Essman, Cheryl Hines, and J.B. Smoove, of course. But there's also Jon Hamm, who spent an episode last season studying David's every move in order to play a character like him in a film; Vince Vaughan, who plays a member of the Funkhouser family who seems to have absorbed the role of Marty Funkhouser after actor Bob Einstein died in 2019; Richard Kind, who recurs as Larry's aggravating cousin, Andy; and comedian Richard Lewis, who recovered after surgery and will be back for one episode this season.
There are plenty of new additions as well. This season will feature guest appearances by Seth Rogen ("This is the End"), Patton Oswalt ("Young Adult"), Bill Hader ("Barry"), Woody Harrelson ("Venom: Let There Be Carnage"), Tracey Ullman ("The Tracey Ullman Show"), Kaley Cuoco ("The Flight Attendant"), Rob Morrow ("Northern Exposure"), Julie Bowen ("Modern Family"), and Lucy Liu ("Lucky Number Slevin"). Albert Brooks ("Broadcast News") will also show up; Brooks is the real-life younger brother of the late Marty Funkhouser actor Bob Einstein, who played a supporting role in seasons 4-9.
"Curb Your Enthusiasm" returns to HBO on October 24, 2021.
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The post Curb Your Enthusiasm Season 11 Trailer: Larry David Loves Humanity, Hates People appeared first on /Film.
It was one short flight for a rocket, but one giant leap for symbolism and broken records. Today, legendary "Star Trek" actor William Shatner made good on previous reports about his planned trip to space aboard Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin rocket as he successfully completed the flight and made it back no worse for wear. Along the way, the 90-year-old Shatner set a new record as the oldest human being to ever leave the safe confines of our planet ... however briefly it may have been. "Trek" fans, space enthusiasts, and everyone in-between around the globe watched the entire launch and return on various livestreams, recognizing the sheer novelty of seeing Captain Kirk himself finally get a chance to see space for himself after portraying such a beloved space-bound figure for so many years in television and movies, and return safely to the ground.
You can't put a price on publicity, apparently. Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk may be getting all the government contracts to bring astronauts and equipment to and from orbit through his SpaceX company to the chagrin of the competition, but Jeff Bezos managed to win at least one PR battle by bringing William Shatner along on a much-hyped (but relatively short-lived) flight to the borders of space. The rocket blasted off at 10:50 A.M. EST from its West Texas launch site (via THR), reached a height of over 62 miles and 100 kilometers (referred to as "the Kármán line," the generally-accepted but somewhat arbitrary marker between Earth's atmosphere and actual space) and safely touched back down roughly seven minutes later.
Just before liftoff, Shatner had posted a tweet saying, "I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, diverting myself in now & then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me."
Upon landing, Shatner appeared in good spirits and was visibly moved by the experience, receiving a warm ovation along with the other crew members after stepping out of the capsule. Highlighting the ambitions of one day making space travel accessible to all and not just for the mega-rich, Shatner remarked to Bezos that, "Everybody in the world needs to do this. Everybody in the world needs to see. That was unbelievable." Of course, neither this nor the Russian flight that carried a film production crew to the International Space Station really helped with that goal. For now, we'll have to content ourselves with the undeniably cool visuals of seeing an aged but still-active Captain James T. Kirk live the dream and make it to space and back.
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The post William Shatner is Now the Oldest Man to Successfully Enter Space appeared first on /Film.
