To conjure the threat of a riot these days, you really only need three words: “Berkeley” and “free speech.” Want to make a violent clash between far-right and far-left agitators almost inevitable? Add two more: “Milo Yiannopoulos,” the former Breitbart tech editor and internet arch-troll. That’s the math UC Berkeley administrators were forced to do […]
For years, it seemed as though the future-shocked, neo-lit world of Blade Runner would never be replicated. Ridley Scott's 1982 film may now be viewed as a crucial, even epochal vision of 21st-century dystopia, but upon its release, Blade Runner was a financial letdown, not to mention a movie that generated far-from-warm feelings from its […]
A few years ago, one eagle-eyed YouTube user uploaded a true internet find: a 1998 DVD-Rom ad for a new service called NetFlix.com. Over a swell of stringed instruments and a parade of movie posters from Raging Bull to Twins, the new DVD rental company explained itself ("You won't have to search for a video […]
The opening credits of Halt and Catch Fire play out like a beautiful idea. A series of gleaming signals race across a retro-futuristic landscape of red neon, running hotter and faster until one takes the lead, shatters a gleaming barrier, and lights up an LED bulb that feels as big as the world. The AMC […]
June has a happy life, full of ordinary problems. A slow Uber makes her best friend late to dinner. She procrastinates by going to a barbecue. Said best friend criticizes her husband. But slowly, and then all at once, she faces problems of a different scale: A tyrannical regime takes control of her bank accounts, […]
It might take a few months—or maybe even a few years—but eventually, Scarlett Johansson's Ghost in the Shell will have an afterlife. The live-action adaptation of the Japanese classic is a complete cyberbore, narrative-wise, but for those who gush over big-screen artistry, there's plenty to get lost in: the opulent, expansive CGI visuals; the gorgeous […]
When Absolver opens, the player character puts on a mask. The mask is featureless, and apparently binding—a magical means of tying the protagonist to a new identity and task. They are to become a Prospect, a warrior on a mystic quest to become the eponymous Absolver, a being dedicated to bringing balance and order to […]
Before I begin The Ringed City, the final downloadable expansion for From Software's existentialist fantasy epic Dark Souls 3, I have to prepare. Unlike most games, the expansions to Dark Souls titles aren't additional, isolated new bits of game—they're embedded directly into the world as it already exists. If you don't have a save file […]
I don’t know how it was for your timeline, but on my Twitter feed, the week of July 18, 2016 was an odd phenomenon. A strange little show had landed on Netflix the Friday before, but it was Monday that I first noticed someone talking about it. It was subtle at first: a “have you […]
“Having a TV show gives you carte blanche to say whatever you want about any other TV show,” says The Kid Mero, one half of Viceland’s raucous late-night talkfest Desus & Mero. Co-host Desus Nice takes it a step further: “If you don’t have a TV show, you shouldn’t be allowed to comment on TV […]