IT General

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Opens in a new window Credit: Dyson Dyson Airwrap (Special Edition) $489.99 at Amazon
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SEE ALSO: The latest Apple AirPods 4 are at their lowest-ever price on Amazon

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NASA will not launch astronauts around the moon next year as planned, pushing the Artemis II mission back another six months to April 2026, space officials said Thursday.

The new timeline also will postpone the first human moon landing since Apollo 17 — Artemis III — to at least 2027. The announcement comes just a month before former President Donald Trump is expected to return to the White House for a second term. 

The announcement, coupled with the upcoming change in leadership, leaves concerns as to whether Trump will continue to support the federal agency's moon-to-Mars plans. Since his campaign, Trump has forged an unexpectedly close relationship with SpaceX founder Elon Musk. Some have wondered whether Musk's outsize influence will push the incoming president to cancel NASA's own Space Launch System rocket and spacecraft in favor of using SpaceX's own Starship. 

"It's a legitimate question that you're suddenly going to have Starship take over everything," said NASA administrator Bill Nelson, who will leave his post at the conclusion of President Joe Biden's term. 

SEE ALSO: NASA won't fly astronauts to the moon in 2024 — for good reason The Artemis II crew, announced last year, includes NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Hammock Koch, along with the Canadian Space Agency's Jeremy Hansen.  Credit: NASA

The Artemis II mission is expected to build upon the success of Artemis I, an empty test flight of Orion that sent the moonship on a 1.4 million-mile voyage. The sequel mission will test-drive the spacecraft for about 10 days with human passengers, whizzing by the moon without ever landing on it.

The Artemis II crew, announced last year, includes NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Hammock Koch, along with the Canadian Space Agency's Jeremy Hansen. 

The delays largely stem from an investigation into problems with the Orion moon capsule's protective heat shield, discovered after the spacecraft's uncrewed Artemis I flight in 2022. As the ship re-entered Earth's atmosphere for a splash down in the Pacific Ocean, the shield charred and eroded more than engineers had expected. 

The Orion moonship caught Earth rising in the distance as it flew around the moon during Artemis I in 2022. Credit: NASA

As of Thursday, agency officials said they had determined the root cause of the damage. Rather than scrap the heat shield, though, the agency plans to change the reentry trajectory to avoid a recurrence. 

"While the capsule was dipping in and out of the atmosphere as part of that planned skip entry, heat accumulated inside the heat shield's outer layer, leading to gasses forming and becoming trapped inside the heat shield," said Pam Melroy, NASA's deputy administrator. "This caused internal pressure to build up and led to cracking and uneven shedding of that outer layer."

Nelson emphasized that the new schedule for Artemis would still position NASA to put boots on the lunar surface before China, which plans to send its own astronauts to the moon in 2030. 

Tweet may have been deleted

But the delays could be the tipping point for those on Capitol Hill who would like to rein in spending on the Artemis campaign and NASA generally. The agency's SLS, sometimes dubbed the mega moon rocket, costs about $4 billion each time it launches. Meanwhile, SpaceX's Starship, a much more powerful commercial rocket and ship, is making leaps in progress toward flight readiness. 

NASA is already paying SpaceX $4 billion to build a lander version of Starship to ferry astronauts from lunar orbit to the moon during the Artemis III and IV missions. But pressure may be mounting from lawmakers to switch horses in midstream, instead opting to outsource the entire journey to Starship. It's unclear whether Musk is jockeying for this outcome.

Nelson, who was asked Thursday if he was concerned about Musk's relationship with Trump, said he was "basically optimistic" that Musk's political activism would benefit NASA. He wouldn't speculate how the billionaire's new role as co-head of the so-called "Department of Government Efficiency" would impact NASA's overall funding and workforce. 

Tweet may have been deleted

Under Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX's chief operating officer, the commercial launch company has been a boon for the International Space Station, Nelson said, providing reliable rides for astronauts and cargo. 

"The proof's in the pudding," he said. "I have every reason to think that that relationship will continue." 

Just Wednesday, Trump's team announced his pick to replace Nelson at NASA's helm. The president-elect has tapped Jared Isaacman, CEO of Shift4 Payments and a friend of Musk. Isaacman has commanded two SpaceX missions, including Polaris Dawn this year. During that five-day spaceflight, Isaacman became the first person to perform a commercial spacewalk. 

NASA's own Space Launch System rocket has been estimated to cost $4 billion per launch. Credit: NASA / Isaac Watson

Wiseman, the astronaut who will lead the Artemis II crew, has not been deterred by the schedule setbacks. He visited the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, last month and saw the Orion spacecraft and SLS's booster. Right after, he watched a livestream of Starship's sixth flight test on his phone. 

Suddenly, humanity's return to the moon seemed real. 

"All the elements are there for humans on the moon, and all the elements are there to push us on to Mars in the very near future," he told reporters. "I just — I felt it in my soul."

The astronomical confusion started at 2 a.m ET on June 26, 2023.

Scientists using the powerful James Webb Space Telescope sought to observe a planet beyond our solar system (an exoplanet) called Kepler-51d, an unusual "puffy" world with a cotton candy-like density. But it passed into view two hours earlier than expected. That's strange for a planet, as they are usually quite predictable.

It turns out that a previously unknown world, and its potent gravity, altered Kepler-51d's orbit. Now there are four known planets orbiting the sun-like star Kepler-51, located some 2,556 light-years away. And at least three of them are puffy.

"If trying to explain how three super puffs formed in one system wasn’t challenging enough, now we have to explain a fourth planet, whether it’s a super puff or not. And we can’t rule out additional planets in the system either," Jessica Libby-Roberts, an astronomer at Penn State who led the observation, said in a statement.

SEE ALSO: NASA scientist viewed first Voyager images. What he saw gave him chills.

The research was recently published in The Astronomical Journal.

Based on previous observations, the astronomers calculated that the distant world Kepler-51d would pass in front of its star on June 26, 2023, at 2 a.m. It was a valuable opportunity to use starlight shining through the planet's atmosphere to reveal what's transpiring on this mysterious orb. (This starlight passes through the exoplanet's atmosphere, then through space, and ultimately into instruments called spectrographs aboard Webb, a strategy called "transit spectroscopy." They're essentially hi-tech prisms, which separate the light into a rainbow of colors. Certain molecules, like water, in the atmosphere absorb specific types, or colors, of light. If a color doesn't show up for Webb, that means it got absorbed by the exoplanet's atmosphere — revealing its presence.)

But nothing came at 2 a.m. "Thank goodness we started observing a few hours early to set a baseline, because 2 a.m. came, then 3, and we still hadn’t observed a change in the star’s brightness with APO [the Apache Point Observatory also used during these observations]," Libby-Roberts explained.

Their data, however, captured a dip in the star's light around midnight. What could have caused the surprise orbital change? Only the gravitational influence of a large, previously unknown fourth planet, the researchers concluded. It's now earned the name "Kepler-51e."

"We were really puzzled by the early appearance of Kepler-51d, and no amount of fine-tuning the three-planet model could account for such a large discrepancy," Kento Masuda, a study coauthor and associate professor of earth and space science at Osaka University, added. "Only adding a fourth planet explained this difference. This marks the first planet discovered by transit timing variations using JWST."

An illustration showing the three puffy known worlds orbiting in the star system Kepler-51. Credit: NASA / ESA / L. Hustak / J. Olmsted / D. Player / F. Summers (STScI)

It's unknown if Kepler-51e is a puffy world, too. Astronomers will need to gather valuable observations from a transit in front of its star. What's known is that its orbit travels a little wider than Venus' orbit around the sun, and dwells on the edge of its solar system's habitable zone — a temperate region where liquid water could exist on a world's surface.

Any puffy world is a curiosity: They might evolve, for example, into a super-Earth planet. In this star system, scientists already have at least three to continue observing. What will the fourth reveal?

The Webb telescope's powerful abilities

The Webb telescope — a scientific collaboration between NASA, ESA, and the Canadian Space Agency — is designed to peer into the deepest cosmos and reveal new insights about the early universe. But as shown above, it's also examining intriguing planets in our galaxy, along with the planets and moons in our solar system.

Here's how Webb is achieving unparalleled feats, and likely will for decades to come:

- Giant mirror: Webb's mirror, which captures light, is over 21 feet across. That's over two-and-a-half times larger than the Hubble Space Telescope's mirror. Capturing more light allows Webb to see more distant, ancient objects. The telescope is peering at stars and galaxies that formed over 13 billion years ago, just a few hundred million years after the Big Bang. "We're going to see the very first stars and galaxies that ever formed," Jean Creighton, an astronomer and the director of the Manfred Olson Planetarium at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, told Mashable in 2021.

- Infrared view: Unlike Hubble, which largely views light that's visible to us, Webb is primarily an infrared telescope, meaning it views light in the infrared spectrum. This allows us to see far more of the universe. Infrared has longer wavelengths than visible light, so the light waves more efficiently slip through cosmic clouds; the light doesn't as often collide with and get scattered by these densely packed particles. Ultimately, Webb's infrared eyesight can penetrate places Hubble can't.

"It lifts the veil," said Creighton.

- Peering into distant exoplanets: The Webb telescope carries specialized equipment called spectrographs that will revolutionize our understanding of these far-off worlds. The instruments can decipher what molecules (such as water, carbon dioxide, and methane) exist in the atmospheres of distant exoplanets — be they gas giants or smaller rocky worlds. Webb looks at exoplanets in the Milky Way galaxy. Who knows what we'll find?

"We might learn things we never thought about," Mercedes López-Morales, an exoplanet researcher and astrophysicist at the Center for Astrophysics-Harvard & Smithsonian, told Mashable in 2021.

Already, astronomers have successfully found intriguing chemical reactions on a planet 700 light-years away, and have started looking at one of the most anticipated places in the cosmos: the rocky, Earth-sized planets of the TRAPPIST solar system.

Featured Video For You 10 mind-blowing discoveries from the James Webb Telescope

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Opens in a new window Credit: Rosetta Stone Rosetta Stone: Lifetime Subscription (All Languages) $148.97
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TL;DR: Upgrade to Windows 11 Home for just $19.97 (reg. $199) during this Cyber Week sale through December 8 and unlock AI features, faster performance, and enhanced productivity tools.

Opens in a new window Credit: Microsoft Microsoft Windows 11 Home $19.97
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Ready to bring your computer up to speed? For Cyber Week only, you can snag a licensed copy of Windows 11 Home for just $19.97 (reg. $199). This offer is an ideal option for anyone building a new PC, upgrading from an older version of Windows, or looking to modernize their refurbished computer. But act fast, because this price is only available through Dec. 8.

Windows 11 Home combines performance, simplicity, and innovation to deliver a seamless computing experience for personal users. With faster performance, advanced multitasking tools, and a host of new AI-powered features, it’s the ideal operating system for everyday use.

The new Windows Copilot, a cutting-edge AI assistant, makes managing your computer easier than ever. Whether you’re adjusting settings, summarizing documents, or launching playlists, Windows Copilot works for you. Additionally, the beloved Paint app gets a major upgrade, introducing dark mode, AI-powered background removal, and support for layers to enhance your creative projects.

If you’re upgrading from Windows 7, 8, or 10 (and your device doesn’t meet the free upgrade criteria), this product offers the latest OS without breaking the bank. 

Windows 11 Home offers an affordable yet robust set of features, making it the go-to choice for home users. Its user-friendly interface provides intuitive navigation and customization options, while tools like Snap Layouts, Snap Groups, and Virtual Desktops make multitasking effortless.

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Digital clutter can be as stressful as a messy home. Between endless photos, work documents, and those videos you swear you’ll edit someday, your storage sitch can get chaotic fast. Koofr Cloud Storage can help, and this Cyber Week, for just $109.97 (regularly $139.99), you can secure 1TB of lifetime cloud storage with no recurring payments and no hidden fees.

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On the collaboration side, Koofr lets you edit and collaborate on files with your team or colleagues, something many other services (we’re looking at you, FolderFort) just don’t offer. It’s perfect for work projects, shared family photo albums, or even planning that dream vacation with friends.

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Opens in a new window Credit: Koofr Koofr Cloud Storage: Lifetime Subscription (1TB) $109.97
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TL;DR: Get a $1,499 refurbished MacBook Pro on sale for $377.97 for Cyber Week. Sale ends December 8 at 11:59 p.m. PT. 

Opens in a new window Credit: Apple Refurbished Apple MacBook Pro (3.1GHz i5, 8GB RAM, 512GB SSD) $377.97
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When you think of a budget-friendly laptop, a MacBook probably isn't the first thing that comes to mind, but Cyber Week has some surprises. Normally, a MacBook Pro like this one would cost $1,499, but that price has dropped all the way down to $377.97. Check out what this computer can do. 

Great ex-spec-tations

Powered by a 3.1GHz Intel Core i5 processor with Turbo Boost up to 3.5GHz, this laptop keeps things running smoothly, whether you’re editing photos, crunching numbers, or streaming videos. 8GB RAM and a 512GB SSD give you plenty of power and storage to play with. And the 13.3-inch Retina display offers stunning visuals with a 2560x1600 resolution and 500 nits brightness.

For the less technical among us, it's a beautiful display that's reasonably wide but not so huge that you'll have to order a custom computer bag. 

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Refurbished to Grade A standards, this MacBook Pro is in near-mint condition, but it's still priced like any other refurb. 

Time for an upgrade. Dec, 8 at 11:59 p.m. PT is the deadline to get an Apple MacBook Pro on sale for $377.97. 

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Don't be fooled by its nostalgic, romantic title. Fly Me To The Moon is not the winsome, star-led rom-com you might expect. Instead, director Greg Berlanti takes a cheeky premise befitting a bouncy '60s rom-com and burdens it with dreary NASA drama and a half-baked showbiz satire thread. 

Sure, Fly Me to the Moon has Scarlett Johansson, smiling and beguiling as a Mad (wo)Man who's cinched and coiffed like a Hitchcock blonde. It's got a strapping Channing Tatum as the stern Tracy to her beaming Hepburn. The stellar supporting cast, which includes Woody Harrelson, Ray Romano, Jim Rash, and the splendid Anna Garcia, breathes life into one-liners and extravagantly long bits. But overall, Berlanti lacks the creative vision to pull all this off. 

All told, Fly Me to the Moon is a disaster that fails to launch. 

Fly Me to the Moon does too much... and poorly.  Cole Davis (Channing Tatum) and Henry Smalls (Ray Romano) in "Fly Me to the Moon." Credit: Dan McFadden / Sony Pictures

Set in 1969, Fly Me to the Moon follows an enemies-to-lovers plot line that pits the noble ambition of a moon-landing mission against marketing. In the corner of scientific endeavor stands beefy but taciturn NASA launch director Cole Davis (Tatum); in the other corner swishes metropolitan advertising maverick Kelly Jones (Johansson). He is trying to get America on the moon. She's trying to sell America on the moon landing. But shucks! The news of late is super caught up with that Vietnam War! 

There's a jarring disconnect between the movie's would-be winsome romance and its clumsy handling of the era's hard-hitting horrors. The jumbled screenplay from Rose Gilroy doesn’t just have its heroine cynically lament about how this grim war's news cycle distracts from their PR efforts (though she does). Berlanti also douses his sometimes-comedy with reminders of the horrid war. So, anytime his love story might start heating up, real-life carnage hits like a cold shower. The tragedy of the Apollo 1 mission, in which three astronauts were killed, is also a heavy thread, knitting together the life-or-death stakes of Apollo 11 and giving Cole a series of scenes to grieve as that failed launch's haunted director. 

This remorse explains why he has no patience for Kelly's relentlessly can-do attitude, the white lies she employs in the name of "selling," and the persistent distraction she is to his work. (She literally pulls his astronauts away from training for product-placement photo shoots.) However, without her skills at selling NASA to the public, the mission could see its funding pulled. So, selling out is regarded by Fly Me to the Moon as a necessary evil — a point driven home by a climactic kiss that features OMEGA® watches in its cozy close-up of the headlining co-stars. 

The total dissonance of the film might be intentional; perhaps it's meant to reflect the conflict between the idealistic Cole and the jaded Kelly. While that might be clever on paper, on screen it makes for a deadly tedious film. There is absolutely no flow or momentum to the storytelling, as one scene of utter despair leads into one of of light-hearted flirtation, then to one of clumsy comic mayhem. 

Is star power dead?  Kelly Jones (Scarlett Johansson) and Cole Davis (Channing Tatum) in "Fly Me to the Moon." Credit: Dan McFadden / Sony Pictures

Critics have been debating this for years now, and Fly Me to the Moon might be further proof that a eulogy is overdue.

Scarlett Johansson gives a lot to this film, including an arsenal of wheedling accents, a megawatt smile that Julia Roberts would be proud of, and a performance that ranges from plucky punchlines to a tearful monologue about a tragic childhood. Yet she can't dazzle thoroughly through all the shenanigans and tonal turns. Con woman Kelly is so throughly constructed of false fronts that even when she gets to her tender truth, it seems just another scheming schtick — amusing but shallow.  

Tatum is similarly shackled by a script that deflates the himbo allure he perfected in the Magic Mike movies, offering instead a stale archetype of a serious science man. Despite some early antics involving a flaming broom and a black cat, Cole never quite manages to solidify into a compelling fussbudget, molded from the likes of Spencer Tracy, Cary Grant, or Rock Hudson. 

Johansson and Tatum don't share a chemistry that can make this movie work for all its faults. Neither is helped by a plot line that runs in circles of highs and lows rather than a compelling three-act trajectory. As Berlanti has a storied history in television, with credits that include Everwood, Arrow, You, and Legends of Tomorrow, I began to wonder if this premise was originally conceived as a miniseries. This could explain the confounding structure that, at two hours and 10 minutes long, feels agonizing.

Broken up into 30-minute episodes, these jarring tonal shifts might've felt less severe, the quirky comedy bits could have been grounded, the dramatic stings given the space to hit with impact. But Berlanti, who won praise at the helm of romantic dramedies like Love, Simon and The Broken Hearts Club, doesn't have the cinematic vision to pull off all these elements. Instead, he takes a tale of love and lies and space, and creates something that is often astonishingly visually flat and uninspired. The whimsy of '60s comedies and its candy-colored fashion is lost here.

Fly Me to the Moon is nearly saved by its supporting cast.  Ruby Martin (Anna Garcia), Moe Berkus (Woody Harrelson), Kelly Jones (Scarlett Johansson), and Lance Vespertine (Jim Rash) in "Fly Me to the Moon." Credit: Dan McFadden / Sony Pictures

While Johansson and Tatum struggle, the players around them manage to shine. Jim Rash certainly delivers the flashiest performance as Lance Vespertine, a unrepentantly flamboyant and narcissistic commercial director. Rash brings a welcomed chaotic energy to his scenes, issuing outlandish demands and withering remarks with the rapid-fire spray and viciousness of a tommy gun. In him, Fly Me to the Moon scratches at showbiz satire, gleefully mocking the indulgences allowed an arrogant director. But as Rash is used chiefly for breezy comic relief, the finer points of the critique are lost amid the screeching. 

Elsewhere, Ray Romano pops up as a pal of Cole's to deliver exposition dumps and hit plot points with a practiced efficiency and sly oafishness; Romano turns a thankless role into a needed source of heart. Meanwhile, Woody Harrelson strolls into the vaguely threatening authority role he's played across genres, this time as a mysterious yet intimidating government agent called Moe. He's on cruise control here, with a fedora doing half the work. Nonetheless, Harrelson is amusing, especially as he casually threatens Kelly, then erupts into the title song as he saunters away. 

However, the standout amid these big names (and Mr. Scarlett Johansson, Colin Jost, who pops by in a brief yet excruciating cameo) is Anna Garcia, a brilliant comedic actress who plays Kelly's plucky, politically minded assistant.

Plotwise, her Ruby is a confidante to whom Kelly can spill secrets of the fake moon landing, among other ploys. But in execution, Garcia brings a crisp comedy styling that is bright and intoxicating, whatever mess is going on around her. With guest stints on shows like It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, the Party Down reboot, and various DROPOUT productions, Garcia first caught my eye in the interview parody show Very Important People. Here, Garcia played an eccentric Eurotrash pop star so convincingly that I looked for Princess Emily's Spotify artist page. (She was probably an Eurovision contender I missed, right?) In Fly Me to the Moon, she steals scenes with sharp asides and eye-catching reactions. Regrettably, as the film plunges into ham-fisted pathos, radiant Ruby is flung off on a lazy romantic subplot involving a character who can be most kindly written off as Nerd Number Two. 

Berlanti aims for the moon and falls far short.  Kelly Jones (Scarlett Johansson) in "Fly Me to the Moon." Credit: Dan McFadden / Sony Pictures

By taking on a '60s-style romcom, Berlanti stacks himself against the talents of such influential directors as Blake Edwards (Breakfast at Tiffany's), Norman Jewison (Send Me No Flowers), William Wyler (How to Steal A Million), Stanley Donen (Charade, Funny Face) and George Cukor (Adam's Rib, My Fair Lady). By folding in so many earnest elements of space travel drama, he invites comparisons to the celebrated filmmaking of Stanley Kubrick (2001: A Space Odyssey), who is repeatedly name-dropped in the film because of those exhausting conspiracy theories. And in every instance, this clunky dramedy pales in comparison, lacking the visual splendor, the emotional resonance, and the incorrigible wit of those that came before. 

With this genre-blending script, Berlanti has a wide sandbox to play in but no idea what to do with all these toys. In the end, Fly Me to the Moon is not just a misfire but a cataclysmic miscalculation, turning out to be far more tedious than enchanting. 

Fly Me to the Moon is now streaming on Apple TV.

UPDATE: Dec. 5, 2024, 5:37 p.m. EST "Fly Me to the Moon" was reviewed prior to its theatrical release in this article, originally published July 11, 2024. This article has been updated to reflect the latest viewing options.

What if all the hysteria about Y2K was valid? In 1999, as the clocks ticked down to the new millennium, there was a global fear that a computer coding shortcut could result in widespread tech issues, disrupting life as we know. That didn't happen, but Saturday Night Live alum Kyle Mooney's directorial debut Y2K asks the question: What if it did though? 

Studded with young stars like It's Jaeden Martell, Hunt for the Wilderpeople's Julian Dennison, West Side Story's Rachel Zegler, and Stranger Things' Eduardo Franco, sci-fi comedy Y2K's core story is about what a nightmare it is to be a teen with a crush. But is boatloads of nostalgia, goofy gore, and massive amounts of dopey jokes enough to make this comedy come together? 

Y2K is Terminator, but stupid. 

Written by Evan Winter, Y2K centers on two high school besties, who are way outside the cool kid clique. But one New Year's Eve, goofball Danny (Dennison) convinces wallflower Eli (Martell) that now is the time to get noticed by crashing a house party. While Eli's fumbling to get the attention of beautiful hacker Laura (Zegler), Danny is karaokeing raucously to Sisqó's "Thong Song" and getting the attention he's long craved. But as the clock strikes midnight, computers rebel as AI goes evil, going on a comedic killing spree in which everything from ceiling fans and microwaves to Tamagotchis can be a weapon. The midnight slaughter sequence is as outrageous as it is hilarious. 

Featured Video For You Why you're wrong about Y2K, 20 years later

The sci-fi logic of the film is basically non-existent, though Zegler's Laura is saddled with a series of hacker exposition dumps that half-heartedly set up some rules. But Y2K refuses to take science-fiction seriously. The premise is an excuse to goof on 2000s culture and chuck some teen archetypes into silly shenanigans. So Eli reluctantly leads a motley band of survivors out of this house of horrors and into a plan to save not just their high school but the whole world. 

Y2K is radiant in '00s nostalgia. 

Much like PEN15, Y2K plunges audiences back into a time where AIM away messages were pretentious poetry, dial-up squawked, T-shirts were worn inexplicably oversized, and burning CDs was a meaningful tool of self-expression. The opening sequence is littered with such nostalgic '00s details, which aptly set the era and earned much laughter and cheers from the SXSW audience at the film's world premiere. Props to Mooney for crafting such a crowd-pleasing beginning, but upon reflection, there's few actual jokes there. It's all about the joy of recognition, which could mean this comedy won't play for Gen Z at all, despite their recent Y2K revival. 

SEE ALSO: The ultimate Y2K gift guide for millennials and teens alike

Other references play a bigger role in the plot, like Danny learning Tae-Bo via Billy Blanks' once unavoidable workout videos and a musician cameo that — while funny and surprising — wears out its welcome by beating the same joke into the ground. Actually, that's a bit of a recurring problem. Mooney doesn't have a great sense of when enough is enough so several bits drag, making the movie feel a bit meandering even at one hour and thirty-three minutes. But the bigger issue is Y2K hangs itself on its least interesting character. 

Julian Dennison outshines Jaeden Martell. 

Winter's script is woefully lazy in developing Martell's Eli as a character. Established as shy and vaguely nerdy (he likes computer games and modifying action figures), Eli is identifiable as the lovestruck nerd archetype. However, he's not weird enough to be interesting in this world where electronics are suddenly transforming into gnarly killing machines. Likewise his crush Laura is regarded as extraordinary because she's pretty, popular, and into computers while being a girl. There's admittedly a self-awareness in other characters pointing out this supposed dissonance, but Y2K doesn't go any deeper into Laura's personality. So the jokes at her expense are more a lampshade of the issue rather than challenging it. 

Where the teen comedy aspect comes alive is in Danny as the charismatic wild card bestie, Franco as a rock-rap-loving bully, and Lachlan Watson as a surly alt chick. But sadly, the script sidelines them for way too much of the movie. While Zegler has undeniable screen presence, Martell offers a blank stare for much of the movie that just squashes its emotional pull. The frantic action and spurts of bright-red blood helps revive the movie's chaotic energy, but you might wish that Dennison had been given more to do here. The New Zealand actor is a dynamo, and it’s a shame to see him shunted to the side in a quirky bestie role. 

As a first watch, Y2K is a lot of fun. Its teen cast overall has terrific energy, and a supporting cast that includes Alicia Silverstone, Tim Heidecker, and Mooney — as a burnout video store clerk — brings welcomed microdoses of weirdness. The celebration of all things '00s is undeniably charming, even if used superficially. Jokes come fast and frantic, so even if some don't land, there's plenty of laughs to be had. But on reflection, the movie suffers under its lack of emotional depth. This is a solid stoner comedy, gleefully dumb and unapologetically wacky. But as a teen comedy, Y2K lacks the emotional awareness of classics like Clueless, the original Mean Girls, or Superbad. 

In short, Y2K is a good time, but falls short of greatness. 

Y2K is now in theaters.

UPDATE: Dec. 5, 2024, 4:40 p.m. EST Y2K was reviewed out of the world premiere at SXSW. This review was first published on March 11, 2024, and has been updated for its theatrical release.

From 2011 to 2012, thieves stole $18 million worth of maple syrup from the Federation of Quebec Maple Syrup Producers. Among the most valuable heists in Canadian history (and arguably the most Canadian heist ever), the robbery earned the title of the Great Canadian Maple Syrup Heist.

Now, the Great Canadian Maple Syrup Heist gets its own TV adaptation with Prime Video's The Sticky. Created by American Housewife team Brian Donovan and Ed Herro, The Sticky stars Margo Martindale, Chris Diamantopoulos, and Guillaume Cyr as an unlikely trio of maple syrup hustlers. The three have incredible chemistry — but in the end, is it enough to counteract The Sticky's long, winding road to the notorious heist that spawned it?

SEE ALSO: 'The Sticky' trailer: Margo Martindale, Jamie Lee Curtis, and the Great Canadian Maple Syrup Heist What is The Sticky about? Margo Martindale in "The Sticky." Credit: Jan Thijs

The Sticky may draw inspiration from true events, yet as a title card reminds us at the beginning of each episode, what we're seeing is "absolutely not" the true story. Yes, people will work to steal maple syrup from a governing syrup body in Quebec, but that's basically where the similarities begin and end. Notably, every member of The Sticky's aspiring heist crew is fictional.

Every member of the heist crew is also down on their luck, and growing more desperate day by day. There's syrup farmer Ruth Landry (Martindale), whose husband Martin lies in a years-long coma, and whose farming land is on the verge of being seized by the corrupt association that governs the local maple syrup supply. Security guard Remy Bouchard (Cyr) is the organization's sole security guard. Overworked, underpaid, and unappreciated by boss Leonard Gauthier (Guy Nadon), Remy takes revenge where he can — by stealing one barrel of syrup a month from the stockpile. Rounding out the team is Bostonian mobster Mike Byrne (Chris Diamantopoulos), who's looking to pull off a job unaffiliated with the U.S. crime family that hounds him.

Pushed together by circumstance, these three decide to take down those who have wronged them by executing the sweetest heist known to mankind. But of course, as we've come to expect from any heist story, things rarely go according to plan, and Ruth, Remy, and Mike are in for a hell of a lot of sticky situations.

SEE ALSO: 'A Man on the Inside' review: Ted Danson and Mike Schur reunite for sweet sitcom gold Margo Martindale, Guillaume Cyr, and Chris Diamantopoulos are a delightful heist crew. Margo Martindale, Chris Diamantopoulos, and Guillaume Cyr in "The Sticky." Credit: Jan Thijs

You may be drawn in by the promise of maple syrup mayhem, but the true heart of The Sticky is just watching Martindale, Cyr, and Diamantopoulos become the most dysfunctional heist crew in all of Canada. The three give delightful performances separately, but put them together, and you get dynamite.

Martindale's Ruth is ferocious as can be, unafraid to storm the association's offices with a downed tree in tow or curse out Leonard in front of his staff. Cyr's Remy becomes a perfect foil for her, not just because of his links to the organization but also because of his mild-mannered demeanor, which can sometimes lead to others taking advantage of him. However, that mildness flies out the door in most of his interactions with the hot-tempered Mike, who tries to assert himself as the dominant cool guy in charge of the operation. But despite all that posturing, Mike's often just as inept as his compatriots. Don't just take my word for it: Feast your eyes on Diamantopoulos' many icy pratfalls, which somehow get funnier over time, no matter how often Mike bites it in the Quebec snow.

SEE ALSO: The best comedies on Prime Video for when you need a good laugh

The lead-up to The Sticky's heist gives our trio plenty of time to bond, from planning sessions to car trips to an accomplice's storage unit. It also gives them plenty of opportunities to cross each other, building tension — and some very fun sap-related arguments — along the way. Yet among all The Sticky's many twists and turns, it can sometimes feel like the heist itself has gotten lost in the syrup... er, sauce.

The Sticky's heist feels more like an afterthought. Jamie Lee Curtis in "The Sticky." Credit: Jan Thijs

Despite The Sticky's lightning-fast first season (six episodes, each less than 30 minutes), the series can sometimes feel like it's wading through syrup in its efforts to get to the heist proper. Ruth and Remy drop out of the heist at separate points, only to get pulled back in mere moments later. Elsewhere, new wrinkles out of our trio's control keep pushing the planned heist date back. Some, like the arrival of new security guard Gary (Meegwun Fairbrother), spawn riotous side quests. Others, like the intrusion of Mike's Bostonian colleagues — including mobster Bo (Jamie Lee Curtis) — feel like The Sticky stalling for time, or clawing for a great antagonist for a potential second season.

Here's the thing, though: I'm far more interested in the small-town dynamics The Sticky initially sets up than whatever hell Boston has to rain down on Mike. The series briefly explores the solidarity between Ruth and the other syrup farmers and townspeople, including a scene where a diner refuses to give Leonard any syrup with breakfast. But otherwise, it barely fleshes out the rest of them.

By the time The Sticky finally gets to its heist, the season has almost run out of steam, and it shows. Prior iterations of the heist plan play out in snappy, darkly funny sequences of what the crime might look like. Yet that energy dissipates for the real deal, which seems almost grim in comparison to everything that's come before it.

But while the final destination of The Sticky Season 1 may be underwhelming, at least the characters who brought us there are anything but. Martindale, Cyr, and Diamantopoulos have created a trio of lovable, flawed criminals who are fully-fledged right off the bat, and watching their dynamic evolve over the course of the season is a sweet treat all by itself.

All episodes of The Sticky are now streaming on Prime Video.

A story that unfolds on death's doorstep, Oh, Canada is a thoughtful, reflective work from Paul Schrader, if an occasionally rushed one. Whether or not its hurried approach is a defect — it most certainly plays like one, as though there was only so much time to wrap it up before the reaper comes a-calling — it also results in a more intimate embodiment of everything on Schrader's mind when it was made.

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The tale of a documentary filmmaker on his deathbed who becomes the camera's subject, the film is based on the 2021 novel Foregone by Russell Banks. (Schrader previously adapted Banks' novel Affliction in 1997.) The author would sadly pass away in January 2023, a few months before filming began, and shortly after Schrader himself had a brush with death thanks to COVID-19.

This proximity to grief, and to the grave, informs Oh Canada's storytelling, which plays like a recollection of regrets. Its structure and narrative POV shift in beguiling ways, as though the movie's main character — played by two actors at different ages — was rushing to absolve himself of sin. Along the way, he confuses and collapses his many confessions into a single, muddled mythology that constantly shifts through elliptical editing, as if to reflect the character’s disoriented state of mind. The details may be unreliable, but his story pulses with riveting emotional truths, born from lifelong remorse. 

What is Oh, Canada about?   

Now confined to hospice care, Canadian filmmaker Leonard Fife (Richard Gere) agrees to an interview conducted by his former film students, Malcolm (Michael Imperioli) and Diana (Victoria Hill), during his final weeks of life. Cancer has ravaged his body, and his treatment has left him tired, but as an artist who has always used his camera to unearth people's truths, he hopes Malcolm and Diana's lens will do the same for him, and help him unburden himself as his wife, Emma (Uma Thurman), looks on.

Many details of Leonard's life are publicly known, especially his conscientious Vietnam draft-dodging, after which he left the U.S. for the Great White North as a political asylee. However, just as much of his story remains shrouded in mystery, which he now unpacks as last rite. In flashbacks set in the '60s and '70s, Leonard is played by Jacob Elordi (of Priscilla fame), though on occasion, Gere himself strides through scenes where Elordi ought to be, a swap that occurs either through straightforward cuts, or the occasional Texas Switch.

The seamlessness with which the older Leonard replaces his younger self has an eerie effect, as though something in the fabric of his story were deeply amiss. As he reveals some particularly shameful and macabre family secrets, Emma remains in denial over his revelations and insists that Leonard must be confused about the details. He is, in a way, given the overlap between events and characters he recalls, but all of these revelations come from a place of deep pain and repression. Whether or not they're logistically true, Gere makes their emotional truth feel undeniable via a towering, career-defining performance as a man both afraid and determined to stare at the camera and be seen by it, as he struggles to purge himself of demons that have long been eating at his soul.

Paul Schrader brings a thoughtful filmmaking eye to Oh, Canada. Credit: Cannes Film Festival

Throughout Oh, Canada, Leonard's regret is enhanced by Schrader's interrogative filmmaking, which draws from numerous documentarian techniques. The film for which he provides his personal testimony — about his own life, and his work as anti-war activist after his illegal border-crossing — takes the form of a traditional interview talking head, albeit with an aesthetic twist that yields several haunting close-ups.

In order to pay tribute to Leonard, his students film him with the use of a camera set-up he invented. In reality, this is the Interrotron developed by The Thin Blue Line director Errol Morris; it’s a teleprompter that allows the subject to meet the interviewer's eye (or rather, a reflection of it) while staring directly down the camera's lens. By attributing the tool to the fictitious Leonard, Schrader creates a double-edged sword. The technique has long afforded Leonard the comfort of sitting behind a video monitor, rather than meeting his subjects' gaze directly. But now, as the subject of his own camera, his confession occurs in a darkened, lonely room.

There are people nearby, like the filmmakers, and Leonard's wife, Emma, whose reflection theoretically appears in the teleprompter, but we only ever glimpse this briefly. For the most part, Schrader locks us into a trio of close-ups of Leonard from three angles (two profiles, and one directly head-on), which appear on side-by-side video screens for Malcolm and Diana, and whose angles Schrader often cuts between. This triptych framing makes the cameras feel incredibly invasive, and by almost never cutting away from Leonard's close-ups, Schrader forces us to view his self-reflections the way the aging documentarian sees them. His interviewers' faces may be visible to him on a screen, but he recognizes his own filmmaking facade, and he knows just how lonely he is, here at the end of his life.

This loneliness takes stirring form during Leonard's flashbacks, too. In isolated moments, Elordi and Gere's attention occasionally drifts from the characters to whom they're speaking, and their gaze falls upon nothing in particular, as though they know they're trapped in a framing device. People from other points in the story sometimes appear where they shouldn't, and on occasion, a white light consumes the frame, as though hypoxia (or the embrace of death) had threatened to provide Leonard with respite from his confessions.

The question then remains: Does Leonard want to die without having exposed the worst parts of himself?

Schrader's shifting narrative makes Oh, Canada a holistic self-reflection.

Like Schrader's most recent works — especially First Reformed, The Card Counter, and Master Gardener, a similarly confessional trilogy — Oh, Canada makes frequent use of voiceover. But in the aforementioned films, these narrations took the form of diary entries by each protagonist, whereas in the latest, the framing device is not only a camera this time, but one that isn't in Leonard's control.

Sometimes, the movie's voiceover comprises snippets from Leonard's filmed confession. Other times, it draws from an impassioned inner monologue. And on some occasions, the voiceover is spoken by a different character entirely, revealed to be a person who feels deeply betrayed by Leonard. In a literal sense, this patchwork of perspectives helps unearth Leonard's story from multiple points of view, as Schrader deconstructs both a man and the mythology around him.

However, this shifting POV also serves a spiritual purpose. In essence, it blends the known and the imagined, and plays as though Leonard were in a desperate grasp at absolutely, slowly stepping outside himself and finding sudden empathy for someone he had deeply — perhaps knowingly — wronged.

Credit: Canne Film Festival

Oh, Canada is a work of deep-seated guilt frothing to the surface, and while its story is largely fictional, Schrader's presentation takes strikingly personal form. On one hand, the older Leonard is styled to resemble Banks — Schrader’s friend of many years, who requested the filmmaker to adapt Foregone before he died — but from many angles, this man with short, graying hair and an unkempt beard also resembles Schrader himself, who made the film when it seemed like the nearly 80-year-old filmmaker might not win his long battle with COVID and pneumonia. (He was hospitalized, and suffered breathing difficulties in the aftermath.)

But there's another personal element to the movie, too, one made far less apparent on screen. Around the time of Banks' death and Schrader's illness, the director also moved into an assisted living facility with his wife, Mary Beth Hurt, whose Alzheimer's had been worsening. Oh, Canada is as much a film about death and elusive truths as it is about memory and its fleeting nature, and it's hard not to read the visual manifestations of Leonard's confusion as Schrader's depiction of his wife's condition.

Moreover, it depicts a filmmaker whose confessions to his wife — a woman who knows him better than anyone, but still doesn't know his darkest moments — don't seem to stick, both because of his illness and his inability to properly articulate them. While Schrader's avatar suffers from distortions of recollection in the film, and is assisted by his wife, the reverse is true in reality. The idea of a man unable to fully give himself over to the woman he loves because of the impermanent nature of memory is the tragic result, regardless. While Oh, Canada talks through (but quickly skips past) many of these central themes — en route to a conclusion that wraps up too quickly, and too neatly — it stands as one of Schrader's most personal, most moving, and most impactful films.

Oh, Canada is now playing in theaters.

UPDATE: Dec. 5, 2024, 5:06 p.m. EST "Oh, Canada" was reviewed on May 30, 2024, out of the Cannes Film Festival. This post has been updated to include the most current viewing information.

One of our most anticipated movies out of the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival was Nightbitch. The reasons were many. For one, it's the latest from Marielle Heller, the helmer of such critically heralded adaptations as the coming-of-age dramedy The Diary of a Teenage Girl, the moving Mr. Rogers biopic A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, and the Academy Award–nominated and absolutely hilarious biographical comedy Can You Ever Forgive Me? Two, Nightbitch is led by Amy Adams, the six-time Oscar–nominated star of dramas like The Master and Doubt, as well as comedies like American Hustle and Vice. Three, based on the Rachel Yoder novel, this project promised to give Adams a role she could really sink her teeth into. 

As hinted by the title and the film's first trailer, Nightbitch is about a middle-aged woman who feels stifled by her identity as stay-at-home mom. The ruthless routine of caring for her young son and playing supporting partner to her bacon-bringing husband has her on the brink of breakdown. But then, she sniffs out a newfound freedom as she begins to transform into a dog once the baby's put to bed. There are shades of Jennifer Kent's The Babadook in the premise, so the potential of this maternal dramedy seemed extraordinary.

Heller's established blend of sharp humor and deep empathy combined with Adams' ability to play everything from heart-wrenching drama to gut-busting broad comedy seems a perfect pairing to this material. But unfortunately, the most shocking thing in Nightbitch is how unshocking it ultimately is. 

Featured Video For You Nightbitch howls for the frustrated mothers. 

Heller's adapted screenplay gets off to a solid start with a grocery trip that introduces both the mundane and thankless duties of this unnamed mother (Adams, who is referred to as Mother in the credits) and the undercurrent of intellectual frustration boiling beneath her pleasant smile. When a former colleague in chic business attire asks how she likes "getting to be at home" with the baby all day, this pale and frazzled mother launches into a rant of her unrealized ambitions, her fear that mommy brain is killing her creativity as an artist, and her concern that there's no going back. But then the film leaps back a few moments, effectively creating a temporal record scratch that takes us back to the end of the question. This time, Mother answers with what she's supposed to say: "Yeah. I love it." 

That she loves her son (also unnamed, and played by twins Arleigh and Emmett Snowden) is a given. He's adorable, yes, even when he's drinking out of the toilet or throwing paint all over her kitchen walls. What plagues her is the endless cycle of breakfast, diapers, bedtime, and mommy-and-me storytime at the library. There, she might find community among the other mothers, but she resists the warm invitations from these cheerful moms (The Afterparty's Zoë Chao, Happiest Season's Mary Holland, and Archana Rajan). Perhaps because to accept their friendship would be to surrender to this confining mom space?

Her resentment builds against her husband (Speak No Evil's Scoot McNairy), who is the embodiment of weaponized incompetence and emotional idiocy. Then she begins to grow fur. Heller expertly weaves in elements of body horror grotesquely mimicking to comedic effect the physical transformation of a body throughout early motherhood. A particularly impactful scene involves Mother probing at a lump on her tailbone, which oozes a thick, milky pus, then long hair, and finally, an undeniable tail. The audience at the TIFF world premiere audibly gagged and groaned as Adams pulled fur and pus from her lower back! Both here and later — when Mother discovers she's grown four new nipples down her torso — Heller's heroine is not repulsed but empowered by her ability to transform. It's a thrilling beginning to a tale of finding your inner animal. But frustrating, Nighbitch fails to go fully feral. 

Nightbitch lacks bite. 

Mother finds fresh empowerment in her unusual behavior, like nighttime runs with runaway dogs, a carnal hunger for meat, outbursts at her stereotypically smug child-free friends, and an urge to strike back violently at her awful husband, who dares to chirp the deeply unhelpful advice, "Happiness is a choice!" There's an engaging build-up as she begins to move away from fantasizing about emotional outbursts and begins to act them out. But despite a bit of bloodlust in the form of small animal kills, there's no real sense of threat to the film. 

This brings me back to Jennifer Kent's brilliant maternal horror movie The Babadook, which celebrates its 10th anniversary this year. While the films are tonally different, they have a lot in common. Both follow a woman trying desperately to play by the rules of being a "good mother," but finding the sacrifice of self demanded for this role absolutely suffocating. 

Both have young sons, who they love but also resent. Both have murderous eyes toward the family pet, and both fear they are being taken over by some mysterious primal force. But Nightbitch won't embrace the darkness like The Babadook dared to. Heller's Mother might be bitchy, but she'll never go so far that she'll scare the audience. Admittedly, The Babadook is a nightmare of motherhood, where Nightbitch is meant to be a fantasy of liberation. So, there's understandable cause for Heller not to go as hard as Kent did. Still, without probing deeply to a point of true peril, which would require Mother destroying the things she loves, the low point in Nightbitch just doesn't hit as hard as it could. As the film turns to climb back to a happy ending, the change feels frustratingly mild instead of transgressive or revolutionary. 

There are moments where Nightbitch seems on the verge of tearing down the ideals of "good motherhood" from its damning pedestal and ripping the concept to pieces, freeing Adams' Mother for good. Most of these come through the narration, presumably much of it pulled directly from Yoder's prose. The story illustrates the constraints of the role of mother, where sacrifice is taken so much for granted that moms don't even have a socially sanctioned space to complain about the hardships they endure. While Adams' harried (and hairy) heroine begins to discover some of these constraints are self-imposed, the film refuses to explore what it would mean to dismantle the expectations of others. Without what that could look like, the critique feels incomplete, suggesting some solid me-time is all that's needed to achieve a balance, ignoring the greater societal pressures put upon mothers specifically. 

To Adams' credit, she's committed to playing Mother with an intense authenticity. Throughout the film, her character's hair is dull, her face unpolished by standard movie make-up, her body bigger than model-sizing would allow. She looks a lot like the mothers you might see any given day at the playground. And that makes her delight in her secret hidden tail and bonus nipples uniquely thrilling, punctuated by Adams' beguiling glee at these discoveries. There is much more to her than meets the eye. 

Yet Adams balances this absurdity with earnest monologues about the incredible power of a body that can create life. And at times, this is electrifying. But all of this peculiarity and growing power sets up a promise of something extraordinary that is not delivered on. This mother never gets truly angry, so despite her canine quirks, she feels contained to a chipper maternal narrative. In the end, Nightbitch feels unfinished. 

Nightbitch was reviewed out its World Premiere at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival. Nightbitch opens in theaters Dec. 6.

UPDATE: Dec. 5, 2024, 4:56 p.m. EST This review was originally published on Sept. 21, 2024. It has been updated for its theatrical release.

Among the most polarizing of the movies shown at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival was The End, a two-and-a-half-hour musical about humanity's last days on Earth. 

Far from the show-stopping spectacle of apocalyptic action movies like The Day After Tomorrow or even the razzmatazz of modern American movie musicals like The Greatest Showman, director Joshua Oppenheimer embeds his audience in a bizarre bunker a half-mile underground. There lives a wealthy industrialist family who has turned a blind eye to the dying world above them. That is, until a survivor finds her way to their doorstep. Will her unexpected arrival upset their delicate psychological equilibrium? You bet.

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What follows is certainly not for everyone. Some critics I spoke with at TIFF complained that Oppenheimer's musical is indulgent in its runtime, ugly in its relentless blue-gray palette, and even infuriating in its plotting. Others see the length, the dismal colors, and that frustrating plot to be precisely the point, and embrace it as such. I am in the latter camp, finding this mournful and fanciful musical utterly captivating, jarringly funny, and savagely profound. 

The End is doomsday prepping by way of Downton Abbey.

Forget what you think you know about bunkers. Deep, deep underground this family — whose names are never uttered — has built something not metal and cold but very old-money. Housed within a cavernous salt mine with spiraling walls and noisy ventilation systems lies their home away from apocalypse. It contains crown molding, classic works of art in gilded frames, a wood-paneled library, a grand dining room, a complicated model train set-up, an inexplicably endless food supply, and above all, pristine order down to the paper-flower bouquets arranged in delicate vases.

Here, a 25-year-old man born in the bunker (George MacKay) has only ever known his doting mother (Tilda Swinton), his chummy father (Michael Shanon), their devoted butler (Tim McInnerny), a cheeky chef (Bronagh Gallagher), and a dour doctor (Lennie James). And despite possibly being the last people on Earth, they seem happy enough, singing songs of gratitude for their circumstances. Well, when they're not conducting dramatic emergency drills, that is. (You can never be too careful.)

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The absurdity of their profound privilege is made all the clearer when an above-ground survivor (Moses Ingram) stumbles upon them. Understandably, she is utterly bewildered by all they possess while people on the surface scrape and starve. The political commentary only gets more overt as this young Black woman hears the selective history the white son's been taught, like how the oil industry that made its fortune definitely didn't contribute to the climate crisis that forced the family underground as they left everyone else to burn! With a cocked eyebrow and a patient tone, she not only pushes back on this propaganda but also brings a dry humor to the household. 

The End offers a bleak view with winsome song and dance.

While the son is in awe of the stranger, who speaks openly about her own regrets and urges the others to do the same, a raw tension emerges between her and the mother, who would rather the family's skeletons stay neatly tucked away in the closet, thank you very much. Anxieties rise as a romance blooms between the son and the stranger. Happily for us, this leads to a charming duet and a dance number where salt is kicked about the mines, which sit cold and unimpressed by the pair's passion. Such energy surrounded by the towering, uncaring setting echoes West Side Story. But with nowhere to escape but a dying world above, where can this story go? 

Oppenheimer and co-writer Rasmus Heisterberg mire the audience in the push-and-pull between the mother's strategic repression and the stranger's emotional outbursts. Reflecting her character's emotional strain, Swinton sings in a shrill falsetto, as if her mother might crack at any moment. MacKay has a Broadway-bright performance style, while Ingram delivers soulful ballads of loss and hope. Shannon and McInnerny join in with vaguely vaudevillian numbers of tap and banter, but the jocularity of this bit is undercut by the father cruelly reminding his butler buddy of his rank.

'The End' traps us in a ruthless loop, where its core family risks change or growth, only to deny it.

Trapped in this beautiful bunker under unblinking blue light, they are all specimens trapped under glass. Here are the last people on Earth, preserved but without purpose, objects in a museum of their own making. Still, there are moments where it seems these characters might just break out — not of the bunker but from the pretty molds they've built to survive in the guise of civility. A brutal verbal battle in the parents' bathroom gives Shannon's signature intensity a place to explode. Swinton's eyes, bright and on the brink of tears, show the deep hurt hiding behind this mother's practiced smile. MacKay, with a frantic enthusiasm that trembles into nerve-rattling, seems often on the brink of breaking this cycle of deranged self-mythologizing. But then Oppenheimer will quick-cut to some time later, when the drama has passed and routine has reasserted itself. The tension is bled out, and we bleed with it.

The End traps us in a ruthless loop, where its core family risks change or growth, only to deny it. Both those who liked and loathed the film agree this cycle makes for a very frustrating viewing experience. But this feels intentional. As he did in his two Oscar–nominated documentaries, The Look of Silence and The Act of Killing, Oppenheimer is itching his way under our skin with incredible artistry to expose the revolting reality of human capabilities — not just what horrors we can do to each other, but also what we can ignore to maintain even a fragile sense of civility. 

In The End, even as the director presents us with people who have done horrible things, Oppenheimer doesn't lose empathy for them. While their lies are abundant, this incredible cast makes their pain feel real, so even in spite of our vexations or political opinions, you might well ache for the mother who fears she's losing her son. And yet — as absurd as this sounds — the most devastating line in the whole movie is about cake. Literal cake. 

Defying expectations of genre, both musical and apocalypse narrative, The End is a challenge thrown down to audiences. The songs and dances are not glistening perfection, but occasionally clunky or tinny. But this works because each instance is a reflection of that character, and where they fall short of their projection of perfection and happiness. The suffocatingly dull colors bleach the rosiness out of flushed cheeks, making everything feel vaguely dead, or maybe even embalmed. The film's plot leads to a place that is well earned and yet hard to bear. Yet it's thrilling to see a musical take so many risks, especially when movie studios seem afraid to even promote that a movie is a musical. (See trailers for Mean Girls, Wonka, and Wicked, all of which hide the actual singing.) Frankly, it was refreshing to be this surprised and emotionally wrecked by a new musical. 

All in all, The End is a gutsy film that is thrillingly unnerving, raw, and original. 

The End was reviewed out of its Canadian premiere at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival. It opens in limited release Dec. 6.

UPDATE: Dec. 5, 2024, 5:08 p.m. EST This review was originally published on Sept. 12, 2024. It has been updated for its theatrical release.

Several times throughout Hard Truths, an unassuming English suburb becomes the site of a simmering domestic civil war, when the middle-aged Pansy (Marianne Jean-Baptiste) is awoken from her nap and goes on a wordy, hilariously nasty rant about her neighbors. Her demanding husband Curtley (David Webber) is never surprised, and quietly accepts his wife's latest venomous tirade, knowing full well that he could be its next target.

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Kitchen-sink realist Mike Leigh, now in his eighties, may have come to the bitter realization that at a certain point, some things (and people) may never change. However, with his latest social drama, he paints an acerbic and empathetic portrait of what hitting your limit looks like. The film, and Jean-Baptiste's rankled performance as a wife and mother who just can't catch a break, seem to exist just beyond an invisible point of no return — a line that Hard Truths walks with stunning precision.

What is Hard Truths about? David Webber, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, and Tuwaine Barrett in "Hard Truths." Credit: Courtesy of Simon Mein / Copyright Thin Man Films Ltd.

While her husband is away at his plumbing job, and while her unemployed 22-year-old son Moses (Tuwaine Barrett) is locked away in his bedroom, the dispirited fifty-something Pansy likes to clean — perhaps a little too much — if only to create a temporary sanctuary for herself, where she can nap without having to worry about the outside world.

This paradise never lasts. The real world always comes knocking sooner or later, whether in the form of a stray fox in her yard or the men in her life asking for their next meal. The next inconvenience to her, and her next vicious speech about the state of the world and its selfish people, are always just moments away, and she wants it all to stop. 

There's a quote from the TV series Justified that has since become a common truism: "If you run into an asshole in the morning, you ran into an asshole. If you run into assholes all day, you're the asshole." It is, on the surface, applicable to Pansy and how she navigates the world — her sharp barbs at innocent strangers in public, while funny, are a sudden and irreverent release valve — leaving people to walk on eggshells when she's around. But it isn't quite so simple and binary; in reality, everyone is an asshole to some degree. Pansy is ready to snap at a moment's notice, but she wasn't born this way. Something or someone (perhaps multiple somethings and someones) molded her over time, an idea that Leigh slowly unveils and explores over the course of 97 minutes.

SEE ALSO: The 10 best movies of 2024

But before there's ever a hint of Pansy's real psychology, the film also presents an upbeat contrast across several scenes, in the form of her hairdresser sister Chantal (Michele Austin) and the parallel life she lives. Chantal, a single mother, lives with her two adult daughters, young professionals Kayla (Ani Nelson) and Aleisha (Sophia Brown), in a cramped apartment filled with love and cheer. Through scenes that follow both sisters across daily interactions, Hard Truths details how people on the same journey can end up in remarkably different destinations, living lives in which they put out into the world that which they receive — or perceive, or think they deserve.

As Mother's Day approaches, both women's lives as homemakers shift slowly into focus, but they also plan to visit their mother's grave, a scenario that proves surprisingly emotionally charged. Whatever Pansy's problem with the idea, she first and foremost makes excuses. "I'm a sick woman!" she yells at Chantal, before darting off into an unrelated rant about how she doesn't plan things in advance.

As the holiday nears, isolated scenes focused on all the aforementioned characters — Pansy, Curtley, Moses, Chantal, Kayla and Aleisha — paint a multifaceted family portrait that, eventually, helps unearth the deep anguish that lies beneath Pansy's risible demeanor.

Hard Truths is about the ins and outs of Black women's lives. Marianne Jean-Baptiste and Michele Austin in "Hard Truths." Credit: Courtesy of Simon Mein / Copyright Thin Man Films Ltd.

What makes Leigh's film such a joyful watch is its vignette-like approach to both families, though it eventually sharpens its focus when digging into difficult emotional territory. Several of these scenes are set at Chantal's hair salon, following daily gossip that sketches out the details of her life, and those of her clients, all of them middle-aged Black women dealing with the daily drudgery of life. However, their sense of community keeps them afloat.

Leigh, on numerous occasions, cuts from the noisy hustle and bustle of the salon to the eerie silence of Pansy's home, a contrast that lures the viewer into her orbit before she launches into her next series of condemnations — even against dogs, babies, and so on. She's pissed off with the world at large, doesn't have the tools to deal with it, and ignores any kind of support she's offered.

The characters' communal instincts are also accompanied by specific cultural details, which speak to the movie's granular nature. These are women who all appear to belong to England's Caribbean diaspora; they might speak with English accents, but on occasion, they code-switch to the occasional Patois or West Indian intonation, which tells its own story too. For Chantal, her clients, and her daughters, this switch usually occurs during laughter, or during the lively recounting of stories. But in Pansy's case, code-switching is a means of tapping into more creative insults, and into furious, lock-jawed responses to the mundane, as the film seats its jet-black humor right next to its notions of people's deep and complicated personal history.

There also exists a sense of pride in achievement for these characters, and of pushing one's children to be their best selves. Chantal has ostensibly succeeded at this with her well-adjusted daughters, who enjoy varying levels of success (though they still hide their failures from their mum, and from one another). Moses, on the other hand, represents the flip side to this story. He seems aimless, and spends all his time eating, making a mess, playing video games, and reading books about airplanes. Apart from his occasional strolls, he barely leaves the house, and lacks professional prospects. All Pansy does is yell at him in the hopes of motivating him, but deep down, she thinks he may be a lost cause.

Pansy even describes his behavior to Chantal in dismissive terms — his fixations, his social awkwardness, and his inability to maintain eye contact in particular — that hint towards Moses being on the autism spectrum, or having some kind of cognitive disability that his parents cannot or do not recognize. But even Pansy's love as a mother can (and will) only go so far, given the harshness of her own upbringing by a disciplinarian single mother.

Hard Truths centers on a tremendous lead performance. Ani Nelson, Michele Austin, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, David Webber, Sophia Brown, and Tuwaine Barrett in "Hard Truths." Credit: Courtesy of Simon Mein / Copyright Thin Man Films Ltd.jpg

Teaming with Leigh for the first time since 1996's Secrets & Lies — a role that won her a Best Supporting Actress nomination at the Oscars, BAFTAs, and Golden Globes — Jean-Baptiste delivers career-best work in what may be one of the most challenging performances this year. The biggest challenge for both actress and director is maintaining a familiar sense of humanity during even verbose, borderline Shakespearean outbursts about how much Pansy loathes the world — and by implication, what it has done to her.

Each and every actor delivers fine-tuned work, as characters swallowed up by Pansy's orbit (and in the case of Curtley and Moses, characters who have contributed to the black hole at her center). But Jean-Baptiste is a magnet for the camera, luring it in with her eyes, and making it watch — unblinking, unbroken — as she puts on a clinic of self-loathing turned outward.

A volatile undercurrent runs just beneath Jean-Baptiste's physical being, leaving Pansy on the verge of either explosion or implosion. Sometimes, she reaches both these difficult places at once, as the camera interrogates her, practically forcing confessions from her about what made her this way. The more Leigh lingers, holding back on any sort of formalist flourish, the more he allows his performances to take charge. The result is mesmerizing to watch, and sure to remind you of the worst flashes you might have seen of friends and loved ones.

In the process, Hard Truths becomes a complex showreel for humanity at its most bitter and pained, with characters forced to turn inward and at least recognize (if not introspect and improve upon) the worst corners of themselves. Through long, unbroken close-ups and scenes of familial interaction in which tensions subtly build, Leigh's stark naturalism is brought slowly and fiercely to the fore by an accomplished actress at the height of her power, and at the height of her vulnerability. Scene by scene, she slowly chips away at Pansy's armor until all that's left is sinew, blood, and bone, leaving her exposed to the world in all its cruelty and kindness and indifference. It’s harrowing to watch, but Jean-Baptiste makes it impossible to look away. 

Hard Truths will have a qualifying run in New York City on Dec. 6 before opening in limited release Jan. 10, 2025.

UPDATE: Sep. 25, 2024, 4:33 p.m. EDT Hard Truths was reviewed on Sept. 9, 2024 out of its world premiere at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival. This post has been updated for its theatrical premiere.

The year is 1983. Talk radio host Alan Berg (Marc Maron) is on the Colorado airwaves comically dressing down racist callers, while elsewhere across the Pacific Northwest, a series of armed robberies becomes a matter of concern — even more than usual — because of possible white supremacist ties. This is the backdrop of The Order, Justin Kurzel's highly engrossing (if politically slight) police story, in which fictitious FBI officer Terry Husk (Jude Law) begins pulling on real-world threads with disturbingly modern implications.

Written by Zach Baylin, the film is based on Kevin Flynn and Gary Gerhardt's late-'80s nonfiction book The Silent Brotherhood, which tells of a real white supremacist splinter group known as "the Order" (or "the Silent Brotherhood"), whose concerns with preserving white supremacy led them to meticulous acts of terror. It is, first and foremost, an incredibly fun movie, even if "fun" may not seem like the right approach for such volatile material.

This is, in part, because Kurzel finally discards his perpetually dour cinematic mindset, and replaces it with the thrills and frills of a Hollywood action drama. However, the film's success is also owed to Law's central performance as a lonely, no-nonsense cop for whom the work comes first, even if it drives him up the wall, and keeps him constantly on the verge of explosion.

What is The Order about? Credit: Vertical Entertainment

Within its opening minutes, The Order depicts the dueling danger and ridiculousness of white supremacy, thanks to Maron's distinctly Maron-esque version of Berg, a Jewish radio personality who fields calls from frustrated bigots looking for an outlet. His sharp and witty barbs can be heard even before the first images appear, though once they do, they present a stark contrast to this lively soundtrack. In the dead of night, a pair of neo-Nazis guns down one of their own for talking too much about their plans.

Berg is only shown on-screen a handful of times, but his show is the film's de facto narrator, appearing at a handful intervals to remind us of the everyday form that antisemitism and white supremacy can take. While this makes for necessary comic relief, it's also a vital contrast. Much of the movie depicts the more far-flung extremes of white supremacy, through fringe militias ready and willing to take violent action, but the recurrence of Berg's voice keeps the Overton window from shifting too greatly; he reminds us that his easily dismissed callers and the movie's armed factions bloom from the same seed.

Those familiar with Berg's life will know how his story eventually intersects with that of the Order — a disorienting instance of narrator and narrative coming into contact — but outside of this moment, the movie mostly tells the story of two people. The first is Husk, appropriately named for his new lot in life after putting in for a transfer. The temperamental agent sits in the FBI's sparse Idaho branch, waiting for his wife and children to join him, though they may as well be phantoms. He's empty, and has nothing but the job.

The movie's second major character is Robert Jay Matthews (Nicholas Hoult), who goes by Bob; he leads the Order through planning and pulling off armed robberies in order to fund a weapons stockpile. In contrast to Husk, Bob is charismatic, well-liked and always surrounded by people. The neo-Nazis he recruits consider him a brother. He has a wife and son at home, and even a pregnant mistress. Right from its basic premise, The Order establishes the allure of his cult: community and togetherness.

Husk, upon spotting suspicious "white pride" flyers around town, makes inquiries at the local sheriff's office, though no one seems concerned except for rookie cop Jamie Bowen (Tye Sheridan), who more willingly spots these red flags since he has mixed race children, and is married to woman of color (Morgan Holmstrom, an actress of First Nations and Filipina ethnicity). With Bowen's help, Husk begins making inquiries around town in the hopes to identifying the group's ringleader, but Bob is always one step ahead, leading to a an exhilarating cat-and-mouse game involving deviously enjoyable heists and shootouts, albeit at the cost of examining the more challenging corners of its subject matter.

The Order takes a functional approach to white supremacy. Credit: Vertical Entertainment

As a period-specific film about a white supremacist cult, The Order resembles Spike Lee's BlacKkKlansman at a distance, down to their use of shifting comedic and dramatic tones, urging viewers to take even the most ludicrous facets of white supremacy seriously. Distinguishing them is, of course, the fact that Lee's film was about infiltration from within, while Kurzel's is more of a chase — and the fact that Black experiences and perspectives are central to BlacKkKlansman.

The Order doesn't necessarily have to follow the same path — its one Black FBI agent, played by Jurnee Smollett, delivers forceful dialogue but is mostly perfunctory — though it often leaves material on the table. BlacKkKlansman was by no means an exposé on white supremacy within policing (Lee has been criticized for this), but its haunting conclusion suggests that even the heroic actions of its Black police detective have done little to stymie the rise of American neo-Nazism in the long term. The Order avoids the question of race within policing altogether — the concept barely seems to exist outside of the confines of the cult — but these shortcomings also help streamline The Order, making it a worthwhile pulp procedural.  

The film's approach to white supremacy is best labeled "utilitarian." Little by way of action or dialogue works to unearth the group's underlying ideology — neo-Nazi characters discuss America no longer being "our country," and hint at the economic downturn that may have driven them into Bob's open arms — but The Order has an intense an unrelenting focus on the white supremacist playbook. Which is to say: The Order prominently features The Turner Diaries, William Luther Pierce's 1978 neo-Nazi novel that lays out a detailed plan to overthrow the U.S. government, culminating in "The Day of the Rope," i.e. the hanging of traitors at the U.S. Capitol.

If this fiction is eerily reminiscent of the January 6, 2021 insurrection, that's no coincidence. The Turner Diaries has long informed white supremacist rhetoric in America, as well as QAnon-like conspiracy theories. The book and its pages appear throughout the film, both as a blueprint for Bob and a not-so-subtle clue for Husk and Bowen, who use its pages to convince the FBI to divert its resources to taking down the Order. In centering the book to this degree, the film becomes a premonition of sorts, a warning that events which have recently come to pass — and might again, in the near future — don't exist in a vacuum.

The Order is Kurzel's most accomplished piece of filmmaking. Credit: Vertical Entertainment

There's an argument to be made that The Order is a B-movie in the body of a prestigious "issue" drama. There's just as valid an argument that it's Kurzel's best movie, a metamorphosis akin to the last decade of M. Night Shyamalan's career — which include films like The Visit, Glass, Old, and Trap — in that both filmmakers have finally gotten out of their own way and embraced cinematic "trash."

Kurzel's films have, for the most part, been steeped in grief and death. This has led to some intriguing experiments, like his 2015 Macbeth adaptation, in which Lady Macbeth's plot is born out of mourning the loss of a child (the film, while pleasing to the eye, is far too long). On the other hand, it has also led to oddities like 2016's Assassin's Creed, a video game movie that forgets to have fun. With The Order, Kurzel remembers that fun is still possible even within macabre confines, and he shoulders Law with embodying this energetic paradox.

Law's character, Husk, is a sad sack on the verge of madness. His "bad cop" routine is his baseline, and though he doesn't bounce off the walls like, say, Nicolas Cage in Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, he belongs in the same conversation. His nose bleeds at regular intervals (due to his medication, he claims), though at one point, when he's particularly eager to "lean on" a suspect, he does so quite literally, going freak-mode during an impromptu interrogation and bleeding all over him. It's wildly silly, though thank God for Law's refusal to artificially repair his hairline; the actor's widow's peak not only makes Husk a more realistic presence, but a more menacing one as well.

In contrast, Hoult crafts Bob as a charming, measured, and ostensibly "regular" guy. He would be downright affable, were it not for the Nazi swastikas in his garage. While Husk and Bob have few on-screen meetings, their dichotomy is discomforting. Hoult — who's playing Lex Luthor in James Gunn's just-wrapped Superman: Legacy — plays his neo-Nazi character as though he were a Boy Scout, like Superman. Meanwhile, Law's approach to his altruistic, obsessive lawman can be oddly frightening, as though joining the Order had borne more immediate fruits and payoffs than trying to bring them down; you can see why people join. 

However, this upside-down approach to hero and villain also plants the seeds for a typically Kurzel turn. In the film's final act, the unrelenting fatalism of his films like Nitram, True History of the Kelly Gang, and The Snowtown Murders returns with a vengeance, as though he couldn't resist the delayed gratification. Only this time, rather than adding mere texture, the late arrival of this tonal despondency feels earned, as if an extension of these characters' lives. It's reminiscent of Michael Mann's Heat, in that Husk and Bob are men so driven and obsessed with their goals that they push everyone away in the process.

The Order seldom slows down, skillfully building to each new action crescendo with the help of Jed Kurzel's rumbling, unrelentingly energetic score. It may not have anything novel to say about race in America — whether then or now — but its broad reminders of the mechanics of neo-Nazi terror feel mostly justified by the movie's brisk, deftly modulated pace. That it's an action movie in the body of something more "prestigious" or important ought to feel insulting, but really, it's been the key to Kurzel's necessary transformation all along.

The Order was reviewed was reviewed out of its world premiere at the 2024 Venice International Film Festival. It opens in select theaters Dec. 6.

UPDATE: Dec. 5, 2024, 5:18 p.m. EST This review was first published on Aug. 31, 2024. It has been updated for its theatrical release.

SAVE $50: As of Dec. 6, the Bose New QuietComfort are on sale for $129 at Amazon. This deal saves you 28% on list price.

Opens in a new window Credit: Bose Bose New QuietComfort $129.00 at Amazon
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We love a good bargain on great sound quality here at Mashable, so we're always on the hunt for deals on some of the best earbuds and headphones. And this latest Amazon discount on the Bose New QuietComfort is not one you'll want to miss. Not only are they on sale for $129 as of Dec. 6, but they are now at their lowest-ever price at Amazon.

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SEE ALSO: The latest Apple AirPods 4 are at their lowest-ever price on Amazon

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SAVE $80: As of Dec. 6, the iPad (9th Gen) is on sale for $249 at Walmart. That's a 24% saving on the list price.

Opens in a new window Credit: Apple Apple iPad (9th Gen) $249.00 at Walmart
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If you're looking for a tablet upgrade and having the latest model isn't high on your priority list, you need to check out this great Walmart deal on the iPad (9th Gen). From Dec. 6, this model is on sale for $249.99, saving you $80 on list price. This deal is specific to the 64GB, WiFi model.

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SEE ALSO: The latest Apple AirPods 4 are at their lowest-ever price on Amazon

The 12MP Ultra Wide front camera with Center Stage is a great feature, ensuring you are focused and able to engage in video calls, while the 8MP back camera is great for photos and scanning documents. With up to 256GB of storage, Touch ID for secure access, and compatibility with the Apple Pencil (1st Gen) and Smart Keyboard, it’s an ideal option for both work tasks and entertainment.

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SAVE $50: As of Dec. 6, the JBL Tune 230NC TWS are on sale for $44.95 at Amazon. That's a 50% saving on the list price.

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If you're looking for a new pair of earbuds but don't want to break the bank, we have just the pair for you. A new pair doesn't need to cost hundreds of dollars, in fact, you can grab a great pair for under $50. And that's what you'll find from this latest Amazon deal on the JBL Tune 230NC TWS.

As of Dec. 6, you can find these earbuds reduced by 55% at Amazon, now just $44.95. This is also their lowest price since July, so you can think of it as a late Black Friday bargain.

SEE ALSO: The latest Apple AirPods 4 are at their lowest-ever price on Amazon

The JBL Tune 230NC TWS earbuds are a great budget option for earbuds that still deliver incredible sound and features. They boast 10mm drivers and JBL’s Pure Bass Sound, making sure every song, podcast, and phonecall sounds perfect. If the fit isn’t quite right, not to worry, they come with several size options to adjust to your needs.

Active Noise Cancelling blocks distractions, while Smart Ambient and TalkThru modes let you stay aware or chat easily without taking them off. You’ll get up to 40 hours of battery life (or 32 hours with noise canceling), plus a quick 10-minute charge gives you two additional hours of playtime. Not to mention, these earbuds are IPX4 water- and sweat-resistant, making them ideal for workouts or rainy days.

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SAVE $40: As of Dec. 6, AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation are down to $139 on Amazon. That's a saving of $40 off the $179 list price.

Opens in a new window Credit: Apple Apple AirPods 4 $139.00 at Amazon
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The Apple AirPods 4 are here, and they’ve brought some serious upgrades to the table. Apple die-hards and earbud users will all agree that this deal is worth checking out. As of Dec. 6, AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation are down to $139 on Amazon. That saving of $40 off the $179 list price is a solid opportunity to dodge some Apple tax.

Designed for all-day comfort, the AirPods 4 has a refined contour and shorter stems for a better fit. Thanks to an IP54 dust, sweat, and water-resistant rating, they’re perfect for everything from long commutes to intense workouts. Quick-press controls let you toggle between calls, music, and other features without fumbling with your device.

SEE ALSO: Some iPhone 16 owners are experiencing massive battery drain on iOS 18

The H2 chip is AirPods 4 secret weapon, powering an impressive mix of Active Noise Cancellation, Adaptive Audio, and Transparency Mode. These modes work together to adjust your audio experience on the fly. For example, conversation awareness will automatically lower the volume when speaking to someone nearby, so there is no need to manually pull out an earbud or change a setting.

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This Apple AirPods 4 deal is best for the newest model. If you’ve been holding out for a price drop, now’s your chance to snag them for $139 on Amazon. With features like these, your ears (and wallet) will thank you.

SAVE $130: As of Dec. 6, the Toshiba 43-inch Class C350 Series Smart Fire TV is available for $149.99 at Best Buy. That’s a $130 discount off its usual $279.99 price.

Opens in a new window Credit: Toshiba Toshiba 43-Inch Class C350 TV $149.99 at Best Buy
$279.99 Save $130.00 Get Deal

Looking for a budget-friendly way to enjoy your favorite shows, movies, and games in 4K? This Toshiba Smart Fire TV deal is an absolute steal. The Toshiba 43-inch Class C350 Series 4K UHD Smart Fire TV is available for just $149.99 at Best Buy. That's $130 off its regular $279.99 price, a discount almost as sharp as its display.

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SEE ALSO: This TCL Q5 65-inch Smart Fire TV is $150 off for a limited time

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