The Star Wars movies have always been pretty joyless. Not for us laser-brained viewers, of course—we get to happily lose ourselves in big-screen Gravitrons like A New Hope or Return of the Jedi multiple times, and with complete laugh-it-up obliviousness. But the history of the 40-year-old franchise has proved that trying to actually make one […]
Coen. Wachowski. Duplass. There are a lot of famous siblings making movies and TV together, but right now there’s only one name in the identical-twins category: Duffer. That would be Matt and Ross, the 33-year-old North Carolina natives who pitched Netflix the eight-hour Spielberg movie otherwise known as Stranger Things. One year and 18 Emmy […]
Just in case the Christmas lights strung up on your living-room wall haven't let you know, we finally know when Stranger Things is coming back. (October 27—just in time to inspire your next Halloween costume.) And, per Netflix's new teaser announcing the show's return, 1984 "only gets stranger." Stranger than Season 1? Presumably so: Whatever […]
New Orleans is on fire, and the new word to have is revolution. In the alternate-history 1961 portrayed in Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus, the city has been walled-off, turned into a massive ghetto by the Nazis who won World War II. A place to send the "undesirables." And now, with the stirring of legitimate […]
In Thor lore, and also Norse mythology, “Ragnarok” means the end of days. It’s fire-and-brimstone, Book-of-Revelation type stuff. Conceptually, that means any movie based on it has the potential to be heavier than Mjölnir. Which is why Thor: Ragnarok is such a wonderful surprise, and the most effortlessly enjoyable hangout movie to emerge from the […]
In an early snippet from comedian Sarah Silverman’s new topical series, I Love You, America, her father unwittingly gives the show the perfect logline. "Who gives a shit when the universe came," he says during a riff on Jews, parenting, and the banality of creationism, "it’s here! What a stupid fucking question." Silverman herself has […]
The last few days haven't amounted to the best week for a lot of people, what with the collapse of healthcare looming over America and all. But that doesn't mean there was no good news. Justin Bieber's "Sorry" was dethroned as the most streamed song of all time and a dog saved a baby deer. […]
When David Ayer strode across the stage of Hall H yesterday, he didn't sit down behind the placard with his name on it. He didn't stand at the long table, applauding the audience and waiting for the cast and producers of his new movie, Bright. No, the director walked past all that, straight to the […]
The Long Dark is the only game to ever make me afraid of going out at night. In its bleak version of the Canadian wilderness, death is everywhere once the sun goes down. The blizzard that enshrouds you in so much swirling snow you can't see three feet in front of your face—even with light. […]
Over the past week or so, the world has seen devastation in both Texas and Mumbai, bringing out the best—and, as you'll see below, the worst—in people in response. That doesn't mean that the internet has been entirely focused on important things, however. Social media did spend quite a bit of time rehashing The Office […]