We’re only a few weeks away from the launch of Shattered Space, the first story expansion for the sci-fi RPG, which Bethesda describes as a “completely handcrafted world.” You can get a better sense of what to expect in this lengthy video.
The Remarkable Life of Ibelin was one of my favorite movies at Sundance this year. It’s a doc that tells the story of a tragically short life, and the film largely takes place inside World of Warcraft. You can watch it for yourself on Netflix on October 25th.
Francis Ford Coppola’s long-gestating epic Megalopolis is a series of loosely connected ideas, tied together with an undercooked world and embarrassing dialogue.
An ol’ fashioned tear-jerker about Almut (Florence Pugh) and Tobias (Andrew Garfield), who quickly fall in love after the former hits the latter with her car. The film does a great job of balancing its heart-rending story with hilarious jokes, but the most notable thing is the way it deftly jumps around in time.
Its non-linear story seems sporadic initially, yet I was never lost or confused, because it moves around in a way that lets you follow the highs and lows of their relationship in a completely natural way. Just don’t forget Kleenex.
This one is a TV series from the BBC, but in just two episodes I was hooked. Rebecca Hall stars as a woman who suddenly starts hearing a low, persistent hum. The problem is that it seems she’s the only one who can. There are all kinds of physical side effects — bad sleep, nosebleeds, anxiety — but the real issue is the mystery of it all. Not only what the sound is, but why her?
Part supernatural story (maybe!), part tense family drama, I’m really itching to see where The Listeners goes after its great start.
What if Uncut Gems was a comedy? That’s how this film from Juno director Jason Reitman feels.
It covers a very specific moment in Saturday Night Live history: the 90 minutes before the first episode in 1975. Series creator Lorne Michaels (Gabriel LaBelle) desperately tries to keep everything together despite not really knowing what he’s doing. Also, the lighting director quit, they have too much material, and Chevy Chase and John Belushi won’t stop fighting.
It’s a stressful race to the finish line, but eases the tension with lots of jokes.
OK, maybe not all of them, but Charles and I are covering TIFF again this year and filling this stream with our many, many thoughts. Highlights so far include The Substance and The Life of Chuck. But you can check out plenty more right here.
The nods to Iron Giant and Castle in the Sky are pretty obvious, but even still Wild Robot carves out its own distinct vibe. It’s centered on a helper bot (Lupita Nyong’o) that washes up on an island filled with wildlife but no humans. Quickly it finds a mission: preparing an orphaned gosling for migration.
What follows may be a fairly straightforward story about finding yourself, but there’s so much heart that it doesn’t really matter. The all-star cast — which also includes Pedro Pascal, Matt Berry, and Catherine O’Hara — only makes things better.
