Even those most excited for Avengers: Doomsday have to admit that this upcoming Avengers film isn’t really an Avengers film. In fact, none of the Avengers movies past Age of Ultron have really been about a discrete team of Earth’s mightiest heroes. And that’s okay, because the Marvel Universe is vast and rich, but the Avengers have name recognition. So if the MCU wants to capture the feel of a major crossover event, they’re going to have to shove everyone under the Avengers banner, even if not everyone’s a member. The comics don’t have that problem, which means that there’s…

When moviegoers walked out of theaters in September of 1986, having just watched David Lynch‘s fourth film, Blue Velvet, they felt a variety of emotions. Some were disgusted by the existence of people like Frank Booth, Dennis Hopper’s aggressive embodiment of evil. Some were angry at suburbs and small towns, the idyllic places that Lynch just laid bare in his film. And some were angry at Lynch himself, for having submitted cinematic scion Isabella Rossellini to such debasement on screen. Few, if anyone, were feeling optimistic. This despite the fact that, for all of its nastiness, Blue Velvet ends on…

Some career changes involve starting over at the bottom. These people had already made it surprisingly far before deciding one successful career apparently wasn’t enough. A future sitcom star practiced medicine, a lifestyle icon worked on Wall Street, and one of television’s most recognizable cooks once spent her days working with nuclear policy. Others simply became so famous for their second act that it’s easy to forget the impressive career that came first. A few even managed a third one for good measure. Whether they switched industries completely or turned an existing talent into something much bigger, these famous names…

Some movies start with an idea that sounds completely ridiculous when you say it out loud. A talking animal, an absurd premise, a bizarre character, or a concept that seems impossible to stretch across an entire feature can make you wonder how anyone ever got it approved. Then the movie actually works. Sometimes the strange idea becomes the entire source of its charm, while the filmmakers find just enough heart, humor, or creativity to make the premise feel completely natural within its own world. These fifteen movies pulled off that trick remarkably well, proving that even the strangest concept can…

When one thinks of the canonical heroes of Star Trek, the names Kirk, Picard, Sisko, and Janeway leap to mind. Each of these captains went on fantastical adventures, inspired the loyalty of their crews, and broke Starfleet protocol more than a few times along the way. Looking at The Original Series, The Next Generation, and most other Star Trek shows, one gets the sense that being a captain is all about following your gut and trusting your instinct, even if that means you make giant messes that you’ll have to clean up later. And that’s exactly why Carol Freeman is…

Brightest day has finally arrived for Green Lantern fans. Despite all the hand-wringing leading up to its premiere, the HBO series Lanterns is finally here and it’s really good. Just as importantly, it’s really strange, filled with way more DC cosmic lore than the early True Detective-style stills led us to believe. Lanterns is so good, in fact, that it finally washes out the bad taste left by the last live-action adaptation, the awful 2011 movie that starred Ryan Reynolds as the most unlikable version of Hal Jordan. Bad as that movie is, the night was almost even blacker for…

Sometimes the best way to sell a movie is apparently to lie about it a little. Trailers have hidden main characters, made comedies look like horror movies, convinced audiences an actor would survive much longer than they did, and occasionally avoided showing what the movie was actually about. Usually, finding out you’ve been misled would be annoying. With movies, it can make the first viewing even better. The audience walks in expecting one thing, the lights go down, and suddenly the story heads somewhere the posters and trailers carefully avoided mentioning. Looking back, some of these campaigns were almost as…

Many movie viewers consider themselves experts in catching hidden details, scouring films even on a first time watch to see everything the filmmaker is trying to convey. And yet, even they miss hidden clues and details made by creators that, in retrospect, can only be catched on a second viewing. The best examples are especially satisfying because they’re technically visible the first time around, while at the same time being almost impossible to appreciate without knowing what to look for. These are the kinds of movie secrets that make a revisit feel like watching an entirely different film, because suddenly,…

History is full of photographs that never made it into textbooks, documentaries, or the collections of famous images we see again and again. Some capture ordinary people caught in an extraordinary moment, while others show familiar places before anyone could imagine what they would eventually become. There are strange details, forgotten faces, everyday scenes, and glimpses of life that feel remarkably close despite being decades or even centuries removed. A great historical photograph does more than show you what something looked like. It gives you a tiny window into a moment that was real, lived, and completely unaware that someone…

Ryan Gosling may be just Ken, but for a good chunk of his career, he was known for intense characters, full of broiling interiority. He shed his Mickey Mouse Club image by playing a reckless romantic in The Notebook, a drug-addicted inspirational teacher in Half Nelson, and a silent driver in Drive. But lately, Gosling seems to be taking a turn to the goofy. In addition to his acclaimed role as Ken in Barbie, Gosling played a lovable science teacher sent into space for Project Hail Mary. He’s working with Shawn Levy on both Star Wars: Starfighter and the upcoming…

When Dolly Parton died yesterday at the age of 80, she left behind an incredible legacy. Not only did she create timeless tunes such as “Jolene” and “Islands in the Stream,” and not only did she appear in films like The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas and Steel Magnolias—to say nothing of her countless television appearances—but she also left behind hundreds, if not thousands, of lives who were changed by her charity work.

 In addition to her literary program Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library and her educational non-profit the Dollywood Foundation, Parton stood up for causes not often associated with country…

In the heady Wild West days of 1970s New Hollywood, relatively few people knew what would work. That especially included the older studio executives who still ostensibly ran things. So when the opportunity came to transfer the bizarre, decadent, and delightfully queer curio The Rocky Horror Show from the London stage to the big screen—hence the new title of The Rocky Horror PICTURE Show (1975)—execs were adamant about getting a popular rock star like Mick Jagger or David Bowie to play Dr. Frank-N-Furter, that oh, so sweet, sweet transvestite from transexual Transylvania. (Dated vernacular being his own.) Luckily, there was…

From modeling to acting to writing comics, Hannah Rose May has proven time and time again that her creative expression knows no bounds.  Getting her start with Rogues’ Gallery, illustrated by Justin Mason and colored by Tríona Farrell, May has since become one of IDW Dark’s leading horror voices whose style blends sharp political and social satire with deep, character-driven narratives.    After Rogues’ Gallery, May found her stride writing The Exorcism at 1600 Penn, a White House-set supernatural thriller illustrated by Vanesa Del Rey and colored by Jordie Bellaire, and Smile: For the Camera, illustrated by Miriana Puglia and colored…

A long time ago—1977, to be exact—Star Wars revolutionized cinema. Not only did it break box office records and revitalize the action figure industry, forever changing the way movie merchandise was sold, but it created a fan base who would show up again and again for all things Star Wars, even when they’re made by Dave Filoni. Star Wars also launched a host of imitators, also-rans who tried to build off the success of the mega-hit. Anyone who saw Orca knows that such knock-offs are to be expected whenever a movie does well at the theaters. But Star Wars was…

In the increasingly distant past, Mystery Science Theater 3000 was ground-breaking television. Part send-up of 1950s kid’s programming, part puppet show, part showcase for co-creator and prop comic Joel Hodgson, MST3K became a cult sensation, especially after it moved from a Minnesota public access channel to what would become the cable channel Comedy Central in 1989. So enduringly appealing was the concept of watching a human host make fun of cheesy movies with his robot pals that MST3K endured a change of hosts from Joel to Mike Nelson in its original run, a Netflix reboot in 2017 that brought comedian…

A great television series can hide behind a terrible first impression. Sometimes the pilot is awkward, the characters feel unfinished, the jokes land badly, or the premise seems unsure of what it wants to be. That can be surprising when the same show eventually becomes a cultural favorite with devoted fans and unforgettable episodes. Reddit users named series that made them question why anyone kept watching, only to discover that patience paid off. Some needed a new cast member, others needed time to find their rhythm, and a few were almost completely reinvented. These are shows worth giving another chance.…

Movie sets have rules for almost everything, but famous actors can sometimes negotiate an entirely different set of privileges. Once a performer becomes valuable enough to a production, unusual requests can make their way into contracts, shooting schedules, costumes, scripts, and even the final edit. Some of these arrangements exist for practical reasons, while others come from years of bargaining power or simply reflect a star’s very specific preferences. The strangest examples can sound completely made up until the behind the scenes stories reveal what actually happened. These are some of the unusual freedoms, demands, and creative privileges that movie…

Fame can make someone’s earlier life seem almost impossible to imagine. It is easy to picture a future movie star, musician, or television personality as someone who was always destined for the spotlight, but many famous people spent years doing completely ordinary work before anyone knew their names. They waited tables, worked office jobs, taught classes, sold clothes, drove trucks, and handled the same everyday responsibilities as millions of other people. Some were already pursuing entertainment on the side while paying the bills, while others stumbled into their eventual careers unexpectedly. These surprisingly normal jobs offer a glimpse at lives…

We all know plenty of movies with special effects that will last forever, made by cutting edge technologies and techniques that pushed the industry forward. We also know movies deemed like little more than trash, released rather recently, with effects that make them seem from many decades ago. We’re not here to celebrate the former, but to mock the latter. This has become particularly noticeable in recent blockbusters, where enormous CGI-heavy sequences can expose rushed production schedules and overloaded visual-effects teams. From superhero disasters to ambitious science fiction, these recent movies show that throwing more money at a screen doesn’t…

The world of comics is lousy with Superman homages. Marvel has Hyperion, Sentry, Blue Marvel, and Guardian. Homelander and Omni-Man show the dangers of being Superman. Anime fans have All Might in My Hero Academia. Heck, DC itself has Mon-El, Icon, and Apollo (no, Captain Marvel doesn’t count). While all these versions have their positive attributes, no homage quite captures the beauty and optimism of the original article. None, except the Samaritan, the star of the 1995 story “In Dreams.” Most of “In Dreams” follows a day in the life of the Samaritan, a day he divides into half-seconds as…