Expectations are very high for Daisy Ridley‘s return to the galaxy far, far away. The actor is set to don the Jedi robes once again in a standalone film, which currently has the working title of Star Wars: New Jedi Order, but she’s no longer playing Rey as the fresh-faced student still figuring out her place in the galaxy or among the many generations of Jedi heroes who have come before her. The Rey we’ll meet in the upcoming movie has become the teacher who is now working to build a new Jedi Order. The movie, which is set to…

“Who is you?” Poor Things protagonist Bella Baxter asks the strange man who has found her in her secluded home. With a self-satisfied smirk and a dodgy, slurring accent, the man entertains Bella by first wearing a goofy hat and then by pinching her between her legs. So pleased is he with the liberties he can take with her body, that the man doesn’t seem to notice Bella’s childish behavior, the way she blows bubbles or speaks in the third person. All he’s interested in is how Bella seems excited by his presence. And so he saunters away with a…

The one thing that Academy Award haters and lovers can agree on is the long and fascinating history of Oscar snubs. It’s the “Predator handshake” topic that brings us all together. It happens every year: the wrong movie wins a certain award or fails to secure the nomination it deserves. Some would say it’s a big part of the awards show experience. Every now and then, though, the Academy Awards go above and beyond by implementing a “blanket snub.” It’s one thing for a great movie or actor to not get the win or nomination they’ve earned in the eyes…

Superstitious and cowardly, a criminal just watch Batman take down two of her armed and powerful comrades. Desperation drives her to take the one option left to her, the sole chance she has to escape the Batman’s wrath. Pointing a gun at the 10-month-old baby she and her colleagues kidnapped, the criminal shouts, “Back off, man! I’ll kill the kid.” When Batman does not respond, she yells louder, fearing that the Dark Knight doesn’t take her seriously. “Believe me man, I will! Believe me–” Bearing the weapon he took from another criminal, Batman shoots the criminal, killing her instantly. He…

If the golden era of the high school movie was the 1980s, packed with John Hughes’ tales of wistful outsider girls and horny nerds, then mid-late ‘90s was the reprise. This was the era of Valley Girls (Clueless), the make-over movie (She’s All That, Never Been Kissed), and of course modern updates of classic literature (Ten Things I Hate About You, also Clueless). Cruel Intentions fits into this category and takes it to the next level. It’s a teen high school movie full of shagging and spitefulness which has genuine consequences and treats its characters like adults, while allowing them…

This Love Lies Bleeding article contains spoilers. In Love Lies Bleeding, A24’s new neo-noir thriller from director/co-writer Rose Glass (Saint Maud), Kristen Stewart (Spencer) and Katy O’Brian (Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania) play Lou and Jackie, two women who fall frantically in love with each other after meeting at the ramshackle gym that Lou manages in a small, dying New Mexico town circa 1989. Jackie is a bodybuilder, on her way to Las Vegas for a national competition, who uses her formidable physique to both intimidate men and get what she needs from them; Lou is the daughter of the…

Love them or hate them, the Academy Awards remain a cornerstone of the movie industry and popular culture. Film fans everywhere tend to have a lot to say about the award show, even if it’s to get a few grievances about its existence off their chests. Through all of its ups and downs over the last 90+ years, that continued level of relevance is a testament to the power of the name “Oscars.” But for as popular as that shorthand name for the Academy Awards may be, its origin remains surprisingly obscure. In fact, until very recently, we only had…

This article is part of Collector’s Digest, an editorial series powered by: As one of the longest-running sci-fi franchises of all time, Star Trek has generated more than its fair share of merchandise. Before Star Wars and before the MCU, the ruler of geeky ephemera is easily Star Trek. In 2024, Star Trek is bigger than ever. Not only is it celebrating the 60th anniversary of the filming of the first episode ever — “The Cage” in 1964 — but this year is the 40th anniversary of one of the most pivotal films in the franchise ever, Star Trek III:…

George Miller knows a thing or two about iconic looks. After all, the Australian filmmaker defined the post-apocalypse on the big screen with his 1979 movie Mad Max and even more so with his 1981 follow-up The Road Warrior. The ragged black leather aesthetic continues to be shorthand for a bleak future, even today. (Just look at the upcoming Fallout TV series.) Miller added to his repertoire of amazing looks with 2015’s Mad Max: Fury Road. Charlize Theron’s scene-stealing Furiosa drew attention from Tom Hardy’s Max, with her mechanical arm, her greasepainted brow, and her shaved head. For the prequel…

Although conversation may have momentarily shifted away from Paul King’s wonderful musical Wonka and over to the short-lived waking nightmare that was Glasgow’s Willy Wonka Experience, this prequel to Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory has now come to streaming, so we can enjoy the taste all over again. As we mentioned at the time in our review, and our chats with director Paul King and producer David Heyman, it’s a good hearted, funny, and joyful romp. Timothée Chalamet is charming and captivating; Olivia Colman is wonderfully larger than life; Hugh Grant is grouchy and funny; and Sally Hawkins as…

This article appears in the SXSW 2024 issue of Den of Geek magazine. Check out all of our SXSW coverage here. Seven years in the making, spanning centuries in the telling, Alice Lowe’s latest feature, Timestalker, is a strange beast. A dark comedy, a romance through the ages, a violent sci-fi, and an existential musing on the self, it’s an ambitious romp dressed in spandex and crinoline.  “When you make an independent film, you know there’s a chance you may never make one again,” says Lowe. “Any time one happens, it’s like a miracle. And I really just thought, God, if this was…

This article appears in the SXSW 2024 issue of Den of Geek magazine. Check out all of our SXSW coverage here. “A revenge ghost story with elements of a monster movie” is how Irish helmer Damian McCarthy describes his latest chiller, which is set to bring “plenty of scares and a few a few laughs” to SXSW’s late-night line-up. A supernatural horror centered around spooky trinkets, Oddity follows a blind medium (You Are Not My Mother’s Carolyn Bracken) as she uncovers the truth behind her twin sister’s death with the help of a terrifying wooden mannequin.  “She collects a lot of haunted items—she…

Damsel is the kind of Netflix movie that would feel right at home in the 2010s. It may be an original fairy tale of sorts, but it pulls from the same kind of girl power feminism that drove the “edgy” retellings of popular fairy tales like Snow White and the Huntsmen and Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters 10 years ago. On the surface, Damsel might seem like a fresh and exciting take on a centuries old story. A young woman (Elodie) marries a prince to help her kingdom, but instead of living happily ever after, she gets sacrificed to a…

Before praising the 2024 Oscars and their approach to sex, we need to acknowledge one truth. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences completely ignored one of the best movies of the year, and a movie that features one of the most frank and vulnerable sexual scenes committed to film. It, of course, involves a bathtub, where one man’s desire for another becomes clear in a way that not even he had heretofore acknowledged. What? No, not Saltburn. I said a good movie, not a loud nothing that approaches sex like a 12-year-old who just learned a few rude…

The biggest, most audacious James Bond movie during Sean Connery’s celebrated run as the British superspy is 1965’s Thunderball, a spectacular adaptation of the Ian Fleming novel of the same name. Thunderball sees the insidious terrorist syndicate SPECTRE steal two nuclear warheads from NATO and hold the world governments hostage for ￡100 million. After a run-in with SPECTRE operatives at a local clinic while recuperating from a recent mission, Bond suspects the warheads are hidden in the Bahamas and convinces M to investigate further. Upon arriving, Bond matches wits with high-ranking SPECTRE figure Emilio Largo (Adolfo Celi) and assassin Fiona…

This Dune article contains spoilers. If the shocking ending of Dune: Part Two left you wanting more, you can actually watch Dune: Part Three right now. Kind of. Although Denis Villeneuve hasn’t fully committed to a movie adaptation of Dune Messiah, there is an often overlooked filmed version of this Dune sequel out there right now. This isn’t a bootleg or a fan film either, but The Sci-Fi Channel’s excellent Frank Herbert’s Children of Dune miniseries. This very real adaptation of Dune Messiah even stars several major Hollywood stars, including James McAvoy and Susan Sarandon, as well as Star Trek…

“Don’t presume you know everything.” For decades, that was actor Paul Reiser’s response whenever people would ask him about playing Burke, the Weyland-Yutani middle-manager who tried to kill the heroes of Aliens to please his bosses. Since the release of the James Cameron classic in 1986, viewers have taken Ripley’s summation of the situation to heart. “You know, Burke, I don’t know which species is worse,” she tells him after escaping from a trap he set to infect her and the child Newt with a Xenomorph. “You don’t see them fucking each other over for a goddamn percentage.” And yet,…

This article appears in the SXSW 2024 issue of Den of Geek magazine. Check out all of our SXSW coverage here. The Fall Guy wasn’t supposed to be a romance. Or at least it didn’t start out that way. But when Ryan Gosling came on board to collaborate on the script, the shape of the wildly ambitious action film changed. Director David Leitch was reminded of what his cinematographer Jonathan Sela would always say: “I want to do a sweeping romance. All we do is punch people in the face. Stop punching and start kissing!” That was ringing in Leitch’s head when Gosling…

This Star Wars: The Bad Batch article contains spoilers. The squad’s back together in the latest episode of Star Wars: The Bad Batch, suitably titled “The Return.” Well, most of Clone Force 99 is back. While Echo is back with the Batch, and Hunter is begrudgingly letting Crosshair back into the fold, they’ve still lost Tech. There are already plenty of theories out there suggesting Tech’s still out there, but for the moment, his apparent death has left a hole in the fabric of the team. At its best, this Star Wars series is about family and this one’s close…

For Henry Hill, the appeal of becoming a mobster is simple. “They weren’t like anybody else. They did whatever they wanted,” he explains in the famous monologue at the start of Goodfellas. “They parked in front of hydrants and never got a ticket. When they played cards all night nobody ever called the cops.” Hank might also add to the list that they get the best deals at the grocery store, something that happens to wiseguy Vinnie Antonelli in the comedy My Blue Heaven. Noticing an unattended pricing gun, Vinnie gives himself a huge markdown on a bunch of steaks.…