The Magic: The Gathering Movie Is Getting One Thing Right Out The Gate
Magic: The Gathering is hitting the big screen soon, and it’s now scored its first cast member in Maya Hawke. Not only does this casting lend the upcoming MTG movie some nerd cred thanks to Hawke’s previous role as Robin Buckley in Stranger Things, but it also led to a tidbit of news that will make players of the popular trading card game very happy. The Deadline article reporting on Hawke’s casting also mentions that “the cast is expected to have an ensemble feel,” which would fit in perfectly with the world of MTG.
For those who aren’t familiar with the Magic: The Gathering universe, the major draw of the game’s lore is that it’s populated by beings known as “planeswalkers.” (In fact, the player themselves is considered to be a planeswalker). These powerful individuals have a special ability called the “spark” that allows them to travel through different dimensions, or “planes” of existence. Most of Magic: The Gathering’s popular cards are planeswalkers, including the memory manipulating wizard Jace Beleren and the massive lion-esque beast Ajani Goldmane (think a less homicidal version of Invincible’s Battle Beast.)
That opens up a wealth of possibilities as to who Maya Hawke could be playing. Is she the fire-slinging Chandra Nalaar? Or the lovely yet lethal Liliana Vess? But there’s one story in particular involving planeswalkers that could be a slam dunk. In the “Battle for Zendikar” storyline, a group of planeswalker form the Gatewatch, and dedicate themselves to defending the Multiverse from threats no one else could handle. Already that sounds like the kind of approach that’s right for a MTG movie. You have a collection of popular characters, an epic arc that’s ripe for the big screen, and the potential to expand into a future franchise if things go well.
However, director Matt Johnson has previously hinted that his take on Magic: The Gathering might not be a world-spanning epic. When discussing his film Tony with IndieWire, Johnson confessed that he wasn’t a technician and that his MTG movie might be smaller than expected. “It’s not like now that I’ve made [Tony] I want to make a movie 10 times that size,” he said. So if a Magic movie isn’t about the planeswalkers, then what direction could Johnson take to make it interesting?
The answer, again, is simple: bring the planeswalkers to Earth and have them interact with players. It would be a meta-narrative that showcases what makes Magic special to so many people, and keep the multiversal element while also sticking to Johnson’s more scrappy indie roots. Magic fans also have another story that proves that focusing on the game itself can be compelling, as the manga Destroy All Humans: They Can’t Be Regenerated focuses on a budding romance/rivalry between two MTG players.
Magic: The Gathering is a game that works because it brings groups of people together. By giving the movie an ensemble cast, Matt Johnson, Legendary, and Hasbro are capturing that spirit.
The One Element That Denis Villeneuve Needs to Bring Back to James Bond
While we wait for those rumors to shake out, however, let’s examine one less-heralded element of the James Bond mythos that Villeneuve should bring back to his incarnation: the gadgets.
Besides his trusty Walther PPK, James Bond is often equipped with a set of high-tech gadgets by his quartermaster, or “Q.” There’s the suitcase that has a variety of items, including a folding sniper rifle and a gas bomb. There’s the exploding pen from GoldenEye. And who could forget Bond’s trusty Aston Martin DB5? However, the Craig era slowly de-emphasized the gadgets, save for an updated Aston Martin in Casino Royale and a mini radio/fingerprint-sensitive Walther PPK in Skyfall.
Villeneuve should bring the gadgets back to emphasize that James Bond is a larger-than-life figure. The women he romances are some of the most beautiful on the planet, and his adventures take him from one end of the globe to another. Plus the villains he fights are just as memorable: whether it’s Blofield and SPECTRE, Oddjob, or Xenia Onatopp (my personal favorite, as she combined the allure of a Bond girl with the sinister edge all Bond’s villains carry.) The gadgets add to that, as they usually take the form of unexpected items and give Bond the edge over his foes.
In today’s tech world, Villeneuve has no shortage of creative ideas to bring to the table for Bond’s gadgets. Most of us are able to control our cars, our fridges, and other appliances via apps on our phones – so just imagine the type of smartphone Bond would have! A 3D printed gun could be another asset, especially as Bond flies around the globe and might need to smuggle his weapons via unorthodox methods. Another thing that Bond could use is a bulletproof suit; if it worked for John Wick, why not for the super spy?
Some might point out that the gadgets wouldn’t fit Denis Villeneuve’s usual vision, but his films BladeRunner2049 and the Dune movies offer a perfect rebuttal. Not only do those projects prove that Villeneuve has the juice to bring Bond to life, but they also feature cutting edge (and sometimes charmingly rinky-dink) technology – retinal scanners, flying cars, spaceships, and Dune: Part One’s hunter-seeker assassin drone. If Villeneuve can bring those ideas to life, then he can definitely give Bond’s gear a modern tune-up while also getting creative with it.
X-Tending X-Men: An Introduction to Marvel’s Other Mutant Superteams
Even after getting roundly stomped at the box office by the Avengers and other heroes, the X-Men remain Marvel‘s most popular team, characters second only to Spider-Man in wide appeal. And with good reason. Under the guidance of writer Chris Claremont—along with fellow creators such as John Byrne, John Romita Jr., and Louise Simonson—expanded the X-Men from C-list nothings to bestsellers, thanks to their combination of rich drama, high-concept genre trappings, and superhero action.
So important are the X-Men, in fact, that they’re bigger than the X-Men. Marvel has a host of mutant teams and organizations, all the better to appear in other series and maybe even carry their own titles. Some of those are known to casual fans, X-Force, X-Factor, and even Excalibur. But others require a deep dive into the world of Marvel’s Merry Mutants, which we happily supply now.
3K
One of the most recent mutant groups on this list, 3K is also one of the more troubling. As their name suggests, 3K looks toward the future, to the year 3000, where mutants will finally rule. Lead by the Chairman, an evil version of Hank McCoy a.k.a. the Beast from the future, 3K counts among its members Xavier’s cruel twin sister Cassandra Nova and Joseph, the clone of Magneto. Together, 3K hopes to spread mutation and completely replace homo sapiens, as seen in the current X-Men and Fantastic Four crossover storyline, DNX.
Exiles
For the most part, this list stays within the mainline Marvel Universe of Earth-616. But such rules and designations don’t quite apply to the Exiles, the multiversal hopping team created by Judd Winick and Mike McKone. Led by Blink, a teleporter from a reality conquered by the mutant Apocalypse, the Exiles travel from universe to universe, righting wrongs and visiting worlds not quite like our own. While they do regularly add non-mutants to the line-up, the most notable members tend to be those who carry the X-gene, including a heroic version of Sabretooth, Nightcrawler and the Scarlet Witch’s daughter Nocturne, and the shapeshifter Morph, then only seen in X-Men: The Animated Series.
Externals
A lot of these teams are pretty ’90s. But nothing is more ’90s than the Externals, a convoluted time-travel-adjacent group, that (of course) involves Cable. As you might expect from their name, the Externals all have immortality or long lives as part of their mutant abilities, mutants such as Apocalypse, Gideon, and Selene. The Externals play the long game, and plan to eventually rule over the world… providing nothing goes wrong in the early 20th century. What could go wrong? What is their big plan? None of that was made particularly clear in the plot-heavy stories of the mid-90s. But every time one of the Externals emerged from the shadows to say something cryptic and sinister about Cable, X-Force readers cheered.
Fallen Angels
The X-Men began as students at Xavier’s school, so it makes sense that Marvel would often go back to stories about teen mutants. One of the most interesting examples comes with the Fallen Angels, a spinoff of the primary teen mutant book of the ’80s, New Mutants. After thinking he killed his teammate Cannonball, Sunspot leaves the New Mutants and finds a group of mutant runaways. The original line-up included characters who would go on to become major players, Boom-Boom and Multiple Man, as well as odd-balls such as the cyborg Gomi, who loved nothing more than his pet cybernetic lobsters, Bill and Don. The ragtag nature of the original Fallen Angels meant they didn’t last for long, but another iteration popped up recently on the island of Krakoa.
Freedom Force
The Freedom Force might be the strangest group on this list, precisely because it serves as a transition point between two other mutant teams. Freedom Force began life as the second iteration of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, this one led by shapeshifter Mystique instead of Magneto and featuring her wife Destiny, Avalanche, Blob, and Pyro. Mystique made a deal with American official Val Cooper to work as government mutant hunters, taking the name Freedom Force and fighting against the X-Men. Eventually, but not for a long time, Cooper and the government saw the folly of using supervillains to fight their values, and eventually replaced Freedom Force with the far more successful X-Factor.
Generation X
Generation X was the third iteration of the teen mutant concept, and one of the most beloved. As its name suggests, Generation X was the ’90s version, who revived the New Mutant’s mission after that group became X-Force. However, this iteration took a decidedly different approach, following not Charles Xavier, but rather Emma Frost, the White Queen, who transformed her posh Massachusetts Academy into a branch of Xavier’s school. There, together with longtime X-Man Banshee, Frost trained the next generation of mutant heroes, including mainstay Jubilee, as well as Chamber, Synch, Cannonball’s sister Husk, and more. The team brought plenty of attitude to help realize Xavier’s dream among the youth.
Hellions
Before Generation X, Emma Frost led another team of young mutants, the Injustice Gang to the New Mutant’s Justice League called the Hellions. As interesting as that group was, the most compelling incarnation of the Hellions came much later, during the Krakoa Era, when the new soveriegn nation meant immunity for all mutants. The Hellions brought together some of the most infamous and unique X-Men villains, including Nanny and Orphan-Maker, Greycrow of the original Marauders (more on them in a minute), the Goblin Madelyne Pryor.
Led in the field by Kwannon, the Japanese version of Psylocke who had her body stolen by white English woman Betsy Braddock, the Hellions were also headed by Mister Sinister at his most devious. Throw in the Havok, the X-Men’s dumbest himbo, who is there just because he still loves his brother’s ex-wife Maddie, and the Hellions were a delightful bunch of misfits.
Marauders
Like the Hellions, the Marauders went from a supervillain team to a more heroic team in the Krakoa Era. However, in this case, the change was more pronounced, since the original Marauders were a hit squad assembled by Mister Sinister (well, assembled by Gambit, for Sinister) to enact the Mutant Massacre. At Krakoa, the Marauders were a group of sailors led by Kitty Pryde to gather mutants and bring them to the nation. Although they had very different lineups and aims, both variations of the Marauders had the same effect, forcing mutants to come together and face the threats built up against them, from outside and within.
X-Corp
We’re including the X-Corp here because it’s an interesting idea, even though the concept has never actually been done well, not even in their most recent appearance in season 2 of X-Men ’97. As its name suggests, the X-Corp is a corporation, originally a charitable foundation set-up by Charles Xavier to support those harmed by the destruction of Genosha in Grant Morrison’s run, but eventually more of a business to move wealth toward mutants. Over the years, key members have included Jamie Madrox, the Multiple Man (whose detective agency X-Factor Investigations just barely misses inclusion here), and rich mutants Angel and Monet. As interesting as it is to see how the mutant metaphor intersects with capitalism, none of the various stories have done it justice.
XSE
For those who confused X-Corp with X-Corps, Banshee’s paramilitary group, and are disappointed, don’t worry. We’ve got a violent team on this list, in the most ’90s way possible. XSE or Xavier’s Security Enforcers are the X-Men of the future. Specifically, they’re the X-Men of the future from which Bishop and his sister Shard hail. Part military special forces, part police, the XSE does not mess around when it comes to enforcing Xavier’s dream. As exciting as they are, their extreme approach can open them up to some destructive mistakes, including betrayal by Trevor Fitzroy, of the evil mutant rich kids known as the Upstarts.
MIRESI: Invisible Future Previews Continue to Impress
After making its trailer debut at Tokyo Game Show 2024, the upcoming mobile and PC game MIRESI: Invisible Future has been turning heads at the TGS with playable previews at the event in 2025 and 2026 while going global with a public preview at Anime Expo 2026 in Los Angeles. I got the opportunity to play both preview builds at the two most recent TGS events, exploring its world of fantasy combat as players team up with a group of warriors to avert the apocalypse. After playing the Tokyo Game Show 2026 preview build, I reached out to the developers at Smilegate for an email interview about the project and its reception so far.
“There was quite a difference in how people played the game at the two events,” the Smilegate developers recall in a joint statement. “At TGS, visitors spent a great deal of time playing, reading the story carefully and looking closely at every aspect of the game. They were also very quiet and calm as they played. Some came on their own, and others came with friends. At Anime Expo, visitors were much more expressive in their reactions while playing. As they experienced the story, they showed more interest in the characters and presentation. Many also came with their families to enjoy the game.”
MIRESI: Invisible Future begins at the end of the world, or so it seems, with the player, known in-game as the Councilor, part of a fiery battle with apocalyptic stakes controlling the characters Ende, Itsuka, and Tieria, each with their own attacks. Even after mastering the key gameplay mechanics in this opening showdown, the player has to retreat to an earlier period of time, with the game having players work together with a host of these time-bending characters to save the future by averting armageddon. More than just providing the game with its premise, time travel makes the combat gameplay unique, letting players rewind time in the middle of fights to rethink their strategy and proceed accordingly.
“The ability to rewind time is, in itself, nothing particularly special, since many other turn-based games also allow players to roll back turns,” the creative team explains. “In MIRESI, however, everything, from the title and world to the systems and combat, is built around the theme of time. Within that concept, we feel we have put a great deal of effort into making the act of rewinding time feel natural and plausible within the world.”
More than just thrilling RPG battles, MIRESI: Invisible Future boasts a strong social element to its gameplay and premise with the Returners, the allies players coordinate with during each skirmish. In between fights for the fate of the future, players get to know the Returners, affecting their interpersonal rapport as these dynamics develop deeper and deeper into the game. The game encourages players to build up these relationships and get to know each of the Returners and their distinct personalities as they progress through the expansive experience. The TGS 2026 demo had a bit of that, as the Councilor took a moment to regroup after a harrowing battle with Ende in their office before leaping into the next fray.
“We focus on showing how the relationship develops, from the moment the player, as the Councilor, first meets a character to the gradual building of rapport and closeness,” the developers observe. “For example, when things are still awkward at first, a character might sit upright and speak cautiously. As the relationship grows closer, their posture and tone become more relaxed.”
MIRESI: Invisible Future certainly proved to be a hit with attendees at Tokyo Game Show 2026, with wait times for demos exceeding two hours at certain points of the weekend-long event. This popularity extended online with videos of the characters and Smilegate’s booth for the upcoming game receiving over five million views on social media platforms hinting at strong interest in the time-bending RPG adventure. Though there is still no official release date announced by Smilegate for MIRESI: Invisible Future, the creative team is certainly thankful at all the positive attention that the game has been receiving at events all over the world.
“Above all, we are very grateful that visitors set aside their valuable time to play our game despite the very long demo queues,” notes the Smilegate team after witnessing the game’s popular reception at these public events. “Although there was still room for improvement in what we had prepared, seeing people enjoy it nonetheless made us feel very proud.”
Martin McDonagh Reveals In Bruges’ Sneaky Influence on Wild Horse Nine
Laziness is not a word any outside observer would prescribe to Martin McDonagh. The 56-year-old British-Irish filmmaker won an Oscar for his very first short film, 2004’s “Six Shooter,” and has been nominated many times since, both for screenwriting and direction via features like Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, The Banshees of Inisherin, and the perennial cult favorite of every contrarian who’s ever tried to ruin your vacation: In Bruges. And before all of those films, his career as a playwright has been similarly celebrated on both sides of the Atlantic.
Still, when we bring up the striking overlap between In Bruges and his latest fall festival sensation about professional killers on holiday, Wild Horse Nine, McDonagh initially has one word to explain their similarities: “Laziness.” He even delivers it with a self-deprecating lyricism and chuckle that would do his many misanthropic characters proud. In Bruges and Wild Horse Nine certainly have matching sets of those.
Consider that within each of these movies, glorified assassins find themselves in a picturesque setting. In Bruges’ Belgian locale is right there in the title, meanwhile Wild Horse Nine travels to the even more exotic Easter Island (or Rapa Nui in Polynesian); both films also feature their loquacious (and foul-mouthed) fixers waxing poetic about life, death, and the possibility of it all ending on this very excursion; and each film ultimately sees the tourists bring their work with them. And yet, Wild Horse Nine takes a darker, more upsetting left turn than fans might expect.
Whereas In Bruges’ antiheroes were underworld veterans suffering from crises of conscience, Wild Horse Nine’s leads played by John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell are all-American CIA field agents. And they’re currently working about 2,200 miles east of Easter Island before the story starts, setting up shop in the heart of Chile because it’s 1973, and the South American country has just elected Salvador Allende, a socialist who Americans like Malkovich’s Chris Carlisle dubbed “the first Marxist” to win a democratic election in the Western hemisphere. Which is why a few weeks after their excursion, Chris, Rockwell’s Lee, and their CIA bureau chief MJ (Steve Buscemi) are going to help orchestrate a military coup that will leave thousands disappeared, tortured, and murdered, including Allende.
“I think writing for two grumpy guys, because I’m a grumpy guy, is a natural go-to,” McDonagh says when seriously considering the overlap between his first feature and his latest film. “But I think with this, it’s also pulling a fan of In Bruges into a story that then turns into something that’s much more political and much more somber in places, and maybe that’s part of the thinking: subvert the expected.”
As the filmmaker reveals, the project began shortly after releasing his Belgian travelogue laugher, which likewise influenced the rhyming nature of Wild Horse Nine.
“It was maybe 15 years ago and it was just after In Bruges had come out, so I was sort of looking for another place that could be a character in a film,” McDonagh says of his Chilean vacation that turned into a makeshift scouting trip. “Rapa Nui gave you that. I was stunned by the island’s beauty once I was there. And then the wild horses started roaming the island, and I realized they had to be part of [a movie] too.” What finally unlocked the story though was lighting on the political dimension to his story of proverbial hitmen in a kind of paradise—not that they’d consider themselves such. Notes McDonagh, “I wouldn’t call these two hitmen, necessarily. They kill a lot of people, but that’s the nature of being in the CIA.”
With that said, their story, which takes place when Malkovich’s Chris is facing his own mortality after getting a grim cancer prognosis, is a chance to show new dimensions of McDonagh’s fixations onscreen. Like many of his films, including Banshees of Inisherin, Wild Horse Nine is a bromance between two hard-drinking, hard-laughing guys. But previously it was only in plays like The Lieutenant of Inishmore and Pillowman, both originally staged in the early 2000s, that McDonagh let audiences see his political, even incendiary leanings, particularly in the face of authoritarianism.
“I guess as an angry little punk rock kid, all authoritarianism or control by the state, or anyone else, is something [I find should] be always thrown off and fought against,” says McDonagh. “That’s why the plays came out like that. I haven’t really explored that level of politics in any of my films until now… so it’s kind of exciting to have some of that more danger added into this one.”
While McDonagh was born in the U.K., both of his parents immigrated to Britain from Ireland, and as a child he found himself splitting his youth between the streets of London and County Galway. Nowadays, he does allow the Irishness of his upbringing—an identity often contextualized in the shadow of an empire of its own—probably had an influence on his politics.
“Seeing the story from the underdog’s point-of-view is part of it too,” the writer-director notes. “But yeah, the innocence of the hopeful Chileans who were crushed by fascism, I’m sure with my background made me want to talk about that.”
As per McDonagh’s usual work, he still tackles it all with a certain gallows humor joie de vivre. Malkovich’s Chris is quite ingratiating, even as a lecherous old man flirting (and reminiscing) with young women like Chilean student and idealist Monica (Mariana di Girolamo).
Says McDonagh, “John has that danger. He’s great with comedy but he’s also one of the most subtle actors out there. And you need all three of those on this one, but it’s the subtle stuff I think I love… [going back to] seeing him in True West in my teens.” Malkovich also has to carry the emotional contradictions at the center of the film.
“I don’t know about the Americanness of them,” the writer says about the thing that interested him in his main characters. “It’s more the CIA-ness of them. I’ve been fascinated by the through-line of what John’s character has done. He’s been in Guatemala, overthrew that one; in the Congo, helped kill Lumumba. It was just fascinating to continue those truthful lines of what the CIA were up to, and to add on the ‘did they or didn’t they take part in JFK?’ I thought it was just fascinating to connect one person to all of those.”
It makes Malkovich’s protagonist an unlikely main character in mid-20th century history, as well as a curious antihero for a movie that seems to preach some degree of revolution in the face of oppressive authority. Although their creator is careful not to let Malkovich or Rockwell’s characters become heroic, even in a comedy.
“I think redemption is very hard,” says McDonagh. “I don’t see it that way. A character who has regret or hopes to change is enough for a story, I think, but redemption is too big a judgement call for the things he did and the repercussions of what he caused. I’m not sure it is forgivable.” Still, it might be worth visiting some islands alongside.
Wild Horse Nine opens in the U.S. and U.K. on Nov. 6.
VisionQuest Finally Introduces the Very First Marvel Hero
This article contains spoilers for VisionQuest season 1 episode 7.
In the MCU, the first superhero is effectively Iron Man. Sure, Nick Fury tells him he isn’t the first at the end of the 2008 movie, and we know that Captain Marvel, the Eternals, and others predate him. But for all intents and purposes, it starts with Tony Stark. In Marvel Comics, however, it starts with the Human Torch, a flaming android who appears on the cover of 1939’s Marvel Comics #1.
Now the MCU has finally caught up, with the Human Torch officially debuting in the latest episode of VisionQuest, “Immolation.” But as anyone familiar with the Fantastic Four has already realized, the history of the Human Torch is complicated, and his insertion into the VisionQuest storyline only makes things more so.
Created by Carl Burgos, the Human Torch was a mainstay of Golden Age comics published by Timely, the company that would eventually become Marvel. One of the company’s first breakout stars, the Human Torch not only moved quickly into his own (admittedly, short-lived) solo series in 1940, but he regularly appeared in other anthologies and team-up books, including Marvel Mystery Comics, All Winners, Young Allies, and Young Men. Like most Golden Age heroes, he initially fought gangsters and racketeers before shifting to Nazis and other Axis soldiers, battling them at home and abroad.
It was in that latter capacity that the Human Torch helped form Marvel’s first superhero team, the All-Winners Squad, later renamed the Invaders. Alongside his teen sidekick Toro, a circus fire-eater who learned to also how to set his body ablaze, the Human Torch joined Captain America and Bucky, Namor, Miss America, and a yellow-clad hero called Whizzer (really) to battle against Axis powers wherever they found them. In fact, canonically, the Human Torch is the one who killed Hitler, burning the Nazi leader alive.
That last point highlights the most interesting thing about the Human Torch and his position within the Marvel Universe. Ask any casual comic fan, and they’ll tell you that Marvel heroes have feet of clay, in contrast to the godlike icons of the DC Universe. Yet, most think of that distinction occurring when Timely, and its immediate predecessor Atlas, became Marvel Comics in the 1960s, with the birth of reluctant heroes such as the Hulk and Spider-Man. Captain America, with his blond hair and lantern jaw, seemed more like a classic DC-style hero in the Golden Age.
But the Human Torch’s first appearance in Marvel Comics #1 undermines that assumption, proving that Marvel was interested in monsters even before it was Marvel. The first Human Torch story is very much a Frankenstein tale, complete with a mad scientist who fears his creation. The first half of the story follows scientist Phineas Horton as he seeks help in controlling his creation, a synthetic man whose skin goes ablaze whenever exposed to oxygen. With the help of some other scientists, he comes up with a stop-gap solution, putting the Torch in an airtight container and burying it in concrete, until he figures out how to fix the problem.
However, some air does get into the Torch’s container, eventually allowing him to catch fire again and break free. From there, the innocent Torch goes around town, accidentally setting things ablaze. That is, until a gangster meets the Torch and tricks him into working a protection racket, burning the steel factories of owners who won’t pay up. When the Torch realizes his mistake, he turns against the gangster, who kills himself fighting against his lackey. Along the way, the Torch learns how to control his flame, turning it off at will and creating fireballs he can throw.
So while that first story does end with him becoming a hero, and eventually establishing the civilian name “Jim Hammond,” the Human Torch began life as a misunderstood monster, someone who didn’t want the responsibility foisted upon him—just like Spider-Man, the Hulk, and most members of the Fantastic Four. Most, but not all. Johnny Storm is the one member of the Fantastic Four who didn’t hate the powers he gained, and, ironically, he took his codename from Jim Hammond (at that point long decommissioned) becoming the second Human Torch.
Since the 1960s, the Human Torch has multiple times been revived. One of his bodies was used by Ultron to become the Vision, and the Torch has served as an agent of SHIELD and as an Avenger. He has reunited with Captain America, Namor, and Bucky (Miss America and Whizzer have long since retired, not because of the latter’s name) as the Invaders. And when Jocasta and other synths get involved in robot wars, the Human Torch isn’t far behind.
Which is only fitting, because every Marvel hero comes from him, in some way. And now, thanks to VisionQuest, the MCU has finally caught up.
VisionQuest streams new episodes every Tuesday on Disney+.
VisionQuest Episode 7 Review: Viz Didn’t Start the Fire
This article contains spoilers for VisionQuest season 1 episode 7.
Thus far, VisionQuest has been a good show, but definitely a flawed one. Its strongest asset has been its compelling cast, actors who would be captivating on screen no matter what they’re doing. Even better, the sludgy CGI environments that plagued the first two episodes have been replaced with compelling and visually striking compositions, giving those actors interesting spaces to inhabit. But the central mystery of the Butcherbird Killer has not been captivating, making the whole thing play like an acting exercise, albeit with excellent performers.
With the mystery set aside, and a supervillain pact formed between Ultron and Jocasta, VisionQuest seems poised to do what all Marvel TV shows do: end with a giant superhero throw down. Yet, VisionQuest’s penultimate episode, “Immolation,” the show swerves away from heroic battles and does what Vision has always done best: thoughtful philosophical discussion.
“Immolation” certainly begins as if it’s setting up a major superhero clash. The episode begins with a flashback to 1939 and the stately home of Dr. Phineas Horton (played by Paul Bettany), whose obsession with a machine has driven away his wife and daughter. That machine is a Joule Individual Machine aka J.I.M. a.k.a. Jim Hammond, the original Human Torch. The Human Torch was the first Marvel superhero, appearing on the cover of 1939’s Marvel Comics #1, a character who went on in the comics to inspire Johnny Storm of the Fantastic Four and the Vision.
But “Immolation” isn’t interested in a mere Marvel nod, though several appear in the episode. There’s the return of the blade wielded by Corvus Glaive of Thanos’s Black Order, used to skewer Vision in Avengers: Infinity War. Lisa gets a multi-armed backpack, essentially getting the abilities of her character Coat of Arms from the comics. Yet, most of the episode’s action and big set-pieces turn inward, as Vision, Ultron, and Jocasta must learn more about themselves to achieve their goals.
In the case of Ultron and Jocasta, the latter discovers that she must once again become Josephine Carrington if she wants to open the Nest that contains the nanobots she plans to unleash onto humanity. Vision must go deep into his source code to retrieve a secret, which he will give to the shadowy client who has been hunting him, via Paladin and Raza, throughout the series. In exchange, the client will give Vision the means to free Thomas’s girlfriend Lisa from one of Jocasta’s nanobots.
The heightened plot mechanics only serve to give the characters reason to talk with one another about identity and family, the way we owe debts to even those we dislike and the pain of being in love. Unsurprisingly, the Jocasta plot line is the weaker of the two, despite being the more grounded. As she returns to her Carrington identity, Jocasta learns the truth of what happened to her, how her partner Wells stole her research and allowed her to die—something we’ve more or less known from previous revelations. T’Nia Miller continues to be a fascinating screen presence, and no one will complain about having the opportunity to hear her recite “The Raven.” But the deeper point about having one’s passions stolen gets buried under an unnecessary mystery box structure.
One would expect that problem to plague Vision’s plot line, as it fundamentally is a problem that stems from Marvel continuity. The Vision we knew died in Infinity War. The Vision we’ve been following is the White Vision, a copy created by S.W.O.R.D. and implanted with the previous Vision’s memories. All of his questions stem from events from pervious Marvel movies and TV shows, they all address Marvel plot points.
And yet, to his credit, writer Terry Matalas (working with director Matthew Okumura for this episode) uses those genre requirements to ask rich questions about the nature of selfhood. When White Vision faces the previous Vision’s memories, when that Vision appears in his Mindscape to accost him, the specifics of his charges may be all related to Marvel lore, but the questions themselves are universal: what parts of ourselves are we afraid to face? Are we beholden to our actions in the past? What debts do we owe to those who shaped us, especially if that shaping hurts?
Even better is the sequence where Vision reaches his source code to face J.I.M. the Human Torch, also played by Bettany. The image of Vision running into a spacious library to find a flaming man standing in the center captures the horror of the existential question that Vision has been avoiding: Are we forever defined by the intentions of makers?
Vision, of course, was created by Ultron, by Banner and Stark, by S.W.O.R.D., and by Wanda. Some of those people wanted to use him for evil, others for good, but almost all of them contributed to his creation because they were scared, lonely, or afraid. J.I.M., we come to learn, was created by Phineas Horton as a replacement for his late son James, a way to avoid his grief and regain some sense of control over his life.
Bettany plays J.I.M. as someone bitter at his creator, all too aware of the weaknesses that led to his birth. When J.I.M. and Horton hurl accusations at each other, they seem less like mad scientist and unruly creation and more like what the episode wants them to be, parts of a battered psyche at war with themselves, too hurt and broken to peacefully cohere. So when we learn that the Human Torch bursts into flames because he feels too much, his superpower becomes poetic.
So poetic is “Immolation,” in fact, that the big reveal that the client is human played by James Spader doesn’t feel like a cheat. Instead, it feels thematically earned, giving us hope that VisionQuest can outdo its own progenitor, WandaVision, by ending with a strong final episode.
VisionQuest streams new episodes every Wednesday on Disney+.
Why Naruto Can Break The Live-Action Anime Curse
It’s no secret that anime is the one medium Hollywood has struggled to adapt to live action. While we love series like Bleach or DragonBallZ for their hyperkinetic action and unique stories, translating that energy to the 3D world often leads to disaster – the less said about Dragonball Evolution and the Scarlett Johansson-led Ghost in the Shell, the better. Now the tide might be turning, thanks to Destin Daniel Cretton’s upcoming live-action adaptation of Naruto.
For starters, Naruto has a plot that’s fairly easy to grasp. Protagonist Naruto Uzumaki seeks to become the strongest ninja in the Hidden Leaf Village, while joining Team 7 with medical ninja Sakura Haruno and rival Sasuke Uchiha. Of course, Naruto fans know that the series eventually spirals into a saga of bloodshed and betrayal that rivals Game of Thrones, but the early stories could easily form the backbone of a movie, and sow the seeds for sequels.
Cretton has also proven that he can nail the intense martial arts sequences that fuel Naruto thanks to his previous blockbuster work. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings has Simu Liu’s titular Master of Kung Fu delivering piercing blows to men twice his size, and Spider-Man: Brand New Day has one of the best Spidey-themed action sequences ever put to screen when the web-head takes on the Hand ninjas. Cretton would definitely deliver on action in Naruto.
There’s also the fact that Cretton is a bona fide fan of Naruto. When he was first announced to direct the live-action adaptation, he expressed his love of the franchise in a way only a fan can.
“As a longtime fan of Naruto, I’ve always loved that beneath the extraordinary action is a story filled with heart, humor, and humanity,” he said in a statement provided to the press. “Kishimoto-sensei created a world where unlikely heroes do extraordinary things, and that’s what makes it so special. Lionsgate has been an incredible partner, and I’m thrilled to reunite with the fantastic team at Sony. Together, we’re committed to capturing everything fans love about Naruto while introducing it to a whole new generation.”
Being a fan of something while taking a creative part in it is a double-edged sword, as your knowledge can help you deliver the necessary surface details but may prevent you from recognizing a compelling story if it deviates too far from the inspiration text. Thankfully, Cretton’s previous work on Marvel movies shows he can deliver a film that will please hardcore fans and newcomers alike.
Cretton also has an ace up his sleeve, as Sony is boarding production duties alongside Lionsgate. Considering Brand New Day made a stack of money, that’s hardly surprising. But Sony is also home to Crunchyroll, the world’s largest anime streaming service. And with Naruto serving as a crown jewel in Crunchyroll’s library, this is the best way to hook old fans and assure new fans that Naruto is in the right hands.
Every medium, from comic books to video games, has had peaks and pitfalls when it comes to being adapted. Naruto looks like it’ll be the beginning of a long-awaited peak for anime fans.
Dead Account: Two Blue Flames Is About the Become Your Next Mobile Game Obsession
Among the many titles being displayed at Tokyo Game Show 2026, one of the most consistently popular the entire weekend came from Smilegate, a South Korean studio specializing in mobile and PC games. The most fun that I had with any of the mobile games unveiled by Smilegate at this year’s show was Dead Account: Two Blue Flames, a top-down roguelite actioner with strong deck-building and character collection gameplay mechanics. After playing an extended preview of the game, I interviewed the creative team over email following the show.
“This was the first time we’d opened the game up to general players who were simply interested in it and, honestly, we were worried about whether they would take easily to controlling multiple characters and using their skills,” admits producer Kim Byoungki. “But most of the people who came by and played, regardless of age and gender, cleared the stages we’d prepared all the way through and gave us good scores on the survey. Having been able to watch people genuinely enjoy the game we’re trying to make is something we’re truly grateful for.”
Dead Account: Two Blue Flames has all the roguelike shoot’em up action of titles like Vampire Survivors but with an even grander scope in terms of how players can choose to leap into the chaos. The game is a deck-builder that provides players with a whole host of playable characters, each with their own playstyles and synergy bonuses depending on how they’re deployed. These characters are based on the popular manga series Dead Account by Shizumu Watanabe, which the game adapts. Even not knowing the manga source material myself, I still found the characterizations strong, both in gameplay and how the characters interact with each other on the battlefield, which is a major goal for the creative team.
“Our collaboration with the author has exceeded our expectations. He has been highly satisfied with how the game expresses his art and has offered plenty of support and advice,” Kim shares. “In working with the author, there is one thing we care about most: even if we add new dialogue for the game, the essence of the original characters must not change. For example, an ability that only got a brief mention in the manga, might need to be expanded into a full combat system in the game, or there might be a case where a character needs to deliver new lines unique to the game. Whenever this happens, we don’t just ask, ‘Would this be possible because it’s a game?’ We ask, ‘Would this character really act this way?’ That’s the standard we set for ourselves.”
As players progress, blasting through waves of all sorts of incoming enemies from all sides, they unlock additional party members to join the fray, which is especially key as the amount of enemies increases on-screen and formidable bosses attack. In contrast to other roguelike shooters, the ability to have these characters work together and unleash their distinct attacks on waves of enemies is a key component to the combat system and one of the game’s most entertaining mechanics. This aspect of the gameplay is something that the creative team have put a lot of time and care into getting right, appealing to both manga and roguelike shooter fans alike.
“Each character’s combat role comes from the abilities and the personality shown in the manga, and when they are put together with specific characters, their abilities connect and unlock new ways to play. So, we’ve worked hard to make each character’s individuality blend as naturally as possible into their playstyle,” Kim explains. “Our goal is for players to think, ‘Now that I’ve got this character, I want to try a new synergy with the ones I already have,’ when they pull new characters. And that for us is the fun in collecting—the more characters you own, the more ways you get to play.”
Every major wave of enemies is punctuated by an intense boss fight, which always commanded our full attention whenever such a formidable foe surfaced. These skirmishes call on players to bring in all the allies they’ve recruited so far, pulling out every special move just to emerge from these battles in one piece. For the developers, creating and refining the bosses were a huge priority for the creative team as defining moments within Dead Account: Two Blue Flames.
“Boss fights are where players get the biggest thrill,” Kim observes. “Players cut through waves of enemies swarming the field, refining their team synergy and characters’ traits and then hit a mid-boss or final boss, and get to see what all the growth was for. That moment when you get to unleash everything you’ve got and beat the gimmick is where the dopamine and thrill come from. And that’s exactly what we’re balancing and fine-tuning through R&D.”
Of all the mobile games that we played at Tokyo Game Show 2026, Dead Account: Two Blue Flames was our personal favorite and feels relatively close to completion, at least by our estimate. The action is smooth and intuitive, even on the smartphone touchscreen that our demo was played on, while the roguelite elements keep the experience fresh and exciting. For the creative team, this is a project that celebrates its source material while keeping things accessible and, most importantly, fun.
“Dead Account : Two Blue Flames started from a simple idea: Take the affection and growth you feel when playing a character-collection RPG, and add the fun of a roguelite – playing and strategizing firsthand,” reflects Kim. “For fans of the manga, it’s a new way to interact with the characters they love themselves, and to discover stories for each of them that haven’t been shown in the original. And for people meeting the IP for the first time, we want the game to be so much fun, that it makes them curious about Dead Account as a whole.”
Developed and published by Smilegate, Dead Account: Two Blue Flames isavailable for pre-registrationon Google Play, the App Store, and PC.
Latest X-Men Reboot Casting Rumor Suggests Marvel Is Going Back to Basics
Marvel Studios is pulling out all the stops for its upcoming X-Men reboot, including tapping Jake Schreier — who handed the MCU one of its best movies in Thunderbolts* — as director and wrangling an all-star cast that includes Inde Navarrette as Rogue, Samara Weaving as Emma Frost, and Adam Driver as a character that’s definitely Mister Sinister. However, recent casting news suggests Marvel is doing something that could set the X-Men reboot apart from the previous Fox-era movies.
Deadline recently reported that Ben Wang (American Born Chinese, Karate Kid Legends) is in the running to play Bobby Drake a.k.a. Iceman. This is a great choice for many reasons. Wang has proven himself to be a genuinely talented actor in the handful of roles he’s had, which provides some faith he can capture Bobby Drake’s sense of humor and youthful energy. But the fact that Iceman is going to be part of the X-Men reboot also confirms that the story will likely center on the original five X-Men: Cyclops, Jean Grey, Angel, Iceman and the Beast.
While most fans are used to the “All-New, All-Different” era of X-Men which brought the comic world Storm, Nightcrawler, and Wolverine (and jumpstarted X-Men legend Chris Claremont’s run with the mighty mutants), it’s rare that an X-Men adaptation has featured the original five members. The closest we’ve come is the X-Men: Evolution episode “Under Lock and Key”, and 2006’s X-Men: The Last Stand, though fans would prefer to forget the latter.
By starting off with the original 5, the X-Men reboot isn’t just avoiding comparisons to the Fox-era X-Men movies, it’s also leaning into the idea that Charles Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters is actually a school. Most of the characters who’ve been cast – including Sadie Sink’s Jean Grey, Kit Connor’s Cyclops, and Asa Germann’s Angel – are teenagers, and in a world that fears and hates mutants, they need a safe haven to flock to. Young adult stories are still all the rage, as Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, and The Hunger Games all have adaptations dropping later this year. Why not get in on the action with a superhero story that’s built for this genre?
While Schreier has said he’s drawing inspiration from Chris Claremont and Jonathan Hickman for the X-Men reboot, the presence of the original five X-Men also hints that he may be using Louise Simonson’s X-Factor run as inspiration. Simonson reunited the original five, but it wasn’t exactly a smooth process: Cyclops ended up leaving his wife Madelyne Pryor when he found out Jean was alive, Iceman and Beast find themselves butting heads, and Angel gets it the worst as he has his wings cut off and is transformed into Archangel by Apocalypse. The presence of Mister Sinister strengthens those ties, and spells trouble for Cyclops as the gothic geneticist is obsessed with him.
Marvel Studios had to make sure its X-Men reboot stood out from previous X-Men movies. By going back to basics with the First Class, it might have done just that.
The Leander Film Festival Puts Hollywood Stars and Independent Gems Side by Side
There’s something exciting about a film festival that gives audiences the chance to see familiar Hollywood stars in unexpected roles or discover an independent filmmaker on the verge of a breakthrough. Experiencing stories that viewers might not otherwise encounter in their local cinemas is exactly what the inaugural Leander Film Festival is setting out to accomplish when it arrives in Central Texas this month.
Running from Nov. 11 to 15, the five-day festival boasts an impressive lineup of talent, including Michael Keaton, Renée Zellwegger, Adrian Grenier, James Hong, Martin Freeman, Barry Corbin, and many more recognizable names. But the festival is equally interested in giving emerging filmmakers, international storytellers, and Texan-based creative voices a platform, making for a wonderfully eclectic celebration of what independent cinema is capable of.
In fact, the festival aims both to entertain and educate its attendees. “The Leander Film Festival is more than a celebration of film. It creates opportunities to educate, inspire, and connect our community while helping the next generation discover storytelling and filmmaking,” says Mike Herrera, co-founder of the Leander Film Festival and co-owner of CSSI Solutions.
“I’m thrilled to be part of a festival dedicated to growing film and film education in Leander,” says Laura Davis, education advocate, co-founder of the Leander Film Festival, and owner of Davis Consulting AI. “The films submitted this year are incredible, and I can’t wait to celebrate them with our community from the opening night premiere of Jimmy to our Awards Gala.”
The biopic Jimmy, which follows the life and career of legendary Hollywood actor and World War II veteran James Stewart, is definitely one of the gathering’s biggest attractions. Riverdale star KJ Apa takes on the role of Stewart in the film written by Texas-based screenwriter Justin Strawhand, who is expected to be on hand for the movie’s red carpet premiere. Apa’s co-star Kara Killmer (Chicago Fire) is also set to attend the festival’s closing ceremony.
Elsewhere festival-goers can attend a screening of Faith, a locally shot comedy starring Adrian Grenier (The Devil Wears Prada) about an unlikely pastor attempting to save a small-town Texas church. Meanwhile, Renée Zellwegger will return to her home state of Texas to make her directorial debut with the experimental animated short They. Likewise, Michael Keaton steps behind the camera for Sweetwater, a science fiction drama co-starring Kyra Sedwick that explores grief through the lens of futuristic corporate memory simulations. The film’s screening will include an appearance by award-winning songwriter and screenwriter Sean Douglas, Keaton’s son.
Latino storytelling and representation also have a meaningful place in the lineup as well. Puerto Rican actress Paola Andino (Queen of the South) appears in You Can’t Leave, while Grenier brings his own Mexican American heritage to his aforementioned comedy Faith. But perhaps the most significant Latino-centered selection arrives on closing night.
Revolution’s Daughter, directed by Peabody and Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Thaddeus D. Matula, tells the extraordinary story of Alina Fernández, the daughter of Fidel Castro who eventually escaped Cuba and built a life outside her famous father’s shadow. Featuring artists like singer Gloria Estefan, playwright Nilo Cruz, and Artist José Bedia, the documentary offers a deeply personal perspective on Cuban history and life in exile.
In addition to screenings, the Leander Film Festival will host workshops and industry panels as well as awards ceremonies with cash prizes and development packages up for grabs in the Feature Screenplay and Co-Production Pitch Market, which is designed to help emerging writers take their projects to the next level. For its first year, the Leander Film Festival is making a bold statement about what a regional film festival can be, says the festival’s organizers.
“As one of the fastest growing cities in the country, Leander deserves its own cultural anchor, and we’ve been thrilled to discover incredible local filmmakers right here in our own community,” says Sasha Yelaun, co-founder of the festival. “The Leander Film Festival marks the birth of a major new creative hub, offering a distinct, intimate alternative to the crowded landscapes of SXSW and the Austin Film Festival.”
Den of Geek will be on-site at Leander Film Festival for an interview and photo portrait studio. Stay tuned for our coverage, and for the full schedule and tickets, visit leanderfilmfestival.com.
I Play Rocky Review: A Crowdpleaser Sylvester Stallone Would Be Proud to Claim
Sylvester Stallone and John G. Avildsen’s Rocky is often cited as a quintessential 1970s movie, a perception that never seemed entirely right to me. It certainly is of its era, grounded if even superficially in the grime and weariness that defined the decade-long hangover after Nixon and Vietnam. Yet Rocky was also in many ways a reaction to that bleak atmosphere; a counterpoint to the cynicism of The Conversation or The French Connection, or for that matter Avildsen’s own Joe, which ended in 1970 by having its racist loudmouth protagonist accidentally murder his own daughter (a babyfaced Susan Sarandon).
In this kind of cultural crucible, Rocky followed up on the prescient instincts of Jaws right before it, or Star Wars shortly afterward, and gave a populist palette cleanser to the masses. It insisted that sometimes even a southpaw from Philly can go the distance.
In 1976, some critics sniffed at such sentimentality as manipulative, but everyday moviegoers ran away by the millions with to join the Italian Stallion at the feel-good circus. In ways overt and subtle, Peter Farrelly’s I Play Rocky emulates that still-winning formula, right down to embracing sentiment over the aloof ambiguity of a fall festival season release.
The movie—which tells the ever impressive story of Sylvester Stallone’s journey from out-of-work actor to a writer with a hot script he wouldn’t sell unless he got the starring role—is every bit as sweet and syrupy as Rocky. It’s so yearning, and perhaps so calculated, it practically begs audiences to forget what came later, from Stallone’s reigning diva status in ‘80s action cinema to his more modern reputation as a Hollywood Trump whisperer. And to be fair, if one can let go of any pretenses at cynicism, then it’s hard not to be charmed by this real-life fairy tale with puppy dog eyes.
Indeed, when we meet the film’s version of a young Stallone (an eerily uncanny Anthony Ippolito), just about the only thing he’s got going for him are those eyes via his beloved bull dog, Butkus. The two lived on the street for a spell before the story starts up, and things aren’t going too much better in first New York and later Los Angeles for “James” (he is embarrassed to go by his real name Sylvester). One person who actually appreciates a 50-cent handle like “Sylvester” though is Sasha Czack (AnnaSophia Robb), a young woman Stallone meets at a movie theater where they both work. She also quickly becomes the voice of needed confidence, urging him to try writing roles for himself like Orson Welles did.
Cut to not-quite two years later, and Sylvester and Sasha are married and living on the West Coast, which is probably best since it puts time zones between Sly and his abusive father Frank (Matt Dillon). But the acting career isn’t going too much better, even as his spec scripts are starting to get the attention of producers like Irwin Winkler (P.J. Byrne) and Robert Chartoff (Toby Kebbell). The duo recognize Stallone’s got talent but are eager to see if he can do something more commercial. He can.
It begins after the would-be star watches from a bar stool how real-life challenger Chuck Wepner (almost) goes 15 rounds with heavyweight champ Muhammad Ali before the Greatest defeated Wepner by technical knockout. It was close enough though for Stallone to see the value in smudging the details a little and having his fictional Rocky Balboa go the full distance against a world champion. Producers like Winkler and Chartoff also see the value in the idea. Hell, a cantankerous and a delightfully shady composite character of various United Artists executives played by Tracy Letts likes the screenplay too, despite claiming he hates boxing movies! But this one will work, assuming they get someone like Burt Reynolds or Clint Eastwood, or maybe Ryan O’Neal. But that’s of course the hitch: Stallone insists, no matter how much money they try to put in front of him, that “I play Rocky.”
The crux of the film, and its literal title, is also the most dramatically rewarding thing about Farrelly’s film. By virtue of the subject matter, we know who will ultimately play Rocky, but the way Peter Gamble’s screenplay and Farrelly’s direction ratchets up the pressure on Stallone brings into stark relief how miraculous his career breakthrough really was. Not only does the long setup draw on Farrelly’s comedic instincts to lean into the wry industry satire where a bunch of suits seem to doubt the movie star potential of Sylvester Stallone, but the film then piles on mountains of pressure atop that once invulnerable-seeming lead character.
The offers start mild enough, even in 1975 money, with Winkler and Chartoff initially trying to lowball Stallone with a $15,000 writer’s fee. Before it’s over, the weeks-long negotiation will reach closer to the neighborhood of half a million dollars, provided that Stallone accepts his fate as behind a typewriter. In every scene between those figures though, Farrelly and Gamble steadily heat the stove beneath Stallone’s feet: he can longer afford to feed Bupkis, the dog he protected on the street, and must face the prospect of giving him away; Sasha reveals she is pregnant; his would-be studio head almost catches him working as a valet in Beverly Hills! Even his father shows up in LA to turn the screws.
Farrelly is no stranger to playing fast and loose with facts in order to spin a good yarn—look no further than the lingering controversy around his Best Picture winner, Green Book—but the prevailing winds Stallone faced were so severe that he didn’t settle for a screenwriting career remains a remarkable achievement. It’s also fertile ground for Ippolito who at glance really does look like someone has de-aged Sly back to his youth. Ippolito’s performance is far fuller than impersonation, though; he gives Stallone a salt-of-the-earth underdog quality that is in obvious conversation with the Rocky character while also, if only faintly, hinting at an ego that never quite crossed over into the real Stallone’s cuddly onscreen alter-ego.
That conversation between Stallone and Rock is at its best when it’s at a whisper during the pre-production process. Once the movie goes into production, it becomes a lot more conventional, with the Rocky making-of story insisting on rhyming with the 1976 classic to the point of occasionally straining credulity.
Still, this is not all feel-good easter eggs or generic biopic hagiography. Those elements do exist, including with how much AnnaSophia Robb is similarly minimized into the role of supporting spouse by the movie’s third act, but there is still an inside-baseball ruefulness that makes it go down smooth. Byrne and Kebbell find every subtle variation of exasperation on the gradient wheel, and late blasts of energy by Jay Duplass as a tyrannical Avildsen and Stephan James as a braggadocious Carl Weathers only heightens the tone of a movie that’s at its best when it gets gossipy.
I Play Rocky is a movie that succeeds at being a lot like the character it’s named after: the thing is big, loud, and wears its heart on its sleeve. I have little idea whether it’s the “real story,” but it is definitely a crowdpleasing yarn that leaves audiences feeling like they saw the little guy win one. It’s a movie that makes you appreciate every mile Stallone walked along that distance, and in its better moments just sits with him in the toughest stretches—making the happily ever after not quite so certain.
I Play Rocky opens in limited release on Nov. 6 and wide on Nov. 20.
After Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter, This Fighting Game Needs a Movie Adaptation
2026 saw the release of not one, but two movies based on an iconic fighting game series: Mortal Kombat IIand Street Fighter. Both of these movies attempted to capture their respective franchise’s flavor, whether it was buckets of blood and gore for Mortal Kombat II, the special energy attacks in Street Fighter, or the wide cast of characters that populate both. Naturally, discussion has sprung up about which fighting game franchise should get a similar treatment, and the answer is simple: Soulcalibur.
The Soulcalibur franchise kicked off with Soul Edge in 1996, a fighting game in which eight warriors sought to obtain the legendary sword Soul Edge. Some thought the sword would make them invincible. Others sought it to end wars. But what none of them knew is that Soul Edge is a pure force of evil, and corrupts whatever it touches. The first Soulcalibur game reveals that Soul Edge has a twin: the holy blade SoulCalibur, meant to offset Soul Edge’s darkness.
Already, a Soulcalibur movie is ripe with potential. The idea of an evil sword corrupting all it touches and compelling people to seek it out? That’s a story that has more than a few shades of The Lord of the Rings, and the wide cast of characters also feels Tolkien-esque. From the dread pirate Cervantes to priestess Talim and the strange samurai Yoshimitsu, plenty of characters have their own goals and connections to explore.
Perhaps the most compelling character, and the one a future film should focus on, is Siegfried Schtauffen. A former bandit, Siegfried stumbled upon Soul Edge and was corrupted by its power, becoming the monstrous Nightmare. Nightmare is arguably the most visually compelling character in Soulcalibur: his armor is as demonic as his namesake, with one of the arms being monstrous and corrupted – hinting at how Soul Edge has driven him mad. Future games would split Siegfried and Nightmare into two entities, wielding Soulcalibur and Soul Edge respectively. It’s a dynamic ripe with storytelling potential.
Soulcalibur would also stand out because each character in the game uses a signature weapon. A great example is Cervantes, who wields two swords with a pistol built into the handle of one. The massive Astaroth has an axe the size of his body, which he can swing with dizzying force. And ninja assassin Taki carries twin short swords which she uses with lethal efficiency. While Mortal Kombat focuses on bloodshed and Street Fighter on over the top attacks, Soulcalibur could stand out with expertly crafted sword duels.
15 TV Shows We Can’t Believe Everyone Forgot: Did You?
Television has given us countless unforgettable characters, iconic finales, and shows that people still quote decades later. But what about the series that once had everyone talking and somehow disappeared from the conversation? Some had impressive casts, unusual premises, or surprisingly devoted audiences, yet rarely get mentioned when people discuss the best shows of their era. Others were genuinely entertaining but got lost among bigger hits and newer releases. Whether you watched them after school, stayed up late for another episode, or completely missed them the first time around, these 15 forgotten TV shows deserve another moment in the spotlight.
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Pushing Daisies (2007–2009)
This quirky fantasy comedy followed a pie maker who could bring the dead back to life with a single touch, creating one of television’s most visually distinctive worlds.
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Dead Like Me (2003–2004)
A teenager dies unexpectedly and becomes a grim reaper, joining a group of equally unusual coworkers who collect souls while dealing with their own unfinished lives.
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Wonderfalls (2004)
A gift shop employee begins hearing strange instructions from animal-shaped objects, sending her into a series of bizarre situations she never asked for.
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My So-Called Life (1994–1995)
This short-lived teen drama captured the confusion of adolescence with an honesty that made its cancellation particularly frustrating for its devoted audience.
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The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. (1993–1994)
Bruce Campbell played a Harvard-educated bounty hunter in a wonderfully strange Western packed with science fiction, comedy, and steampunk inventions.
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Freaks and Geeks (1999–2000)
Set in a 1980s high school, this cult favorite introduced audiences to a group of misfits whose awkward teenage experiences felt refreshingly authentic.
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Popular (1999–2001)
This teen comedy drama explored the rivalry between a popular cheerleader and an unpopular classmate who suddenly become stepsisters.
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Sports Night (1998–2000)
Created by Aaron Sorkin, this fast-paced comedy followed the personalities and professional chaos behind a nightly sports television program.
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Ed (2000–2004)
After losing his job and discovering his wife has been unfaithful, a lawyer returns to his hometown and buys a bowling alley while trying to rebuild his life.
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The Pretender (1996–2000)
A genius capable of mastering almost any profession escapes a secret organization and uses his extraordinary abilities to help people while staying one step ahead of his pursuers.
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Early Edition (1996–2000)
A Chicago man receives tomorrow’s newspaper every morning and tries to prevent disasters before they happen, whether he likes it or not.
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Northern Exposure (1990–1995)
A New York doctor is sent to a tiny Alaskan town, where its eccentric residents turn his assignment into an unexpectedly charming adventure.
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Jericho (2006–2008)
After nuclear explosions devastate several American cities, residents of a small Kansas town struggle to survive while trying to understand what happened.
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The Middleman (2008)
A young artist gets recruited by a secret organization to fight bizarre threats, including monsters, mad scientists, and all kinds of ridiculous supernatural problems.
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Wonder Woman (1975–1979)
Lynda Carter starred as the iconic superhero in a colorful series that became a defining piece of television pop culture, even if younger audiences rarely revisit it today.
5 Great Movie Presidents to Restore Your Faith in Democracy
No matter where you fall on the political spectrum, nobody feels particularly great about midterm elections. If you’re for the incumbent party, then you’re probably feeling some trepidation, because the opposition party tends to do well in midterms. If you’re with the opposition, you’re probably mad, frustrated that this election is your first chance to claw things back to your side. In short, everyone could do with a good movie night as they watch the results roll in.
Fortunately, there are a lot of good movies about American presidents. Even better, most of them feature presidents who embody the ideals of the office, certainly more than our actual leaders. Some may call that fantastical wish-fulfillment, but we see it as an act of self-care, restoring our faith in democracy even as actual democracy seems to struggle. So take some time from watching election results and check out these five larger than life, but ultimately inspirational, movie presidents.
Judd Hammond
Gabriel Over the White House (1933)
Okay, let’s get this out of the way first: Gabriel Over the White House is an insane movie, even if you share the film’s largely progressive stance. Directed by Gregory La Cava and written by Carey Wilson, Gabriel Over the White House features a president who ruthlessly imposes his agenda, willfully becoming a dictator for the sake of equality and against lawlessness, particularly the gangsters who rose up during prohibition. At least, that’s what Hammond becomes after a near-death experience, shifting from an opportunist career politician to a social reformer, one willing to ignore his Cabinet and dissolve congress if they oppose him.
Yes, Gabriel Over the White House is an incredibly uncomfortable watch, even if you agree with some of Hammond’s policies. Fortunately, Walter Huston gives such a ferocious performance as Hammond that it’s hard not to be entertained. And as long as we understand the whole thing as a fantasy, there’s something comforting about a President willing to take a stand for the people. Just, hopefully, the real version isn’t quite so scary when he does it.
Douglass Dilman
The Man (1972)
Given that we still have only had one Black president in actual history, the preponderance of Black presidents in media from the ’90s and 2000s still feels aspirational. As such, most of these stories rarely deal with the racist backlash that follows, despite the fact that we’ve seen how such responses occur in real life. All of that makes one of the earliest depictions of a Black president, the 1972 made-for-TV movie The Man, all the more compelling.
Directed by Joseph Sargent and written by Twilight Zone creator Rod Serling, The Man stars James Earl Jones as Senate president pro tempore Douglass Dilman. After the President and Speaker of the House die in a building collapse, and the Vice President discloses a terminal illness, Dilman is next in the line of succession. A humble man who understands that greatness has been thrust upon him, Dilman does his best to overcome the skepticism against him. Although frank in its depiction of American racism, The Man believes that even hatred can be overcome by the example of a good man doing a difficult job well.
Dave Kovic
Dave (1993)
Like President Dilman, Dave Kovic also had greatness thrust upon him and also was judged according to his looks, but with very different circumstances. Dave Kovic, played by Kevin Kline, is a temp agency manager who moonlights as a look-alike for President Bill Mitchell (also Kline) for parties and other events. Dave is so good, in fact, that the Secret Service asks him to stand in for President Mitchell after a speech. And then, when Mitchell dies during a tryst, Kovic has to permanently play Mitchell while the president’s men come up with a solution.
From Dave‘s somewhat absurd premise, director Ivan Reitman and writer Gary Ross tell a sweet, optimistic tale about an everyman who ascends to the Oval Office. A fundamentally decent guy, Dave spends the first half of the movie winning over those frustrated by Mitchell, including his wife Ellen (Sigourney Weaver). But the real power comes when the political movers try to shove Dave out and return to business as usual, threatened by a good man in power.
Andrew Shepherd
The American President (1995)
Written by Aaron Sorkin and directed by Rob Reiner, The American President plays like a dry run for The West Wing, right down to Martin Sheen playing the Leo McGarry role of the president’s Chief of Staff. But Reiner emphasizes the more romantic elements, the story of a single father in the White House, President Andrew Shepherd (Michael Douglas), who courts environmental lobbyist Sydney Ellen Wade (Annette Bening).
Unsurprisingly from the guy who made The Princess Bride, Reiner brings a fairy-tale quality to the romantic plot, played with old-school charm by the leads. But when the movie turns to hard questions about political compromise and policy decisions, the fantasy becomes more pronounced, as Sorkin makes Andrew Shepherd into the prototype for West Wing president Jed Bartlet: principled, passionate, and compassionate.
Thomas J. Whitmore
Independence Day (1996)
Really, being a good movie president comes down to two things: taking action and giving a great speech. The 1996 alien-invasion/disaster flick Independence Day may have a ton of problems, but it gets these two things right with its president, Thomas J. Whitmore, played by Bill Pullman. The first half of the movie sets up the precarious state of affairs for Whitmore, a former Air Force pilot whose youth and inexperience opens him up to attacks from the opposition. The second half of the movie shows us just what kind of person he is.
Of course, Independence Day comes from schlock auteur Roland Emmerich, who co-wrote the script with producer Dean Devlin. So Whitmore proves his worth not by navigating a deadlocked Congress or crafting a complicated bill, but by shooting down aliens with his fighter jet, and by giving a dumb but rousing speech about global independence day. But, you know what? At least he gets off his butt and does something, which is more than some real presidents can say.
Heidi Klum May Have Just Spoiled The Batman II in a Very Roundabout Fashion
The Batman: Part IIis arguably the most anticipated comic book movie adaptation in some time, and yet it’s been hit with a volley of issues and delays. Director Matt Reeves briefly paused production due to a family matter, tapping Steven Soderbergh to finish principal photography. The recent Paramount/Warner Bros. merger means that The Batman: Part II will be debuting in a movie landscape that’s already gone through massive upheavals. And now, a set of photos might have revealed the villains that will be menacing Robert Pattinson’s Dark Knight. Surprisingly, however, the leak came from someone who isn’t even in the movie.
This Halloween saw some creative celebrity costumes, especially when it comes to comic books, but the person that truly embraced the spooky spirit is model and businesswoman Heidi Klum, who dressed up as a severed hand. Her makeup team, including Mike Marino of Prosthetic Renaissance (who worked on The Batman), posted behind-the-scenes photos of the work that went into making this costume to Instagram. And, in one photo posted by The Makeup Armory, eagle-eyed fans immediately spotted several character molds of actors appearing in The Batman: Part II. What’s more, the now-deleted photo seems to confirm who’s playing who. Check them out below via @TheBatmanSagaNW and also…
Beware Potential Spoilers
Heidi Klum’s Halloween makeup team has seemingly accidentally spoiled some major character secrets for ‘THE BATMAN: PART 2’ 👀🦇
• Brian Tyree Henry as Two-Face 🎭 • Sebastian Stan as Victor Zsasz 👩🦲 • Court Of Owls Mask 🦉 • Sebastian Koch will also have makeup ❔ pic.twitter.com/DmAk90COfy
First up, a mold of Brian Tyree Henry was shown with heavy scarring around one side of his mouth. This all but confirms that Henry is going to play Harvey Dent a.k.a. Two-Face. Dent is arguably one of the most tragic villains in the Batman mythos, due to being friends with the Dark Knight and Jim Gordon before being horrifically scarred by the mob. Henry’s incredible performance as Megatron in Transformers One proves that he’s capable of such a shift.
Two-Face’s presence in The Batman: Part II also implies that Reeves is continuing to draw inspiration from Batman: The Long Halloween by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale. The Long Halloween is considered to be one of the best Batman stories ever published, thanks to its exploration of the shifting crime scene in Gotham City and the tragic fall of Harvey Dent. Reeves previously named it as one of three inspirations that helped shape The Batman, so it’s great to see that influence spreading into a sequel.
Next is a head mold for Sebastian Stan, showcasing a series of scars around the neck and face. Those scars hint that Stan is playing Victor Zsasz, who might be one of the most disturbing foes Batman’s ever faced. Zsasz originally started out life similar to Bruce Wayne, even losing his rich parents in a freak boating accident. But while Wayne took the pain of his parents’ murder and used it to fuel his desire for justice as Batman, Zsasz grew insanely nihilistic and decided to become a killer. What makes him stand out is that he carves a tally mark into his flesh for each life he takes. Fans who are used to seeing Stan as Bucky Barnes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe are in for a shock, while other moviegoers will continue to recognize that this man has serious range.
Perhaps the item that stands out the most in the workshop is a mask that comic fans will immediately recognize as belonging to the Court of Owls. The Court were the first antagonists in Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo’s Batman run, revealed to be a secret society that’s shaped Gotham City for years. The Court often employs “Talons,” undead assassins that carry out their work; given that Reeves has kept a more grounded tone for The Batman, it remains to be seen if that part of the story will be adapted on screen. The story of The Batman: Part II has been shrouded in mystery, but Heidi Klum wound up shining light on some of this movie’s shadows.
The West Wing’s Cheesiness Is Needed Now More Than Ever
Like all television pilots, the first episode ofThe West Wing has to introduce all of its characters, both their names and personalities. So the cold open of The West Wing‘s pilot gives us handsome Sam Seaborn (Rob Lowe) picking up a woman in a bar, motormouth press secretary C.J. Cregg (Allison Janney) jabbering about work/life balance while on a treadmill, crotchety Leo McGarry (John Spencer) crabbing about an error in the New York Times crossword, oddball Josh Lyman (Bradley Whitford) asleep at his desk at the office, and know-it-all Toby Ziegler (Richard Schiff) explaining to flight attendants why he should be able to use his cell phone on the plane.
The one thing that connects them is the word “POTUS,” specifically the message, “POTUS in a bicycle accident.” Each vignette treats the term like a special secret, building up to the point that Sam explains that it’s not a name, but an acronym: President of the United States. The pomp and circumstance, the smarty-pants approach to a fairly common term is just one example of the ways that The West Wing has aged poorly. But these days, when cynicism about the American government could not be higher, The West Wing‘s self-satisfied cheesiness isn’t just tolerable; it’s necessary.
In That White House
Nothing demonstrates the problems and promise of The West Wing better than the season 2 episode, “In This White House” (first aired, October 25, 2000), which introduces ongoing character Ainsley Hayes. Played by Emily Procter, Ainsley Hayes is a variation of what modern viewers recognize as a standard Fox News type, an attractive young blonde conservative who makes a splash on a Meet The Press-style roundtable show.
In the cold open to the episode, written by creator Aaron Sorkin and directed by Ken Olin, the show host condescends to Ainsley, urging her not to overreach when going up against a powerhouse like Sam. And then, as soon as the show begins, she proceeds to pummel Sam on substantive issues, much to the delight of the rest of the main cast, who watch from the Oval Office. “Did I overreach?” asks a satisfied and victorious Ainsley, bringing us into the main theme.
The rest of the episode sees President Bartlet (Martin Sheen) ordering his Chief of Staff Leo to offer Ainsley a job, precisely because he, as Leo puts it when he extends the offer to Ainsley, “the president likes smart people who disagree with him.” The rest of the staff doesn’t quite share the president’s ethos of reaching across the aisle, leading to comic moments in which C.J. has an outburst in front of her coworkers and Josh’s needling of Sam turns into genuine anger against Ainsley. For her part, Ainsley insists she won’t take the job, expressing her distaste for the “smug” Bartlet administration, a point her fellow conservatives bring up with not a few smirks of their own.
However, Ainsley’s trepidation fades via the episode’s B- and C-plots. In the former, President Nimbala (Zakes Mokae), of the fictional African country Equatorial Kundu, visits the White House to broker a deal for lower-cost AIDS drugs for his people. Thanks to Toby’s efforts, the president is able to convince pharmaceutical companies to lower their prices, provided that Nimbala’s administration agrees to certain economic rules. However, before Nimbala can go home to enact the deal, Bartlet learns that a coup has occurred in Equatorial Kundu, overthrowing Nimbala and killing his brother and two sons. Finally, in the C-plot, C.J. misspeaks to someone in the press corps, making her fear that she’s going to be called in front of a grand jury.
The C-plot mostly serves as an excuse for comedic bits of C.J. stressing out. Thus, it resolves fairly easy, when a compassionate Ainsley sees a stressed-out C.J. and offers some kind advice, relieving her worries. The Nimbala plot doesn’t resolve easily, with the President choosing to refuse the president’s offer of asylum and return to his country, despite the fact that he’ll likely be executed on the spot. However, the president’s compassion and leadership during the crisis wins over Ainsley, who not only accepts the job, but tells off her conservative colleagues for mocking the administration.
All and all, it’s top-level dramatic entertainment. The characters have easy chemistry, and Sorkin’s dialogue still sparkles today. And, in a vacuum, the stakes of the various plots have weight, all expertly acted by the cast. But once you view the episode in light of today’s politics, the episode plays much differently than it did in 2000.
Not Our White House
Watching “In This White House” today, it’s hard to not roll your eyes, if not outright wretch at some of the plot points. Throughout the episode, Ainsley takes exception to the very idea that she would choose a cushy commentator job on a news channel over the real work of politics. Yet, we have seen politicians do that very thing time and again, perhaps most famously when Sarah Palin parleyed her surprise vice presidential nomination in 2008 to appearances on Fox News and a show on TLC. Whether selling supplements or building their online brand, figures such as Glen Beck, Milo Yiannopoulos, and Alex Jones stoke right-wing anger for financial profit, hurting real people.
On the other end, the B-plot stinks of Western arrogance, portraying African countries as unstable and chaotic, especially compared to the relative stability of the US. Yes, Democrats and Republicans disagree, sometimes virulently, but they don’t murder one another. Even worse, the introduction to President Nimbala comes via one of the series’ patented walk and talks, with Leo and Bartlet discussing with irritation real South African president Thabo Mbeki’s comments about HIV, reducing a complicated issue to an opportunity to show off the intelligence of the main characters.
But easily the most grating part of the episode involves the treatment of the two parties. Ainsley believes in small government, low taxes, and economic initiatives for businesses. She disagrees with the Bartlet administration on significant issues, but she can be swayed by the force of a better argument. Throughout the episode, and Ainsley’s entire time on the show, conservatives are simply good, reasonable people with a different point of view, as are liberals. If they could just stop and hear one another out, everyone would get along.
Which is, of course, ridiculous to anyone who has been paying attention to American politics for the past 26 years. And that’s why The West Wing matters.
A Fantasy of Service
The West Wing wasn’t realistic in 2000, and it certainly isn’t realistic now. Sure, they’ll reference real-world positions in government, and will name-drop real leaders. But the show always existed more in the realm of fantasy than gritty realism. President Bartlet exists in the same way that Superman exists, a reflection of our aspirations and desires, not of people we actually know and see.
As aspirational fantasy, The West Wing shows what we wish from our government. From the president to aide Charlie Young (Dulé Hill) to the opposition, everyone on The West Wing is extremely smart and devoted. They know the ins and outs of their job, and they want nothing more than to execute it to the best of their abilities. At a moment’s notice, they’re ready to deliver impassioned speeches on even arcane topics. Toby runs himself ragged trying to convince drug companies to aid Nambala’s people, shouting down anyone who downplays the human suffering involved. President Bartlet expresses both compassion and leadership when informing President Nambala about what has happened.
But the best moment occurs when Leo completes his recruitment pitch to Ainsley. After listening to all of her concerns, Leo puts the matter bluntly. “The President is asking you to serve your country,” he tells her, and even without the music sting and camera push that follows, we understand the weight of his words, as does Ainsley.
Unrealistic? Yes. Cheesy? Indisputably. But as we trudge to the polls and watch the results in trepidation, we’ll be hit with reminders of the world as it is. The West Wing points us to a better world. Not a perfect world, but one in which people consider public service an unquestionable good, where the president acts with dignity, and where smart people are in charge. Until we can make it happen in the real world, The West Wing is a useful, if cheesy, reminder that things can, and should, be better.
Taika Waititi Should Take a Page from M. Night Shyamalan
Taika Waititi had a bad weekend. It’s not just that his latest film, Klara and the Sun, released to disastrous reviews so bad that Sony canceled a wider global release; it’s also that he went to social media, reposting an article about Klara and the Sun‘s 78% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, along with a self-aggrandizing statement. “I haven’t read a review of anything aimed at me or my peers in almost 15 years,” he wrote, going on to describe critics as “sad lost souls who couldn’t achieve their dreams of becoming artists,” and are now “Irrelevant. Out of touch. Obsolete. In the bin.” Conversely, Waititi claimed he does “listen to the people,” a claim undercut by the fact that he disabled comments on his post.
Waititi is hardly the first filmmaker to position himself as a populist after less-than-favorable reviews. But he may find it more constructive to try a different approach, one followed by a filmmaker who went from beloved auteur to critic fodder to now a reliably safe bet: M. Night Shyamalan.
Although his debut pictures Eagle vs Shark (2007) and especially Boy (2010) received more fanfare than Shyamalan’s first two movies, Praying with Anger (1992) and Wide Awake (1998), both directors enjoyed breakthroughs on their third feature, The Sixth Sense (1999) and What We Do in the Shadows (2014), respectively. From there, Shyamalan was declared “the Next Spielberg,” delivering well-received thrillers such as Unbreakable (2000) and Signs (2002). But by the time that The Village hit in 2004, critics grew tired of the conventions in Shyamalan’s work, particularly his stilted dialogue, the airlessness of his movies, and an over-reliance on twists.
Waititi followed What We Do in the Shadows with Hunt for the Wilderpeople in 2016, a mostly slice-of-life drama with absurdist edges, and then became a household name with 2017’s Thor: Ragnarok, still recognized as one of the best MCU entries. Although the strange Holocaust dramady Jojo Rabbit (2019) split audiences and critics, it received multiple Oscar nominations, including a win for Best Adapted Screenplay. From there, however, it was all downhill for Waititi, as Thor: Love and Thunder (2022) was met with a lukewarm reaction, and the 2023 soccer comedy Next Goal Wins barely made a ripple in the larger consciousness. And we all know what’s happened with Klara and the Sun.
It’s hard to pinpoint what, exactly, went wrong for Waititi. A controversial Oscar player will always be met with blowback, so it’s no surprise that some critics and audiences were angered by Jojo Rabbit‘s success. Further, Thor: Love and Thunder hit just as superhero fatigue set in, as audiences have grown tired of even a more unconventional entry in the genre. Finally, Waititi himself became something of a celebrity, perhaps overestimating the public’s interest in him as a figure. For many, rumors about his love life and lackluster performances (see: the noxious riffing he does as a cool boss in the Ryan Reynolds comedy Free Guy) made Waititi an irritant, despite the success of the TV series What We Do in the Shadows and Our Flag Means Death.
In short, Waititi became too big, too hyped, and too separated from what he does best. The exact same thing happened to Shyamalan, who went from small, somewhat sappy genre pictures with a nasty edge, to bloated, high-concept messes like The Last Airbender (2010) and After Earth (2013).
By the time What We Do in the Shadows hit theaters, M. Night Shyamalan was a byword among movie fans, an utter joke. Yet, he’s managed to recover, to the point that all of his movies do fairly well, and fans are waiting with excitement for his next picture, Remain, a collaboration with romance author Nicholas Sparks, of all people.
How did things turn around for Shyamalan? It wasn’t lashing out at critics, even though he did do some of that. In his most self-indulgent film, Lady in the Water (2006), in which he cast himself as the world’s most important storyteller, Shymalan also cast Bob Balaban as a bitter, snotty critic, one who gets justly mauled by the movie’s monster.
Rather, it was by going small again. To hear him tell it, he had to learn to be scared again. Starting with the nasty little found-footage movie The Visit (2015), Shyamalan has mortgaged his house to fund his movies, betting entirely on himself instead of a studio. But for us viewers, Shymalan has simply gone back to doing what he does best. There’s no more talk of him being Spielberg, no more sticking his name on too many undeveloped projects. He makes small-scale horror movies that are kind of sweet, kind of nasty, and totally idiosyncratic.
Not everyone can accept the open-hearted absurdity of Old (2021) or the utter disregard of realism in Trap (2024). But there are enough people on Shyamalan’s wavelength for those movies to keep making money, almost completely redeeming the reputation he seemed to have lost.
Waititi can do the same. What We Do in the Shadows has been his most enduring property, even more so than the blockbuster hit Thor: Ragnarok, but Hunt for the Wilderpeople is likely the model that Waititi needs to follow: A simple story about his native New Zealand, something he knows well and most others do not. The movie has a strong emotional core, anchored by great performances from the late Sam Neill and young actor Julian Dennison, with still room for Waititi himself to come in and be weird.
Shyamalan managed to shrug off the colossal expectations placed upon him and get back to the business of making movies that only he could make. There’s no reason to believe that Waititi couldn’t do the same. Critics were the biggest champions of his first movies, urging “the people” to whom he now appeals to go check out Boy, What We Do in the Shadows, and Hunt for Wilderpeople. And if he makes another unique picture like those, we critics will be back to urge people to check them out.
But to do that, Waititi needs to stop worrying about social media, stop telling us he doesn’t care about critics, and stop being a public figure. He just needs to do what Shyamalan does and make his movie. If it’s good, critics will be his biggest supporters again
I Stayed in a Haunted Airbnb Near Death Valley. Here’s What I Heard.
The owner saw him first: a grizzled, bearded man leaning around the refrigerator at 2 a.m., staring right at him. During my three nights in that same haunted Airbnb in Beatty, Nevada — the desert town known as the Gateway to Death Valley — I never saw the miner. But I may have heard him.
I made the Airbnb-hosted trip for a Halloween episode of Talking Strange, the paranormal pop culture show (check it out on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you find your favorite shows). Beatty is just shy of two hours from Las Vegas, and although it’s a popular stop for hikers and mountain bikers, it’s also a hub for spooky travelers with a haunted saloon, haunted old casino, a freaky underground church possibly connected to Charles Manson, and a ghost town up the hill.
The Haunted Miner Cabin Airbnb
Home base was three old miners’ cabins joined into one house downtown. Derek Stonebarger and his wife, Dorian, bought the property in 2020 and spent four years restoring it, a side project for the entrepreneur behind Las Vegas spots like ReBAR, Davy’s Locker, and the new art-filled Arty’s Steakhouse. Derek loves old historic bars, which is part of what kept drawing them back to Beatty. The cabins came from the boomtown of Rhyolite.
“Around 1925, so maybe 10 or 12 years after everybody had left Rhyolite, the cabins were brought down to… downtown Beatty,” Derek says.
Travel Nevada notes Rhyolite’s buildings were dismantled and moved as the town died. Today the house is miner chic, with rustic bones and modern guts. It has three bedrooms, two bathrooms (one with a whirlpool tub), and a full kitchen with a bar area. Out front is a big patio with a fire pit and plenty of spots to lounge, per the listing. There’s also a sealed room behind the bathroom wall hiding a historic shower. Derek left that corner alone. By then, he’d met his spectral housemate.
Around 2022, at 2 a.m., Derek — who admits he had a few drinks, and had never believed in ghosts — saw a figure lean around the fridge.
“We made eye contact. It felt like it took seven seconds,” Derek says. “And then, when I looked back, he was gone.” The experience changed him. “I was not really a believer, but I know now that there’s something,” he tells me.
He slept on the porch that night. The next morning, he told his wife, “Babe, I saw a ghost last night.” Dorian has never seen anything, but she still gets nervous when Derek falls asleep before her. Derek, meanwhile, can’t stop talking about it. “I’ve been telling people the story ever since, because I know it happened,” he says.
Renting the house out was never the plan, but after that night, he wanted to share it and let guests “see if they can find more… ghosts.”
He still pours the old miner a shot of whiskey before he leaves, and it’s usually somewhat gone when he returns. Maybe it’s evaporation.
As for me, I investigated the cabin, and also left a camera rolling in the empty cabin. Visually, I didn’t capture anything. But the audio caught pops, shifting, maybe a footfall. Could be an old house settling as the desert cools. I still can’t explain it. Then I sat by the fire pit under a sky that earns Beatty its spot on what Travel Nevada calls the Park to Park in the Dark route.
I’m not the only one poking around. The Ghost Adventures crew filmed at the cabin, the Sourdough Saloon, and the Exchange Club for an episode airing later this season.
Ghost Stories at the Sourdough Saloon
The Pahrump Valley Times says locals date the Sourdough to anywhere from the Rhyolite boom to the 1940s. Its ghost stories are less disputed. There’s the Shadow Man pacing one corner (Derek, who has invested in the bar, thinks it may be a reflection), an upstairs rumored to have been an illegal brothel, and, Derek says, several past owners who died in the building.
Bartender Hutch, who owns more than 200 sports jerseys and banters like a pro, tells me about a bartender who looked into the window’s reflection at closing and saw a man on the stool behind her. No one was there. In the back room, where cook Tim runs the kitchen, I felt a heavy vibe at least twice. Not scary, but heavy. When you go, order the pizza and the Sourdough Smuggler sandwich.
Voices in the Exchange Club
Across the street, the Exchange Club dates to 1906, per Travel Nevada, and now wears an ornate steampunk facade. Inside, staircases drop into the dark, and the upstairs, rumored to be a former brothel, still has what is believed to be the original once-colorful carpet.
My guide, electrician Danny, has never seen a ghost. But from his shop in the back, he hears voices. “It’s like people talking, like right outside my door,” Danny shares. He can make out a man and a woman, two or three different voices. He walks the building, but doesn’t encounter a living soul.
The Underground Church With Charles Manson Lore
Behind the Sourdough, an unplanned “follow me” led me through brush and down steps into an underground church with a dirt floor. Locals say Charles Manson frequented it. I couldn’t confirm that, though Manson was arrested at Barker Ranch in the Death Valley backcountry in 1969. It isn’t technically open to the public, but that doesn’t seem to stop any curious explorers. Touring this structure in the pitch black is a daunting and freaky task — as long as you don’t have any concerns about spiders.
Voices in the Rhyolite Ghost Town
Rhyolite boomed after Shorty Harris and Ed Cross found gold in 1904, with the town growing to about 5,000 people in six months, per Travel Nevada. The National Park Service calls the Panic of 1907 “the beginning of the end.” By 1920, 14 people remained. Karl Olson, its Bureau of Land Management caretaker, and unofficial mayor of the ghost town, knows the old maps by heart. Karl is yet another amazing character in the area, who loves talking about history, and trading strange-but-true tales of Rhyolite. And he’s clearly deeply passionate about preserving what’s left of the town.
“This place comes alive for me ’cause I know where they lived,” Karl tells me. “I’m actually going through time.”
Alone on Millionaire’s Hill, near the remnants of a fireplace and chimney, I heard mutterings and whispers. Not wind. I tried to engage. Nothing clear came back. Still, for a brief moment I felt like I had interrupted an old conversation between Rhyolite’s phantom residents.
Also don’t miss the Bottle House (made with reportedly 50,000 old bottles) or the ghostly Last Supper sculpture next door at the Goldwell Open Air Museum.
Death Valley: Artists Palette, Mesquite Dunes, Mosaic Canyon
The National Park Service credits Artists Palette’s rainbow hills to iron oxides and chlorite. The Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes feel like another planet — fittingly, they stood in for Tatooine in Star Wars: A New Hope. In Mosaic Canyon, polished marble narrows go eerily silent, and a raven followed me in like a chatty guide as I scrambled up rocks on the moderate-to-challenging hike. No ghosts were encountered on my outdoor adventures in Death Valley, but the area was imposing and magical.
Tips for Visiting Beatty
In addition to the Sourdough, eat at Mama Sara’s for scratch-made burritos and fiery salsas, carry cash, and catch Beatty Days in late October. Come for the ghosts. Stay for the people, the pizza, and the stars.
Listen to the full Beatty episode of Talking Strange and my interview with Derek. Check out Talking Strange on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you check out your favorite shows. And don’t miss new episodes of my show Paranormal Caught On Camera on Travel Channel and HBO Max.
SNL’s Greatest Legacy May Be In The Competition It Inspired
Saturday Night Live‘s cultural imprint is unquestionably massive, as is the list of comedy stars who have come through the show in its 52 seasons. But the new documentary, SCTV: The Greatest Show You’ve Never Heard Of, reminds us of a lesser-known legacy: the many competing shows it inspired.
Launched in 1975, SNL took the world by storm with the help of Second City Toronto alums Dan Aykroyd and Gilda Radner. Second City Television (eventually shortened to SCTV) started a year later in response, giving remaining troupe members an outlet. But the two shows were vastly different.
With its “live from New York” setting, celebrity hosts, and musical guests, SNL presented as a high-wire spectacle with a weekly hook. SCTV, on the other hand, was taped from Toronto without the added star power or crossover appeal. A smaller-scale alternative driven solely by comedy, it was felt more deeply than widely, with interconnected sketches lampooning cheesy pop culture conventions.
Though SCTV launched to keep Toronto’s finest comedy minds from migrating south, SNL still looked at it as a possible talent pool. There’s a story in the doc about a “disaster” of an audition in which SNL creator Lorne Michaels brought in SCTV stars John Candy, Joe Flaherty, and Dave Thomas. It did not go well. “After this horrible set, we went to Lorne’s table. He didn’t say anything,” recounts Thomas in the doc before archival footage shows a Candy interview where he jokes that there must have been “something wrong with [Michaels’] throat because he couldn’t talk. Either that or he was very rude.” It’s a rejection that SCTV co-creator and producer Andrew Alexander says Candy was “stung deeply by.”
Michaels would have a much stronger connection with the next great sketch group to hail from his native Canada.
The New Kids And Lorne’s Growing Influence
When Michaels returned to run SNL in its 11th season, he brought “Kids in the Hall” troupe members Bruce McCulloch and Mark McKinney with him as writers. And while that didn’t take, Michaels later produced the full group’s sketch series. The Kids in the Hall had a vastly different sensibility than SNL; daring, dark, and occasionally cinematic in its influences and output.
Like SCTV, the Kids In The Hall series didn’t qualify as a ratings hit, but it inspired religious devotion among its fans in the early ‘90s (and beyond).
While not a sketch show, the Michaels-produced Late Night with Conan O’Brien warrants a mention for its connections to SNL (O’Brien and head writer Robert Smigel), its penchant for using sketches and characters to establish its absurdist tone, and the role it played in introducing Amy Poehler and the Upright Citizens Brigade to audiences.
An Era Of Controversy And Competition
From Andrew Dice Clay-inspired boycotts to the Sinead O’Connor pope photo tearing, and a blistering New York Magazine takedown, the ‘90s were SNL’s toughest decade.
High-profile cast members like Adam Sandler, Chris Farley, and Norm Macdonald were pushed out at the insistence of network execs. Other big-name additions to the cast proved underutilized or a poor fit, like Janeane Garofalo, Sarah Silverman, and Chris Rock.
The ‘90s also opened the floodgates, and SNL faced real competition from numerous comers.
With its focus on obscure pop culture references, The Ben Stiller Show shares more stylistic DNA with SCTV than SNL, but the connection remained. Stiller had left the mothership after just four episodes because he wanted to direct short filmed sketches. Ben Stiller Show cast member and writer Bob Odenkirk had a much longer, though somewhat tumultuous, run as a writer on SNL.
Despite winning an Emmy, the short-lived Ben Stiller Show’s most enduring legacy may be that it’s where Odenkirk first teamed up with his Mr. Show partner, David Cross. That show, which featured eventual alt-comedy stars like Scott Aukerman, Brian Posehn, Paul F. Tompkins, Jack Black, and Silverman, often ranks near the top of lists of the best sketch shows of all time.
The State is another ‘90s gem with long-lasting influence thanks to the work of David Wain and Michael Showalter as filmmakers. While the show seemed more traditional than Stiller’s creation, it was sneakily subversive. The State targeted the same younger audience as SNL, but it had substantially more bite.
While cable showed the greatest appetite for boundary-pushing sketch comedy, Fox was also heavily invested in taking the fight to NBC and SNL. Created in 1990 by Keenen Ivory Wayans, In Living Color broadened the opportunities and storytelling present in a genre often distressingly devoid of non-white male actors and writers. Starring Wayans, his sister Kim, his brother Damon (who had previously been fired by SNL), David Alan Grier, and Jim Carrey, the show flourished.
With uproarious comedy and recurring characters like Homey D. Clown and Fire Marshal Bill, In Living Color was better at being SNL than SNL, particularly to anyone under age 30. It was also an incredible launchpad, with Carrey (who had failed to land SNL in multiple auditions) becoming the biggest box-office star in the world. This was followed by Sandler stepping into his own as a movie star and Rock becoming the most relevant stand-up comic in the game. SNL’s misses and early exits were making a lot of noise.
While In Living Color earned praise and buzz at the start of the ‘90s, Mad TV came in mid-decade as its replacement, a direct competitor to SNL airing on Saturdays at 11 p.m. While the show had its fans and success stories (namely Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele, who went on to create Key & Peele), it’s not on the same comedic level as these other shows. Still, its original run lasted 14 seasons, and it definitely pushed SNL.
Chappelle, I Think You Should Leave, And SNL’s Relic Phase
Rivaling the kind of provocative comedy SNL practiced at its inception, Chappelle’s Show also had a rare gift for driving word of mouth with memorable sketches. Clayton Bigsby, The Player Haters’ Ball, and Charlie Murphy’s True Hollywood Stories all hit before the advent of YouTube and social media. That ability to travel and endure speaks to the quality of sketches that could have never found a place on a more conservative show like SNL.
Former SNL cast member Tim Robinson’s I Think You Should Leave is the closest thing to Chappelle’s Show in terms of virality, leaning on Robinson’s specific comedic awkwardness. In an era where reaching a niche audience is more permissible than ever, something like I Think You Should Leave has a level of cachet that something mainstream like SNL can’t hope to attain. Especially when its tools are limited to stunt casting, shock value, and uninspired political comedy in an era of unmatched real political absurdity. Add sponcon sketches, and myriad ways for young comics to get exposure outside the SNL pipeline, and it’s clear SNL needs some kind of reinvention. Even its U.K. spinoff seems fresher and livelier by comparison.
That said, I want to be a little kind to SNL in the end. David Letterman’s Late Night was a response to Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show. The result was a chaotic, rule-breaking form of comedy that has influenced everything from the shows in this article to Hot Ones.
Similarly, none of these additional sketch shows get the chance to impact comedy culture without an SNL to react to and rebel against. While that sounds like a slight, it’s actually a tribute to SNL, extending its legacy beyond its own (still impressive) historical output and making it part of a larger portrait of comedy in the 20th and 21st centuries.
SCTV: The Greatest Show You’ve Never Heard Of is available to stream on Netflix now.
The eBay Most Wanted Collection Auction Celebrates Car Culture in Gaming
eBay Live is expanding into automotive sales while celebrating the history of cars in video games, including titles like the upcoming Grand Theft Auto VI. To commemorate this, eBay Live has unveiled its eBay Most Wanted Collection, four cars going up for auction in a livestream hosted by Fast & Furious star and noted automotive enthusiast Sung Kang alongside automotive influencer and creator Hert. With 100% of the proceeds going to charity, benefiting the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation and Kang’s own history shopping through eBay for his own personal car collection, hosting the event was a no-brainer.
“eBay is really important for my personal car builds because most of the cars that I mess with are pretty old and the parts are no longer offered by OEM [original equipment manufacturer]. So I use them for rare parts,” shares Kang in an interview with Den of Geek. “With eBay (and I’m not just saying this because I’m working with them), it’s 100% secure. Everyone has dreams of creating their dream build. For these rare parts, I always tell everybody to go on eBay because they’ll find it. You can find anything there and it’s always secure.”
More than just talking to Sung Kang about the eBay Most Wanted Collection event, we got to test-drive each of the four cars being sold through the auction for ourselves. The cars included in the collection are a 1975 Chevrolet Supernova, a 1992 BMW 325i convertible, a 2006 Dodge Viper, and a 2022 Chevrolet Corvette C8, each modified to be the coolest cars on the road. All four cars handled beautifully and could easily fit in the high-octane worlds of classic car games like Midnight Club or Need for Speed. Each of the auctions for the cars start at $6, making the event accessible to hardcore automotive aficionados and newcomers looking to dive into car culture alike.
In getting to drive the cars around Los Angeles streets and obstacle courses testing our skills, each of these cars handled marvelously, with the Corvette being a particular favorite of mine. Both the Corvette and the Nova have automatic transmissions while I had to remember my old manual transmission know-how to drive the BMW and Viper, having not had to drive a stick-shift for over a decade. In getting to drive these vehicles, I recalled my own love of cars, rooted in movies like Bullitt and James Bond in addition to games like Forza Horizon and, of course, Gran Turismo and Grand Theft Auto.
For Kang, his interest in cars began when he was a kid, struggling to fit in with his peers, before he encountered a Korean War veteran in his neighborhood who was constantly working on his 1969 Chevrolet Impala SS. The man became a mentor to Kang, patiently answering questions from the young boy visiting his garage, with Kang noting that this figure taught him to value things under the hood rather than just on the surface. These insights have informed in all walks of life as he’s grown older and into his career and something he tries to impart to others that he meets.
“Unbeknownst to me then, he was teaching me what an honor it is to be a caretaker for these old cars. That Impala was the best of him. He put his nostalgia, his history, his love, his passion into it and he was able to use it as a tool of mentorship for me,” Kang recalls. “You can apply those lessons in life, as I have as I’ve gotten older and become a filmmaker. Those are lessons that I try to pass down to other people that are getting into car culture today when I meet them.”
The eBay Most Wanted Collection Auction is as inclusive as these automotive events get, serving as a full on celebration of car culture, with a particular emphasis on the legacy of cars and gaming. This intersection of passionate fandoms is what the event is all about and that its proceeds are going to a great cause makes this a can’t-miss afternoon for anyone who’s ever dreamed about driving the super stylish rides that gamers enjoy in any number of high-octane titles. It’s this celebration of the community around cars that particularly appeals to Kang, something he’s gotten to experience on a global level through his work starring in the Fast & Furious movies.
“We as humans need something to connect with,” Kang observes. “We need a community. Maybe it’s because we all have a car story. Every single human being has been in a car at one time. But as opposed to the car, it’s the memory that you have in the car. That’s something that’s just global. I’ve realized through the Fast & Furious franchise, the privilege I’ve had is that I’ve gotten to meet the global car community. I’ve got a garage clicker to everyone’s car story. It’s been really cool.”
Folks, start your engines. The eBay Most Wanted Collection Auction is set to be the automotive sales event of the year with a killer starting bid.
The eBay Most Wanted Collection Auction on eBay Live at SEMA begins at 3pm ET on Thursday, November 5 through eBay Live. Those interested cancheck out the collection hereand set a reminder.
Patrick Stewart: A Man Who Bridged Our Past with the Future
I only ever saw Sir Patrick Stewart once in person. It was on stage at the Cort Theatre in New York City, where he starred opposite his late-in-life best friend Sir Ian McKellen. Rife with humor, but also the crushing existential misery that makes Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot such a challenge, both for performers and often the audience, Stewart’s performance as Vladimir brought a sense of affectionate doddering to a man waiting for everything and nothing—life to have a point, or for death to end it.
Admittedly though, I was in the audience for a matinee particularly to observe Stewart and McKellen at the top of their craft. As has become an increasingly common phenomenon in 21st century theater, theirs was a casting that brought metatextual baggage and delight, with Stewart and McKellen having famously played frenemies for decades in the 20th Century Fox era of X-Men movies. While the characters of Charles Xavier (Stewart) and Erik Lehnsherr (McKellen) have existed on the page for 60 years, it was the real undying bromance of Stewart and McKellen, two classically trained stage actors, which gave their superhero material a gravitas still rare in the cape genre, be it comics or on-screen.
I’ve thought a bit about that over the last day while mourning the loss of Sir Patrick, who passed away this week at the age of 86. A thoroughly British performer who grew up in the provisional part of Yorkshire during the rough rebuilding years of the mid-20th century following the Second World War, Stewart discovered acting as an outlet and escape. He used it to quite literally reinvent himself. It’s thus always a marvel to remember so much of his refined diction and presence was a presence he honed over many years, particularly while working for the Royal Shakespeare Company during the 1960s and ‘70s.
Yet something I fear many take for granted when they think of Stewart’s most beloved roles—be it Jean-Luc Picard of the Starship Enterprise or the aforementioned Professor Xavier of the X-Men franchise—is that here was a genuinely classical actor who made us feel better about the future via reminding us of our past.
In some sense, this could be quite literal. Recall that Stewart worked with the Vivien Leigh (if you haven’t, please watch his lovely reverie of Scarlett O’Hara) and Orson Welles. He genuinely was a link to the glories of a different world. But in a grander notion, he is also a product of a theatrical tradition that goes back centuries. That includes Leigh and her tempestuous union with Sir Laurence Olivier, but it also goes back to the literal times of William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe, dramatists who used the English language to reveal the joys and sorrows, and even the silliness of what it means to be alive.
One of Stewart’s earliest screen roles, and still among his best performances, is as Sejanus, the Roman Praetorian Prefect in I, Caudius, a man who might have begun his slow power grab with the noblest of intentions. Opposite the likes of Derek Jacobi as the titular “dumb” Roman Emperor, John Hurt as the far more sadistic Caligula, and Siân Phillips as a divinely evil empress-in-the-wings, Livia, the series is still a near obscene showcase of British thespians who’d rotate their seasons between the West End and the BBC.
Among this company, Stewart’s gift was always being able to find the pathos and empathy in the material, making hard, even morally dubious men like Sejanus, pitiable. Through the lens of Ancient Rome, it’s the stuff of tragedy, but in his most famous roles, he built a glistening vision of the future.
While Star Trek has always offered a vision of the 24th century that is shimmering in its promise of better days, and a case can easily be made that the original Star Trek series with Kirk, Spock, and Bones, will always reign supreme, it was Stewart’s Picard and the more egalitarian (if faintly patrician) tone he set on the Enterprise bridge that made Gene Roddenberry’s dream of tomorrow seem tangible. Star Trek: The Next Generation asked Stewart to partake in some occasionally ludicrous scenarios—did you see the episode where he went back in time and became Robin Hood?—but he always treated it with the weight and grandeur of Shakespeare or Beckett.
This might be even better crystallized in what he and Ian McKellen achieved in the original 2000 X-Men movie. Now a bit of a relic of its time, caught between the bombastic excesses of ‘90s action movies and the modern reinvention of the superhero subgenre that occurred a few years later, courtesy of Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man, the original X-Men trilogy is stuck somewhere between those poles, especially in its first installment. The characters wear the black leather of The Matrix and speak of mutation like this is a sci-fi thriller dystopia.
But it is again the performances, including Hugh Jackman but most magnanimously Stewart, that gives that first X-Men a dramatic heft and grounding that escapes many of the far more expensive superhero movies of today. The film’s dated and the special effects are stilted, as is its barebones screenplay, but Stewart makes the dream of Charles Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters seem miraculous; a genuine sanctuary for marginalized and ostracized children who sadly remain a timeless staple in any era.
On the comic book page, Xavier is actually quite aloof and a little bit cold, depending on the writer, but Stewart’s unbounded warmth and deep reservoirs of empathy blow past any such characterization. His Xavier is too kind and preternaturally fatherly to ever be a jerk, even when poor screenplay choices in the likes of X-Men 3 attempt to frame him that high-handed way.
It was almost superhuman how Stewart could imbue any material with hope and humanity. It came from deeply knowing our roots, at least in the great English dramaturgical tradition, and infusing it into stories of tomorrow. Whether science fiction television, or a superhero genre at its absolute nadir following the campy histrionics of Batman & Robin, Stewart saw it all with the potential of the Bard and made you believe in something better. He will be missed.
Mama Bear Explained: What Curry Barker’s New Horror Short Is Really About
This article contains spoilers for Mama Bear.
Horror fans’ latest obsession is back with a new short film. Just days before Halloween, Obsession director Curry Barker returned to his original format with Mama Bear, a five-minute short film that once again deals with the supernatural and a cursed relationship.
But unlike Obsession, Mama Bear isn’t quite as clear in its plot, let alone its themes. No need to waste a One Wish Willow hoping to understand it. We’re here to explain the story of Mama Bear and what it could mean.
Mama Bear Plot Synopsis
Mama Bear opens with blackness and the sounds of Jazzersize, a cheesy version of Van Halen’s “Jump” playing from an exercise show on the television. The first visual we see is that of Floyd (Jon Lee Richardson), a young man in a cleaning company uniform dozing on the couch of a stately home, a collection of neglected supplies waiting next to him. The camera lurches forward as Floyd’s phone starts buzzing, getting closer with each ring until its sleepy owner finally answers.
The voice on the other end immediately shocks Floyd awake, warning that a woman named Lacey (Katie Sarife) is coming to kill him because she doesn’t care about the justice system. A clearly confused Floyd demands an explanation, but the other person provides none, just simply ranting about how much he loves Floyd and believes in justice, even if Lacey does not. The voice pauses just long enough to let out something like a chuckle, which Floyd takes as indication that this is all a joke, allowing himself to exhale. The voice quickly disabuses him of that notion and demands to know Floyd’s location. When Floyd answers “the Wilsons,” the voice mutters, “We’ve got him,” and hangs up.
At this point, Floyd begins to take notice of all the signs he missed. He sees multiple missed calls from Lacey and his mother, and a voicemail from the former that consists of little more than screaming. Floyd’s phone dies before he can play more, and, while he searches for a way to charge, he sees three things: a trail of blood on the floor, a bloody wrench on the table, and a shadowy figure (Joshua Snyder) in the corner. A startled Floyd demands answers from the figure, who gives no answer, only takes disconcerting and unnatural shapes.
Then, Mrs. Wilson (Ericka Kreuz) arrives, chatting on her phone about an impending divorce and insisting that her ex can have “Milo” instead of the house. She’s shocked to see Floyd still there, and even more shocked by the blood and the presence of the shadowy figure. She shuts the door as Floyd tries to explain that he has no idea what’s going on, which she takes calmly but with concern, especially when the voice on the other end of the phone starts giving directions.
Before she can follow the advice of the voice, a gunshot blows open the door and in strides Lacey, still in her pajamas and her face distorted by tears and anger. She demands to know why Floyd did what he did, and Floyd insists he cannot answer and does not know. Unsatisfied, Lacey begins shooting wildly at Floyd, sending him crawling behind a couch. There, Floyd once again insists that he doesn’t know anything, but Lacey won’t hear it. She fires multiple times into the couch, cutting through Floyd.
That’s when the shadowy figure emerges, showing himself in full. He looks like Floyd, covered in blood and flashing a cruel smile. Confused, but realizing she killed the wrong person, Lacey screams as we cut to black.
That’s what happened on screen. But what happened offscreen?
The Meaning of Mama Bear
Clearly, Lacey thinks that Floyd killed somebody close to her, presumably with the bloody wrench, and instead of waiting for the law to sort it out, she wants to take vengeance into her own hands. Also, the crime was notable enough that others heard about it, including Floyd’s mom, his friends, and possibly Mrs. Wilson’s lawyer, who may have been coaching her on how to handle the fact that Floyd was still in her house.
Furthermore, the crime must be horrific enough that Floyd’s friends would turn against him, using the pretense of caring about him to find out about his location and hunt him down.
Nothing in the movie explains who Floyd killed, but the title of the movie gives a suggestion. “Mama Bear” is a colloquialism, popularized by former Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin, to describe a mother who will do anything to protect her children. Palin and others use the phrase to imply righteous lawlessness, as if they will destroy anything and anyone who gets in between her and her children.
From that hint, and the anger and shock of everyone around them, it seems that Lacey thinks that Floyd killed her child, possibly a child they had together. That theory certainly tracks with Obsession, which also dealt with a relationship turned horrific. Furthermore, the relative young ages of the main characters heightens the anxieties around parenthood and other markers of adulthood, something touched on in Obsession and has served as the thematic driver of many great horror movies, including David Lynch‘s Eraserhead.
Other elements in the film reinforce this broken family theme, such as the brief inclusion of Mrs. Wilson. Mrs. Wilson clearly has some form of success, complete with a nice house and the money to pay someone to clean it. But she’s also in danger of losing the house as her marriage falls apart. There’s a real coldness when she offers up Milo in exchange, whether Milo is a pet or a child. Combine those points with the fact that Floyd’s mother has literally lost contact with her child.
Mama Bear also carries Obsession‘s concern with the loss of selfhood. Floyd obviously did not kill anyone. Instead, it was a demon or creature who looks just like Floyd, something that Floyd recognizes as himself, but isn’t him. Moreover, the way that the Other Floyd responds to his questions by contorting itself furthers that misrecognition, refusing to use words when it answers and only using strange, inexplicable gestures.
Finally, Mama Bear shows that Barker hasn’t lost his comic timing. Before making his feature film debut with Obsession, Barker made comedy shorts on the internet, mostly absurd sketches with perfect comic timing. As dark as Obsession often gets, it also has comedic elements, from the presence of Andy Richter to the moment when a wish for a million dollars comes true.
A New Obsession
Together, then Mama Bear is a short about the loss of self and the fear of family, all in an absurd and elliptical short film. Or it may not be any of those things. Where Obsession was a film that got overdiscussed and overanalyzed, with good reason, Mama Bear may be just more of an exercise, where the ambiguity is an intentional part of the final work. Perhaps we’re not supposed to know what happened.
Whatever the purpose or meaning, we can be sure of one thing. Mama Bear proves that Obsession wasn’t a fluke, and Curry Barker is already establishing himself as a master of horror.
Patrick Stewart Finally Became a Star Trek Captain in TNG’s First Great Episode
The Captain has left the bridge. Patrick Stewart has died at the age of 86. With his passing comes the opportunity to remember the remarkable body of work that he left behind, including roles on the stage and screen, ranging from genre works like Dune and X-Men to stirring reinterpretations of Ebenezer Scrooge and King Claudius. But for most of us here at Den of Geek, Stewart is synonymous with Jean-Luc Picard, Captain of the USS Enterprise on Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Even after the character veered more toward action in the movies, Picard will forever be defined by his patrician presence, the impassioned and eloquent speeches he delivered about maintaining one’s duty or showing empathy for the unknown. He was an inspiring, compassionate figure, one fully distinct from his predecessor Jim Kirk and casting a shadow over Sisko, Janeway, and all who followed. And that persona did not come together until relatively late in the show, in the season two episode “The Measure of a Man.”
Unlike its predecessor, The Original Series, but very much like every series that followed, TNG did not start out strong. The first season is largely an embarrassment of reused scripts written for the abandoned TOS sequel series Star Trek: Phase II and failed ideas, such as the more feral Ferengi. Furthermore, many viewers, Trekkies and casuals alike, weren’t quick to accept a crew without Bones or Spock, and especially not a bald Englishman in the place of the dashing and toupee-wearing Jim Kirk.
The cast were not unaware of these problems. They all expressed frustration with the series and saw it as a dead end, most obviously Denise Crosby, whose character Tasha Yar dies late in the season. For his part, Stewart stayed in a hotel and kept his clothes packed during the shooting of the season, convinced that he would be fired at any second when the series was canceled. To that end, Stewart also distanced himself from the rest of the cast, who quickly developed a jovial sense of camaraderie. Stewart described himself as “a severe bastard” in his recent memoir Making It So, admitting with embarrassment that he chided his castmates for having fun.
All of this means that Star Trek: The Next Generation wasn’t Star Trek: The Next Generation in its first season. And even though the second season isn’t much better, it is better, as the cast begins to find its place. Geordi and Worf get promoted and assigned to engineering and security, respectively. Riker grows his beard. And Patrick Stewart establishes himself as the Captain Picard we know and love today.
That establishment comes with episode 9 of season 2, “The Measure of a Man,” written by Melinda M. Snodgrass and directed by Robert Scheerer. In “The Measure of a Man,” a Starfleet scientist named Bruce Maddox (Brian Brophy) arrives to study Data. An expert in the works of Data’s creator Dr. Noonien Soong, Maddox plans to disassemble Data to understand how he works, with the hopes of manufacturing more copies. When Data refuses, Maddox asserts that he is Starfleet material and not a person.
To save his crewman, Picard demands a military trial, one overseen by Captain Phillipa Louvois (Amanda McBroom), with whom he has a complicated past. While Picard takes the role of Data’s defense attorney, Louvois appoints Riker as Data’s prosecutor, and threatens him with sanctions if he does not argue to the best of his ability against his friend.
What follows is a fascinating bit of courtroom television, expanding the philosophical debates that Kirk, Spock, and McCoy would have in TOS and turning into a full-length trial. Maddox expresses his admiration for Data as a wonder of technology, Riker proves his point by pressing a button to shut off Data’s processors, and Guinan (Whoopi Goldberg) compares the dehumanization of a sentient being like Data to slavery.
Inviting Maddox to the stand as a hostile witness, Picard questions the three criteria used to establish personhood: intelligence, self-awareness, and consciousness. After proving that Data has intelligence and self-awareness, Picard runs into an issue, admitting that he doesn’t know how to measure consciousness. Rather than hide from this admission, Picard leans into it, pressing the fact that none of them there actually know how to measure consciousness. Moreover, because Maddox plans to create a thousand versions of Data, he’s effectively creating a new race. For that reason, Starfleet must be very careful when deciding on the consciousness and value of a new race.
“Your Honor, the courtroom is a crucible. In it we burn away irrelevancies until we are left with a pure product, the truth for all time,” he pleads, leaning slightly forward and softening his voice before moving into the final boom. “Your Honor, Starfleet was founded to seek out new life,” he points out, before turning toward Data and declaring, “Well, there it sits. Waiting. You wanted a chance to make law. Well, here it is. Make a good one.”
Stewart is captivating as Picard delivers the lines, shifting from a deep, resonating voice to quiet reservation. He makes his body huge while projecting his strongest arguments and pausing to give his audiences, both fictional and real, time to consider the Captain’s points.
In that scene, Stewart proves that he understands the stakes of his role. Picard’s argument doesn’t just carry on the Star Trek tradition of thoughtful, high-concept genre television. It gets to the heart of what sci-fi does so well, its contribution to the humanities, in its ability to ponder fundamental questions about the nature of humanity. Even in terrible episodes like “Code of Honor,” we all knew that Patrick Stewart was a great actor. But in “The Measure of the Man,” when he delivers that final defense, Stewart proved that he could meet and exceed the measure of a Captain.
