Technology

MARKET VALUE: As of Nov. 7, the Pokémon TCG White Flare Binder Collection is $47.94 at Amazon, which is market value at TCGPlayer.

Opens in a new window Credit: The Pokémon Company Pokémon TCG White Flare Binder Collection $47.94
$54.09 Save $6.15   Shop Now

Mega Evolution and Phantasmal Flames is going off right now in the Pokémon community. With all the hype of Pokémon Legends: ZA, the return of old and the introduction of new Mega Evolutions is the perfect concoction of fan service and synergy with Pokémon games and the TCG. You absolutely love to see it.

Amazon has dropped the price of their White Flare Binder Collection listing, now rocking a $47.94 price tag. That's 11% cheaper than last week and puts it in line with current secondary market values.

SEE ALSO: Where to buy Pokémon cards in 2025 — avoid overpaying or missing out on new sets

You're getting five White Flare boosters and a Reshiram-themed soft binder to keep your collection safe, and good luck if you're going for a master set with this. Every Unovan Pokémon has its own Illustration Rare, Secret Art Rare, Black White Rare, and the Pokéball/Masterball rares. It's a crazy set, but what a brilliant way to cap off the Scarlet and Violet era of Pokémon TCG.

Most valuable Black Bolt and White Flare Pokémon cards Credit: The Pokémon Company

It's hard work getting top chase cards in any Pokémon TCG set, but even more so with the size of Black Bolt and White Flare. Here's where to buy them right now alongside up-to-date value data so you can make an informed investment:

1. Victini – 171/086 – SV: Black Bolt
   Near Mint Holofoil: $445.98
   Market price: $479.01
   Most recent sale: $440

2. Victini – 172/086 – SV: White Flare
   Near Mint Holofoil: $435.05
   Market price: $232.27
   Most recent sale: $449.99

3. Zekrom ex – 172/086 – SV: Black Bolt
   Near Mint Holofoil: $435
   Market price: $447.67
   Most recent sale: $483.91

4. Reshiram ex – 173/086 – SV: White Flare
   Near Mint Holofoil: $370.08
   Market price: $370.55
   Most recent sale: $373.50

5. Zekrom ex – 166/086 – SV: Black Bolt
   Near Mint Holofoil: $224.90
   Market price: $241.32
   Most recent sale: $226.50

6. Reshiram ex – 166/086 – SV: White Flare
   Near Mint Holofoil: $187
   Market price: $190.88
   Most recent sale: $179.99

TL;DR: Live stream Werder Bremen vs. Wolfsburg in the Bundesliga for free on BBC iPlayer. Access this free live stream from anywhere in the world with ExpressVPN.

The Bundesliga is already looking settled at the top, but there are a lot of positions to fight for under Bayern Munich. Werder Bremen and Wolfsburg are battling it out in the middle of the standings, with four points separating them as they face each other at the Weserstadion.

If you want to watch Werder Bremen vs. Wolfsburg in the Bundesliga for free from anywhere in the world, we have all the information you need.

When is Werder Bremen vs. Wolfsburg?

Werder Bremen vs. Wolfsburg in the Bundesliga kicks off at 7:30 p.m. GMT on Nov. 7. This fixture takes place at the Weserstadion.

How to watch Werder Bremen vs. Wolfsburg for free

Werder Bremen vs. Wolfsburg in the Bundesliga is available to live stream for free on BBC iPlayer.

BBC iPlayer is geo-restricted to the UK, but anyone can access this free streaming platform with a VPN. These handy tools can hide your real IP address (digital location) and connect you to a secure server in the UK, meaning you can unblock BBC iPlayer from anywhere in the world.

Live stream Werder Bremen vs. Wolfsburg for free by following these simple steps:

1. Subscribe to a streaming-friendly VPN (like ExpressVPN)

2. Download the app to your device of choice (the best VPNs have apps for Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Linux, and more)

3. Open up the app and connect to a server in the UK

4. Visit BBC iPlayer

5. Live stream Werder Bremen vs. Wolfsburg for free from anywhere in the world

Opens in a new window Credit: ExpressVPN ExpressVPN (1-Month Plan) $12.95 only at ExpressVPN (with money-back guarantee) Get Deal

The best VPNs for streaming are not free, but most do offer free-trials or money-back guarantees. By leveraging these offers, you can watch Werder Bremen vs. Wolfsburg without committing with your cash. This isn't a long-term solution, but it does give you enough time to live stream select fixtures from the Bundesliga before recovering your investment.

What is the best VPN for BBC iPlayer?

ExpressVPN is the best choice for bypassing geo-restrictions to stream live sport on BBC iPlayer, for a number of reasons:

• Servers in 105 countries including the UK

• Easy-to-use app available on all major devices including iPhone, Android, Windows, Mac, and more

• Strict no-logging policy so your data is secure

• Fast connection speeds free from throttling

• Up to eight simultaneous connections

• 30-day money-back guarantee

A two-year subscription to ExpressVPN is on sale for $139 and includes an extra four months for free — 61% off for a limited time. This plan also includes a year of free unlimited cloud backup and a generous 30-day money-back guarantee. Alternatively, you can get a one-month plan for just $12.95 (with money-back guarantee).

Live stream Werder Bremen vs. Wolfsburg in the Bundesliga for free with ExpressVPN.

SAVE $40: As of Nov. 7, the Fire TV Cube has dropped to $99.99 at Amazon ahead of Black Friday. This is $40 off its list price of $139.99.

Opens in a new window Credit: Amazon Amazon Fire TV Cube $99.99 at Amazon
$139.99 Save $40.00   Get Deal

Early Black Friday deals are already starting to drop at select retailers, and if you've been hoping to upgrade your streaming setup ahead of the holiday season, Amazon's streaming devices have seen some nice discounts lately. In particular, the Fire TV Cube has dropped to $99.99 for a limited time.

Score $40 off the Fire TV Cube's retail price of $139.99. This is a great offer if you're looking for a 4K boost in streaming quality for your favorite shows and movies over the holidays.

SEE ALSO: Target Black Friday ad: The best early deals you can buy online

The Fire TV Cube supports 4K Ultra HD resolution alongside Dolby Vision and HDR so you can experience crisp picture quality, no matter if you're settling in for a movie night or starting up a new show. It also supports Dolby Atmos audio so you can feel completely immersed in what you're watching with great sound, too.

Thanks to support for WiFi 6E, you'll get to enjoy smooth streaming quality. And its octa-core 2.0 GHz processor makes booting up and looking through different apps hassle free.

Amazon currently has it listed as a limited-time deal, so act fast to save on the Fire TV Cube ahead of Black Friday. And if you don't feel like dropping this much cash on a streaming upgrade, Amazon's Fire TV Sticks are also on sale right now, including the Fire TV Stick 4K Plus and Fire TV Stick 4K Max.

UNDER MARKET VALUE: Phantasmal Flames, the first expansion for the well-received Mega Evolution generation of Pokémon TCG, has dropped its preorder allocation at Amazon and product is selling past. Booster Bundles are still available though, and they're under market value right now.

Opens in a new window Credit: The Pokémon Company Phantasmal Flames Booster Bundle $59.99
$74.45 Save $14.46   Pre-order Here

After Black Bolt, White Flare, and Mega Evolution double ETB sets released at the same time, it's nice to see a concentrated expansion release in Phantasmal Flames. And it's an absolute banger.

The Dragon-type Mega evolution of fan-favorite Pokémon Charizard is front and center, and here's what else is packed into Phantasmal flames:

SEE ALSO: Where to buy Pokémon cards in 2025 — avoid overpaying or missing out on new sets

• Five Special Illustration Rare Mega Evolution Pokémon ex and Supporter cards

• Six Mega Evolution Pokémon ex

• Four Pokémon ex

• 12 Illustration Rare Pokémon

• 17 Ultra rare Mega Evolution Pokémon ex, Trainer and Energy Cards

The hype is real for the Mega Evolution era of Pokémon TCG, and it's simply nice playing Legends: Z-A whilst looking at my card collections and decks full of Mega Evolved Pokémon. And with Hyperspace Luminoise City coming in the Mega Dimension DLC, Pokémon TCG Mega Evolution is going to get crazy.

Phantasmal Flame product lineup and MSRP

Unfortunately, it's not just scalpers getting in on inflating Pokémon TCG sealed product. Big box retailers like Amazon and Target are doing it too.

It pays to make sure you know what these sealed products should be going for at retail, although you'll usually find retailers over or just under secondary market value these days rather than MSRP. Here's what the prices should be off the shelf:

• Booster Box — 36 packs, MSRP around $129.99

• Booster Packs — MSRP $4.49

• Booster Bundle (6 packs) — MSRP $26.94

• Elite Trainer Box (ETB) — MSRP $49.99

• Ultra-Premium Collection (UPC) — MSRP $119.99

• Mega Gengar ex & Mega Diancie ex decks — Releases slightly earlier on Oct. 24, MSRP $14.99–$19.99

Save $230: As of Nov. 7, the Dyson V11 cordless vacuum is on sale for $399.99 at Amazon. That's a 37% discount on the list price.

Opens in a new window Credit: Dyson Dyson V11 $399.99 at Amazon
$629.99 Save $230   Get Deal

Dyson is famed for its high-quality vacuums, and if you’ve been thinking about treating yourself to one, now might be the perfect time because the Dyson V11 is down to its lowest price in 2025. As of Nov. 7, it is currently priced at $399.99, a saving of $230 on list price. It was last priced this low at the end of December 2024, so you know you're getting a great deal.

This vacuum is perfect for all kinds of cleaning thanks to its many attachments. It comes with a wand, docking station, charger, and several cleaning tools, including a mini soft dusting brush, crevice tool, hair screw tool, and Motorbar cleaner head. It's wireless too, but you won't have to keep stopping to charge. You'll get up to 60 minutes of run time, and your three power modes (auto, eco, and boost) let you adjust performance to suit different cleaning jobs.

SEE ALSO: Save $50 on the iRobot Roomba Plus 405 — one of the best valued robot vacuums and mops

Do you have a furry friend at home? The V11 can cope. The Motorbar head helps remove hair and pet hair, while the hair screw tool is designed specifically for long hair and pet hair on stairs, upholstery, and pet beds. It even has an LCD screen that shows the power mode, any maintenance alerts, and remaining battery life.

This is a limited-time deal at Amazon, so don't miss out.

SAVE $40: As of Nov. 7, the Amazon Fire TV 2-Series is on sale for $109.99 at Amazon. That's a 27% discount on the list price.

Opens in a new window Credit: Amazon Fire TV 2 Series $109.99 at Amazon
$149.99 Save $40.00   Get Deal

It's the season for festive movie nights on the couch, and if you've been on the hunt for a new TV to make the cozy season even more special, you'll love this new deal on the Amazon Fire TV 2-Series. Currently at its lowest price this year, the 32-inch model of this TV is currently down to only $109.99. If you want something a little bigger, the 40-inch version is on sale too, down from $249.99 to $129.99.

This is a great TV, even without the sale price. It has a HD 720p resolution with support for HDR 10, HLG, and Dolby Digital Audio, so games, movies, and Netflix shows all come through in great quality. It also provides access to live TV, games, music, and over one million movies and TV episodes through all your favorite streaming services like Prime Video and Disney+.

SEE ALSO: What's new to streaming this week? (Nov. 7, 2025)

You also get the use of free streaming options like YouTube, Tubi, and Pluto TV. And if you have a few Fire devices (another TV or a Fire Stick), your content will stay synced across all the devices for consistent viewing between rooms. Pick up your show exactly where you left off.

As it's an Amazon device, you'll also benefit from Alexa voice control and smart home integration. Use it to search through different streaming platforms or control your smart home devices like a robot vacuum.

Don't miss out on this low price — pick up this TV deal from Amazon now.

SAVE $70: As of Nov. 7, the Fitbit Sense 2 is on sale for $179.95 at Amazon. This is 28% off its list price of $249.95.

Opens in a new window Credit: Fitbit Fitbit Sense 2 $179.95 at Amazon
$249.95 Save $70   Get Deal

The Black Friday shopping season is officially upon us, and if you're looking for good deals to scoop up, quite a few retailers have already launched strong discounts. In the realm of smartwatches and fitness trackers, the Fitbit Sense 2 is currently down to $179.95 at Amazon.

As of Nov. 7, you can save $70 on the Fitbit Sense 2. Ahead of Black Friday, that's quite a nice deal to jump on. All available colors are discounted to this price as well, so you can choose between the shadow grey/graphite model, lunar white/platinum, or blue mist/pale gold.

SEE ALSO: Best Buy Black Friday ad: The best early deals you can buy online

Whether you want it for keeping an eye on your overall health or for workouts, the Fitbit Sense 2 is packed with features to help you out. For those with a love of fitness, some of these include all-day activity tracking, 24/7 heart rate, a built-in GPS, and 40+ exercise modes. When it comes to general health and wellbeing, it also features all-day stress detection, irregular heart rhythm notifications, daily sleep stages, and a Sleep Score, just to name a few helpful features.

If you've been looking for a new smartwatch to carry you into the new year, don't miss out on this deal on the Fitbit Sense 2 at Amazon. There's a few more Fitbit deals worth checking out at Amazon. At the moment, the Fitbit Inspire 3 is also discounted ahead of Black Friday.

The fifth and final season of Stranger Things is almost here, with trailers and featurettes giving us a worrying glimpse at what fate awaits the town of Hawkins.

And now, Netflix is just straight up giving you the first five minutes — and it connects all the way to Season 1.

We're back in Castle Byers, when a young Will (Noah Schnapp) was pulled into the Upside Down in Stranger Things' very first season. He's hiding in his DIY fort from the dreaded Demogorgon, quietly singing The Clash's "Should I Stay or Should I Go?" (the track that saved him), before he's attacked, pursued, gives the Demogorgon a right royal smacking, then is hauled into none other than Vecna's (Jamie Campbell Bower) lair in the Creel House. There, he endures Vecna's soul sucking wrath — a fate he was saved from by his mother Joyce (Winona Ryder) in the first season.

But from the prickling sensation on the back of our necks (and the trailer), we know it ain't over.

From the glimpses we've had so far, we know we'll probably head back to the show's present after this, to fall 1987, a year after the Season 4 finale, where Hawkins has been ripped apart by the Upside Down rifts. WE'RE NOT READY (but we very much are).

Volume 1 of Stranger Things Season 5 premieres Nov. 26 at 8 p.m. ET on Netflix. Volume 2 premieres Dec. 26, and the series finale premieres Dec. 31.

I love my old and beat-up Toyota Tacoma truck, but the upgraded stereo still doesn't support wireless Android Auto. Unless you have a newer vehicle, yours probably doesn't, either. After trying multiple different dongles to convert it into a wireless experience, I can confidently say the AAWireless TWO is the only one worth buying.

The Mini is a bite-sized version of The New York Times' revered daily crossword. While the crossword is a lengthier experience that requires both knowledge and patience to complete, The Mini is an entirely different vibe.

With only a handful of clues to answer, the daily puzzle doubles as a speed-running test for many who play it.

So, when a tricky clue disrupts a player's flow, it can be frustrating! If you find yourself stumped playing The Mini — much like with Wordle and Connections — we have you covered.

SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Play games on Mashable SEE ALSO: How to play Pips, the newest NYT game

Here are the clues and answers to NYT's The Mini for Friday, Nov. 7, 2025:

AcrossToddler's go-to question

• The answer is Why.

Sound heard during cold season

• The answer is Achoo.

Move stealthily, like a cat

• The answer is Slink.

Breadcrumb coating in Japanese cuisine

• The answer is Panko.

Conduct surveillance

• The answer is Spy.

DownProne to complaining

• The answer is Whiny.

Sound heard during cold season

• The answer is Honk.

Artist/musician Ono

• The answer is Yoko.

Egyptian vipers

• The answer is Asps.

Show appreciation for a performance

• The answer is Clap.

If you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.

Are you also playing NYT Strands? See hints and answers for today's Strands.

Not the day you're after? Here's the solution to the latest Mini Crossword.

A space rock slammed into the moon just days ago, lighting up at the surface so brightly, it was briefly visible from Earth through telescopes. 

Daichi Fujii, curator at Hiratsuka City Museum in Japan, recorded the impact. Fujii, who started looking for lunar impact flashes in 2011, keeps an eye fixed on the moon through several 8-inch aperture telescopes, mostly based in Hiratsuka, about midway between Tokyo and Mount Fuji. What makes this new sighting astounding is that it was the second flash he had captured hitting the moon since last Thursday. 

The latest impact happened Nov. 1 near Oceanus Procellarum, a large, dark lava plain whose name means Ocean of Storms. The event followed a bright burst just two days earlier near the Gassendi Crater. Each blink of light lasted a mere fraction of a second, but they punctuated strikes from rocks whizzing at about 60,000 mph, according to Fujii, who posted videos of the flashes on X. 

These events, which can be watched below, serve as a reminder that though the moon may seem immutable from a 240,000-mile distance, its surface is frequently changing, pocked by countless craters. 

"In the near future, the lunar environment will change significantly due to private space business, including an increase in space debris and artificial impact flashes in cislunar space," Fujii told Mashable. "I wish to document the current, natural lunar environment before these changes occur."

SEE ALSO: NASA's prospective boss posts 2,000 words on X. It's damage control. This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

On Earth, about 73,000 pounds of space dust and rock rain down on the planet every day. Almost all of that debris burns up harmlessly in the atmosphere. But the moon, with a barely there exosphere, has no such protection. Even pebbles hit its surface at ultra-high speeds, from 45,000 to 160,000 mph. At that speed, a 10-pound rock, about the weight of a light bowling ball, could blast out a crater 30 feet wide and lift more than 80 tons of moondust.

Even chunks just a few feet wide can cause immense damage when they fall to Earth. NASA has previously estimated that a 100 to 170-foot-wide asteroid could level a small city. In 2013, a 60-foot meteor exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia, injuring 1,600 people.

Astronomers watch these lunar impacts to learn how often — and how hard — space rocks hit. This helps scientists predict risks to spacecraft because large meteors could destroy satellites or, perhaps in the future, lunar outposts. Though Earth's atmosphere lets researchers measure small meteors with radar, they need a giant target area, like the moon's surface, to study the bigger ones. Fujii calls the moon an efficient "meteoroid detector." 

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

The Earth and moon are both subject to comet debris, which result in meteor showers, but how these events affect the two bodies differs.

"On Earth these showers are capable of producing spectacular celestial fireworks displays, delighting the public," according to NASA. "On the airless moon, however, these showers are swarms of high energy projectiles, producing fireworks only when they strike the surface with tremendous force." 

Other telescopes in Japan observed the same bursts as Fujii from different angles, which supports that these were indeed meteoroid impacts rather than other occurrences, such as optical artifacts or cosmic ray interference, that also can cause quick flashes. 

Daichi Fujii's observation setup includes several 8-inch aperture telescopes, mostly based in Hiratsuka, Japan. Credit: Daichi Fujii

The origins of these two space rocks are unknown, but their timing coincides with the annual Northern and Southern Taurids meteor showers, which both peak in November. The Taurids, a group of pebble-sized fragments from the Comet Encke, are having a so-called "swarm year," meaning Earth is passing through a region of space with a particularly high volume of comet debris. 

Don’t miss out on our latest stories: Add Mashable as a trusted news source in Google.

Even with continuous monitoring, which Fujii began doing five years ago, he still only records one lunar impact flash every few dozen hours of observations. The thin crescent moon, which provides the large dark area needed for these observations, is only visible during dusk or dawn, he said. 

To date, he's only seen about 60, so, even after all this time, he still gets a thrill out of finding one — or, in this case, two. 

"Capturing a bright flash always brings a huge sense of excitement," he said.

TL;DR: Live stream Denver Nuggets vs. Golden State Warriors in the NBA Cup for free with a 30-day trial of Amazon Prime. Access this free live stream from anywhere in the world with ExpressVPN.

There are a number of really interesting NBA Cup games taking place this week, including Denver Nuggets vs. Golden State Warriors. Both teams will have their sight's set on greater success this season, so it'll be fascinating to see how they approach this competition. Will we see veteran stars giver everything to progress?

If you want to watch Nuggets vs. Warriors in the NBA Cup for free from anywhere in the world, we have all the information you need.

When is Nuggets vs. Warriors?

Nuggets vs. Warriors in the NBA Cup starts at 10 p.m. ET on Nov. 7. This game takes place at the Ball Arena.

How to watch Nuggets vs. Warriors for free

Nuggets vs. Warriors in the NBA Cup is available to live stream for free with a 30-day trial of Amazon Prime.

This free live stream is geo-restricted to the UK and U.S., but anyone can secure access with a VPN. These tools can hide your real IP address (digital location) and connect you to a secure server in the UK or U.S., meaning you can access free live streams of the NBA from anywhere in the world.

Stream the NBA for free by following these simple steps:

1. Sign up for a 30-day trial of Amazon Prime (if you're not already a member)

2. Subscribe to a VPN (like ExpressVPN)

3. Download the app to your device of choice (the best VPNs have apps for Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Linux, and more)

4. Open up the app and connect to a server in the UK or U.S.

5. Watch the NBA from anywhere in the world on Prime Video

Opens in a new window Credit: ExpressVPN ExpressVPN (1-Month Plan) $12.95 only at ExpressVPN (with money-back guarantee) Learn More

The best VPNs for streaming are not free, but they do tend to offer money-back guarantees or free trials. By leveraging these offers, you can watch NBA live streams without actually spending anything. This clearly isn't a long-term solution, but it does mean you can watch select games from the NBA Cup before recovering your investment.

What is the best VPN for the NBA?

ExpressVPN is the best service for accessing free live streams on platforms like Prime Video, for a number of reasons:

• Servers in 105 countries

• Easy-to-use app available on all major devices including iPhone, Android, Windows, Mac, and more

• Strict no-logging policy so your data is secure

• Fast connection speeds free from throttling

• Up to eight simultaneous connections

• 30-day money-back guarantee

A two-year subscription to ExpressVPN is on sale for $139 and includes an extra four months for free — 61% off for a limited time. This plan also includes a year of free unlimited cloud backup and a generous 30-day money-back guarantee. Alternatively, you can get a one-month plan for just $12.95 (with money-back guarantee).

Live stream the NBA Cup for free with ExpressVPN.

TL;DR: Live stream San Antonio Spurs vs. Houston Rockets in the NBA Cup for free with a 30-day trial of Amazon Prime. Access this free live stream from anywhere in the world with ExpressVPN.

The NBA Cup has started with a number of really interesting group stage matchups, and we're expecting big things from San Antonio Spurs vs. Houston Rockets. Winning the NBA is really difficult, especially for young teams like the Spurs. So could this tournament represent the best opportunity for Victor Wembanyama to earn some silverware?

If you want to watch Spurs vs. Rockets in the NBA Cup for free from anywhere in the world, we have all the information you need.

When is Spurs vs. Rockets?

Spurs vs. Rockets in the NBA Cup starts at 7:30 p.m. ET on Nov. 7. This game takes place at the Frost Bank Center.

How to watch Spurs vs. Rockets for free

Spurs vs. Rockets in the NBA Cup is available to live stream for free with a 30-day trial of Amazon Prime.

This free live stream is geo-restricted to the UK and U.S., but anyone can secure access with a VPN. These tools can hide your real IP address (digital location) and connect you to a secure server in the UK or U.S., meaning you can access free live streams of the NBA from anywhere in the world.

Stream the NBA for free by following these simple steps:

1. Sign up for a 30-day trial of Amazon Prime (if you're not already a member)

2. Subscribe to a VPN (like ExpressVPN)

3. Download the app to your device of choice (the best VPNs have apps for Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Linux, and more)

4. Open up the app and connect to a server in the UK or U.S.

5. Watch the NBA from anywhere in the world on Prime Video

Opens in a new window Credit: ExpressVPN ExpressVPN (1-Month Plan) $12.95 only at ExpressVPN (with money-back guarantee) Learn More

The best VPNs for streaming are not free, but they do tend to offer money-back guarantees or free trials. By leveraging these offers, you can watch NBA live streams without actually spending anything. This clearly isn't a long-term solution, but it does mean you can watch select games from the NBA Cup before recovering your investment.

What is the best VPN for the NBA?

ExpressVPN is the best service for accessing free live streams on platforms like Prime Video, for a number of reasons:

• Servers in 105 countries

• Easy-to-use app available on all major devices including iPhone, Android, Windows, Mac, and more

• Strict no-logging policy so your data is secure

• Fast connection speeds free from throttling

• Up to eight simultaneous connections

• 30-day money-back guarantee

A two-year subscription to ExpressVPN is on sale for $139 and includes an extra four months for free — 61% off for a limited time. This plan also includes a year of free unlimited cloud backup and a generous 30-day money-back guarantee. Alternatively, you can get a one-month plan for just $12.95 (with money-back guarantee).

Live stream the NBA Cup for free with ExpressVPN.

TL;DR: Enjoy online security and freedom anywhere with this Deeper Connect Air Portable Decentralized VPN Travel Router, on sale now for just $169 (reg. $219).

Opens in a new window Credit: Deeper Connect Deeper Connect Air Portable Decentralized VPN Travel Router $169
$219 Save $50   Get Deal

Whether you’re a frequent traveler or simply want to browse the web securely at home, it’s good to have a reliable VPN at your disposal. This Deeper Connect Air Portable Decentralized VPN Travel Router takes things one step further, offering next-level privacy and no geographical restrictions, wherever you go.

Right now, before the holiday travel season commences, you can secure one for just $169 (reg. $219) — no monthly subscriptions required.

SEE ALSO: Should you pay for a VPN?

Be prepared for that trip to the in-laws or your exotic New Year’s getaway with the Deeper Connect Air Portable Decentralized VPN Travel Router. It provides military-grade encryption on the go, so your data stays safe anywhere — even on public WiFi around the world.

If you want to watch your favorite Netflix series from Bora Bora, it’s no problem with the Deeper Connect Air. It bypasses geographical restrictions, allowing you to access your favorite streaming services from anywhere. And you’ll be streaming seamlessly thanks to the powerful 300 Mbps connection.

Have kids in the house? You can use this on up to five devices simultaneously, and there are also parental controls to keep your kids safer online with just one click. It also includes an ad blocker, so you’ll all enjoy a more peaceful internet experience.

While many VPNs require hefty monthly subscription fees, you pay once for the Deeper Connect Air and enjoy the security for life. It offers a super-easy setup — just plug and play, with no configuration needed — and is pocket-sized, so it’s ready to tag along anywhere.

Browse the web with peace of mind thanks to this Deeper Connect Air Portable Decentralized VPN Travel Router, on sale now for just $169.00 (reg. $219).

StackSocial prices subject to change.

Not the day you're after? Here's the solution to today's Connections.

Seeing Stephen King references pop up in Joe Hill's latest horror novel, King Sorrow, is a fun surprise for the reader — but in another sense it's not that surprising at all.

Hill, a successful horror writer and King's son, started out his career under a different surname from his father in order to remain anonymous.

"I didn't want to get published because I had a famous parent, and I was very insecure," he told Mashable. "I needed to know for my self worth, that when I sold something, I sold for the right reasons."

Hill's identity became public knowledge after the publication of his first book, and in the decades since he's become increasingly comfortable with the association. He's spoken about his father in author's notes and co-wrote two stories with him for his 2019 collection Full Throttle. Now, in his latest novel, there are references to at least three of his dad's most famous works.

"In a way, we are all the children of Stephen King."

"King Sorrow, even more than any of my other books, is in conversation with the work of Stephen King," Hill explained. "I love my dad's work, and I kind of love celebrating my dad. I'm a huge Stephen King fan, too. The other thing though that I realized, you know, I had a thought a while back, which is, I write horror fiction, and me and every other person who writes horror fiction, in a way, are all the children of Stephen King. We're all Stephen King's kids. But I might be the only one who can get away with actually sticking some of his stuff into my book."

We asked Hill to break down the different Stephen King references in King Sorrow, and why he decided to include them.

SEE ALSO: 10 of the best Stephen King book endings The Dead Zone Credit: Mashable / Hodder Paperback

Early on in the novel, the six main friends have a conversation that directly references Johnny Smith and Greg Stillson, two of the main characters in King's 1979 novel The Dead Zone — an exchange Hill described as "amusing but also highly functional."

"It's more than an Easter egg," said Hill, explaining that he wanted his novel to be about a cross-section of America and was looking for a way to position each of his characters on a different point on the political spectrum. A reference to Greg Stillson — a populist right wing politician in King's The Dead Zone who has been compared to Donald Trump — was the perfect vehicle for this.

"I saw in talking about the acts of John Smith from The Dead Zone an amusing opportunity to position them each very clearly for the reader about what are their views," Hill said. "And I feel like in a page, by the time that page is over, you're like, oh, I get where every single one of these characters is coming from."

The Dark Tower Credit: Mashable / Hodder Paperback

During the chapter of King Sorrow where the main characters first summon the novel's titular dragon, they each take part in their own ritual that forms part of a larger ceremony. Arthur Oakes, the driving character in this part of the book, pursues a ghost through the snow outside, and Hill's description — "The dark man fled across the snow and Arthur Oakes followed" — is a subtle altering of one of King's most famous lines of fiction from The Dark Tower series.

"I think the rhythms of the original line, 'The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed,' is the great opening line of any genre story," Hill said. "And there's some kind of music in it. There's some kind of thumpity-thumpity-thumpity-thumpity. I wouldn't be surprised if you studied it and it turned out to be iambic pentameter. [...] So I think it was just, oh, I like the music of that. I'm going to use that here. I'm going to borrow the music of that."

View this post on Instagram Pet Sematary Credit: Mashable / Hodder Paperback

Hill went on to say that later on in King Sorrow, during a section where two of the main characters are led into the lair of a troll, there's a callback to King's 1983 novel Pet Sematary that some readers don't catch — a line that echoes something Jud Crandall says to Louis Creed as he's leading him to the infamous cemetery.

"When Stuart Finger, the troll, leads Colin and Arthur down to Arthur's cave, he says something very similar," said Hill.

Ultimately, Hill views all of these references less as Easter eggs, and more as a conversation between stories.

"One of the great things about literature, as I understand it, is the way stories can respond to other stories," he said. "One of the powerful things stories can do is have conversations with other stories. And I feel like everything I've ever written has, in one way or another, been continuing a conversation that I had with some other writer when I was reading their book."

King Sorrow is available now in bookstores and online retailers.

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It's day 17 of the lunar cycle, and we're currently heading towards the New Moon. Until then, the moon will appear smaller and smaller each night.

What is today’s moon phase?

As of Friday, Nov. 7, the moon phase is Waning Gibbous. This means 94% of the moon is lit up tonight, according to NASA's Daily Moon Observation.

The moon is getting smaller each night, but we've still got a while until the New Moon takes it away completely. For now, there is still plenty to see on its surface, if you look hard enough.

If you don't have any visual aids, not to worry, there's still things to spot, including the Aristarchus Plateau, Mare Serenitatis, and the Mare Vaporum. Binoculars will make things even more visible and you'll have a chance to see the Posidonius Crater, Alphonsus Crater, and the Apennine Mountains. If you have a telescope hanging about, pull it out to see the Reiner Gamma, Apollo 14 landing spot, and the Rima Ariadaeus.

When is the next full moon?

The next full moon will be on Dec. 4.

What are moon phases?

NASA notes that as the Moon orbits Earth over about 29.5 days, it goes through a series of phases. These phases occur because of the changing angles between the Sun, Moon, and Earth. Depending on its position, the Moon can appear fully illuminated, partly illuminated, or completely hidden, even though we always see the same side. What changes is how much sunlight reflects off its surface, creating a repeating sequence known as the lunar cycle.

The eight main moon phases are:

New Moon - The moon is between Earth and the sun, so the side we see is dark (in other words, it's invisible to the eye).

Waxing Crescent - A small sliver of light appears on the right side (Northern Hemisphere).

First Quarter - Half of the moon is lit on the right side. It looks like a half-moon.

Waxing Gibbous - More than half is lit up, but it’s not quite full yet.

Full Moon - The whole face of the moon is illuminated and fully visible.

Waning Gibbous - The moon starts losing light on the right side. (Northern Hemisphere)

Third Quarter (or Last Quarter) - Another half-moon, but now the left side is lit.

Waning Crescent - A thin sliver of light remains on the left side before going dark again.

From Ira Sachs — director of the striking contemporary queer drama Passages — the 1970s New York-set Peter Hujar's Day is a confined, two-character experiment that's far more about mood than plot. Set almost entirely in one apartment over the course of a single day, its mere 76 minutes are languidly paced, though that's a major part of its success. Few filmmakers have so distinctly evoked an era without so much as pointing their camera out through a window to capture the street below.

The film is reconstructed from a transcript, once thought to be lost, of an interview with gay New York photographer Peter Hujar (Passages star Ben Whishaw) conducted by writer Linda Rosenkrantz (Rebecca Hall). The recording resurfaced in 2019 — Rosenkrantz has since published it as a book under the same title as the movie — but Sachs doesn't merely restage the interview as written. Rather, he extrapolates what feels like an entire lifetime from words alone.

What is Peter Hujar's Day about? Credit: Courtesy of Janus Films

Describing Peter Hujar's Day runs the risk of oversimplifying it, but the film's simplicity is its charm. Beginning on a random December morning in 1974, the curious Rosenkrantz — who ran in the same circles as Hujar, creating a sense of intimacy — asks him to recall all the things he did the previous day. As her two-spool tape recorder spins (resembling a film projector in both appearance and sound), Hujar goes about his day and the duo move about his East Village apartment as he narrates, in flowery detail, events that might have seemed unremarkable at the time but take on a greater significance in retrospect.

This is not unlike the way Hujar's photography would come to be perceived. His black-and-white portraits made few waves at the time — certainly not compared to contemporaries like Andy Warhol — but they have since been canonized as having brought a subtle texture and depth to his subjects, physically and psychologically. As Nan Goldin once wrote of Hujar's personal artistry: "His pictures are exotic but not in a shallow, sensational way. Looking at his photographs of nude men, even of a naked baby boy, is the closest I ever came to experience what it is to inhabit male flesh."

Although the film doesn't take its cues from Hujar's images (except for a few dreamlike interludes), Sachs attempts to unearth a similarly lifelike dimensionality. His shots — mostly still, though sometimes moving gradually across space — help craft a sense of intrigue. This goes hand-in-hand with Whishaw's thoroughly considered performance, which feels free and uninhibited in its motions, whether Hujar moves from room to room or simply fidgets on his couch.

Sachs generally excels at creating this sense of life between the creases, and Peter Hujar's Day is among his finest aesthetic achievements. Not only does its form evoke a specific time and place, but it creates a distinct relationship between its mid-'70s setting and the present right from the word go.

Peter Hujar's Day is an artistic bridge between eras. Credit: Courtesy of Janus Films

The New York of today would be alien to Hujar's New York, and vice versa. The city was certainly grimier in the 1970s, with more danger and more edge — think Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver — but it was also the cradle of a burgeoning American arts' scene that has since been priced out for several decades.

Throughout the film, Hujar makes mention of his East Village address and that of other artists he travelled to photograph the previous morning, noting the rough-and-tumble neighborhoods that have long since been gentrified. Granted, to pick up on the significance of these details requires foreknowledge of the city's modern topography, which certainly shrinks the movie's intended audience (or at least, those that might pick up everything it's putting down), but this specificity is an extension of its experimentation.

On the surface, it's a film of "telling" rather than "showing," but the inherent obliqueness (and the obfuscating nature) of its dialogue limits how much of it can be considered exposition. If anything, it is in fact a film of "showing" in a macro sense — of depicting Hujar's thoughts and feelings towards each description — with Rosenkrantz as his mostly silent foil, whose input on his recollections becomes known without words.

The film's 16mm cinematography by Alex Ashe evokes that place and time's No Wave cinema scene, led by the likes of John Cassavetes, with its distinct celluloid textures and ever-so-slightly blown-out highlights, as though it were cheaply produced. The acoustic qualities add to this DIY feeling, which includes flaws and faded noises in the audio recordings, as though the movie's entire soundtrack (rather than the interview transcript) were the thing that had been rediscovered, and the film were merely adding physical dimensions to something heard.

Alongside the ambient noises of New York, from ambulance sirens to noisy streets, each physical element on screen stands out in the soundtrack: glasses, dishware, even chairs being dragged so Hujar and Rosenkrantz can sit. Sachs' repeated shots of the tape recorder serve to remind us that what we're watching is a recreation or restaging of the past. The movie even opens with a clapper board, and features frequent jump-cuts despite its at-length scenes. We even catch occasional glimpses of modern crew members putting boom mics in place. However, this Brechtian quality never detracts from the movie's lived-in, realistic feel.

The characters never wink at the camera, or even acknowledge it, despite Sachs drawing our attention to the artifice. We're never watching actors play a part. Rather, we're watching historical figures through a modern lens, a self-reflexive exercise in which the present and the past exist simultaneously, creating a contrast between life and artistry as it once was, and now is — made all the more apparent by Hujar casually invoking the names of famous figures.

Peter Hujar's Day brings a human quality to figures of the past. Credit: Courtesy of Janus Films

What exactly was "Peter Hujar's day"? As narrated by Hujar in the film, the preceding 24 hours were mildly annoying, given how many people he had to chase for money and other scheduling confirmations — such is the life of a freelance artist — but they were also eventful, in the sense that they made for a fun recounting. Rosenkrantz barely interjects, in part because she's a good reporter, letting her subject speak for himself, but in part because she, like the audience, is familiar with the specific people Hujar refers to in his story: the likes of critic Susan Sontag, poet Allen Ginsberg, and author William S. Burroughs.

The difference between the characters' relationship to these figures and the audience's is that to the former, they're acquaintances, whereas to us, they're pillars of modern Western culture, which makes for a fascinating disconnect. Peter Hujar's Day practically lives within this dissonant space, wherein everything that's mundane for Hujar and Rosenkrantz is destined to have a historic quality some five decades later.

That these artistic legends are only mentioned and not seen adds, on one hand, a mythic quality to them — one of whispers and rumors — but what's actually said about them grounds them through a surprisingly cheeky approach. Hujar's personality, wants, likes, and annoyances all come to the fore through his anecdotes, which exist somewhere between gossip and name-dropping. Each time he narrates his interactions with someone the audience might've heard about, he does so quite casually (which makes sense — Hujar doesn't have the perspective the audience does), adding a humane quality to an often mythologized era, bringing us closer to it in the process.

A film that recalls recollections, and Peter Hujar's Day is, by its very nature, a film of reflections and refractions. However, it makes its various Xerox copies of the past feel thoroughly original and lifelike, transforming a contained interview into what may as well be a moody, sprawling biopic.

Peter Hujar’s Day was reviewed out of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. It opens in NY/LA on Nov. 7, 2025.

UPDATE: Nov. 5, 2025, 2:53 p.m. This review was first published on Feb. 1, 2025, as part of Mashable's Sundance coverage. It has been updated to reflect theatrical options.

In retrospect, the collision of Lynne Ramsay and Jennifer Lawrence seems fated. The Scottish filmmaker forged her reputation with character-driven dramas like Morvern Callar, We Need to Talk About Kevin, and You Were Never Really Here. Her films — often led by critically heralded performers — push audiences to uncomfortable emotional spaces of desire, rage, and grief. Meanwhile, the American actress broke through with such a drama, Debra Granik's riveting Winter's Bone, which earned Lawrence her first Oscar nod. Then, she rose to stardom by embracing roles of women on the edge in The Hunger Games, Silver Linings Playbook, American Hustle, and Mother! 

Through this lens, Die My Love seems inevitable, but that doesn't make it any less remarkable. Ramsay and Lawrence's powers combine to create a ruthlessly savage portrait of female desire and wrath. The result is something feral and bloody fantastic. 

Die My Love is a stirring drama in the vein of Hedda Gabler.  Jennifer Lawrence as Grace in "Die My Love." Credit: Kimberley French / MUBI

Adapted from Ariana Harwicz's novel of the same name, Die My Love focuses on a young mother named Grace (Lawrence), who struggles within the confines of her seemingly settled life. (Hedda, can you hear her?) In the screenplay by Ramsay, Alice Birch, and Enda Walsh, the film begins with Grace and her partner, Jackson (Robert Pattinson), pulling his pick-up truck up to the family home that has been passed down to them, ahead of the birth of their first child. 

Cinematographer Seamus McGarvey resolutely sets the camera statically inside the house, which is littered with leaves as if it's been nearly forgotten. From this wide shot, we can see the couple arrive through an open door. We hear their excited chatter and finally see them come into the building, bringing life with them. Grace, in a silky red skirt, practically blooms as she enters a room. And before they even sweep the floors, she's pinned Jackson to them, naked and christening the place as theirs. 

Their lovemaking isn't the standard stuff of Hollywood movies, all soft lighting and carefully revealed flesh. Instead, Die My Love delivers a frank and carnal sex scene. Grace claws at Jackson like a predatory cat. It's with this same intensity she will later crawl on all four through their sprawling wilderness of a lawn or paw into her own panties as their fever for each other cools.

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Swiftly through physicality, Lawrence and Ramsay establish the intensity of Grace, which will not be shrunk by her role as wife or mother. So, when work pulls Jackson away from the house, leaving Grace to their baby and herself, she begins to spiral in search of who she has become in this circumstance. And her rage, even at its most extreme, is achingly relatable. 

Having recently seen Hedda, it was easy to see a line of shared vexation between these two anti-heroines. Where their families, lovers, and society would happily shove them into placid roles of feminine domesticity, their spirits rage against such flattening of their lives. In response, both react wildly — though Grace is less strategic than Hedda. 

Jennifer Lawrence is on fire in Die My Love. Jennifer Lawrence and Nick Nolte dance in "Die My Love." Credit: Kimberley French / MUBI

Grace's passions push her to explode, sometimes in outbursts of joyful dancing or spirited song, sometimes in vicious words or violence. Within the film, characters sympathetically diagnose Grace with postpartum depression. But even this feels like a box to confine her. 

Lawrence throws herself fearlessly into Grace's mental breakdown. She laughs, screams, flails, and fights with an electrifying abandon. She's so achingly alive onscreen that Pattinson, renowned for his onscreen intensity, withers beside her, which suits their characters' dynamic. Jackson seems intoxicated by Grace's free spirit, but also infuriated he can't pin her down as she might him. From their increasing animosity, tension churns this domestic drama into a thriller, because something has got to give. 

And yet, as fiery as Lawrence gets — bearing her body, yearning, and rage with equal bravado — the scenes that hit me the hardest in Die My Love are when Grace shares a sharp softness. There's a beautiful and humane paradox built in this protagonist. Her snarls and anti-social behaviors, like plunging into a pool in her underwear at a family party, might startle the neighbors and embarrass Jackson, but they don't mean she doesn't care about others or know how to. 

Jennifer Lawrence lies on the ground in "Die My Love." Credit: Kimberley French / MUBI

While motherhood might feel like a shackle, she loves her baby boy and expresses gentle, ardent affection for him. But before he even arrives, she does the same for her father-in-law, Harry (Nick Nolte), who is addled by dementia. Where others treat Harry like a child, with lilting pleads for obedience, Grace talks to him like they're sharing a secret, like they understand each other. And perhaps they do better than any other because of how everyone else infantilizes them, instead of meeting them where they are.

While Grace is soft with her son and father-in-law, Lawrence performs that gentleness with an intellectual sharpness that complicates even these moments of warm love. She and Ramsay build a woman who so resolutely rejects archetypes like mother and wife that Grace practically vibrates on screen, so fully formed that she can barely be contained in a 2D medium. 

 Die My Love is a radical and riveting melodrama that rejects sentimentality.  Robert Pattinson washes a bloody vehicle in "Die My Love." Credit: Kimberley French / MUBI

In this role, Lawrence will writhe on the floor, prowl on all fours through tall grass, and claw at the floral walls of a battered bathroom. She sinks her teeth into every moment so that Die My Love bleeds. Its premise might seem the stuff of Lifetime movies about failing marriages or maternal frustrations. But under Ramsay's direction, the story is more slippery and surreal, dangerously dedicated to psychological and emotional truth over a comforting narrative. There's a frankness to everything from sex and breastfeeding to the comfort and casualness Grace has with her own body. And perhaps especially now, when the U.S. government is pushing an agenda to reduce a woman's control over her reproductive rights and gender-affirming care, this feels audacious and radical.

Grace's journey will make you squirm, perhaps cackle. But in her messy quest for something beyond being boxed in, she offers a radical freedom to her audience. In the discomfort of watching her bicker, battle, and act out, an excitement of possibility burns. Where could this lead, not just for her — but for us? Will you walk away from Die My Love rattled? Feeling recognized? Or dared to be reborn? 

Die My Love opens in theaters on Nov. 7.

By no means a fast-paced film but one rich with detail and strong performances, Train Dreams weaves one man's life through a rapidly changing American West in the early 20th century.

Based on Denis Johnson’s 2011 novella of the same name, it's a steady, meditative, and at times devastating journey with many a conversation around the fire. Train Dreams sees Sing Sing collaborators Greg Kwedar and Clint Bentley reunite — this time with Bentley in the director's chair — to explore delicate themes of love and loss amid this fading frontier, sitting on the cusp of industrialisation. It's a slow-going, sombre film at times, an historical essay at others, and it won't be everyone's cup of sarsaparilla.

SEE ALSO: 'Hamnet' review: Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley burn in William Shakespeare tragedy

However, the true heart of this moving film is a subtle, sensitive performance by Joel Edgerton, one immersed in Bryce Dessner's meticulous score and Adolpho Veloso's lush cinematography, and concluded with the unmistakable spirit of Nick Cave.

What is Train Dreams about? Joel Edgerton and Felicity Jones in "Train Dreams." Credit: Courtesy of Netflix

Beginning in 1917 and running through to 1968, Train Dreams follows a man's search for meaning as the 20th century arrives. The Wild West days are over. The American frontier is transforming. And Edgerton leads as devoted family man and stoic railroad worker Robert Grainier, who works for the Spokane International Railway in Idaho. He builds transient bonds with his fellow lumberjacks and pines for home. He's also a man riddled by guilt for his complicity watching the racist murder of Chinese immigrant worker Fu Sheng (Alfred Hsing) during a railroad job, perpetually haunted by the memory. Here, the script diverges from the novella: In the latter, Robert physically helps in hauling the worker to a tall bridge, but in the film, Robert simply doesn't intervene.

Despite this shockingly casual event, the film spends most of its time tracing Robert's life. After a brief courtship with his soon-to-be wife Gladys Olding (Felicity Jones), in the small village of Meadow Creek, Robert builds a simple, idyllic home with her among fields of wildflowers and beside a babbling brook. The pair map out their single-room cabin with river boulders and soon welcome the arrival of their daughter Kate. It's an almost overwhelmingly romantic existence, hammered home in near-saccharine montages and Dessner's tender score, and one Robert yearns for when torn away for months on dangerous railroad-building projects. The job's perils are emphasised in both Johnson's novella and Bentley's film, with injury or death from the felling of colossal trees a common workplace risk for 20th-century lumberjacks. Veloso's POV shots of these ancient giants falling prove the point, and several scenes show how risky this business of pillaging the natural landscape was.

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At one tragic point, in a devastatingly shot and enacted sequence, Robert's world is upturned forever. He's left desperately searching for meaning in it all, feeling obsolete and expecting "a great revelation to arrive about his life." Edgerton delivers a solemn, raw performance — and with everything that happens, we're not mad that he's surrounded by fluffy stray puppies for a large chunk of the film. Giving Edgerton's character room for deep conversation and reflection, Bentley and Kwedar expand characters from Johnson's book, including Robert's friend Ignatius Jack (a wonderful Nathaniel Arcand), a Kootenai store owner who helps him rebuild, and forest service worker Claire (Kerry Condon), who bonds with Robert down the track.

Train Dreams is a journey of solitude and American history. Joel Edgerton in "Train Dreams." Credit: Courtesy of Netflix

Though it's not necessarily a history lesson, Train Dreams subtly meanders through stories of the American West and where these unsung railroad workers fit within it. Through an omniscient narrator (voiced by Will Patton) and conversations between characters, the script pieces together fragments of the past. As in Johnson's novella, mentions of the American Civil War, American Indian Wars, and World War I arise organically. In particular here, William H. Macy is a highlight as Arn Peeples, a harmonica-playing explosives expert and "gadabout of unknown origin" who befriends Robert. As in the novella, Arn's the character most reflective on American history, lamenting his younger peers' disconnection to it.

Like Arn, Patton's narration lends a certain grandfatherly energy, describing locomotive mechanics, the construction of the Robinson Gorge Bridge, and "the cost of progress" in the same tone as he describes Robert's existential crisis. Nonetheless, it gives the film a steadfast emotional consistency. Additionally, his narration gives the film's present an awareness of the future, as we learn what will become of things.

William H. Macy in "Train Dreams." Credit: Courtesy of Netflix

Train Dreams also takes pains to capture a specific tension between tradition and modernity through the work of production designer Alexandra Schaller. From the handcrafted elements of the Graniers' cabin to the changing technology of the logging sites from rudimentary tools to machinery, Schaller's team craft a detailed picture of life in the American West from early to mid century. But there's one crucial element that pulls all the elements of Train Dreams together.

The simmering engine of Train Dreams is Bryce Dessner's score. Joel Edgerton and Kerry Condon in "Train Dreams." Credit: Courtesy of Netflix

Adding to his lauded catalogue of modern film scores from The Revenant to We Live In Time, The National's Bryce Dessner once again flexes his atmospheric composer skills in Train Dreams. At once a whimsical, romantic ode to potential and a hypnotic, reflective accompaniment to loss, Dessner's score drives the emotional engine of Train Dreams. Edgerton's Robert is characteristically stoic and interior in his emotions, allowing Dessner to draw out the brilliant subtleties of his performance. Meanwhile, it's the perfect partner to Veloso's gorgeous shots of Robert engulfed by the Idaho landscape, immersed in the beauty and history of the American wilderness.

Worth staying through the film's end credits for, Dessner teams up with the ever-iconic Nick Cave (no stranger to a lyrical exploration of love and loss) for the haunting original song "Train Dreams." This brooding ballad essentially encapsulates the film's narrative and emotional tone in a few minutes, marking a sublime conclusion to the film.

Train Dreams takes its time, relishing in conversations about grief, loss, feeling obsolete and overwhelmed by both nature and modernity. This slower pace can feel a little engulfing at times, but Edgerton's performance, Dessner's score, and Veloso's balance of handheld and static photography kept me hitched on the ride.

Train Dreams was reviewed out of BFI London Film Festival. The film will hit select U.S. cinemas on Nov. 7 before streaming on Netflix worldwide on Nov. 21.

UPDATE: Nov. 5, 2025, 2:40 p.m. This review was first published on Oct. 25, 2025, as part of Mashable's BFI coverage. It has been updated to reflect screening options.